I now use my cell phone to record almost everything I play at home, then I play it back. What a revelation! (I recommend this practice). There’s stuff I never heard while I played it. Bad Stuff. I sound hurried, even at a slower speed. I’ve discovered that it’s not the speed that creates this, it’s how I try to get ahead of the metronome. The fault is more pronounced when I play the final note of a phrase. I cut the note short in order to make sure I’m “set” for the next line of music. That really adds to the sense of hurry-up.
To get this problem fixed I have to deliberately try to get “behind” the beat, or at least get the feeling that I’m lagging a bit behind it. Lo and behold, the more odd it seems as I play it, the better it sounds when I re-play it on the phone.
I’ve come to think of the music as a poem. And in a poem the last word of the line is (usually) the rhyming word. To shorten or muffle that word would ruin the whole sense of the poem. So with the music.
Seems to be a fair idea. It is good that you are not trying to call your self on that phone. You know how people would talk if you answered. 
That might be a good thread for the pub. What do you do with you cell phone? 
Yes indeedy. There is rarely such a sobering experience in all the world as hearing oneself as others do. 
I’ve been doing it fairly regularly lately, and yep, I agree.
My problem is figuring out when to breath ~ usually when I run out of air! I have to plan better than that!
M
Here’s a tip, more a strategy really, that I picked up recently, and which may be helpful to you.
Prepare the tune you want to play by first going through it and noting all the possible places where you can breathe. The 3-beat rolls that can be split, the eighth notes (quavers) that can be dropped, etc. If you’re working from paper, actually mark the places on the music. If by ear, make mental notes. Expect to set breath points at least once every 4 bars, and possibly many more, depending on the tune.
Now play through the tune a few times, breathing at ALL the marked breath points. Obviously, your phrasing will now be choppy and terrible. But you can basically guarantee that you’ll get through without ever running out of air. If you find yourself getting down to, say, around 30% of your capacity, then you probably need to add a breath point.
So far so good. But now your task becomes not deciding where to breathe, but deciding where NOT to breathe. Start eliminating breath points, and experiment until you find a set of points that you’re still comfortable with, and that produce a natural phrasing of the melodic statements within the tune. Voilà, you’ve got it!
Pay special attention to the transitions between tune parts or repetitions of parts. Often, tunes don’t have a strong caesura or break at the end of a part, and playing through the transition without taking a breath can really help the flow of the tune. That sometimes requires breaths on either side of the transition.
And yes, I really ought to take my own advice, too.
Here’s a another similar suggestion that may be interesting. Try playing live into a microphone, and simply monitoring yourself with headphones. It’s like recording, but the feedback is immediate.
The setup doesn’t have to be complicated. For example, use your regular computer microphone, plug the phones into the computer’s audio output, and activate the Loopback control or equivalent in the audio controls. Over-the-ear headphones work best, because you get less direct sound and more miked sound in your ears … which is what you want.
Advantages are: Better audio quality than, e.g., a cell phone, especially with a music-grade mike. Because you hear yourself in real time, you can experiment with whatever you’re working on, fingering or phrasing or whatever, and hear the results immediately. And by placing the microphone at some distance from you, you can hear what your whistle and your playing actually sound like to other people. It’s amazing sometimes how different this can be from what you hear directly with the fipple only a few inches from your ears.
OK, my apologies to the bard.
I’m lucky to have a stage quality microphone, studio grade closed headphones, and a small mixing board with monitor output for this sort of practice. It’s especially useful before a stage performance, because it approximates what the live sound will be like, at least at the board. And it really helps point out the lazy playing habits that creep into my playing. Embarrassment is a great motivator.
That itself is quite poetic, I think. Nice!
For me, one of the hardest things is just to set down with a microphone in front of me and record some tunes.
Playing live is no longer scary to me–I don’t care if I’m in front of five or five hundred, no biggie.
But a microphone? Now THAT thing is scary!!!
So I think this thread gives excellent advice. Not only do you get the valuable feedback (and sobering experience) of hearing yourself, you also start getting used to recording tunes and having a mic in front of you.
Good theory, huh? 
I’ve been recording myself playing for years now, and it still makes me nervous as hell, even if it’s just for my own use.
Put a mic in front of me and don’t plug it into anything, I’d probably still get nervous.
–James
Yeah, I still get nervous playing for a recording…you’d think I’d be used to it by now.
I was nervous playing into a mic, but i think i’m over that, although it depends on what i;m playing…
I’ve tried recording myself, but the only thing i have to record is an old kids tape player that I got when I was 4, and so I think i sound more horrible then I actully do, and i cant hear the little things on it, so I gave up, and oneday maybe i’ll find somthing to record with.
and I agree music is exactly like poetry
Yep yep. For me anyways, I remember once what I thought I was playing, wasn’t actually what I was playing. Until I recorded myself and played it back, and what a shock! I realized I had so much to work on in certain areas, (and still do but I’ve come a long way since once upon a time) and I wouldn’t have discovered this if I hadn’t recorded my playing and listened to it. For whatever reason, how you hear yourself playing isn’t always how everyone else hears you play. Even the basic instrument itself sounds different, for example when I play my Generation vs hearing someone else play my Generation. So yes, listening to recordings of one’s self can be a great tool in progressing onwards. It’s also fun to make a recording every once in a while, just to see how differently you play as time goes on.
Wow, tons of good advice here! Thanks everyone.
It’s nice to hear that others have the same mic-fright that I do 
I’m very familiar with the “erase” button!
I used to say, I get nervous playing in front of a mirror ~ now, that’s bad!
M