<p>how would you actually prepare yourself to record an entire classical music album in one session?</p> <p>it’s been 10 years, but i still have the detailed, day-by-day practice schedule i used to prepare for the recording of my debut album, <em>delécluse: douze études for snare drum</em>. </p> <p>it was a funny time. it had been two years since winning my met opera audition, and i was kinda bored. i just got tenure in the orchestra and felt like i needed an audition-level project to sink my teeth into. </p> <p>(i <em>missed</em> auditioning. can you imagine?!)</p> <p>so i decided to prepare the entire book of 12 études like i was preparing for an audition.</p> <p>they were my best friend and my nemesis, all at once. they had been the cause of so many audition rejections. they are still the crazy-hardest snare drum pieces that have ever been written, and they’re on <em>every</em> percussion audition. </p> <p>but since i figured out how to play them, they became my strength in auditions. so i spent half a year practicing them. i showed up at the recording session, which lasted for 2 days, and i recorded the hell out of them.</p> <p>and after releasing them, i suddenly went from no-name section percussionist to a major international percussionist, known all over the world for conquering these études.</p> <p>i prepared in the exact same way i did for prescreening audition tape recording sessions. i used my successful audition preparation process to make sure they were as super-polished as humanly possible.</p> <p>and yes, you can absolutely steal this process and use it to record amazing, high-level prescreening audition tapes.</p> <p>so in today’s episode i want to walk you through the exact steps i used to prepare for this recording. i’ll go over:</p> <ul> <li>how i spent 6 months perfecting the 12 delécluse études,</li> <li>the special strategy i used in preparation, called “the magical shrinking self-recording workflow”,</li> <li>how preparation needs to be structured for a recording vs. a live audition, and</li> <li>my best tips and strategies to make a recording session go smoothly.</li> </ul> <p><br></p> <p>to learn the 5-step audition preparation process i used to win my met opera audition, download the audition cheat sheet at <a href="http://robknopper.com/auditioncheatsheet">robknopper.com/auditioncheatsheet</a></p> <p>listen to the album, delécluse: douze études for snare drum at <a href="http://robknopper.com/delecluse">robknopper.com/delecluse</a></p> <p>learn more about:</p> <ul> <li>how to learn notes using the ROAM method <a href="https://youtu.be/EcNZsN0MRtE">https://youtu.be/EcNZsN0MRtE</a></li> <li>how to self-record for auditions <a href="https://youtu.be/TU_GkUBzdJk">https://youtu.be/TU_GkUBzdJk</a><br></li> </ul> <p>Editing by Delia Black </p> <p>Theme Music: Log Cabin Blues by George Hamilton Green, performed by Rob Knopper (xylophone) and Howard Watkins (piano). Editing and mixing by Brandon Johnson. </p>