Recording: How To Make Your Experience Less Stressful!

Written by Matt Charuka, Class of 2023

At this point in our online music school experience, just about all of us have had to record something for either a large ensemble project, small ensemble project, performance with accompanist, or solo performance. While it isn’t comparable to live performance, recording and learning about technology can make for a valuable skill set in the progressing digital world that we live in. However, recording your own playing and trying to iron out as many mistakes as possible while striving for musicality can be very stressful to the musician with a perfectionist mindset or one who strives for high-quality takes. Here are a few tips that can help you record the best version of yourself while reducing the stress that may come with it:

1. Accept mistakes… you’re human!

   1. This statement may strike home with a lot of us, but it’s a really important concept to grasp. Simply, the perfect take doesn’t exist… and that’s okay! We are all human beings with a lot of activity going on in our lives. Music majors are super busy, so accepting that it isn’t possible to record a take with absolutely zero mistakes will help your mindset greatly once it comes down to recording the part. This can come in the form of positive self-talk, making reminders for yourself, and trying to enjoy the music as you record. What helps me personally to enjoy recording a part for an ensemble project is to align the provided click track with the recording that it’s based on. Since you would be hearing other instruments playing alongside the click, it can simulate playing with a group, which is more enjoyable overall. You can do this in Audacity or any DAW by importing both the recording and the click track, then audibly lining them up. It’s not a difficult thing to do and can be super helpful!

2. Be hydrated, fed, and well-rested!

   1. Taking care of your body and making sure it has what it needs before recording is imperative to creating a low-stress environment for yourself. Being tired, hungry, and/or dehydrated could make you much more critical of yourself, which builds stress very quickly and can make recording even unbearable at times. The night before your recording day, make sure you do your best to get a good night’s sleep. On the day of recording, it’s important to eat sufficient meals and to drink plenty of water, even during recording! Drinking cold water in between recordings can help refresh and cool down your body, so you can get right back into it!

3. Practice the part well in advance!

   1. We all know that practicing the parts beforehand is important, but exploring other reasons to do so can make us feel better and more motivated to prepare. Even if a part is easy, playing that part through a microphone with consistent good sound may be harder than you realize! Plus, it can make it harder for the editor to spruce up your part if it was recorded without recognition of what’s happening in the part and in the entire piece as a whole. Practicing your part with the click track and provided recording is important, and having the score on hand so you can see where your part falls or what it’s doing can really enrich your playing, which can keep you from stressing yourself out and having to record a bunch of times to add these inflections in.

4. Allot yourself a large amount of time to record!

   1. One of the most significant issues I have heard from other musicians in recording is how they didn’t allow enough time for themselves to record. This is also a huge source of stress because tension will rise drastically as the due time draws closer. The solution to this is to establish how much time you think you need to record, and then always allot more. If you think you need an hour and a half, allot two and a half hours. If you know the part well and believe you can get it out in 45 minutes, give yourself an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half. Having that cushion can really reduce stress while you’re recording, which gives you a much larger window of opportunity to play well!

5. Take breaks!

   1. Once you have a good time slot to record and you’ve practiced your part, eaten a good meal, hydrated, and slept the night before, there’s one more thing you should do during your session of recording. If you want to keep your stress down, take breaks! I personally believe that this is the most important tip to internalize while in the middle of a recording session. If you don’t take breaks during your session, it is very likely that you will experience exponential growth of stress, which will make it very difficult to continue and have an overall snowball effect on your session. After a few attempts, take two to five-minute breaks to collect yourself. During this time, you can drink water, walk around a bit, stretch, go to a mirror and practice positive self-talk, and just take it easy for a bit. Allowing yourself this time to cool down can keep your stress levels low and may not only make the entire session easier but more productive as well!

As we were thrown into this world of recording and virtual learning so quickly, a lot of us had to learn how to record our playing on short notice so that we could recreate musical experiences in the next best way. These tips have gotten me over the mental, emotional, and physical hurdles that come with recording, and I believe they can help others who struggle with stress during recording sessions as well.