There are real benefits to recording yourself as you practice. Listening back, you can often hear things that you don’t notice as you play, and you get to hear yourself through an audience’s ears! There may be things you want to change about your tone, technique or dynamics you’d simply never noticed before. There are various options for recording yourself as you play: simply through your own phone, tablet or laptop at first and later, you may see the benefits this is having to your performance and want to try a more professional microphone set-up. In this video, professional recording musician TJ Walker tells you how he listens to his own recordings to improve his sound and performance.

TJ WALKER

T J started playing the ukulele banjo aged 4 and took up guitar when he was 7. By the time he was 15 he had started working in professional bands and has since performed all over the world in venues including the Royal Albert Hall and the O2 Arena. He also writes music for radio, TV and film, and his credits include the BBC Radio One Live Lounge theme and BBC 6 Music. T J has recently released his debut solo album of original songs entitled The Long Game.