I love recording my ensemble for a lot of reasons, but first and foremost for the educational opportunities you get in the studio. Here are the five lessons I hoped my students would learn tonight during their first session of the year. (About half the group were first-time members, in the studio for the first time ever!)
- Recording is a new way of listening. You hear new things and discover things about your ensemble and about yourself that you can bring back to rehearsals and live performances.
- Show consistency. In a recording session, one phrase might have been recorded ten minutes, one hour, or even days apart. You have to develop the consistency to bring your best performance out every single time.
- Be silent. Practicing silence before and after takes, and as you get feedback from the producer/engineer, helps you notice the silence, and the lack of silence, in all of your music making.
- Trust the process. I have a very specific, detailed, and reliable process for recording that we use. Learn to trust the process and follow the ebb and flow of the session.
- Help each other and stay positive! How many sessions have I watched go bad over the years because of negativity that becomes a vicious circle? Too many. Learning to stay positive and helpful throughout the recording process is a widely applicable life lesson.
All these lessons to learn, and a memento of your hard work that you can listen to for the rest of your life! No wonder I try to get my students in the studio every year.