Two notes on the power of recording

Thinking about the power of recording as a tool for musical growth and I wanted to share a couple of notes from last year that serve as illustrations of the ways in which musical thinking can grow when its separated from musical skill (temporally). When students have a chance to reflect on their performance as an object rather than a remembered experience it allows them to model and make different choices than they would if their brain was trying to hold all of the information and reflect and play all at once.

The first example is one that I love that outlines the way that creative intent in composition doesn’t necessarily have to flow from musical skills but rather from musical thinking. The second example outlines how using recording can be a powerful tool for reflection on and refinement of musical skills.

Matilda’s Masterpiece: Recording as a tool for composition.

Today I had a drummer after school to work on the drum kit. 

we meet 2 times a week and Mondays are for technique and Wednesdays are for the groove. 

Today we were working on keeping parts straight, shifting from 8th notes in our left hand to quarter notes and mastering a 16th note fill around the drum kit. 

We worked out the groove with her on the kit and me on the bass. I was playing a little I IV V in D and locking in with her rhythms and after we'd gotten it grooving I asked her what she thought of the music we were making. 

She said it sounded like it could be a song. 

So I asked her if she wanted to record it and make it into a song

She said yes. 

After that we laid down our two tracks (bass and drums) and I told her she was going to be the producer. She could tell me what she wanted to add or do and I would make it happen. 

She wanted to add Ukulele so I told her the chords and she played a Ukulele track. 

We added a marimba sound, an organ sound, and some aux percussion that she played.

Then she asked me to add a guitar track and I asked her back: what kind of guitar track? Do you want electric? Acoustic? 

"I'm not sure..."

" well, imagine that this song is finished and in there is a guitar sound, what kind of sound do you hear" 

She considered it for a while and then said "definitely acoustic" 

OK! What kind of playing do you want. 

I offered her 3 or 4 different things to choose from and she considered each one and decided on a line that was outlining the chords because " we already have the Ukulele so the guitar should do something different, like with a different rhythm" 

She then had to run the DAW while I was over in front of the microphones. 

She made all kinds of cool decisions " i'll bring the bell in later and you can come in with the afuche when I'm doing the first fill..."

We had a really rewarding 45 minutes of open composition time together and created something I think is great. The collaborative and open approach to making music is paying dividends with this student and I wish we had enough time and resources to do this with everyone who might want to.

being able to iterate with a recording opens up so much musical thinking

If you want to hear the piece of music she created it can be found Here

Recording as Reflection and Refinement

Today in class we listened back to our recordings from last week and made a list of ways to improve them. 

Students were making observations about their own musician ship and thinking of ways to make their performances better. They were noticing times where the texture or dynamic didn't seem to fit the song and adjusting as we recorded, aiming for the perfect take. 

They were owning their performances and could tell when something sounded "right" vs when they could make it better. 

Giving them this opportunity to reflect after the fact as made so many more musical choices make sense to them. 

For example, a student was supposed to be playing Tambourine on one and three but had accidentally flipped it. Listening back she heard the tambourine and asked if it was correct. We had a brief conversation with the class about 1 and 3 vs 2 and 4 for tambourine and one of the drummers said 

" I think you're supposed to be hitting the tambourine when I hit the snare to like make it more important"

another student said " yeah the music sounds better when its on 2 and 4, like it wants to keep moving." 

We're understanding the importance of the backbeat authentically through exploration and its a blast. 

We're also learning about taking musical risks by singing in front of a class or taking a small solo or recording a part that has to be 100% correct or the whole class has to take it again. 

Its been a great exercise for the students and its good practice for me to begin to see other ways to explore music making through the technology of recording. 

One thing I have been struck by is this group of students and their willingness to view their past recordings not as "failures" but as stepping stones to growth. They understand that this is an iterative process and that they're getting better every time (they can hear it in the recordings). They aren't afraid to try because they know they can try again and they will get better. 

Their teamwork and growth mindset is awesome to work with.

Continuing Questions

How could recording change the relationship of the students to their performances?
Why is recording important in todays culture?
How do students interact with music most often, does offering them insight into the recording process allow them to become more astute members of their musical traditions?

Does the recording of Matilda’s Masterpiece truly represent a composition by her or is it a collaborative composition between her and I? Who gets writing credit here?

How does engaging in collaboration change the outcome of compositional intent?