Studies Etudes for students - Dry or processed, with or without "timekeeper"

[Guenne]

Hi,
I'm planning to record some etudes to motivate my students to practice them 🙂 - and of course to help them when they decide to practice at home, so there is no excuse like "I forgot how to play that"...

What do you think would make more sense - record them completely dry, or with a metronome, or even with loops?
What I can do in every style is add drums or the metronome via Airplay and some apps I have.

Let me give you an example of a James Rae Etude:

This one is with drums and processed sax (so it sounds more like a "band"). IMHO the student could then get more feeling how it would sound in "real life":

This one is dry (I could drop my headphones then, which would make it look less silly 🙂 ):

Thanks!

 

[mizmar]

FWIW - in my recent "Begginer: one step back" post I described one approach used for etudes... for me, the "wet" demo track is useful both for getting the style or feel (focus on the sax, listen and repeat phrase by phrase); and for learning how the backing rhythm and harmony fit - so I listen "through" the sax with attention on the other elements... As a step towards playing with the backing track.
Your example, with just an occasional bit of percussion, look like a lot of fun!

 

[nigeld]

I think the version with drums makes a lot more sense - I can understand a lot better why you play it the way you do.
Could you give the students the backing track as well as your recording?

 

[Guenne]

Could you give the students the backing track as well as your recording?

Yes, I think so.
I can even adjust via a 2D-slider how the drummer behaves (loud/less variation, soft/more variation

 

[sunsetandlabrea]

I play etudes a lot, sometimes to a recording, often to a metronome or drum loop.

If it's jazz etude then most frequently to a metronome on 2 and 4, or a swing drum loop.

My personal taste would be to have the drums, but to simplify the rhythm.

 

[Jeanette]

My tutor used to record a lot of stuff for me, mainly just sax but some times with a backing track. It's really useful. If you can I would give your students the choice.

Recording half a duet is also great to help with listening and timing skills.


Jx

 

[Niknak]

Hi,
I'm planning to record some etudes to motivate my students to practice them 🙂 - and of course to help them when they decide to practice at home, so there is no excuse like "I forgot how to play that"...

What do you think would make more sense - record them completely dry, or with a metronome, or even with loops?
What I can do in every style is add drums or the metronome via Airplay and some apps I have.

Let me give you an example of a James Rae Etude:

This one is with drums and processed sax (so it sounds more like a "band"). IMHO the student could then get more feeling how it would sound in "real life":

This one is dry (I could drop my headphones then, which would make it look less silly 🙂 ):

Thanks!

I like it better with drums and metronome. It would make me practice it!

 

[Guenne]

I like it better with drums and metronome. It would make me practice it!

That's great 🙂 All the Lumbeat Apps for iOS are superb.
Unfortunately there is no countoff when I export audio, which makes exporting unuseable. (Or more work for me if I add one with my DAW).

Cheers, Guenne

 

[rhysonsax]

I prefer them with backings too, but it would be great to have different versions/mixes - with and without the drums or instruments. I would always want the sax sound to have effects on it like reverb to sound more natural.

If the etudes are written and published by other people you will probably have to be careful to only make your recordings available privately to students and not publicly on YouTube etc.

Rhys

 

[Pete Effamy]

There are metronome apps that provide a drum beat. I’m very familiar with the James Rae studies and was never particularly convinced that students could really feel the off-beat swing 8ths in Slurp, Slurp so a recording for your students might be a good idea. It’s the same idea I had years ago with a study for ABRSM gr6 called Hawk Gets Bird (edit: by Gordon Lewin, who wrote better jazz style than Rae IMO). It was far too difficult for gr6 and was eventually moved to gr7 by ABRSM. It was very difficult for any student not having a really good sense of time as it shifted between 2s and 3s, and between swing and straight.
The easiest thing to do with their approaching exam was to record it.
ABRSM decided to record most of their syllabus too about 20 years ago.

 

[Guenne]

but it would be great to have different versions/mixes

Then I would have to make a change technically, as Screenflow (the program I'm working with) makes an mp4-file with all audio, sax and drums.
I would have to record it parallel with my DAW, but then I'll be running into trouble with latency when I put an effect on it. But it should be possible somehow. I have to think....
Good point, because if I do the work, it should be 100%.

If the etudes are written and published by other people you will probably have to be careful to only make your recordings available privately to students and not publicly on YouTube etc.

It's just for my students who own the book. And I don't necessarily have to record the desktop with the dots.

Cheers, Guenne

 

[Guenne]

There has been some development...at least technically 🙂

I bought a Greenscreen, and found a wonderful app named "Camo", where you can use your mobile phone as a webcam (both Win and Mac, iOS and Android). You just download an app for both PC and mobile and connect the 2 via USB:
It is way better than the one that is built into my iMac 27' 2020.
You know, it must sound good, but it also has to look some kind of "professional".

I've used the Greenscreen also in video lessons, it's great.
Here is an example of what it can do along with Camo.

Cheers, Guenne

 

[rhysonsax]

Looking and sounding very good. The Greenscreen seems to work well - have you tried other background images - maybe ones with a musical theme or some nature pictures ?

I would find it less distracting if the video could be cropped just to the written music and video and so didn't show the icons, tabs and other stuff at the sides, top and bottom of your display.

Rhys

 

[mizmar]

So here's another thought from a studes' point of view.
The app I use for working with just audio/mp3 demo/backing tracks, allows me to put markers and AB loops So I listen through the track dropping markers on sections or some other convenient chunks. This is then useful for being able to focus on a section without having to always start from the begging.
Now, this is less precise to do on video due to the compression techniques. So, for me, if I already have the etudes book, audio files are more useful.
Indeed that's true for learning by ear also ... I've already converted the video demonstrations of The Swan SOTM to audio to learn by ear!

I realise that, having put work into the video, this isn't helpful! Sorry.

 

[Guenne]

I would find it less distracting if the video could be cropped

That's not problem, and I will do that.
Thanks. I think I will also do a frame around the facecam.
It just takes time to think about these things - and still find the time to practice...

Cheers, Guenne