"I'm currently a junior in high school, and I have a lot of interest in recording and how a studio and the equipment in a studio works — I'd even like to open my own studio one day. There's only one problem: I'm totally lost. I would like to take classes in college, if I can find a college that offers a sound engineering course, but my major problem is I really have no experience in recording. I just don't have the money to even buy simple equipment to start with. My major fear is that if I get into a college that offers the classes I'm looking for, I'm going to be totally lost while the rest of the students in class know more than me because they've had more experience than me. Can you maybe give me some pointers on where to start?" -Eric M.
All apologies to Eric M. above, but I get letters like the one above all the time. Sometimes they're far worse, with people who want someone else (me) to do all the thinking for them and tell them exactly what to do.
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently wrong with contacting folks and asking questions — the same as, 'there's no such thing as a stupid question' (but there are plenty of stupid answers). I learned many things on the way to building my own studio and career by asking others. The engineers I had worked with as a musician, people that sold used gear, friends that were building home studios — they all got questions for a while. But that wasn't my only way to learn.
Let's say you are just getting into the concept of recording music as a hobby and want to do a decent job of it. This is how I started — the idea of making ANY money at this sounded like science fiction.