About ten years ago I had an idea to record some Christmas carols, put them on a CD and give it to family and friends. At the time I was recording music for my students and had a standing recording session every Monday evening in John Campbell's recording studio, "Studio C", so I needed to slip this into the schedule. The hard part was that I had this idea during Thanksgiving weekend which meant that I only had three weeks to select, arrange, practice, record, have John do some post-production work, and manufacture the copies. So I kept the arrangements very simple and we were able to get seven songs recorded. Nothing very fancy but it was a gift from the heart.
During the process I have to listen to everything about a gazillion times and so I'm usually pretty sick of it by the time the project is completed. Because the arrangements were so simple I felt like I had cheated and I even apologized to some of my friends as I handed them the CD. However their response was a little unexpected. They honestly liked it. Most of them played in on Christmas day and a couple of them even put in on continuous play. The only complaint was that it was too short.
I had some other things that I had to get done, so I moved on. But the following Christmas I gave away a few more copies but I eliminated the apology. The response was the same level of enthusiasm. So I decided that I should revisit the project and give myself a proper amount of time to do it properly.
Although I my initial impulse was to do some proper, intricate arrangements, I decided to keep it simple. That's what everyone seemed to like so there was no need to muddy the waters. Besides, the simple arrangements were easier to do and I was less likely to make mistakes during the recording. But listening to the playback a gazillion times did absolutely nothing to endear these songs to me. In fact it was more like "endure". The more I had to listen to them the less I liked them.
I released the CD "Gentle Carols" in time for Christmas 2010. My friends and students bought them and the feedback was more than positive. One friend bought 26 copies to give as gifts that year. Another bought 12 for the same reason. There were other people who bought multiple copies too. For the first time in a long time I felt like this was a very successful project.
Fewer copies sold the next year and fewer still in 2012. But that's to be expected. It was then that I decided to stop manufacturing and just rely on downloads and streams. That is the way most people experience music today, although there are a few folks that would still prefer to purchase a physical CD.
This year I finally revisited Gentle Carols and listened to it fully for the first time in five years. I actually liked it. It's probably one of the first projects of mine that I really like. I'm very critical of my own work. But this unpretentious little project is redefining my style in ways that I hadn't expected. Simple arrangements played directly and honestly. Not for concerts, where razzle-dazzle rules, but perfect for the weddings that I play. I'm still learning how to do this....