Finding The Silver Lining In Failure: How To Learn From Mistakes In Audio Recording

From the first time I ever recorded audio so many years ago onto a cassette tape in the early 90’s, there have been many times I’ve played back something I’ve said and thought “I wish I had said that differently.” In those early attempts at hearing my voice and air guitar wails while impersonating Bruce Springsteen, I took my first steps toward what would, in my early twenties, become an obsession: recording the ultimate version of what a song is to me. 

Our story starts in a humble time and place: in my parents’ basement in La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA, on a tape recorder held by my sister, Elizabeth. Although I didn’t know how to play any instruments or read sheet music and was, in fact, about 3 years old, I could record what was in my mind music. In part, this was due to the technology of the day and, also, a little bit of ingenuity on the part of my sister and I.

Over the years after into my childhood, I did my share of musical exploration in terms of playing the violin and trumpet, but that experience doesn’t stand out in my mind as the basis for how I record music. The basis for how I record has always been on the crux of technology. Whether recording in Audacity in its early form on a PC built by a friend in my teen years or, later, using sequencers, samplers, synthesizers, and drum machines to record in Ableton Live, technology of the day has always shaped how I go about recording audio.

I’ve never really given a concert or performed in a live setting for people, so I’ve always had the benefit of hindsight that exists in the recording process. Still, I’ve made my fair share of mistakes when it comes to music. From giving DJ mixes original sounding names and not including credit for the artists whose work I was using, to, later, forgetting to edit out breaths in my vocal takes, to mixing a recorded vocal over and over again and releasing it each time (before subsequently taking each mixed version down to re-do it), the amount of times I’ve made mistakes while recording is innumerable.

It’s by learning from these mistakes and trying to correct them that I’ve evolved my technique in audio recording over time. This evolutionary process is what has given me the style of sound I have today. It’s through mistakes that I’ve been able to learn what works with music. It isn’t by some accident or process of learning that has mainly created who I am as an artist or as a content creator. Sure, learning from others online, in school, and from private guitar lessons has certainly helped me progress as a musician from a technical standpoint. However, it’s by not being afraid to make mistakes that I’ve developed the techniques that I use in my recordings and style of music I make. In addition, by learning from others, I’ve learned to correct the musical mistakes I’ve made in the past.

This is true in music and in other areas of my life, such as recording videos for YouTube, graphic design, and writing. There are certainly times where there is little or no room for error, such as when driving. It’s best to have a good understanding of how to operate a vehicle before driving around town or, especially, on a highway. Making mistakes when driving can have detrimental and very serious life and death consequences. But, small mistakes shouldn’t prevent us from driving. Imagine if you gave up on driving because you once forgot to disengage your parking brake while backing out of a driveway once. This wouldn’t make sense. Similarly, recording a song that is based on the chromatic scale, and not any other scale, is a mistake, but one that lets us know that we have room to grow, things to improve. It doesn’t mean we should give up on music altogether. 

If you’re passionate about learning about how to make music, it’s best to learn from others the things they know about it. This is a basic concept that is universally accepted. That isn’t to say anything negative about learning from others or to take away from it. However, learning from experience is what has had the greatest impact on me. Other people are, sometimes, part of that experience, but what’s changed in terms of how I record music has, over and over again, been how I correct for the mistakes I’ve made in the past.

If there’s one thing you take away from this, I hope to instill in you, the reader, that mistakes aren’t reasons to quit. Failure is the ultimate lesson life gives us. It’s through a process of repeated failure that human beings have handed down, over generations, the wisdom it takes to get by and, ultimately, to succeed in life. It’s through failing over and over again that I’ve learned what it takes to be successful; Not that I have succeeded myself, but I see what the goal is with myself, my music, and my content. I see how explaining what it is like to be me is the ultimate goal of my self expression. I see how art speaks in ways words can’t. And, I see how making money from the work I do can be a step towards building the life I want and succeeding. 

The goals we have have been achieved by others before us. By learning what has worked for others, we can learn what works for us. From my first time recording onto tape to today, I’ve learned from others, and from life, how to create. It’s from failing over and over again that I know what it means to succeed. Perhaps this text will give you insight into what it means to be me, and will teach you, in a small (but important) way, how to avoid the mistakes I made, and how to improve in what you do over time.