datamusicata

Talking to a young songwriter the other day and she wanted to go right in and record the songs that she had written and she wanted those recordings to be her CD.

It got me to thinking about my own nascency as a recording artist.   My own first steps were baby steps in comparison.

Back then, few people had recording studios and they were very expensive.   Being able to get into one in off hours was my only hope when I was funding everything.

The first time that I was in there I produced some really pathetic recordings.  Those first songs were going to be my record.  I realized that I didn’t know everything and that I needed help.

I continued to record by any means possible and always considered the recordings as possible commercial releases.   I never went for demos.  I always had it in my head that whatever I was recording was going to be a master.

The thought process being, “I don’t know when I can get in here again, so I better make this count.”

But these days everyone has a recording studio of some sort.   And they all record and they all burn them to CD’s and put them out there.  There is no filtering system, so everything is getting released.   DJ’s are inundated with releases.  But that’s another column for another day.   Back to the demo question.

Once I had my own recording set up, I began to record songs several times, in different keys, at different tempos, even different time signatures, looking for the doorway into the song.

What I suggest to you is that you record your songs as you write them with just one instrument and one voice.  That’s a real song demo. Then listen for a while and see what suggests itself to you.

Don’t be afraid to make changes and don’t be afraid to leave it like it is.  Serve the song.

If you are presenting the song to someone else for their consideration, then the simpler you keep it the better, though there is another school of thought that you present the hit arrangement to the artist or producer and they fall in love with that and reproduce it with their artist.   That is a very rare occurrence.   Go with simple.

One other thing.   If you listen too much to your demo of the song, you may end up with a case of “demo-itis” that is difficult to get past.   You fall in love with what you’ve done and nothing else you record afterwards will do.

That’s when it helps to have some fresh ears give it a listen.   If the new person is not your mother and not enraptured, you’ve still go work to do.