Cleaning the Closet Reveals a Clever Classical Guitar Recording Tip

Hello, hello from inside the mirror! This is my attempt at a practice session selfie – using a dinosaur of a camera, no less. Notice the placement of the pillow, the height of the footstool and yes, indeed, those comfy tennies. This is my normal performance set up; albeit with a change of clothes and shoes.
It works.
However, in the recording studio, my beloved Dynarette pillow makes plastic-y squeaks during my playing as I tend to move a bit from time to time while I’m ‘in the moment’.
This is not a good thing.
Hardly noticeable by anyone on stage or off during a live performance, those squeaks wreak havoc to one’s ears while listening to playbacks of pieces played to perfection in the recording studio.
In my early attempts to silence those squeaks, I tried covering the plastic pillow with a cloth, but it only caused my guitar to slip and slide its way off its intended perch. Bottom line: getting rid of those squeaks meant getting rid of that Dynarette. But – how to replace its much needed function in the positioning of my guitar? Then I remembered an old trick: just hike up the footstool to its highest position. Once done, I quickly remembered why I had neatly forgotten that trick: it doesn’t do anything but complicate playability and crumple up one’s posture.
Back to square one.
Often when I am stumped, I’ll do something mindless, like say, clean house. So, I placed the Prisloe on its stand, turned around from the mirror, opened up our tiny clothes closet and began decluttering.
And what did I come across at first glance, but that pair of black patent leather shoes with the chunky 3 inch heels. That pair of shoes I hardly wear, but keep ‘just in case’.
Let me just say right here and right now, I have never ever been a high-heel type of gal. Especially the tall, pointy-sharp kind.  Wedgies, yes.  Pumps, yes.  And sometimes in an extreme circumstance, ones with chunky 3 inch heels. I’m not the most graceful lady on the planet and even less so while bumble-walking wearing skyscraper footwear.
Here in the South, that’s sacrilegious – Meh! – I’ve always been more of an Earth Shoe Mama.


But here’s the thing: I got this wild idea to slip on that left foot black patent leather 3 inch chunky heeled shoe and try it on for size in tandem with my footstool.
Problem solved!
 
 

 How’s that for a clever classical guitar recording tip?

note: yep, I’m headed back into the recording studio for a brief session to resume work on my SwS project and Puffin Grant fulfillment…