Having a plan

I have a friend whose dad would always say, “You have to have a plan”.

Kind of like a book I’ve been reading lately by Steven Stockman, “How to shoot video that doesn’t suck”.

In one chapter he talks about winging it – if you wing it, it will suck.  You can go into making a movie without a script, but don’t expect anything good to come out of making a movie without a plan.  Recording is the same.  Maybe you can substitute the word prepare for plan.  The more you prepare, the better the recording will be.

Another friend of mine, Peter Kienle, says that recording is like looking at yourself in a really big mirror, really close, with really bright lights.  It’s not always pretty, so you need to make sure you are ready for it.  Ready means practicing your parts, new guitar strings, guitar/any other instrument in good playable shape, your ideas for your songs are worked out as well as possible,  singing is in tune, arrangements are worked out or planned…  Clients rarely get better after a couple takes, it’s almost always the first or second take that is the best.

On the other hand, if it’s your first time recording, give yourself a break.  It’s hard enough to do without beating yourself up about things you didn’t do as well as planned.  Even Mozart sucked in the beginning, I’m sure of that.  I’m sure he had bad gigs every now and then.  He just covered it with a good stage show, poofy shirts and bad wigs.  He was a one man classical hair band from the 1700’s.

So what’s your plan?
End of sermon #437