In the Lab: The Five Step Recording Cycle

Hello again and I hope you all are having a very happy new year. Today's lesson is going to shift away from the land of music theory and into the realm of repertoire rehearsal.

Before we get into what this is about, let me take a moment to explain when you should be using this approach. This strategy is geared towards performing and recording musicians looking to nail a part perfectly, whether the part in question is a song, solo, or just a riff. I use this cycle whether I am preparing to lay down a track, record a video, or play a show. My approach is particularly effective in the recording studio, where there is the smallest margin for error. Without further ado, here is my five step approach for rehearsal.

1. Analyze

The best way to improve anything is by attacking your weaknesses, so start by assessing your strengths and shortcomings. Record yourself playing through the song or passage at its actual tempo. If you can't quite keep up with full tempo yet, that's okay, you can use whatever tempo you've got the song up to. As we continue, I'm going to advise you to practice the song at specific tempos expressed as percentages of this original tempo you tried your first take with.

2. Isolate

Now listen to the recording you just made. It is extremely helpful to slow down the recording as you will be able to hear your mistakes a lot easier. Software such as Native Instrument's Guitar Rig or The Amazing Slow Downer can help you accomplish this feat.

As you listen through your first take, pause the track every time you hear yourself make a mistake. Every time you stop the track, isolate the specific part that messed you up -- narrow it down to a bar or less -- and then practice playing through just that part using your metronome to set a tempo that is much slower than the song normally is, i.e. half speed. Spend at least five minutes isolating just that one part that screwed you up and as it becomes comfortable, you may add in more of the notes that come before and after the specific phrase or bar that messed you up. For example, if you started with just one bar, once you get that one bar under wraps, add the preceding and following bars.

By practicing in this manner, you ensure that you spend most of your time practicing the parts that actually trip you up instead of wasting time on parts that you can already play well. Once you've ironed out that mistake, resume playback on your recording and repeat this step for every other mistake you find.

3. Unify

After you've isolated and practiced all your problem areas on their own, you are going to practice the whole passage in its entirety. While it is faster to correct mistakes by isolating them, you still need to make sure that you are also practicing the transitions between these parts, thus we will now practice the passage in its entirety.

Use a moderate tempo that is just a bit faster than you used for the previous step, say 75%-80% of the tempo you used to record with. You don't have to go crazy here - once or twice through the song at this tempo will do. This is a five step cycle, after all.

4. Intensify

Once you've played through the whole passage a couple times at a moderate tempo, we are going to ramp things up a notch. Turn your metronome up -- I would recommend somewhere between 105-110% of your original recording's tempo.

Why would we do this? Common sense says that if we play a song faster than we are capable of, we will make mistakes. The basic principles behind muscle memory would suggest that if we make mistakes while we practice a song, our muscles will remember and repeat those mistakes. This is correct, which is why we will only play through the song or passage just once at this tempo. We are doing this for the psychological effect; by playing the song faster than it's real tempo, when it comes time for you to actually hit the recording button and lay down your track, you will feel more relaxed because the real tempo will seem less difficult than what you just experienced.

5. Relax

This is the final and most important step. Have you ever spent an hour in front of your monitor trying to nail that tricky guitar solo for your demo track? Maybe a few frustrating nights in front of the mirror making the same mistakes over and over a few nights before your big show? If you reach this point during your practice session, put your guitar down.

That's right. Just put it down. I know it can be hard, but if you continue to stubbornly attempt the passage over and over without backing off the tempo and isolating your mistakes, you will do more harm than good as your technique is sabotaged by tension born from your frustration with not being able to nail the part. You must avoid this. This is why the fifth and final step of the cycle is to put your guitar down, relax, stretch out, and do something else for a few minutes before you repeat the process over again.

That wraps up the lesson. Hopefully this approach will work for you all as well as it has worked for me in the past.

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