Spent the day in a sound studio with four other students of my voice coach. With a pianist (our voice coach) and bassist to provide accompaniments, we each rehearsed and tweaked arrangements as necessary. As always when in a group setting, I find watching others’ processes amazingly interesting. On my turn, we ran through Elvis Costello’s “Almost Blue.” I think it’s a brilliant, thoughtful song, filled with longing, and hope.

After a quick lunch (no dairy, despite the cafe owner tempting me with the “best latte in Vancouver!” – the man was full of superlatives) we stepped in turn into the sound booth to record the tracks. None were uneventful, with each track undergoing further changes, some more frustrating to achieve than others. In the end, there were great tracks from all of the performers.

My part of the session went relatively smoothly. My first move after entering the sound booth and putting on the headphones was to smile in wonder. Wonder that what I heard in the head phones was so rich and strong. Between takes we tweaked the music, just a little bit, for more vocal emphasis in spots, and I made a couple of small changes vocally at the top and bottom of the piece.

In the end, I’m pleased with the results.