When is the Right Time to Record Yourself Singing?

Should you record yourself singing?

Many people shudder at the thought of that.

Myself included - for a very long time.

The answer depends on what level your singing ability is at.

If you’re a total beginner and you’ve never recorded yourself singing before, I wouldn’t recommend it.

This is because you don’t know what you’re doing wrong and you don’t know how to fix it.

Hearing your own singing would make you more frustrated and overwhelmed.

You’d feel more anxious about your voice and start to ‘listen’ to your voice too much.

When that happens, you’ll be afraid to sing out loud and your progress will be slow.

Eventually, you may even give up singing altogether.

So when would you be ready to record yourself (if you ever want to)?

This really depends on your level of anxiety and control over your own voice.

Usually, for my private students, I’d ask them to record themselves singing after we’ve gone through the open throat concept; and they have sufficient awareness of their instrument (voice).

If they started out as beginners, it’d be about 16 weeks of training before I asked them to record themselves.

If you’re an intermediate/advanced singer, then you should be recording yourself all the time.

The benefits of recording your own singing

You get to know what your voice really sounds like

We don’t hear ourselves the same as how other people hear us. Once you’ve built a good foundation with the open throat concept, it’s time to increase your self monitoring skills. The first step is knowing how you really sound.

You get to correct singing mistakes on your own

Instead of constantly relying on your coach’s feedback, you can start to correct your singing mistakes on your own.

This is helpful because it means you can be the judge and coach of your own voice.

You get to assess your own voice accurately

Sometimes, other people say things about our voice that are inaccurate or just plain wrong.

This could be due to a lack of knowledge, jealousy or just plain nastiness.

By having an accurate picture of your voice and knowing how to correct your mistakes, you can save yourself the confusion and frustration.

You’ll become the best judge of your voice and you can choose to be kind to yourself.

One warning before you record yourself

If you’ve never done it before, and you’ve never heard yourself on a recording before, you may be in for a shock.

Your voice may not sound like what you expect.

That’s okay because now you’ll get an accurate idea of how you really sound when you sing.

Using this as a starting point, you can then correctly assess yourself in the future.

You’ll build self monitoring skills that will serve you well for the rest of your singing journey.

How to record yourself

The voice recorder app on your phone is a great tool for recording your singing.

Personally, I have hundreds of voice recordings on my phone.

The mic in your phone is a condenser microphone. It’ll do a great job picking up the nuances of your voice.

Otherwise, the video camera of your phone is a good alternative.

Conclusion

Knowing when and how to record your voice is crucial to singing with confidence.

If you’re going to find out things about your voice, you may as well do it on your own terms.

Take control of your vocal training and make the voice recorder app your best friend.