Digital recorders are a marvel. So are video cameras. If you ever want to know how you really sound and look when you make music, go ahead a record yourself. Ditto if you are preparing a speech for an audience. You will need a strong stomach. If you retain a sense of humor and hope, there is no better way to learn than to see and hear what you are actually doing, as opposed to what you think you are doing. And (this part is marvelous), you get as many do-overs as you are motivated to produce.
The Zoom record function has become a friend of mine, after I got over being insulted by my own inadequacies and imperfections. My song “Keep On Going” took a lot of do-overs, because the guitar part is a little more ambitious than what is usual for me. It’s still not quite right, but as they say, “Good enough for folk music.” I’m not a perfectionist, which limits my potential to improve, but this also enables me to keep on going, as the song says. You can find this tune, much more professionally done, on my album “Truckload of Songs”, offered online by Bandcamp. I could have posted the professional version, complete with interesting instrumentals done by skilled musicians, but that would take away from what I’m trying to tell you and show you!
Susan Rose: Singing Grandma 