How to Focus on What You Want
On the final day of recording sessions last week I was asked to remain after everyone else had been dismissed. It’s not that I’d ‘been bad’ mind you, it was that there were a couple of small violin solos to put down.
Now, there is a joke in the studios that goes, ‘you know how to make a whole note difficult? Put ‘solo’ over it.’
In any case, the solos, though not whole notes, weren’t Paganini either. Yet I could see immediately that there were a couple of challenges to negotiate. One in particular was downright un-violinistic, in fact.
And to complicate matters, they wanted the microphone as tight to my instrument as possible – the ‘pick-up mic’ they’d planned on using went on the blink and wouldn’t work.
Immediately I felt a little twinge of constriction at the setup, I didn’t have the usual space around me.
Yet these were minor annoyances compared to one last factor. The recording engineer, aside from being a bit of a nit-picker, hadn’t much of a clue about what I’d call ‘bed-side manner.’
I wasn’t going to receive any encouragement, support or compliments on this day.
So as we began recording, sure enough, there were little extraneous sounds that the engineer kept stopping for – remember, the mic was about 6 inches from my nose.
And it wasn’t long before I noticed myself focusing on not making noises, rather than on doing my real job; playing the violin. The lines, as I said, did have a couple awkward moments requiring either quick position changes or multiple string crossings. It was almost impossible to eliminate all the tiny noises that pass unnoticed in a concert hall, or even a normal recording setup.
Did I mention, the studio was warm and the air humid? – where’s that talc powder when you need it?
Anyway, it was the kind of situation, and I’ve seen it happen, where a player can tense up and get into all kinds of problems in a hurry.
And once I caught myself getting off track I took immediate measures to get back in MY game.
In this case it meant relaxing, breathing, focusing on the inward/outward movements of my right hand. It meant visualizing my way through the phrases sustaining each note, yet simultaneously holding the image of the next in mind.
I let go of the engineer’s concerns. He could ask for as many takes and he pleased, I was resolved to do my job to my fullest ability each and every time.
‘Course things progressed very quickly at that point, and it wasn’t long before even he had nothing more to say and I was in the booth listening to finished product.
Well, almost finished product.
It turns out the reason they wanted the extremely close mic was so they could start with the least purest violin sound possible. On to it they will add electronic effects to make it ‘other-worldly.’
As I was about to leave the engineer came up with one more gem. He said, ‘I think we can make something from what we’ve got here.’
At which point I felt entitled to my own parting shot which was, ‘and I thought the sound of an 18th century Cremonese violin WAS something. Guess times have changed.’
All the best, Clayton Haslop
P.S. I left out one of my strategies up there. I each beat as it went by, in spite of the fact I was hearing a ‘click’ and other pre-recorded sounds in my headset. This is a technique I teach in every course and program I create. It’s that useful. Here’s where an intermediate player can acquire ALL of my practice tools.
