Waitin’ On Someone’s Else’s Opinion
How many times I’ve found myself in this artistic place? Too many, a lifetime!
I set up my studio for quickie video shoots.
I put up a nice Celtic hanging to hide the wiry mess. I found a good angle for shooting, (if a bit tight against the recording booth – small room!) set up sufficient lighting to capture the work visually – no fancy camera work here – one angle, thank you, isight.
These videos are supposed to help folks see what I’m doing, give a sense for how the sounds are made. I set up a quickie microphone that maybe doesn’t sound like my studio recordings but still represents at least some of the beauty of my instrument. Bless that Royer 121!
And, of course, I want them to be compelling performances, too. Of course!
I cut a couple of takes. After all, this is material that I’ve been performing fairly regularly. Shouldn’t take too long, right?
Ahem.
While I got a couple of good takes, I am plagued with that solo guitarist’s disease – speeding up during the exciting parts. Yeah – I admit it. I DO speed up consistently and repeatedly.
So, after watching the best take, I couldn’t tell if it was “good enough”, being probably wayyyy too close to the work, “is it ok?”
I asked a really fine player friend of mine who has gushed over the new album (“The Source”) to take a look at the video and give me a critical 2nd eye.
Trouble is, this person has not responded for days. I sent a little email nudge. Nothing, nada, zip, zelch.
Of course, the perfectionist paranoic in my says “It’s so terrible, an assessment cannot be made”.
But then, I’ve been playing this stuff for audiences for a while to pretty nearly unanimous praise, too.
But still, video, like recording, is different than live. What goes by during a live performance is heard/seen many times when recorded. I’ve heard it said that, “Recording is a close up magnifying mirror. Every blemish is amplified.”
So, because I handed my power of decision making to someone else, I’m stuck. This is just the reason that I got so lost in the middle of my music career: waiting on other folks to help me make it happen, waiting on other folks’ approval before taking a chance. Hmmm, I guess I’ve been here before…
What’s the solution? Ah, dig deep. These are dark fearsome shadows, to be sure. But it seems to me to be better for me if I take responsibility for my own work, my own actions, my own decisions.
I suppose that the lesson here is that, since I wasn’t sure about the work, it wasn’t ready, huh? I didn’t want to listen to my little voice telling me to keep working on it. So, I handed my power to some one else.
Back to re-play “Soul Art Dance” and get it right this time!
Stay tuned to youtube.com/magicbrook for some video – when it’s ready, when it’s played well enough.
Thanks universe for giving me another lesson…
peace,
/brook