Those Nasty Audition Tapes - Making the Tape Recorder your Best Friend by Alison Young Rasch
One of the rumors making the rounds these days is that the availability of so many good recordings is going to end the need for live performances. The argument goes that no live performance can possibly match the quality of a recording that can be made perfect through editing.
Paradoxically, it is often live and unedited recordings that make the best listening and win awards. In fact one recording company, Nimbus Records, has a philosophy about recording. They “encourage artists who are willing and able to approach recording in the same spirit as live performances, those who can deliver recorded performance without recourse to the edit.” Nimbus prides itself on using the edit to save a performance, not to create one.
The first round for the upcoming Byron Hester Solo Flute competition requires a tape that is unedited, one that gives the judges a representation of your playing that is as close to a live performance as possible.
But, beautiful “live”- sounding recordings aren’t created in a vacuum. What a flutist needs is to prepare for the taping just as he would prepare for a live performance. In essence, you have to practice recording.
As a flutist, you will probably be making audition tapes for much of your career for master classes, music camps, solo competitions, or to be invited to a professional orchestral audition. Since you have the opportunity to record something as many times as you like, the logic is that surely you can create a perfect audition tape.
But the law of diminishing returns nearly always takes over when recording.
Here’s how it might go: the first “take” often feels fresh and comfortable, but there are a few problems. Maybe it’s a technical thing; the mikes weren’t set up quite right or the pages of music got mixed up. So we correct the technical problems, rev up our artistic engines again and try a second “take”. This time, although we have some of the energy of a live performance, we may have missed a note or two. Perfectionists, we over-focus on these errors. We might have even stopped playing when we made the first minor mistake. Desperately wanting to correct these errors, we plunge in headlong to a third “take”. Our fingers tense, our sound gets a little more anxious and we really make mistakes this time – ones so glaring, they’re unacceptable on the final product. We anxiously plunge into the fourth “take” determined and careful to be clean and precise. And lo and behold, we succeed! Everything is right. But, wait a minute, what is this? There is no spontaneity, no spunk; the performance falls flat and holds no interest musically.
Making a recording is probably one of the most challenging things you will do as a flutist. But it is possible to achieve success with taping if you use some good common sense.
Douglas Yeo, bass trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra states that “for the taped audition system to be successful, the player needs to make a tape that is a reasonable representation of his playing.” If we familiarize ourselves with the procedure and pratfalls of taping, we can successfully recreate on tape the reasonable representation of our playing that Yeo refers to.
For starters, I would recommend you tape yourself often. It would behoove you to spend a little money and purchase a decent microphone and digital recorder. The money you save from not having to use a professional recording studio can be immense. Moreover, with your own equipment, you will be able to iron out any of the technical problems of recording well in advance of making an audition tape. Locating the best place to record is very important. You do not want a place that is too dry or too reverberent. You will also need to find the most advantageous placement for the microphone and adjust recording levels to reflect the depth of your sound without peaking or distorting the recording.
But most importantly, by using your own recording equipment regularly, you will become familiar with how you sound on tape.
When I have a student who moves their body on a way that I think is physically limiting their flute performance, I tell them to look in a mirror. The problem is usually corrected in a matter of minutes. If you tape yourself often, the tape recorder becomes like an audible mirror.
Use your practice sessions to become a super critical detective, incessantly uncovering all of the weak areas in your playing. Play a passage. Stop the tape. Listen and correct any problems. Then tape yourself again. It might be useful to try and listen for one specific aspect of your playing at a time. For example, play the tape back and focus on your rhythm. Listen again, and focus on the evenness of your sound throughout the registers, etc. You will be amazed how quickly you correct problems in your playing; you will become your own best teacher.
Once the day arrives that you plan to record the actual audition tape, you want to make a 180-degree shift in your thinking. Your attitude during practicing was careful and analytical. During the recording sessions, you want to play more freely and spontaneously. With all of the work you have done to this point, there is very little mystery of how the recording process works. You have done all of the preparation work and now you are ready to “perform” the recording.
I would recommend recording two performances of your pieces before you listen to the play back. Try to be as gentle on yourself as possible and let small errors go. This means don’t stop playing for something minor! It’s important to get the feel of playing straight through the music.
You may want to use some lessons from great method actors and put yourself fully into the situation. Imagine you are performing for a familiar audience from your “fan club”. Pretend that you are performing on the stage of a great hall. Psychologists have long known that “acting” the part can often help us rise above our fear and nervousness.
In the end, you probably know best which “takes” are the ones to use on the final audition tape. Most professional recording artists use a producer who guides the recording session and decides what is used and what is discarded. It is difficult to keep a detached perspective when you are recording, so it may be useful to ask your teacher or a trusted colleague to assist in choosing the final cuts.
Always be sure to follow directions carefully: send a high quality tape, record in the proper order, do not talk on the tape, etc. After all the work you’ve done, you certainly don’t want to be knocked out of the running for an infraction of the rules!
Using the above tips will make the recording process for you less overwhelming and more successful. With home recording equipment becoming more affordable and more user-friendly these days, you may get hooked on recording and start making your own solo Compact Discs!
“And now, let’s take it from the top…”
Alison Young Rasch is the Vice President of the Houston Flute Club and this year’s Byron Hester Solo Flute Competition Coordinator.She can be reached at competitions@HoustonFluteClub.org
