In the Studio

A funny thing happens in the studio -- it is the realization that something approaching perfection is possible. When you're playing live, you live in the moment, knowing that the moment will pass. Miss a note, blow a change -- it doesn't really matter. The moment is gone before you realize you made a mistake. The music must feel good above all else.

When you're creating a recording, you're creating something that must survive beyond the moment. It may be listened to many, perhaps dozens (or in the case of my Chick Corea recordings, hundreds) of times. Every little thing will be heard and heard and heard.

Knowing this puts a player into a different frame of mind. The player becomes almost more like a writer than a performer at that point. A writer will very carefully choose words to evoke feelings. Likewise, a musician in the studio will often very carefully choose notes -- perhaps sometimes too carefully.

Consider the following tips when you are making a recording.

Your playing will not suddenly get better in the recording studio, so wait until you can play a piece really well before you try to record it.

Have a trusted and musically skilled person with you when you record. This person's only job is to listen and make suggestions about how to make the music sound better.

Get somebody else to do the button pushing. It's plenty hard enough to just play the guitar well -- pushing the buttons along with it is a needless distraction.

Use a cheap cassette recorder to tape yourself for practice before you do it for "real." Put the tape aside for 3 days, sit down and listen to it. Believe what you hear.

Remember that you can play a piece as many times as you want in order to get it right, but the first take is often the very best.

If you know you will be editing a full version together, keep a metronome handy, and check it before each take. This will keep your tempos steady from take to take so the piece will be able to be edited together easier.

Check your tuning before every take. There is nothing worse than listening back and realizing that a good take is unusable because a string is out of tune.

If you've done many, many takes, and it keeps getting worse and worse, get up, take a long walk, and calm yourself down. Then focus yourself, sit down and play. The very next take is often the one you will use.

It is not helpful to listen to yourself through headphones while recording solo guitar.

You will have no perspective on the quality of what you have done. You'll either think it's much better or much worse than it is.

You can make yourself crazy with the editing/mixing/tweaking/EQ adjustments/etc. At some point you have to stop and call it music.