The Trick To Collaboration

This has been an amazingly intense week.   Cliff Eberhardt (www.cliffeberhardt.net) and I worked about twelve to fourteen hours a day for five days and really closed in on the All Wood and Doors CD.

The trick to spending that much time in the studio together is an easy one, I think.

You listen to everything the other one has to say.   You try every suggestion that the other one has in mind.   And thirdly, you keep in the front of your mind, the goal to serve the song and the recording and the project and make the greatest CD you know how to make.

We had no disagreements, though we did each dig our heels in once in a while and say, this is a great part, it has to stay.

We kept the goal in mind, our eye on the prize as we use to say and that kept us focused.    A collaboration is a give and take thing but presumably the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

And for the most part a collaboration is something that can only take place in a nurturing and safe place.   Someplace where each artist contributing  knows that they can bring up and try any idea that occurs to them and not be judged.

In the beginning, this trust has to be extended with no proof that it is just or deserving.  I assume if someone wants to work with me and me with them, then that trust  is deserving and there is a mutual respect for each other;s work.  I move in faith in that direction.

As long as the faith and trust is there, the collaboration will work.   If one betrays the other in some fashion, then a rift develops that is almost impossible to overcome.

When you work with someone, treat them the way you would like to be treated; behave in their homes and work place the way you would like someone to behave in your homes.

It’s a very delicate balance to collaborate but the rewards are worth it.