The value of Learning from Your Mistakes in the Recording Industry By Jeff McQuilkin
I’m the kind of person who likes to know everything I could about a thing prior to trying it. Books, articles, Internet and videos are a few of my major sources when it comes to knowing it. I really do this because I really don’t wish to screw up things. But when it comes to the recording industry, you undoubtedly can appreciate the value in making mistakes if you realise from those with the trying and the failing.
There would be some instances whereby I am contacted to write or record something but around I like to study it out, it could be an expense to create a professional recording studio and little time for library or the internet. I had to dive into a project and decipher it out for myself, possibly getting hints starting from a help manual along the route. In the recording industry this, I found out a few things about myself:
1. I discovered I could figure things out easier than I thought. You could really get satisfied by the way he or she is learning for I gained knowledge and skills as well. Money was never involved however, much sweat was worthwhile.
2. I also realized that I learned more from my mistakes when compared to the successes I did. Trial and error, or by process elimination or with the what nots in certain situations were my techniques in learning. Initially, it stung to know that I’d blundered. However I choose to learn from the experience and forget in regards to the discouragement for I realize that all these are going to be my gain. Money can be involve in my mistakes at some point (lower than the tuition surely), yet time costs more.
The idea I’m making in this could be that the best knowledge bank you have emanates from knowledge that you have owned-knowledge that is from experience. We learn best when we take personal responsibility for our education rather than leaving it to some educational program. This is true if you are being mentored, are attending school, or are self-taught. Taking a look at it this way, the mistakes you’re making when learning recording are of great value, given that they teach you just as much as what you do right-if not more.
Anymore than traditional schooling is, the mentor-apprentice program isn’t any foolproof. If you’re a fool (i.e., if you won’t learn from your mistakes), each method will fail you. But don’t be afraid to try and fail. Some of the greatest successes in the recording industry encountered miserable failures early on. All learned from the errors they did.
