Lately I’ve been feeling an inordinate amount of stress before vocal sessions in the recording studio.  As a music producer, I have spent years in the NY studios producing thousands of sessions and producing vocal sessions is one of my fortes, so why this would now happen after all these years of experience was a mystery to me.

Yesterday when I woke up and knew I had a large, important and long session before me, as I lay in bed and tried to wake up, I realized that I was totally stressed out over the coming session.  I saw it as a recent pattern that I had developed and, quite frankly, did not like it.

Here I was, about to record one of my biggest songs on my new CD with three of the top studio singers in the world, doing something that I had done over and over again for the past 35 years and I felt stressed.  I should have felt excited and impatient to start, but really wished the whole thing would just go away.

I recognized the earmarks of stress.  I mentioned my misgivings to the Missus and her reply was something she had just read and learned from reading Eckart Tolle’s The New Earth. She quickly said, “Just accept it.  That’s what Eckart says.”

Since I’d read this amazing book 4-5 times, her comment registered profoundly to me.  Accept the fact that you have stress and then get busy handling it.  See it for what it is – a false sense of insecurity.  Look clearly at it.  Stop.  Take a moment.  Investigate it.  See how it is being manifested in your life.  Look and find the cause.  Eliminate the cause.

Eliminate the cause and you eliminate the effect.  So I lay there some more (luckily I had set my alarm several hours before the session was to begin).  In looking back over previous recent sessions, I remembered having the same feelings (though not to such a great degree) as I was now experiencing.

I realized that I had been rushing into sessions from an all too busy life not as well prepared as I normally had been.  If there’s anything I’ve learned in life, it’s that preparation is the cure-all for stress.  Most of the time when we feel stressed, it’s a pretty good indication that we’re simply ill-prepared.  Want to alleviate the stress?  Prepare better.

I’ve learned this lesson hundreds of times – or should I say I’ve had to learn this lesson hundreds of times – or perhaps I should say, “When will I ever learn?”  Duh.

I jumped out of bed, rushed through my shower, skipped breakfast and went immediately into the studio.  Rushing about, of course, only maximized the stress so that by the time I got into the studio I was really stressed out.

I had set up the studio for the session the night before, but had done it very late at night after a dinner party and had been tired and ornery at having to do so at such a late hour.  I started again.

I rechecked the mics, the headphones, the cabling, the preamps, the tracking, the headphone mix, the water for the singers, the number of open tracks, etc., etc.  I sat there until I was absolutely sure that I had thought of everything and that there was not a detail missed.  Then I checked it all again.  It took me an hour.

I had an hour left before the session was to start, so I decided to go over the musical arrangement and make sure I knew where everything was and that all the verses were marked and that I was totally clear about where to put everything and what was needed.  I opened up extra tracks just in case so I wouldn’t have to do it in the middle of a busy session while the singers stood around and waited.

I listened to the song again just to make sure that I hadn’t forgotten anything.  And in the middle of listening I realized that I was tapping my foot, totally involved with the music and as excited as hell about starting the session and getting it on.

No stress whatsoever – only enthusiastic excitement and anticipation about the entire creative process.

I now had a half hour before the singers were to arrive.  I ate a leisurely breakfast with the Missus feeling free.

The singers all arrived on time.  The song turned out to be a bear.  We all worked for 4 hours straight doing part after part, take after take.  No one even took a pee break.  The experience was intense, the session expensive, the work demanding.

I had a ball.  My dream of this song came to fruition.  The ladies blew me out with their abilities, interpretations and amazing voices.  When the session was over and everyone had left I sank down in my big chair with a big smile on my face – completely satisfied with the day.

Mission accomplished.  Lesson learned — at least until Monday morning when the three men come in to put their parts down.

But I’m looking forward to that.  We’re gonna have a ball.

You can bet I’ll be prepared.

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and information about Peter Link, please visit Watchfire Music.