CELL PHONE CALL RECORDING-Apps for Interviewing Relatives Near or Far

Cell phones have great microphones now and can be the perfect medium to encourage relatives to share family stories from the comfort of their own home. You can record in several simple sessions. Family members actually look forward to these phone calls. Later, pictures can be added to the voice to create slideshows or movies.

You can choose from a myriad of cell phone call recording apps. Read the reviews for the apps that work with your phone and get a highly rated one.

Make sure that the AREA IS QUIET and don't make noises like ruffling papers, tapping a pen, or closing a drawer. Make sure that pets are quiet. Be sure that the person you interview is also in a quiet place. Cell phones are pretty sensitive and will pick up those little noises!

There are lots of interview ideas books and lists online. Just google "Family Interview Questions". These can give you ideas of questions to ask family during a conversation/interview. Just make sure the questions suit the situation and the individual.

TIPS

1. DON'T INTERRUPT- You certainly don't want to try to salvage a recording of you talking over them while they are making an important point. Interrupting throws off their train of thought. If you have questions, make a note, and wait until they have finished what they had in mind to say.

2. DON'T BE AFRAID  OF LONG PAUSES- Let them finish their thought completely and then still allow a pause. Often they will fill in more information if they think you are waiting to hear more. Let them fill the pause. A good interview has lots of long pauses and is brutal to listen to pre-edit. But you get the best material this way.

Vance Parker Interview Unedited- Brutal to listen to!

 Vance Parker Interview Edited-Much Better!

3. DO ASK OPENED ENDED QUESTIONS- Like: "Tell me about... (your favorite foods growing up)" --Not "What were your favorite foods growing up?"

4. DO EDIT-Simple EDITING can turn your interview into a masterpiece. Audacity is a free audio editing program. It is powerful enough to use in a recording studio but simple enough for editing audio voice recordings.

Be sure to SAVE the recording in the Voice Recording App and then transfer it to your computer, with multiple backups, ASAP! (You might need to YouTube how to move the saved recording from your phone to your computer for editing.)

Audio Editing Blog Post

Comments

  1. MaurioSeptember 14, 2017 at 8:37 AM

    Peggy, you have so many great ideas. Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete

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