Every Obstacle I Hit While Recording Was Solvable. So, Why Did I Want to Quit?

Recently, while recording a song, my first real recording experience since getting back into songwriting, I encountered multiple obstacles: I’d been neglecting my guitar playing, and developing lead guitar ideas was frustrating. I had not played bass guitar in years, and it showed. I had not sung in years, and that showed, too. Then I hit an obstacle with REAPER-I hated the way it managed takes. The stacked take lanes were cluttering the project, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between tracks and takes. I fumbled through, got to the mixing stage, and realized the vocals were off-pitch, the bassline was too busy, and the drum groove was all wrong. I sent the mix to a musician friend who confirmed my suspicions about the vocals but said the rest of the song sounded fine. After a failed attempt to re-record the vocals, I went into a tailspin.

My first thought was to scrap the whole project. Instead, I put the project aside for a few days to cool off. During those few days, the frustration grew. Thoughts filled my head. I need to ditch REAPER. I can’t deal with the take system. I need to reprogram the drums. I need to re-record the bass. I need to change the guitar tuning (maybe if I tune to Eb or D standard, I’ll be able to sing the song). The guitar tones are all wrong. I was going for a 70s rock vibe, and I should have used my SG and a Plexi tone. The Vox tone with the Reverend guitar was all wrong.

Eventually, I realized that while the list of problems seemed overwhelming, individually, each was solvable. If I quit or abandon this project for another, the same problems would surface again. If I didn’t solve them with this song, what’s going to happen with the next song? I’m still going to be frustrated with leads, bass, vocals, and managing takes. So I made a plan: prioritize guitar playing, allow myself more time for recording bass, use EZdrummer’s Bandmate feature when choosing drum grooves, and develop a strategy to better manage takes in REAPER.

The lesson here (at least for me) is that obstacles will happen. I need to expect them and work through them. Yes, it’s frustrating, but I know the outcome is worth it, and I also know that not pushing through, not creating, and not releasing music will lead to even greater frustration. To quote the Roman Emperor and Stoic Marcus Aurelius, “the impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”