The Value of Recording Yourself
Listening to yourself play or sing is one of the hardest things to do as an artist. There is this amazing feeling of joy when you are in the moment creating but upon listening to what you did that feeling gets dashed upon the rocks of reflection. You may realize you were out of tune, or time, or your favorite line in your new song just doesn’t fit. Which is why I recommend recording and listening to yourself often.
We are our worst critics and our greatest champions.
Recording is an integral part of my songwriting practice. I started using a boombox and a cassette tape when I was a teenager. I would record sections of my songs that I intended to play lead guitar parts over and would work out the leads in advance of my band practice. Later I would use the same tool to teach myself to improvise over jazz chord changes. By having spent quality time with the recording in advance I could recall, in the moment, phrases and ideas that could work with a given piece of music. Eventually, the fruits of that practice made its way into my songwriting and music production life.
During my first year of college I was given a Tascam Porta 03 four track recording unit. Without a band to play with, I began making multi-track recordings of myself. That turned into making recordings of my friends and I. Eventually, I was making recordings of my early singer-songwriter material and hand labeling CD’s to sell at coffee houses (If you have one of those that is a rare disk indeed!!). But always the recording device was nearby.
Now it is easier than ever to record yourself. You can use voice memo, movie, or even an audio interface into a Digital Audio Workstation on a computer. The how of it doesn’t matter unless you are going to release it to the world. I am not talking about making Grammy Winning Productions or even using expensive microphones, instead these are “rough drafts” to be critiqued or practiced with. To be roughed out so that when you do end up in a studio to record, you are capturing a mostly finished work.
I have a rule that I follow with my own songwriting:
“Is this the First Draft”?
“Rewrite it. There are better words, better chords, better rhythms, and they are worth finding”.
Sometimes I will believe a song is done. Then I record it just like I do if I am going to release it only to realize there are all kinds of problems with it. Things I didn’t hear or didn’t know I was doing until I could actually listen to it. Really critically listen. I usually do this in car. I burn a copy of the song onto a CD and listen to it over and over again while I am driving. This is where you have to separate your “self-worth” from the equation. If I sing out of tune, it is not because I am a bad singer, it is because I haven’t practice enough to be able to sing it correctly, or it could be that the chords are not supporting my melody or it could be………..this is the work, the practice, the path………
Sometimes after listening, I’ll want to add or cut out an entire verse or section of a song. Sometimes I completely rearrange it, change it’s key, it’s accompaniment style, until I am satisfied with its new form. Other times I abandon a song even after spending months working on it and it just lives in secret on my hard drive. The purpose of the recording is help me make it better, to help me make it the best that I can make it. The people I am performing for and writing the music for deserve that. It is craft and using the ability to record is a vital tool in producing it.
Thanks for reading,
Josh