Thoughts on recording

Just spent the weekend like nearly every weekend this year: rehearsing and performing. Then this afternoon, Myanna and I edited the first track to our new album. This was more fun than it used to be (Alfred Goodrich, our sound engineer at Silvertone Studios has become a good friend), but also led to some self-reflection. How can we make better use of our rehearsal time to lead to better recording takes? The first track, which I am sitting here in the dark listening to, sounds beautiful, but it was a thorny process to get there and I really want to figure out how to be more efficient next time. This happened with my first recording (The Russian Cello): I had a major re-assessment about what I needed to do to be a better recording artist after recording and editing the first track. Training and rehearsing as a performer is so much different than training and rehearsing to record. I think it's a different way of concentrating; you have to distill what makes a performance special (feeling the music, caring about each phrase, making each note come alive) and yet behind everything you play there has to be a consistency and the very deepest level of concentration. So: free and emotive playing with the highest discipline behind it. I love recording and it's almost addictive, but it's never easy.
Anyway, weekend officially over and on to rehearsing, practicing, publishing, teaching, and sleeping tomorrow (in that order!).