Recording

Settle for Nothing But Excellence

It’s up to you if you, your life and music are excellent. Are you settling for mediocrity? Mediocrity is easy, but painful in the long term.

Allow me to share with you, dear reader – a current story in my quest for excellence.

As you may know – I am working hard on a Michael Jackson tribute fingerstyle guitar CD. At this phase I have 15 good tunes recorded, many of them are ones I have posted to Youtube.

As I sat and listened with my good buddy Paul Beaudry to my almost finished CD, he was just gushing for about 5 tunes, and then the feeling changed.

His face became more serious. My stomach sank. Most of us musicians feel that the music is an extension of us…if the music sucks, I suck. If it’s good – I’m good.

He and I started noticing a “sameness” to the grooves. Honestly I personally started feeling worn out by the lack of variation too. Surely I don’t want this to happen to my listeners!

The album needs to be a joy, a delight and a delicious experience for anyone who puts it on.

Here is the crucial point – it would be so easy to let things slide, to rush, to want it done, want it now. It takes serious self honesty to just say “it ain’t soup yet!”.

It takes patience too.

Essentially a bunch of great “guitar video singles” were not making a varied enough program to hang next to eachother on a “CD”. Back in the vinyl LP days a good album took you on a varied, interesting journey from one musical landscape to another. Led Zeppelin really was a leader in this.

Today most musicians don’t think albums…they think singles and mp3 downloads. Sorry – I want this CD to be in people’s players, playing all the way through.

Paul assured me that what was there was EXCELLENT – and he pulls no punches. He also advised me to go back and look at Michael’s Albums to see where pretty ballads are placed in between dance tracks.

The Moral of the Story:

This is a record that I want to be finished. However, accepting mediocrity is unnaceptable.

Standing firm only for excellence is permissable.

My gut says when it’s ready – not my head.

The price must be paid – in advance.

Out of tune guitar? Record it again.

Not enough groove on a tune? Record it again.

Listen closely.

Not enough “pretty ballads” and too much “hit you over the head 2 & 4 groove? Record more and re-asses.

Make a plan and get to work.

Make things right.

Allow artistic instinct to prevail.

Late last night I discovered this video from Seth Godin, and I love his message. It resonated with me completely. Enjoy:

[youtube=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBrRLI4ozag”]

How You Do One Thing is How You Do Everything

By Adam Rafferty 2 Comments

Jack Canfield has a chapter in his book “The Success Principles” with the same title as this blog post.

Another great expression of this principle (sort of) is in an axiom by jazz pianist Hal Galper – “Patience is it’s own reward.”

This thought is reiterated by Brian Tracy in numerous forms (paraphrase) “Losers do what is fun and easy, while winners do what is difficult and necessary” or “losers do what is stress relieving while winners do what is goal achieving.”

Lastly, my personal mentor Mike Longo said years ago “the warrior runs into the battle, the coward runs away from it.”

I guess studying these guys writings and teaching for a few years has gotten under my skin. While they differ slightly in tone and feel – they say essentially the same thing.

I have noticed this “do it now, do it right no matter how difficult it is” principle manifest in my life recently, not just with recording but with other aspects, trials and hurdles simply presented by life.

As I wrote in my last post I have had studio troubles in recording. Guess what? I’m sucking it up, re-recording on my own dime and doing it right.

I had to buy a vacuum yesterday and as usual there’s a decent cheaper one made of plastic with a 1 yr guarantee , or a German made Miele with metal housing and a 7 year guarantee and they can fix it in the store where I bought it – but for over twice the price. Suck it up again, Adam!!! I bought the good one.

Whether it’s a recording, a purchase or anything…how you do one thing is how you do everything.

So, in doing things right

– it may take more time
– you (and I) have to delay immediate gratification
– it may cost more

We must be on the lookout for our own:

– impatience
– trying to do things cheaply
– trying to do things quickly
– get immediate gratification

I suppose this comes with after the experience of the following: when one does things quick & cheap one has to do (or buy) a second time at the right price anyway. So “quick” costs more time, and “cheap” is often more expensive, in the long run.

Most importantly is the feeling of satisfaction when one does things properly and leaves no stone unturned. I am feeling this lately.

You see – you can’t be the same person on the inside and do an A+ job on a recording and buy a crappy vacuum. The same person would likely either do a great job at both or a crappy job at both. Scientific, huh? 🙂

How you do one thing, is how you do everything. Get it?

The boost in self esteem, and feeling like a winner just gets you (me) addicted to doing it right even more.

Happy Holidays!!!

Adam

Youtube Recording Technique for Guitar Videos

By Adam Rafferty 34 Comments

Since the original 2009 post is outdated, I have made 2 NEW walkthrough videos showing how I do my process. Check these newer videos out, and be sure to get the current “7 recording tools” cheat sheet.

Watch the Videos & Get Cheat Sheet HERE

ORIGINAL 2009 POST:

Hey friends! After several requests, I figured I’d write this once so that it is easily accessible, and hopefully will save at least one of you some hours of frustration.

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