Clients Make My Day

I understand when someone chooses to work with me that I am hired to bring what I do, what I am passionate about, to the table and transform the experience of my client. But my lovely clients so often share some bit of knowledge or passion with me and transform my experience too. This week I was working in a recording studio space, where my client and I organized and inventoried a whole lot of music equipment, and then I designed customized storage solutions for all of it that a carpenter would later build. After a long day of grouping like with like and measuring and labeling, we finally finished. I was packed up and heading towards the door, when my client told me to have a seat at the mixing board, centered between two large speakers, and began to play classical chamber music songs for me. We quietly listened, while I looked out the window at the clouds in the sky. Here and there my client explained how the sound was recorded, pointing out which instruments were "forward" in the mix and which were "behind." He also told me about how you might hear a particular instrument in the right speaker because that player was actually standing on the right side of the room while recording. I got a very good sense of how a recording session can be set up and handled and how to pick it all out in a song. I can take this new understanding with me and apply it anytime I am listening to music in the future. I remember thinking "This is a really nice and special day." I am grateful to that client for sharing what they love with me.