Why "The Recording" Is Wrong

Photo by Reynier Carl

Here’s what normally happens to me. Maybe you’ve experienced this too: You’ve got a couple days before Sunday, and your worship leader sends out the songs for the weekend. What should any good musician do? Listen to the recording. The recording is always right. We’re trying to sound like recording because the recording sounds good. If everyone just learned their instrument’s part on the recording, we’d sound awesome.

You show up to rehearsal with your part learned to a “T” and what do you know? It doesn’t really sound like the recording. You think, “if only so and so learned their part we’d sound amazing (like the recording)” or maybe “if only we had another person to play this one part, then we’d sound legit (like the recording).”

What if that wasn’t the solution? What if you’re the one to blame? What if “the recording” is wrong?

Whoah. How can the recording be wrong? I mean, it sounds great after all! Well, here are 3 reasons why I think it’s wrong. Note I’m making generalizations and there will be exceptions to all of these.

1. You have a different context than the one on the recording. What I mean is you’re in an entirely different circumstance than the one on the recording. You’re in a different place with different people coming from a different direction. You’re not playing on this HUGE stage with a HUGE band in this HUGE building in front of a HUGE congregation like the recording; you have a different amount of space to fill than the recording does. It took me a long time to understand that your instrument sounds different in your space than it does in the space of the recording. Sometimes, playing like a big shot rockstar is appropriate for the recording, but inappropriate for your context. Or maybe the opposite is true? (Although, let’s be honest, it’s probably never appropriate to play like a “big shot rockstar”). You don’t need to play as if a million people need to hear what you’re playing when there’s only 40 people just standing there with their hands in their pockets. When you play music, you’re communicating. To effectively communicate, you have to understand your listener. That is your context. Don’t play for the wrong listener. It won’t translate well.
   
2. You have a different approach to your instrument than the guy who played it on the recording. Newsflash: You’re not someone else. You’re you. You shouldn’t be playing something that is unnatural to you because other people will feel the same unnatural feeling you feel when you play it. This really complicated tom groove sounds really good when this guy plays it, but it sounds like poop when you play it. Guess what? You should play something different - something that has a similar feel, but something you can play confidently and sounds good when you play it.
   
   Maybe the drummer plays 15 thousand drum fills in one song, and somehow, it sounds good. He can pull it off because he’s him. You can’t pull it off because you’re not him. You have you’re own style, whether you realize it or not. And it’s possible that it doesn’t sound as good when you play the same fills at the same spots.
   
3. You have a different instrumentation than the recording. What I mean is you don’t have 4 electric guitars, 3 keyboards, or an auxiliary percussionist like the recording. When there’s a part missing, someone somewhere has to make an adjustment. That person might be you; that person might be someone else. If no one acts on it, maybe you should adjust your part to help cover the space of that other part. When I learn a song, I learn the dynamics before I learn the specific part. I ask myself, “Is this section louder or softer than the last?” That way I can accurately guide the song where it needs to go despite what part I end up playing. Sometimes the dance beat sounds dumb without all the dance synths. Maybe a different beat will sound better to accommodate the instrumentation.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t learn your part. THAT’S NOT WHAT I’M SAYING! Please! Pretty Please!! Do everyone a favor and learn your part. But be flexible when it comes to understanding your context, approach, and instrumentation.