People often mistake what the art of recording music actually is. Learning how to choose and set up a microphone is simple. Gain structures should be obvious, once you learn the basics. Recording software is prevalent and the rudiments are easy to grasp. Hell, even tape deck calibration can be picked up in an afternoon. These are all basic skills one can learn in school or read about in books.
But I think the true art of day-to- day record making is being able to solve problems as they present themselves. Steve Albini mentioned this recently in Tape Op #87: "I'll have a way of getting through the problem." This is the real skill that we bring to recording sessions and we all have our unique ways of solving problems.
I recently had a string of days that made me reconsider this aspect of my work:
Tuesday: I was tracking an album's worth of drums (to pre- recorded metronome/vocals/guitar) during a one-day session. The drummer was prepared and competent, but one song just wasn't gelling. It seemed to me that if he heard the (missing) bass line, the song would come together for him. The solution was to grab the bassist, plug him into a DI and record him along with the drummer. The take came together right after that.