One of the handiest technological aids to any musician is the ubiquitous smartphone. We now have access to a level of sophistication in our pockets that would be the envy of any recording technician only a few decades ago. The smartphone is an excellent tool for both audio and video recording that can give our students’ an outsider’s perspective on their playing. All too often we get lost in our own world and lose sight of what our playing sounds like from another vantage point. Thus, recording ourselves can give us insights into our playing that we cannot gain from our own ears in the moment. Some things we think are working well actually do not come across well in the rest of the room. And other things we think sound terrible actually translate quite well to our audience. In addition, we can gain other useful information by deliberately taking poor-quality recordings with our smartphones. This is because lower quality audio accentuates small mistakes and imperfections in our playing that a higher quality recording or even our own ears might not pick up on. Such takes can prove a powerful diagnostic tool for teachers.

At other times one might have a desire to take high quality audio to keep a record of a performance or to edit sound. In this case I recommend the Audacity software, which like MuseScore, is an excellent free resource that is very user-friendly while also possessing advanced capabilities. Audacity enables one to capture and analyze sound, but it does not stop there. It also gives one the ability to take multiple tracks and mix them, overlapping parts, stitching together multiple takes to seamless perfection, adjusting the balance between different lines, and even adjusting pitches or smoothing out mistakes. Audacity is a great way for students to move past just playing the notes correctly but start exploring other more creative outlets of musical expression that can help lead them to a deeper appreciation of their art.

I created this “duet” by singing each part into Audacity and then mixing it up