Rehearsals and First Takes

All else being equal, I’d rather rehearse a part to death and nail it on the first take in the studio. From a practical standpoint, when you’re paying for studio time, you don’t want to fork over cash for mistakes that could have been avoided with better preparation. But even when you’re doing it yourself, there’s something different when that little red light goes on. All your focus is (or should be) on the task at hand, nailing the part. I imagine it’s like the difference between warming up in the bullpen and pitching in a game. I don’t know how it is for anyone else, but recording takes more out of me than rehearsing does. When I’m done, I’m done. I really don’t want to go back and do another take. This is especially true for guitar solos, which should contain a certain degree of spontaneity. You get to that fourth or fifth take and you’re ready to start smashing things. So I try not to go there.

It’s weird; playing live demands a great deal of energy and attention, but in many ways it is much easier than rehearsing and recording. I think it may be because you get immediate feedback on the work you’re doing. This is probably also why it’s so much harder to play to an empty room than to a full house. You give a lot of yourself, but you get a lot in return. In a studio environment, you only give. You don’t get anything until much, much later.

If you’re lucky.

On this day…

• 2005: Ankle Tattoo Blues: Time Log — Here’s roughly what we have so far (in hours):

  Writing/editing lyrics: 3
  Composing/arranging music: 8
  Programming rhythm/synth tracks: 8
  Rehearsing guitar parts: 6
  Rehearsing keyboard [...]

• 2005: Ankle Tattoo Blues: Guitars — Guitars have been recorded. I tried adding some drum fills to the rhythm track but kept messing things up, so [...]