#1: IS YOUR SONG FINISHED?
It can be so stressful within the
walls of a recording studio. When its time to record, most producers and sound engineers
prefer getting straight to work. They usually hate having to wait for an artist
to finish writing a bridge or outro of a song. The art of creating different
waves of lyrics and putting them together in a fancy way, is a talent, but the
professionals at known studios, usually will not want to drag out studio time
for a simple writing session that wasn’t scheduled to happened in the first
place.
#2: WHAT ABOUT A ROUGH RECORDING?
Every
songwriter has a different writing process. The one vital part in making sure a
song is complete is creating a basic rough draft. That means a using one
instrument like a guitar and a vocal into anything like a hand-held recorder or
a phone with recording access. “Here’s why you should record a rough draft:
Without listening back to your song from the perspective of an audience member,
you could miss a crucial part of the writing and editing process. Even if you
have sang or played a song over a hundred times, sitting back with a lyric
sheet to listen to your song could assist you in finding flaws within your
lyrics or music. This rough draft can give you the precise outlook to make
proper adjustments to your song and improve it. Every time you think you song
is ready to record, I recommend that you create more than one rough draft. This
way you can find different things within your song to make it better.
#3: IS YOUR DEMO
FLAWLESS OR WHAT?
Ever feel
like something is missing within your song? Well if you do, you’re probably
right. Sometimes when I write a song and I have finished all the components of
the process, I assume its time to record and that’s it. If you still find things
to correct from your rough draft then you shouldn’t record a demo as of yet.
You may save money by staying in the editing process longer than you think, so
don’t let anxiety get you to rush a recording of a demo. Cliff Goldmacher
stated, “Demoing to fix the problem is an expensive way to get unsatisfactory
results” and I agree with him, from my personal recording experiences.
References:
Goldmacher, C. (2011, April 11). Five Mistakes Songwriters
Make before Demoing
Their Songs (and how to avoid
them). Retrieved February 21, 2015 from http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/five_mistakes_songwriters_make_before_demoing_their_songs_and_how_to_avoid_
