It's Quicker with Experience

Hey Guys,

Coming back at you from Graceland, Ontario, this week’s article is in some ways the opposite of last week’s article, but both are essential to your success. Last week, I talked about having a standard and going over something until it reached that standard, however long it took. An example of this being the 31 takes it took Elvis to record the single version of “Hound Dog”. Though it might be empowering to think that you are good enough to have a standard, it’s daunting to constantly be going over things, proofreading for the rest of your life instead of enjoying the exciting, creative part of your work.

This is the second part of this lesson. Like the previous one, it seems simple but people too often overlook it to escape short term pain. They worry that they will always be on the wire and instead they start letting things go, dropping their standard. And they become inferior.

In 1959, three years after “Hound Dog” was recorded, Elvis went into the studio to record “Big Hunk O’ Love”. Elvis was still in the army but these recording sessions during his leave were his way of staying in the record-buying public’s radar while he was in army fatigues. The final take of the song is full of rock ‘n’ rolling energy. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks. It was a big hit.

And how long do you think it took Elvis to record? Considering the amount of time he put into “Hound Dog”, was it 40 takes? 50 takes? 100 takes!?

Nope.

It took Elvis four takes. The final recording was a splicing of the third and four takes. And though perhaps not as iconic as “Hound Dog”, it did well. It did very well.

Then, years later, in 1968 during his comeback from the movies to the music industry, Elvis walked into the recording studio with a different track; an older, more mature Elvis with larger sideboards went in with a different track. Elvis sang the song that changed his mind about music, his comments being that, “I'm never going to sing another song I don't believe in”.

Francis K. Green, a reviewer of Elvis’s ’68 TV Special, mentioned Elvis’s “…three unflagging takes of "If I can Dream"". The song that changed Elvis’s mind about the music he would sing for the rest of his career was done in three takes. Impressive.

Even “Suspicious Minds”, possibly Elvis’s most well know single of the sixties was recorded in six takes. Not 31, six. Both “Hound Dog” and “Suspicious Minds” are examples of Elvis’s best music but the recording he did all those years later took so much less time than the earlier one.

So, what am I saying? Elvis had to put a lot less effort to achieve the standard he wanted later in his career than earlier on. Sure, people will say that technology played a part in this, and it’s true. But Elvis recorded “Big Hunk O’ Love” only three years after “Hound Dog”, not much time for technological innovation to take root. And he recorded the former track in 27 less takes.

Experience does count for something, even in the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s case. The more he practiced recording in a studio, the less effort it took to achieve the same results. And boy, could Elvis create results.

So, are you going to give up on your dreams because of the amount of time it takes to enjoy them at the moment? Hell no, because you know that it’s getting better. It’s getting better all the time and the more you do it, the easier it gets.

Elvis’s Lessons:

Ø After years of practice, life gets easier (or at least work gets done quicker). Experience does count for something. Take it from Elvis.

P.S. If you're interesting in hearing the original recording of "Big Hunk O' Love", here's a link to it on Youtube.