trick420 - Posted - 02/08/2010:  22:34:41

Hi everyone,

I have posted some new tunes to my homepage. Please take a listen if you care to:

Blackberry Blossom
Midnight on the Water
Over the Waterfall
Drunken Hiccups
Shout Little Lulie

I started about 3 months ago, and probably spent a month of that diddling around with bluegrass before feeling the pull of clawhammer. Anyway, I am having issues when recording - I get "recording fright" and my playing loses feel and I make a LOT of little mistakes. I have posted 5 new tunes - all are with my 'jo strung with Nylguts, a renaissance head, and a no-knot tailpiece.
Anyway, Blackberry Blossom is by far the worst. I can play this pretty cleanly at this speed, but I seem to fumble it in a few places. Now, granted, it's not an easy tune to begin with. Now, playing to a live audience - I'm good with that. Playing alone - great at that - I sound like a freakin' pro (yeah right). But I turn on the recorder, and here comes the banjo idiot. Any suggestions on getting a clean take? How can I fool myself into thinking the recorder isn't on?

Regards,
Jeff

shclandler - Posted - 02/09/2010:  02:59:15

Jeff,

I only listened to Blackberry Blossom, but it was FANTASTIC! It is tough to believe you've been playing for 3 months. Great job is all I can say!

Josh

g3zdm - Posted - 02/09/2010:  03:07:40

I just listened to your Midnight on the Water (one of my favourite tunes).
Sounded great and couldn't fault it.

bournio - Posted - 02/09/2010:  03:21:39

For advice with recording, get someone else to press the button, so that you can't see it's recording.

When I'm in the studio, there're a bunch of classics that I use like "Ok, can you just play through the song, I've got to check levels" and "could you just do another run through", then I trick myself into thnking it won't work for me, but it does, because those magic words "Do you want to record now?" don't get said!

You sound very good though!

FScholle - Posted - 02/09/2010:  03:48:21

He he he I know what's going here. You're just fishing for compliments :-)
Seriously you're doing great, not just for playing only three months.
I think many if not most of us have the same issues with freezing u on fort of a microphone. I know I do and it's very hard for me to get clean takes of anything.

One suggestion that comes up quite a bit is to just turn on the recorder and keep it running while you're playing a number of different tunes. After a while you forget it's running and relax, then edit out what yu don't want to keep. The rest is as everything else: just practice.

Frank

trick420 - Posted - 02/09/2010:  06:27:49

Yeah, I like complements. I like criticism too though! I do seriously have an issue when recording.

I guess I'll try practicing with the recorder running the whole time and see what I get. Editing it all out won't be much fun but if that's what it takes, so be it.

Thanks also for the complements everyone. I have a few more tunes that I want to record this evening, so stay tuned.

Jeff

ramjo - Posted - 02/09/2010:  07:11:28

That's good playing, man! Don't sweat it.

My 2 cents on what you said in your original post. Some musicians have the gift of nervous systems that accurately translate musical phrases in their minds into the equivalent bodily actions required to produce them. Then there are the rest of us. For the first group, their instruments are extensions of their bodies. They simply make the music they hear in their head, whether it's in their bedrooms, the studio, or on stage. Of course they practice, but once the basics are in there, their practice takes them to new levels--such as ever-improving technique, new ideas for variations, discovering opportunities and connection. For me, definitely not in this group, practicing means finding a way to make my fingers work the same way two times in a row. It means playing a phrase hundreds of times, and still not executing it cleanly. Eventually, though, I get something I can live with. When I record, I'm aware that any "unclean" playing is there for posterity, so I have a quick hand to the off switch. When playing for myself, I'd probably accept flaws that, if I had the opportunity to evaluate them, I'd reject.

Then there's also the factor that a listener might not interpret something as a "mistake" the way you would. That's why we can honestly compliment your postings even though you're worried they're not up to snuff. The way I figure it, is even pros record multiple takes--sometimes dozens of takes. And there still may be a flaw or two in the release. The point is to play the song with heart and create an enjoyable result. I'd much rather hear a tune with heart than a tune with no mistakes.

Edited by - ramjo on 02/09/2010 07:14:01

trick420 - Posted - 02/09/2010:  08:09:07

Thanks for that viewpoint. I guess I'm at the point right now where I can play what I want, but if there's a distraction, it short circuits my fingers somewhat. So in my mind I'm thinking "gotta play this clean, the tape's running" "gotta make a clean take" and it's distracting my playing just enough to make it dirty or to make a mistake.

This also explains why I can't sing and play (forget the fact that I have a dreadful voice!). That's something that has evaded me my entire life on everything except drums.

Yeah, I'm a little bit of a perfectionist. It's the double edged sword that comes with classical violin training. You learn how to practice something to perfection, but then you are constantly judging yourself (and being judged) against that perfection.

rendesvous1840 - Posted - 02/09/2010:  08:21:56

Keep doing it and don't sweat the small stuff. You have to prctice everything you want to get good at. You have to learn to ignore the machine, same as you learn to read, walk, or play banjo. Once you have gotten over the "I have to do this PERFECTLY, The Tape's Running" mindset, you'll relax and the problem will go away.
Paul