Last week I walked into a music studio and walked out with my first completed album of solo piano Christmas music. It was the culmination of a journey that began six years ago, when I attempted to do the same thing but failed.
In 2008 I made a goal to create an album of original new age piano music. I was planning to record, mix and master the album in my home studio but ran into some with timing on a particularly difficult song that I had composed by ear. So I scheduled a few hours with a sound engineer at a local studio and he helped me create a great track. Unfortunately, it cost about $250 for that one song -- and when I did the math I realized I didn't have enough money for a complete album, so I gave up the dream (at least for the time being).
Five years later my company decided to pay an unexpected Thanksgiving bonus. I used the money to purchase an electronic keyboard and found a free app called Anvil Studio that I could use to record songs in midi format. Midi is ideal for a couple of reasons. First, it allowed me to easily change the values, velocities and timing of notes in case I made any small mistakes while playing a song. Second, I could produce a very realistic piano sound using a plugin that came with my Sibelius music program without having to spend myself into oblivion trying to play my songs correctly in a local studio with acoustic piano recording capabilities. I decided to create twelve Christmas videos with short versions of a few carols I had arranged for piano (the longest song was just over a minute). It was a fun project, and I posted the videos on Facebook during the month of December. I played a few of the arrangements for family members and friends during the holiday season, but when I finished the response was always the same: "That's the whole song?" Apparently they were expecting my arrangements to last longer than a minute :)
In January 2014 I decided to create an account at bandcamp.com, because I'd heard so much about it being a good platform for aspiring artists. After filling in the required information and choosing a user name and password I found myself facing a prompt that said, "Would you like to upload an album?" The answer was a resounding "YES!" But first I needed to create one.
In March inspiration struck and I decided it would be fun to make a Christmas album. I did some research to determine which of my favorite Christmas songs were in the public domain, and it turned out that there were a lot of good options. So I wrote down the names of the songs I would like to include on the album, and in May I started creating the arrangements. It seemed fitting for The First Noel to be the first song on the album, so I played every version of "The First Noel" that I could find to determine the one that I liked best to use as a starting point for my arrangement. However, I quickly realized that I didn't want to simply imitate what other arrangers had done; I wanted to create something that was uniquely my own. So I wrote down the words to The First Noel and played the melody by ear, then experimented until I found the chords that gave me the harmonic texture I wanted. I added introductions and fills and wrote down the notes in lead sheet format, then practiced it repeatedly until I felt like I knew it well enough to move on to the next song, "What Child Is This?" I decided to challenge myself and play that song in three different keys, then I wrote modulations to connect them together smoothly. When I played my arrangement for my daughter (a piano player herself), she said, "I think that's the best arrangement you've ever made." Her compliment gave me the strength to keep going during the next four months that it took to finish all of the arrangements.
As I continued to arrange songs I quickly realized that I was going to need something other than harmonic variety and key changes to keep the album interesting. So I composed new melodies for several songs and wove them in and out of the original melodies. By the time I finally reached the last song I was exhausted but happy with the results. The next step was to practice the music, which I did for about a month before starting to record.
Recording has always been very difficult for me. When I'm just playing for my own enjoyment or even for a small audience, I feel like I can be more expressive. But as soon as that little red recording light goes on I freeze up and find myself making a lot of mistakes that I wouldn't normally make. Even a "technically" correct performance can sometimes sound stiff and wooden when I am trying to record, and I wanted this album to be a reflection of my love for Christ and the Christmas season. So I decided to incorporate something new into the process. I decided to pray. Sometimes I would start recording without praying and then remember after several failed attempts. This happened while I was recording the song, "Still, Still, Still" and after I prayed I was able to record it in a single take on my very next attempt. Anyone who has watched me try to record a song will recognize what a miracle that really was.
It took about a month to record the first half of the album, and then one night I had some free time and was feeling "in the zone." I ended up recording six songs in one sitting and was able to then move on to the listening and adjusting process. I wanted to get the timings just right, so it took about an hour for each song -- listening over and over and making small adjustments -- before I was satisfied. I wasn't sure if I should complete the entire album myself using the Sibelius plugin like I had done for my Christmas videos the year before, or if I should work with a professional sound engineer. The question was answered for me when I started running into pedaling problems after the first two tracks. I didn't discover this until afterwards, but somehow the program I was using (I had upgraded to a digital audio workstation called "Reaper" for about $60) was inserting two pedal tracks into a single midi file and they were conflicting with each other. I am so grateful that happened, though, because this time my experience working with a sound engineer (the same sound engineer I had worked with six years before when I attempted to make an album and failed) was absolutely amazing. Because I was so prepared and had done my best to get the timings right, he was able to focus on other aspects of my music like dynamics and getting just the right sound for each song. He used synth pads to create ambiance and depth, mastering each track in a way that I simply wouldn't have been able to do on my own. And the price for the entire album wasn't much more than I had paid for just one song the last time I was in his studio.
While I do enjoy being able to complete projects from start to finish on my own, I can definitely see the value that collaborating with an expert added to the final product. I also wouldn't have been able to create an album without the music teachers, family and friends whose patience and support while I was learning to play made this journey possible. And I am grateful for my music students who gave me a reason to keep improving my skills so I could be a better teacher.
In the last few months I've created the track lists for four more albums and I hope to be able to add additional instruments to at least some of the songs on them. I don't know where music will take me in the future, but I've already been to so many places I never thought I'd be, so I'm not ruling anything out. And I am DEFINITELY going to enjoy the journey.
