Recording - December 2009 - 64

(for a brass player) by recording some brass-quartet arrangements of wellknown Christmas carols. I kept adding a tune or two each year and by the time that tape recorder gave way to the hard drive, I had a happy holiday tradition on my hands. All the songs I’ve recorded since those initial carols have been my own arrangements and sometimes my own compositions as well. Over the years, these have slowly replaced the carols—by now I have a nice collection of seasonal tunes, all with my “own slant”. One of the nice things about this project is the forced deadline for completion. I get the CDs in the mail a good two weeks before Christmas to make sure they arrive on time. Having to meet this immovable due date endows this project with a certain focus that’s not always found in home recordings. For song selection, I limit my choices to all happy songs. There are certainly many well-known melancholy melodies that mark the holiday. Guest editorial by David Summer Creating a Holiday CD As I’m writing this, it’s a beautiful warm August day. The birds are singing and the deck still needs painting. Ebullient Christmas dreams should still be just a twinkle in my mind’s eye. So, why am I sitting here making myself think about treetops glistening and children listening? Because it’s time to get started on my annual holiday CD. A CD of your own holiday recordings would almost certainly be more appreciated than that purple tie, a 108-piece screwdriver set, or (dare I even mention But my take is to keep the CD upbeat. If you embark on a similar project you may, of course, season to your taste of the season. I add some homemade cover art to round out the project. This consists of pictures of the holiday decorations from around the house and a picture or two of me recording the CD. Every year, after carefully wrapping the decorated discs and waiting in line at the Post Office, I promise myself I’ll start earlier next time. And, well you know how those promises usually go. Friends and relatives have come to expect this annual audio holiday card. There was one year over the past ten when I failed to deliver, and— whether they were just being nice or not—people did say they missed it. Obviously not everyone celebrates Christmas. But many people do have some sort of celebration toward the end of the year. As I mentioned, One of the nice things about this project is the forced deadline for completion— this immovable due date endows this project with a certain focus. it?) the perpetual fruitcake. The CD will even cost less, in money that is. We all know how much time it takes to create a really good recording. However, unlike a “personally engraved” nail clipper, a CD of your own seasonal recordings is truly a personal gift. I force copies of mine on my friends and relatives each year. I don’t actually record a whole new CD’s worth of songs each year. Rather, I record one or two new songs and put these at the beginning of the CD. Then I reorder the tunes from years gone past. This results in something that sounds new and yet familiar at the same time, much like good holiday music should. I started this project over ten years ago with my trusty TASCAM Portastudio 4-track cassette machine. I started easyRECORDING DECEMBER 2009 you’ll want to season this project to your own taste. For me this is really a personal project; I never plan to attempt to sell any of these recordings. But having shared this much about it with you here, I’ll go a little further and offer one for listening. Since Christmas is my thing, I’ve posted an excerpt from my version of that old chestnut “The First Noel” on the Recording website. Although it’s clearly too late to start creating a CD for this year’s holiday season, think about starting a project like this yourself for next year. Just make sure to begin by the fall. From a recording point of view, it’s an interesting way to mark your progress and it’s also a nice way to add your personal touch to the season. Merry Recording! When he’s not writing articles, David Summer (summer@recordingmag.com) works as a web programmer, performing musician and music teacher. He also produces music education podcasts which can be found on his website at www.summersong.net.

http://www.summersong.net

Recording - December 2009

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