Recording Class...and Classes in General

I've missed the last three recording classes and I felt guilty about that.

Last night I stopped feeling guilty. I also decided that, though there's two more recording classes left, I'm probably not going to them.

What seemed like a folksie pilgrimage to the wise mountain of R seven weeks ago now seems like a monumental waste of time and money. Maybe I'm just impatient and in a bad mood because I'm busy. Maybe I'm PMSing (hard to tell these days when that's going on). But last night was torture.

I'll point out that I arrived to class in a REALLY good mood and looking forward to it. So I was set up for goodness.

I arrived at the prescribed start time of class, 7pm. One of R's clients was there. It wasn't explained to us why. Turns out there was no reason. He chatted at us for a while and left. He also managed to act like his music was art and everyone else was just in it for the money. This, ironic, since he makes his living playing music. R and I had a sidebar about this ironic attitude later.

Anyway, there was general chatting...and at about 8:20pm (yes, that's almost an hour and a half into a two hour class) R actually cued something up on the computer for us to look at. It's not clear to me what he was trying to get across with this as he didn't explain. It was a recording of the guy we'd just met. Acoustic guitar and vocal with additional vocals and bass overdubbed. He talked a bit about how, when there's 5 mics in a room, that the waves will cancel or add sometimes, and that part of mixing is correcting for this. He also showed us some plugins...which he's showed us before. He talked about moving things to buses...which he's showed us before...and explained how bouncing is difference than moving things to buses. At 9:10pm (class is supposed to end at 9pm) myself and another student got up and said we had to go home.

I did get a free copy of some mixing software. And one of the other students gave us a packet of tips for correcting live sound problems (he's an electrical engineer and works at a theatrical tech company).

I've long known that I am a poor student. I do much better teaching things to myself than taking lessons or classes. I get impatient and irritated and bored in classes/lessons. I've had this problem in the bass class too...but it has waxed and waned in the bass class. The recording class seems to be deteriorating. He repeats his same opinions over and over...digresses into stories that have nothing to do with recording or even music sometimes. He starts late and runs over. His studio smells bad and is uncomfortable. I do think that he has tons of wisdom, but he hasn't organized the class in any fashion, which ends up wasting lots of time.

I wish that I was able to be more patient and just soak it all in...but right now it's hard to do that. If I'm going to waste my time, I'd rather do it at home in front of the tv where I can relax. Being an introvert, I need time alone to recharge. I'm around people ALOT lately...so if I'm not getting a benefit from all that time around other people...I'd rather bail. I feel bad that I spent $170 on this class...but I feel like I did get something out of it the first few weeks...and then there's the software too.

I think that surviving a year of drum lessons made me think that I was ready to take classes, but I think what it really means is that 1) I've been really committed to the drums and 2) EN has just the right approach for me. His personality is just right for me and he has a good balance of structure and flexibility.

I should think twice before I take another class. A couple of hours at home with a $12 instructional book (which I already own for the most part) would do me just as well or better once a week. I just have to hold myself to the discipline of it. Then, at least, if I can't keep it up I've only myself to blame and I don't have to be mad and frustrated by a disorganized or annoying instructor.