It's much easier to move recording gear than it is my 5.0 octave Marimba One. For that reason, I've brought a recording rig, some good mics, and a couple of stands to my living room to record the Bach Cello Suite in G Major. I'm recording straight to CD (not a hard drive) which means I must have clean takes of each movement and wow... there are a lot of notes. I know how I want to play the suite, have my stickings worked out, phrasing of each line, tempi, rubato, dynamics, and so forth, but the art of playing marimba simply means you are using muscle memory to hit bars you sometimes cannot directly see. Just a slight distraction or mental hesitation leads to a clammed note and a recording that's no good. Now, I've done countless recording sessions in my life- from large ensemble to chamber, to solo, to tracking drum parts separate from the other musicians. I know what goes into a recording. Don Richmond's studio has a quote attributed to Bono- something along the lines of albums are like sausage, they're a lot more enjoyable if you don't know what went into them. With this current project, I cannot punch in sections because I'm not using recording software (ProTools, Q-Base, Logic Pro, etc). Ugh.
So, aside from living with salmonella in our water (actually, they are chlorinating the system, so it's not the salmonella that keeps me from showering and drinking the local water, but the high doses of chlorine that will burn if used), and some weird allergic reaction to something I cannot trace, I'm trying to get my mind around perfect takes of entire movements. It took me 35 minutes of recording time to get the prelude... that little tune EVERYONE knows. It's all mental... every last bit of it.
I have a private student who is a biology professor and obviously very, very bright. Our lessons are a joy because she asks brilliant questions and makes drastic improvements from week to week. Recently, we discussed the mental hang-ups so many of us have with live performance. I started pulling book after book off of my shelf dedicated to this issue and was reminded as I explained, it's an on going process. A never ending process, perhaps.
I was at a wedding a fews year back of some musician friends in Palo Alto and as musician weddings go, there was a lot of alcohol and a lot of musicians. I was having a conversation with a trumpet player who retired from a D.C. military band as a principal player and was the first call guy in San Francisco at the time. He and I had gigged together a few times and I knew him well. He asked why I wasn't presently taking auditions and I mentioned the fact I wasn't ready and my nerves would kill me unless I totally had my excerpts together. He laughed and said- beta blockers... everyone takes them. EVERYONE. Of course, I am well aware of beta blockers- I was in college once and on the audition circuit but it's hard to fathom needing medicine to calm one's nerves for an audition or performance. It's just music. Oh well...
Some really bad nerve moments:
1. Every audition I've ever taken
2. Playing a Zivkovic piece on a shared Day of Percussion with She-E Wu sitting 5 feet from me
3. The past hour trying to get the minuets down on tape
The process can only get better with practice. Recording seems to help. Preparation is an even better antidote.
Bach, err, Back to work.
J-
So, aside from living with salmonella in our water (actually, they are chlorinating the system, so it's not the salmonella that keeps me from showering and drinking the local water, but the high doses of chlorine that will burn if used), and some weird allergic reaction to something I cannot trace, I'm trying to get my mind around perfect takes of entire movements. It took me 35 minutes of recording time to get the prelude... that little tune EVERYONE knows. It's all mental... every last bit of it.
I have a private student who is a biology professor and obviously very, very bright. Our lessons are a joy because she asks brilliant questions and makes drastic improvements from week to week. Recently, we discussed the mental hang-ups so many of us have with live performance. I started pulling book after book off of my shelf dedicated to this issue and was reminded as I explained, it's an on going process. A never ending process, perhaps.
I was at a wedding a fews year back of some musician friends in Palo Alto and as musician weddings go, there was a lot of alcohol and a lot of musicians. I was having a conversation with a trumpet player who retired from a D.C. military band as a principal player and was the first call guy in San Francisco at the time. He and I had gigged together a few times and I knew him well. He asked why I wasn't presently taking auditions and I mentioned the fact I wasn't ready and my nerves would kill me unless I totally had my excerpts together. He laughed and said- beta blockers... everyone takes them. EVERYONE. Of course, I am well aware of beta blockers- I was in college once and on the audition circuit but it's hard to fathom needing medicine to calm one's nerves for an audition or performance. It's just music. Oh well...
Some really bad nerve moments:
1. Every audition I've ever taken
2. Playing a Zivkovic piece on a shared Day of Percussion with She-E Wu sitting 5 feet from me
3. The past hour trying to get the minuets down on tape
The process can only get better with practice. Recording seems to help. Preparation is an even better antidote.
Bach, err, Back to work.
J-
1 comment:
Sounds like quite an adventurous recording session! After all the stress and nerves, how did the finished product turn out?
I am "in" with the blogging scene now...added your link to my page cause you are just too cool.
Take care...
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