Calvin Harris discussed the process of recording the guitar for his new song - "Blessings". The musician posted a video demonstrating the process on his Instagram profile. Since he doesn't know how to play the guitar, he recorded each note separately.
Calvin Harris's song "Blessings," featuring British singer Clementine Douglas, was released as a single in early May 2025. It reached the Top 10 of the UK's Nationwide Music Chart, becoming Harris's 45th chart-topping work.
Two weeks after the release, Harris was accused of plagiarism. British musician Nicholas Bracegirdle, who performs under the pseudonym/artist-name Chicane, noted striking similarities to his 1996 track "Offshore". Harris denied the accusations and drew attention to the fact that "Offshore" track is reminiscent of Tangerine Dream's 1984 hit "Love on a Real Train".
Afterwards, Harris published a video showing his process for creating the memorable guitar part in "Blessings". In the video, Calvin Harris discusses how he came up with the idea to use the guitar, and he shows the process of recording and processing the audio.
According to Harris, he added the guitar to the arrangement after being influenced by the Grateful Dead, whose work he had become obsessed with in the summer of 2024. Impressed by the band's music, Harris purchased a treasured Martin acoustic guitar, noting that it had belonged to the previous owner. Meanwhile, Calvin bought a Music Man Stingray bass guitar that he never played.
The musician used three condenser microphones to record the guitar: one in front and two on the sides. One was placed in front of the guitar and the other two were placed on the sides to form a stereo pair.
In the published video, Calvin demonstrated exactly how the recording was done. The musician captured each note individually by playing only the rhythmic pattern. "You're probably thinking, 'This all sounds like shit.' And that it just can't be like that, can it?” - the performer commented sarcastically on the process.
I sat in this chair and, let's be honest, since I'm not a good guitarist by any means, I wrote down one note at a time.
— Calvin Harris, musician
Harris recorded the sounds on multiple tracks in Logic Pro for further processing. Calvin removed the unnecessary sounds and arranged them one after another, putting together a neat guitar part in the process. The resulting guitar riff was processed with a Valhalla VintageVerb reverb, a couple of EQs, and a Waves Smack Attack transient editor.
Harris's guitar recording methodology seems inefficient — the musician didn't enlist outside help and agonized over recording the guitar himself. Nevertheless, Calvin Harris achieved the desired result with his "rudimentary" playing skills and ability to edit audio.
Users joked about the recording method in the comments on the video. Several commentators noted that the result met all expectations — "Blessings" became a hit, and the exact method of recording the instruments doesn't matter. In the comments of the instagram post, famous American DJ Diplo noted - "playing one note pitching it everywhere and pretending you know how to play guitar is my trick".
What do you think? Does this approach have merit, or should Harris have hired a session guitarist? Let us know in the comments!
