Recording yourself

Since last night, I have started recording myself. Just using the smartphone, and sharing the files with a friend who plays guitar and uke, and with the uke gang (where I play upright bass, so they had no clue how well - or not - I play).

Have to say, it is an eye-opener! I am missing groove and fluency, and am not as OK as I thought I was. But it helps keep me motivated!

So... Record yourself! It helps

This is so true. I was tempted to record a video the other day to post here, and decided to record audio first. I am a lot less competent than I thought. Sad face. So no recording to share for me yet.
I did find an app for iPhone called Dolby ON, which cleans up the ambient sound in the stairwell where I play on lunch. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dolby-on-record-audio-video/id1443964192

So early on I recorded myself several times playing in my basement by myself. I showed them to my wife and asked her if I was really that bad. I was somewhat discouraged because I had already done a coffee shop gig, a few open mics and some busking. She said no. She said that I sounded a whole lot better and more confident if I had an audience to feed off of or other musicians to interact with. Since then I've seen videos of myself playing in all sorts of venues, solo and with other musician, and I'm no great singer and player, but I'm much better when I'm not down in my basement with nothing but walls and a microphone. So I would advise people not to judge their performance from a video with no context.

Simple recording into your smartphone can give decent results IME. I've done a bunch that I've posted here, and the sound quality is surprisingly good. The key (for me) is to reduce noise (turn off furnace and put PC into sleep mode), and experiment with positioning the phone, to get a good balance between uke, vocals, and what you want to show on the video. I use a mini tripod on the desk in front of me, and sometimes elevate it on a small box, to get the view & sound balance I want. Looking forward to seeing & hearing yours!

A few years ago I participated in a group recording tribute to the uke player who was killed in the theater shooting in Louisiana. I played bass uke and in the process of recording to the main track we were given, I realized how precise I had to be. It was harder than I thought, it took me about two hours of practice, then about 40 takes to get a good enough track. I had only been playing bass uke for about a year.

I also record each song of my group during rehearsal with an iPad Pro and forScore app, then post them on my web site for the other members to be able to practice at home.

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This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 6 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 41)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers

I started recording myself as soon as I felt a mild bit of competency which was at about 6 months in. It was probably a bit early in retrospect as I only had a repertoire of 3 songs, but even then it was enough to get started in the seasons of the ukulele recitals to get feedback/encouragement.

As the OP stated, rhythm is most noticeable by others when it is off. Just start with the "club strum" of down on the beat and up on the off beat. That is 4 down strums and 4 up strums in one 4/4 measure. Try to make all the strums evenly spaced apart at first. I got the basic chords within about 6 weeks and the rest of my time was with improving my rhythm during that 6 month period.

gl and keep strumming! :shaka:

I find a metronome will always show my bad timing. I use it to speed up accurate playing.

One nice thing about playing in a group is that I sound great!

I record myself all the time to 1) track progress since the camera doesn’t give me the benefit of the doubt and 2) I found that I can practice the same piece longer if it’s treated more as “takes.” If I don’t do that, I get bored and fall back into songs I can already play well instead of pushing myself.