You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Recording: How to Make the Studio Feel Like the Bandstand - S3E42

Episode Date: February 26, 2019

On today's episode, Peter and Adam answer a listener's SpeakPipe about how to feel more comfortable during a recording session. Wanna send a SpeakPipe of your own? Check out the bottom of the page at http://www.openstudionetwork.com/podcastShout out again to Chris Stark: https://www.christopher-stark.comTips:Just playBe your best selfDon't set your expectations too highPlay in the momentTry to interact/connect with the other band membersPractice recording yourselfBe preparedLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment for this episode.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram at:https://www.facebook.com/heyopenstudiohttps://twitter.com/heyopenstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Peter. Hey, Adam. We're recording in three. Bing. I'm Adam Anas. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to a recording of the You'll Hear It Podcasts. Is this a daily jazz advice coming at you?

Is this a record, aren't they all recording? You make it sound so special today. I do make it sound. We're not going live. We're going to recording today. We tried going live and it was a disaster. Was it? For me, personally, I couldn't do both.

I was paying attention to the live stream. I was trying to get questions. And I was, when I look back at those podcasts, or I listen back at those podcasts, I feel like I'm not paying attention to either one at all. You know what I'm saying? So frustrating. All right. Well, today we're talking about recording because we got a speak pipe of voicemail.

Speak pipe. From Darren in California. All right. And let's hear it. Okay. Hey, Peter and Adam. This is Darren over in California. And I had a question about making recordings.

With this music, we spend so much of our time playing live that going into a recording studio can be kind of hard to adjust to. You don't have the audience there. You're usually isolated from the other musicians. And at least for me, I'm always super aware that everything I play is getting saved. You know, if you mess up something when you're playing live, it's over almost as soon as it happened. But when you're recording, you're stuck with it. And a wrong term somewhere could screw up what might have been a really good take for the other players. And all of that just causes me to tense up and kind of not do my best playing. So I'm wondering if you've ever dealt with this, how you've dealt with it, and if you just have any tips on how to make the studio feel

a little bit more like the bandstand. Thanks a lot. Well, thanks, Darren. That's a great question. That's a great question. And I think that this probably applies to every jazz musician at some point in their development. And it sometimes comes back to haunt you as well. It's so tricky. It actually is tricky. And it's a skill that you have to work on a little bit. It is. I remember my very first, like, real recording session in New York at Systems 2, which is a great jazz studio. And we did, like, the first tune or the first take. And I played so quietly.

Like, I was just trying to, I was like, and the engineer of all people pulled me aside. I was pretty young. And he pulled me aside. He was like, just play. Don't worry about it. He can't turn the mics up anymore, buddy. You're not, you're not making any sound. Right, right, right.

You know? And it's because I was, like, hyper aware, as Darren was saying. And so you do have to learn how to let this go. But there are some practical things. I think we could. Yeah. And I think for both of us, I mean, for me, I have to go back a while to really remember. For me.

You know, because I'm so damn old. No, but I mean, I do remember, but it's been a while. But you know what has reminded me when we started this podcast because this was such a different thing. Yeah. For me, I think probably for you too, that, I mean, I was so self-conscious. I mean, not that I'm not now with every word I say. But I mean, it took us a minute to get to the point where we were just sort of talking to each other. Yeah, if you listen to those first few episodes, we were definitely like, and here is the blues scale.

But I mean, it really is. Don't listen to those episodes. Yeah, yeah, do not listen to those episodes. They're loud tones on there that. It'll mess up your stereo. No, they're fine. But like anything, you know, without experience and you hear yourself in the headphones talking or whatever, and it's different than playing. Yeah. But it reminds exactly right. It reminds me of my first experience is playing, you know, in a big studio or recording. Well, it's like how do you, I mean, I think that if you think about sort of the goal that you want to have in terms of going to recording, being that you are playing your best in as much of an unconscious, unconscious way as possible, you're just creating and doing your thing without ever thinking about, I'm in the studio, this is going to be heard, all the things that Darren kind of brought up, this is for life or whatever. Like, how do you get to that point?

And I can't say that I've ever done a session even now where it didn't cross my mind a little bit, but it's good. The percentage went so low that I don't even, when it comes in, I don't worry about it as much. So you don't have to worry about like being totally unconscious and just creating like you would on a gig. But if you can get to like 90%, you're going to be doing really well. And I think that, you know, once you realize that that's a goal and a target you can get to, you can separate out this whole thing of like you have to be comfortable with who you are. So like when we come on and do this podcast, we just talk and stuff. And at first, when you listen back to it, it's like, oh my God, I sound like that.

I would. And then, but at a certain point, you have to be like, no, that's how I sound. That's, that, that's not going to change. You know what I mean? So like, how do you get to the point where you can, you know, be your best self? But some people want to be like, I'm in the studio and like, oh, man, I don't sound like Kirby Hank. Dude, you don't sound like that on the gig either. So, yeah, yeah. So all you have to do, so once you lower your expectation to just being the best of yourself, which is fine. Like, like we talk about, everybody has something to say. And, and you have to, I know that sounds like a corny affirmation. It does. But once you, it does. I know. And, but you know, but you don't. And, but you That's what I have to say.

It's true, though. And you know, I mean, so there's, I had a friend who posted this on Twitter, which I thought was a really good. Are you stalling while you're trying to find it on Twitter? No, but I thought it. So a friend of the podcast, Christopher Stark posted. Yeah, we're going to talk about this dude every day, man? Just this week.

I'm just thinking about it. It's Christopher Stark week? So, hey, maybe that could be, yeah. Just kidding. So he posted this, the creative process for most people. And I think this goes for anything, whether you're recording a podcast or in the studio or even performing live. This is brilliant.

This is tricky. This is terrible. I am terrible. This might be okay. I'm now interested in the next thing. Is that seven things? Yeah. That's six things.

Oh, six things. But that could go for anything, for a recording session or whatever. This is awesome. This is tricky. Yeah. This is terrible. Yeah.

I am terrible. This might be okay. Oh, number seven might be suicide. That's the worst part. What's the next gig? Oh, yeah. It's like the six levels of composer. hell basically. That's true, but you know what? I think this applies, it's funny, but it's,

it applies to every project that I've ever done. It's like, I get, you get so excited about it and you get a little nervous because it's harder than it should be. Yeah. And then you're like, this is terrible and you're like, I'm just, yeah, I'm a fraud, you know, all this stuff, or whatever. But you have to just ignore that voice in your head that's trying to do that to you. You know what I mean? And just trust that, you know, you've put in the right preparation and that you can be yourself. I think for me, man, what would really open this up for me was the ability to, in the studio connect with the other musicians like I would on the bandstand, you know,

and I really try to make an effort to make eye contact, and I really try to make an effort to listen and to communicate with them. That's so creepy, man. Eye contact? No, I'm just kidding. No, but you know what I mean? It's like, if you make a connection with them,

make a connection with the engineer, if you really try to, like, be present with the other humans in the room, all the equipment in the room kind of fades away. That's right, and then that also will give you kind of some energy and some connection that can translate. I mean, it's going to translate any way

with great musicians. but if you do get a little bit of that human connection going. And then you also just realize, okay, I'm not, like the studio can be such an isolating situation. If you think about the band sign, like, you ever go to a gig and you're nervous or whatever, but then when you get up there and you're all together and you're kind of playing with each other and you kind of get caught up in the energy in the audience. Yeah. And so that can get you into that thing of like it's in the moment.

And like Darren says, it's like, well, this is, I'm just playing in the moment. Nobody's recording it. Although I was just going to mention there's always people recording now. So, you know, live performance is not like it used to be where it's not. not being documented as easily somebody puts up on Instagram or whatever. Dude, don't I know it. Jay Ross TV is everywhere. Exactly. Exactly. But I mean, the thing about it is in the studio, it can be so isolating because a lot of times you're literally isolated in terms of like the pianos in a booth. Yeah. And you've got on headphones. There's no feedback. Right, right. And so, you know,

if you can make eye contact, if you can come in between takes and be with other people. I mean, I've been in these sessions where you're just in the same little room by yourself. You feel like you're playing alone and so you want to take those chances to kind of make get that human connection yeah and then some other things you can you can do is make sure really take the time with your headphones in my experience if you're using headphones yeah get them exactly where you want to be you know don't don't settle so that you're comfortable yeah that could make or break a session for me if there's crappy headphones and a crappy mix coming in that sucks exactly yeah another little thing like you said about playing really quiet on that first session um for piano actually this would be for

any instrument. So you're always going to, you're not always, but you're generally going to need to hear yourself in the headphones, some if you're, if you're isolated, but don't put yourself up too high because you want to hear yourself at a realistic level like you are in a live situation. Yeah. If you're hearing yourself so clearly, you're going to be playing in a very self-conscious way and like, oh, wow, why am I, you know, you're going to hear things that you don't normally hear, and that's just not natural. And so I think that, you know, one thing that we both mess around with sometimes is taking one ear off of the headphones and, maybe hearing yourself acoustically and then just kind of using, or if you can do that,

you can just turn yourself down totally in the headphones on the recording and just use that for hearing everybody else. But I think sometimes people think, oh, this is a chance to hear myself better. If you want to play like you do live and put your best performance, you need to hear yourself like you're used to hearing yourself. That's exactly right. I mean, you don't want to be too low either because you don't want to overplay if you can't hear yourself at all. You know what I mean and burn yourself out. But yeah, don't put yourself like straight up front, you know, unless you're a singer and then it's what you want anyway, right? Yeah, exactly. It's what they want. Another thing to do is to practice recording yourself, even if it's just on your phone. Yes.

You know what I mean? Yeah, put yourself, exactly, put yourself in that situation. And pretend like you're in, you know, a big time studio. Yeah. Like, I know that sounds silly. Yeah. But make believe that you're on the session. Yep. And you're doing it. Every time I hear make believe, I think about the that do the choo-choo train on Mr. Rogers. That's when I first learned to make believe. Land of, that's a great documentary. I just watched it the other day. It's awesome.

It's awesome. And I mean, when my parents used to sit me down in front of PBS for six hours at a time when I was four years old, man, that was my whole childhood, pretty much. Yeah, it's like a creepy grandfather. But, I mean, one other thing, I just, I remember Darren saying about tensing up. I think, you know, hopefully all these things are kind of will get you more,

comfortable, especially you're kind of practicing, that sort of goes along with the visualization thing that we've talked about. And so like don't wait until you get into the studio for the first time to actually be there, even if you're kind of mentally putting yourself there. But also some of the same techniques we've talked about before to not tense up in any kind of situation. I mean, preparation is always the best one for me. It's like people like, do you get nervous? I'm still, they're like, you probably don't still get nervous. I'm like, yep, every time I'm not prepared for something. If you're not prepared, you're going to be more nervous because you're not prepared. Yeah, and so, but then, you know, kind of visualizing, pretending like you're in the situation, if you get a chance to go to the studio before everybody or like when the drummer's setting up and just get comfortable on the piano or if you're a saxophone player with the mic, so that you're already warmed up and kind of ready to go, like the way a distance runner goes the days before and goes on the path and goes through there.

And then, like, sometimes people don't want to do that stuff because then like, oh, I'm going to be more nervous because I'm going to know exactly how weird it is in there. But I think that you're more physically comfortable with your environment, then you can really focus on playing. you know the music better. You're, you know, I mean, but look, you're going to be in a situation, but we've all been, we put a bunch of musicians the other day in a situation where we're just throwing music in front of them. And so that's when the big dogs kind of come out and like, okay, I'm cool, I'm going to come up to this.

But it's still the same thing. You cannot get in that thinking. I don't care how you, how good you are at sight reading of like, oh, I can read anything. You still know that if you'd have that music a week ago and you practice it every day, you could do it better. But you have to be not only, it's not really confident enough, it's just comfortable enough to say, you know what, I'm going to do the best that I can on this.

I'm going to breathe. I'm going to take my time. I'm going to try to bring the music out. I'm going to miss a few little notes, but I'm going to make this sound beautiful. And that's good enough because that's the best I can do anyway. And as long as you get paid at the end of the session, you did all right.

We always think, you know, that it's worse than it actually was because when we listen back, we're listening with a kind of clarity and a knowledge of what we did when we did it. No one is ever going to listen to it. No one's going to listen to it as closely as you're listening to it on the playbacks. Exactly. Yeah.

That's a great question, Darren. and thanks for that. It's important, and it can be tricky if you don't do it regularly. So, you know, try to do it regularly, too. Yeah, yeah. And I love your thing about, remember, you can do it at home. And listen back and kind of think about how you feel and treat it like a session. That's great.

Please send us questions. Please do it through any of the different mediums we have. We've had a barrage of comments on YouTube, so we sort of fell behind and we got a little self-conscious. We're going to address that tomorrow, though. Tomorrow is going to be a big day for us. We do have a great review. Oh, we do. I've got it here. You got it there?

I have it up here. So it's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve stars they manually put in. But no, I think you're reading that wrong. I look at that as seven and then five. Why seven and five? Dude, that's what we're always asking for. We're always like, give us seven stars, but if you can't, give us five. Well, they gave us twelve. I look at that and I see twelve. You're such a cumulative guy, man.

12 damn stars right in front of me. Seven plus five is 12, by the way, just so you know. But we were talking about our rankings on the iTunes podcast music category. And we were right next to some interesting podcasts. And one of them, this guy says, almost as good as the bump and grind 90s R&B podcast. Who was one above us? I know. Which is, that's technically true.

Almost as good as the bump and grind. You're not going to read the rest of it? And definitely the best podcast for jazz players. There we go. By Southfields from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Very specific. Such a fussy way of... That's actually Apple puts that.

I kept thinking that our users were, I was like, wow, they're so specific. Yeah, that's kind of a thing. Well, so cool. Well, thank you Southfields for that. The love you're showing us. And are you guys, please, when you get a chance, I mean, look, I know it takes you 30 seconds. I don't want to, you know, just because every day we're giving you a new podcast that takes us hours to produce.

Give us a little 30... I'm sorry. That was kind of aggressive, wasn't it? aggressive enough but when you have 30 seconds in your busy schedules from listening to our podcast go to wherever you're listening to this podcast or watching it be it YouTube Apple podcast Google Podcasts Stitcher yeah we're rising on Stitcher he's uh we are rising on Spotify Spotify yeah we're getting we're getting some top hundred love on the Spotify podcast listen as long as we just get past

bump and grind that's what I want help us push us past bump and grind bump us past bump that's right so the idea is you know give us seven seven-star review. Some of the systems are kind of forcing you into a five-star situation. All of the systems. Holding the man down. But, you know, do what you can. And look, if you want to give us a one-star review, do that on somewhere else. Not on our podcast, buddy. I mean, don't listen all the way the end of the episode. There'd be like, this is one-star. Just, you're not going to be listening to this far, aren't you? I'm glad we. We asked for reviews today and not tomorrow. Tune in tomorrow for a very special episode. You'll hear a podcast,

and you'll hear it.