Practicing: How To Have More Fun In The Studio

This may seem like a silly thing to write about, but I wouldn’t mention it if it wasn’t absolutely important. Practice is the key to having a smooth, productive, and fun time in the studio. Sure, the studio can be a fun place to write songs and come up with new parts, but that should have its own dedicated time; not when you’re recording. Trust me when I say you’ll have a much more exciting time when you come in ready to perform :) Here’s why practicing before hitting the studio is so important and underrated.

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Practice To Save Money

Time is money when you’re in the studio; and being prepared can save you money exponentially. Not only will you be saving time simply recording your part, but the engineer will also save time editing the performance!

So two things you just saved money on here: recording time and editing time. On top of that, you’ll have gotten a better performance as opposed to an edited together one! There’s a saying that circulates the audio community a lot, that goes along the lines of, “You can polish a turd into gold, but in the end it’s still a turd”.

In other words, no matter how much we try to fix something subpar, it will never reach the highest potential. The reason Adele has so many hits is because it’s great at the source; she is a fantastic musician without all of the post production work! There’s a reason why we can’t make Adele’s out of people who aren’t like Adele; it’s just not possible.

A song really is built like a house; everything is built on top of one another and if you don’t have a good foundation, everything will fall apart. Without good performances, the editing won’t be as good. Without a good edit, the mix will fall apart. In the end, the song just falls flat simply because from the start, we started off with a poor foundation. Meanwhile all this time, you’re spending money to try and save the flimsy foundation from crashing the whole house down.

Practice Makes Perfect

Try to practice to the point you can nail your whole track 5 times in a row. One mess up, start over. This will make sure you can nail it in the studio, and by this time you should know it like the back of your hand, so all you need to do is go through the motions and focus on getting the best performance you can.

You can focus on the little nuances of your part, the things that you wouldn’t focus on had you not known the part like the back of your hand; you can focus on the tone of certain words, adding emotion to parts that make sense, things like that. Mind you, you should be practicing this at home too; you’ll just have to focus on completing it in its entirety 5 times in a row first. This is how you get stellar performances in the studio.

Usually, when practiced, the first takes are always the best. You come at it with the most emotion and gut feeling rather than focusing on the technical things. This does inevitably happen, but it’s best to practice these technicalities at home first so you can come in guns blazing.

Practicing with headphones can help you as well, just to get used to the environment. It's a different world once you put on headphones and try to sing. Using a pair to practice with beforehand will make using them in the studio a breeze!

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Without having the stress of nailing a part, or needing to come up with a new one, it’s imperative to practice. You’ll have a better time, the engineer will have a better time, and your fans will benefit from a better end result. Don’t take practicing lightly, and remember, it’s all about having a fun, less stressful, money saving time in the studio and reaping the benefits of a better product!

If you haven't downloaded it yet, I've made a huge checklist of things you can do to prepare for the studio, including ways to practice and how much to practice over at the blog home page. Check it out!

-Michael