Videotaping yourself

[Andelin]

I’ve seen several posts advising people to take videos of their playing for self-critique. What angle/height is the most useful for that? I tried taking a few (using an ipad) and didn’t find them very helpful or enlightening. (Plus my kids were yelling/playing in the background, which is Very distracting. Maybe I’ll have to watch them with the sound muted. Lol).

Also, are there specific youtube videos that are good for watching the technique of others, so I know what it’s supposed to look like? Often they have beautiful music but the hands are either not shown continuously, or they are obstructed or too small (videographer is far away). Any videos you could point me to would be appreciated.

I’m also watching my facial expression, after reading a post about that. :). I need to smile more.

Thanks in advance.

[Allison Stevick]

I record myself with an iPad. I prop it on my music stand and use the front camera so I can see exactly what is on screen.

Here are a few videos of other people that I like:
Fiachra has long fingers, and so it is usually easy to see what he is doing.

This is Savourna Stevenson, and you can see her hands pretty well during the video.

This one may not be quite what you want, since it does pan away from the hands with some frequency, but Maeve Gilchrist is one of my most favorite harpists ever, and this is my very favorite YouTube video right now. 😉

I hope at least some of that is helpful.

[Andelin]

Thank you for the tips and links. Some good close ups there. You weren’t kidding about Fiachra’s long fingers! Mine are like half that length. Guess I picked the wrong instrument. Just kidding. :). But seriously, I think my short fingers really do limit what I can do.

[Allison Stevick]

Haha, yeah–my hands are really small, and the first time I watched his videos I was totally jealous of how far he can reach… 🙂 That being said, though, I can reach much farther (well, more-notes-farther) on the harp than I can on piano, so I’m glad about that! 🙂

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Ray Pool has very instructive videos playing simple pieces.

[Author]

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