Making a Recording—Part 1

The Decision Making Process

When it became a reality that I was given the rare opportunity to record a piano CD, I had a lot of decisions to make. What songs should I record? Where should I record? Should I record just piano, or should it be piano and orchestra? If I used orchestra, who would orchestrate the songs? Now, you have to understand something about me. It is difficult for me to make decisions. In fact, I’m not sure of the scientific validity of this, but it seems that my brain begins to seize up with the more options I’m given. My wife doesn’t enjoy making decisions either, so it has become a source of humor in our family. (You should see us at a fast food drive through window!) It became obvious that a project of this undertaking would require a lot of prayer and advice from colleagues and friends who were familiar with the process.

Helpful to the decision making process was the fact that my church family was very supportive of my talents. I have often heard someone say “I would love to have a CD of your piano playing.” So I knew that whatever music was on this project, it would have to be a sampling of what I do on a regular basis in our church. I viewed it as an opportunity to—in a sense—extend the work of the church to people’s homes and cars. My desire is that the music in the church emphasize the message; either the message of the song, or the message preached by our pastor.

Beginning the song selection process was one of the most difficult aspects of the project. I didn’t have an arsenal of songs waiting to be recorded. In fact, I had written very little for piano in the past, and what I had written I wasn’t very pleased with. (That’s one of the joys of composing and arranging: After you set it down for awhile—days, months, or years—when you return to it, you usually see several changes and adjustments that you would make. I suppose that is evidence that we are continually growing in our skill. Still, some of my earlier songs make me groan when I see them!) I decided to keep two from my college days (“I Sing the Mighty Power of God”, with some major changes, and “My Redeemer”). Then I just began arranging songs, one by one. I would usually spend an evening hammering out a song. Songs that “came quickly” to me I was able to write in a few hours. Other songs took a few evenings to finish. I asked my wife what song she wanted on the project, and she said “Day by Day” (track 5). I dedicated “Our Great Savior” (track 3) to my son, because the mood (joyful and flamboyant) fit him well. In addition, I dedicated “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” (track 4) to my daughter, because the mood (tenderly and precious) also fit her well.

I then decided that I wanted to have some instrumentation. Since I have very little experience with this, I asked an orchestrator to be involved in the process. After viewing some of my arrangements, he suggested I consider having a few of the songs fully orchestrated, as they seemed to lend themselves well to full instrumentation. Easily persuaded, I agreed. But I still wanted to maintain quite a bit of variety; the goal was to have a few solo piano tracks, a few tracks with an instrumental obbligato, a few tracks with instrumental ensembles, and a few tracks with full orchestra. Hand in glove with this decision was the decision to record in Indianapolis at Aire Borne Studios. My orchestrator was familiar with their personnel, and had worked extensively with them in the past. The project was beginning to take shape.

Related posts:

1. Making a Recording—Part 2
2. Making a Recording—Part 3
3. Wondrous Love
4. Wondrous Love CD
5. Download “Wondrous Love” Today!