RECORDING YOUR MUSIC!
Part 1: Why record?

By Eric Tunison, Owner of Groove Tunes Studios - www.groovetunes.com

This is the first of five articles in the series 'Recording Your Music!'. In this installment we will discuss some reasons why you should consider recording your music. - ET

Demonstrate!

Every performing musician looks for effective ways to market themselves. If you are actively seeking gigging venues around town you need a calling card. You need to sell yourself to club owners and show them how great you are. They're going to want to meet you, but they're not going to ask you for a live audition. They're going to ask you for a demo CD. Yep, your best chance to land that gig is to have a killer sounding demo CD ready to give out the instant someone asks for it. And if you've recorded your demo at a professional recording studio you'll have a huge competitive edge over 95% of the competition who bring in amateurish mixes created in their cousin's bedroom. If you're serious about selling yourself, you will need a professionally recorded demo.

If it wasn't recorded, it never existed.

Even if you don't plan to gig out there are other reasons why you should record your music. For one, your music and your sound is your legacy. Hey, you're not going to live forever. A recording is a 'record' of your talent. It's a living and timeless document of who you are and what you did. Consider if Jim Morrison or Jimi Hendrix hadn't recorded their works when they were in their early twenties. Nobody except their family and a few friends would remember them today. What if a would-be author never bothered to write down his thoughts? What if a visually creative artist never purchased a camera, or a paint brush and easel? Recorded sound is the legacy of all musicians. Without a recording your musical existence is only hearsay. It's like it never existed.

You owe it to yourself!

Recordings that are produced professionally can make you sound amazing, as good as you've ever sounded. Your professional recording is something to be proud of, something that you will want to show off and give to loved ones. And if you're really good, your recordings can lead to financial gain. The only downsides to recording are the time and cost it takes to do it. But compared to all the time and treasure you expend during your lifetime perfecting your craft and buying your instruments, the cost of a professional recording is a very, very small investment, and one that can reap emotional - if not financial  -rewards.

In the next article we will examine how to prepare for your recording session. - ET