Demo recordingJeff Oxenford has been blogging his experience recording demos for the first time. It’s very interesting first-hand experience and worth a read.

Jeff’s Songwriting Demo Experience - Parts 1 thru 5

Part 1 - Preparing a Demo: “Everywhere I turn, I keep hearing about the need to have a high quality demo CD. It finally took a voice from above to push me over the edge. When asking at church, how do I get involved with the music ministry, I was immediately told to submit a demo CD. Today I started working toward a demo.” (Full article)

Part 2 - Going Into The Studio “My bottom-line lesson from this is how important it is to practice with a metronome from day one (yes, I finally get it) or at least practice (a whole lot more) prior to getting into the studio.” (Full article)

Part 3 - Practice Rhythm More Than Chords: “In working on The Foundation Stands, its interesting that I can nail it in practice, but during recording I tend to speed up. While I hear that this is the most common problem, it’s still frustrating. Ben made an interesting comment from his teaching experience that guitar students need to focus as much on rhythm as the chords. The typical student focuses on trying to get the chord shapes and forgets about the rhythm. Playing solo guitar this doesn’t become an issue until you play with a band or get into the studio.” (Full article)

Part 4 - The Learning Process: “Back in the studio today. The first time, all the way through on time, with the guitar part for the Foundation Stands. I felt in good voice so we laid down the vocal track immediately. What was interesting was that the cut felt slow, and the vocals didn’t feel natural. In concentrating on keeping to the click track, the emotion of my guitar was missing.” (Full article)

Part 5 - Editing: “The story goes, I heard three spots in the demo that needed help and went to the studio to fix them. I practiced beforehand, tuned up, and expecting to play and go. Instead, I watched for an hour as Ben manipulated the file making me sound like I know what I’m doing. I never picked up the guitar.” (Full article)

If he posts more entries I’ll drop them in here with links to the full articles.