Principaltrumpet

I have been recording my practice sessions with a zoom h4 for the past few months. I have really enjoyed the benefits of going back and listening.

I recently bought a Mini DV Camera, would there be any further benefit in video taping my practice and watching them?

JR

MahlerBrass

I went to a Doug Yeo clinicn (I know, blasphemy!) where he mentioned video taping ourselves to catch weird habits. He used a player as an example when the player leaned forward to his horn rather than bringing the horn to him, seems like nothing but every little bit helps.

rdt1959

I would think that video taping practice sessions would actually be beneficial, ain much the same way as MahlerBrass mentioned.

In my professional life (which gets in the way of my practice time WAY too much ) we sometimes video tape our practice sessions for presentations. It helps to catch some of the bad habits that we don't even realize we are doing....like putting our hands in our pockets, licking our lips, etc. etc.

Video taping would be a good way to see ourselves as our audience sees us.

Shermy

I've been recording myself off and on in practice sessions and performances over the past 20 years. I always find something I can improve. The hardest part is getting your ego out of the way and truly listening to yourself with a critical ear.

Over the last few years, I've been using a Sony HiMD recorder with some nice compact external mics for about $100 more than the Zoom H4 for the entire package. MAN, I wish they had the Zoom out when I bought the Sony - though the Sony is a pretty decent music player. I've got about 40 hours of my jazz collection on one HiMD disk.

As for video taping, I do see some benefit, though the sound quality is probably a lot less than your Zoom H4. Every time I see video recordings of my playing, much like the sound recordings, I notice some physical little quirk that can use some work. So, I would use the video recorder in conjunction with your Zoom H4.