How I arrived at the recording studio

I hinted in my last post that I'd write a little about what happened prior to recording last week.  As you might guess, a lot of the preparation (not counting practising) was done long before April 30.  Two pieces that will be on the CD are from a book I purchased nearly 25 years ago.  Another pair of carols are in a book bought only in February of this year.  The others fall somewhere in between those extremes and more than one book was what I call a 'fluke' purchase - a book I wasn't specifically looking for at the time, but stumbled across and bought on a bit of a whim.  Two of my books were on a clearance table in Feb. 2011 for, if I recall correctly, 70% off so might have cost me $5 each!

Narrowing down my choices was much more difficult than I thought it would be.  There are so many good carols out there, and many good arrangers too - where to draw the line?  I tried very hard to keep a balance between well-known songs and lesser known ones.  Carols seem to fall into the 'mellow' category too (or is that just my bias showing?) and I wasn't trying to make a CD to put listeners to sleep, so I had to be careful to balance mood and tempo as well.  I made a list of possibilities, then narrowed it down until I was fairly happy with my choices.  Then came the challenge of deciding on an order for the tracks.

Advent selections came first - just makes sense to me to 'prepare' before I 'celebrate'.  That wasn't too difficult as there are fewer of them.  But putting the Christmas carols in order - well, that was more time consuming.  When I had a first draft, I went to the piano, played all the arrangements in order, and wrote down the key each song began in and ended in.  When I finished and looked at my list I was overwhelmed with how well one followed another!  I truly had the sense that the Holy Spirit was leading me in the creation of this project.

The actual recording is completed now and pictures will soon follow.  I'll also write a little about the whole studio experience - a new one for me; my first CD was recorded at home.