Flip video camera

A flip video camera is an easy-to-use, pocket-sized camcorder featuring one-touch recording and digital zoom--and it can help you become a better flutist!

How? Read on...

About 10 years ago, I read an interview with a flutist who had just won the piccolo position with a major U.S. symphony orchestra. When asked to what she attributed her success in securing this coveted job, she replied, "I taped my playing and listened to it."

Wow, what a revelation! Something so easy to do had such an enormous benefit!

Of course, we can't overlook the hard work this flutist had done all of her life so that she was of the caliber to audition for a big symphony, but the fact that she did something so simple as taping herself is good news for the rest of us.

One of the best ways to improve as a flutist is to tape your playing so that you can review it and critique yourself.

Even if you have a flute teacher, filming your playing helps enormously. You can realize aspects of your playing and make corrections before you go to your lesson. This makes your flute lessons much more valuable.

If you say, "I don’t want to tape myself, I hate to watch myself," or something along those lines, just realize that you're losing a valuable opportunity to improve your playing. After all, no one else has to see your videos! The short (and blunt) response is: GET OVER IT!

If you do take flute lessons, your videos are valuable if for some reason you can't get to a lesson due to bad weather, for example, or if your teacher has to go out of town and cancels your lesson. Your teacher might be willing to review your video and send you feedback via e-mail.

No teacher?

If you don't have a private teacher, if you can't afford one, there isn't one in your area, or your schedule doesn't permit private lessons, taping yourself can be even more valuable.

Of course, you won't have professional feedback, but you will be able to hear if something is wrong and can strive to fix it.

Technical aspects

Are you worried about how to film your playing? What camera should you use? How do you set it up? It's all so technical! And probably too expensive!

Video taping CAN get extremely technical, but for our purposes, let's keep it simple and affordable. There are so many video cameras on the market today that it becomes mind boggling deciding which one to use. I have a Flip Video Camera and I love it for so many reasons...

• A flip video camera is inexpensive.
• It's easy to use.
• The software is built right into the camera and downloads automatically onto my computer.
• I just plug the camera into the computer and it goes to work.
• I can upload my videos directly to Youtube or e-mail them to someone.
• I can keep my videos on my computer.

There are three varieties of flip cameras...

Ultra

UltraHD

MinoHD

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