Recording studio work

Filed in Thoughts on December 29, 2008



I remember the first time I recorded a piano solo CD.  It was about eight years ago and I was horribly naive.  If I remember right, I picked the songs at the last moment and only practiced them a marginal amount for a few weeks. 

You will never get to hear that project because it was never released.  It was a diaster.  We recorded for 22 hours straight to save money (we only wanted to purchase one day of studio time) and we ended up with a very bad project. 

While I was unsuccessful in that first recording, I learned a lot.  Recording is an intense process that requires an enormous amount of preparation, patience, and confidence.  You would have to experience it to understand the pressure. 

For me, the pressure comes from the need to play perfectly.  The reality is that I settle for much less accuracy in other situations--it is impractical to practice enough to be perfect in less demanding situations.  For example, I will settle for less accuracy in a normal day of church than I would in a concert.  However, I need less accuracy in a concert than I need in the recording studio. 

The closer you get to 100% accuracy, the harder you have to work to see improvement.  For example, getting from 60% to 95% accuracy might take less practice than getting from 95% to 98%.  On top of that, the pressure starts playing with your mind.

I will talk more about the challenges of recording at some other time.  Today, I recorded four tracks for a quartet in three hours.  That is about twice as long as a professional studio musician would need, but I was pleased.  I arranged the music over the weekend and played it from chord charts.

Here is a shot of Jason Prisk running the board in the control room. 



And here is a picture of me at the piano.





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