RECORDING

Submitted by Twohawks


When I compose the songs that I intend to record I find my creativity usually works best if I am alone in a quiet area. Songs will come to me at unusual times and I find it important to be able to record the song immediately. I keep with me a small recording device that I can use to record the song as soon as it comes to me so that I don't forget how it sounds when I try to recall it from memory later on. I have found by not making the recording immediately I will forget the song by the time I get to sit down with an instrument. So my first rough recording of the song may be no more than me whistling or humming the tune into a recording device.

Then when I get to sit down with my flute or keyboard I play back the rough cut and then begin the process or reproducing the tune on the flute. It usually takes quite a bit of time to get the song exactly the way I want it to sound. I may have part of the song right away and I make a recording of that on my computer. I listen to that recording again and again and make any changes that need to be made. Once I have the entire song completed and I am playing it on the flute I get rid of everything I have previously recorded regarding this particular song. This is done to avoid confusion because the song has evolved from what the original sound was to what I want the song to sound like.

Now I record the song the way I want it to be without any embellishments. Once this is done I sit and listen to the song over and over and play along with it and add the embellishments that I want on the song in the places I want them to be. When this is done I dispose of the song as it was before embellishments and record it again with the embellishments. When I am satisfied that this is the way I want the song to sound then I can listen to it and decide what if any other instruments I want to be played with the song.

However, there are exceptions to every rule. One morning during the recording of "CHANGES" I was sitting on the front porch of the recording studio looking out into the beautiful wooded area around the studio. I needed a song for that day's recording and did not have one. I took a bundle of sage and smudged myself and my flute and ask Creator to send me a song. The song came to me I played it one time out on the porch, went into the studio and recorded it with one take. That song is called White Feather and it is track 2 on the Changes CD. And this is the real story here, not how I record but, the amazing things that can happen to you as you walk the journey the flute will take you on.