Members BumbleBb Posted June 28, 2012 Members Share Posted June 28, 2012 Would love some feedback on a WIP but I've never posted myself playing/singing online before and let's just say my playing and singing both leave something to be desired. Normally I finish a song usually in one sitting once I really get working on it so I don't usually have much that's actively in progress as far as writing goes. But I'm working on one right now that's pretty monotonous, but I'm having trouble finding a chorus or other sections that will work with what I have so far. I could leave them out but I think it would benefit from some variety. Basically, I want feedback but hesitant to share so publicly, especially with something that's not even complete. Well, if I can't come up with any ideas of my own, maybe I'll get up the nerve to post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Oswlek Posted June 28, 2012 Members Share Posted June 28, 2012 Go for it! Have you listened to my {censored}ty demos? Just use picosong.com. They aren't shared beyond who you want and you can delete them easily after they've served their purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Guit-mangler Posted June 28, 2012 Members Share Posted June 28, 2012 Would love some feedback on a WIP but I've never posted myself playing/singing online before and let's just say my playing and singing both leave something to be desired. Normally I finish a song usually in one sitting once I really get working on it so I don't usually have much that's actively in progress as far as writing goes. But I'm working on one right now that's pretty monotonous, but I'm having trouble finding a chorus or other sections that will work with what I have so far. I could leave them out but I think it would benefit from some variety. Basically, I want feedback but hesitant to share so publicly, especially with something that's not even complete. Well, if I can't come up with any ideas of my own, maybe I'll get up the nerve to post. Go for it, you'll find that there's alot of people with good insight for advice. The others can line up and kiss an ass, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BumbleBb Posted June 28, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 28, 2012 Thanks guys. Maybe... I'll check out the picosong too. Oswlek, I listened to one of yours just now, Sunlight. Very nice. Yeah, my singing/playing is far inferior, and especially so on the song I have in mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Canvas Posted June 29, 2012 Members Share Posted June 29, 2012 Don't worry about it. Frankly whenever I see a website such as this one, I'm always startled by the "constructive criticism only" policy. I've been around artistic critique forums for a while now and I've never seen anyone decide to be truly destructive. I know that personally, when I have nothing useful to say, I usually just say nothing. Now you know what I'm thinking if I don't reply if you post some music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BumbleBb Posted June 29, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 29, 2012 Don't worry about it. Frankly whenever I see a website such as this one, I'm always startled by the "constructive criticism only" policy. I've been around artistic critique forums for a while now and I've never seen anyone decide to be truly destructive. I know that personally, when I have nothing useful to say, I usually just say nothing. Now you know what I'm thinking if I don't reply if you post some music Oh no, now you got me paranoid! If no one replies, I'll know exactly what they're thinking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Canvas Posted June 29, 2012 Members Share Posted June 29, 2012 No, don't worry, I jinxed it and that won't happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members espec10001 Posted June 29, 2012 Members Share Posted June 29, 2012 If you aren't comfortable being critiqued yet then keep practicing until you are. Make songs you are proud of. You can do it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nice keetee Posted June 29, 2012 Members Share Posted June 29, 2012 Would love some feedback on a WIP but I've never posted myself playing/singing online before and let's just say my playing and singing both leave something to be desired. Normally I finish a song usually in one sitting once I really get working on it so I don't usually have much that's actively in progress as far as writing goes. But I'm working on one right now that's pretty monotonous, but I'm having trouble finding a chorus or other sections that will work with what I have so far. I could leave them out but I think it would benefit from some variety. Basically, I want feedback but hesitant to share so publicly, especially with something that's not even complete. Well, if I can't come up with any ideas of my own, maybe I'll get up the nerve to post. just post your ideas and be done with it, don't be so shy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BumbleBb Posted June 29, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 29, 2012 Good advice, Espec. I have to be comfortable with it, you're right. I am proud of my songs. My singing and playing is a different story though. I work on it but I had a very late start with both things so I'm not well-developed in either area right now. Thanks Nice Keetee and Canvas. I'm going to mess around with it a bit more and see if I get it sorted out on my own or not. Maybe will post after that. Or maybe not. Like Espect said, I guess it's good to sure first if I'm ready for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HoboSage Posted June 29, 2012 Members Share Posted June 29, 2012 Hey, if you're going to bomb, bombing anonymously online is the way to do it. Record and post, and if it sucks and you get blasted for it to the point where it crushes your fragile senisiblities, you can always re-register under a different name and start over again with the next tune. Of course, I say that tounge-n-cheek. The truth is, "the only thing you have to fear is fear itself," and your fear is one shared by most, but is seldom an actual impediment. If this were about actual stage fright, one way to diffuse it's power is to simply tell the audience you're nervous, and the audience will understand and be rooting for you. Well, you've now done that here an have told us how insecure you are about your work. We understand. We support your efforts whatever they are. ' You're among friends. Now, post something ya big WUSS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted June 29, 2012 Members Share Posted June 29, 2012 Don't worry about it. Frankly whenever I see a website such as this one, I'm always startled by the "constructive criticism only" policy. I've been around artistic critique forums for a while now and I've never seen anyone decide to be truly destructive. I know that personally, when I have nothing useful to say, I usually just say nothing. Now you know what I'm thinking if I don't reply if you post some music Hi, Canvas! I'm the forum mod, here. By no means, do we define 'constructive criticism' as meaning that one can't be quite critical. After all, if our songs were all perfect already, we could go straight out to start selling ourselves to the general public instead of doing the hard work of trying to refine and improve our works in progress and out own craft going forward. Where we do draw the line is short of being gratuitously insulting to others or just spitting out that one hates something. It's perfectly OK to hate someone's effort -- but just telling them that does not do anything to help them improve it. If you can tell the artist some off what doesn't work for you with a given work, then they have a chance of addressing those possible failings.* Of course, the appreciation of art is entirely subjective, as well, so it's crucial for everyone participating in such efforts to understand that what they like is not necessarily what everyone likes. This is a common sense truism that seems so obvious as to be unnecessary to express -- yet, over and over, in such discussions we run into a minority of individuals who believe that there is only one valid aesthetic -- theirs, which they feel is not just objectively superior to that of everyone else, but objectively superior in a way that is universally obvious. Such terminally solipsism-bound types can be extremely difficult to deal with, since they already KNOW they are right and everyone who doesn't agree with them is wrong, but happily they are a minority and, the crux of the situation, since they already KNOW they know, they quickly become frustrated in a social situation where their point of view must compete with others. And that's probably a big part of why such folks are not much of a problem in this forum. * All that said, it can't be overemphasized that we are all different and the Golden Rule, I think, must be approached with enough flexibility to allow one to see that each person's response to a given situation is potentially very different. When I was a headstrong, and almost terminally self-involved youth, I took the do unto others thing with painful literalness, assuming that if I could handle some difficult emotional challenge or some 'insightful' personal comment, then anyone else should be able to, as well. I was, well, a bit of an ass. I've known some extremely accomplished and talented musicians who could play and write circles around me who were, nonetheless, extremely sensitive to negative criticism. One of my good friends stopped writing for a couple of months because, while I was heaping praise on his latest song as one of the best songs I'd heard from any of my writer friends in a very, very long time, I mentioned one word, a preposition, I thought should substitute for a different preposition. One word. And he stopped writing for months. Now, was my pal being oversensitive? Hell, yes. (And he later told me he agreed with me and changed that one, two letter word for the other two letter word.) But the thing is, that he is a hell of a writer and, oversensitive or not, it KILLED me to think that I had inadvertently discouraged him, even if I'd done nothing wrong whatsoever. Even if I crush a beautiful flower by accident... it's still one less beautiful flower... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted June 29, 2012 Members Share Posted June 29, 2012 Good advice, Espec. I have to be comfortable with it, you're right. I am proud of my songs. My singing and playing is a different story though. I work on it but I had a very late start with both things so I'm not well-developed in either area right now. Thanks Nice Keetee and Canvas. I'm going to mess around with it a bit more and see if I get it sorted out on my own or not. Maybe will post after that. Or maybe not. Like Espect said, I guess it's good to sure first if I'm ready for it. While there are the occasional 'naturals' who just hit the ground running like a champion, most of us start out very slowly, with many imperfections and frustrations. Even naturals can have trouble at various points along the way (particularly toward the fringes of their native abilities). But for every prodigy who wrote his first hit song at 3 and had his first gold record at 7, there are millions of us who came late to the game, or who struggled with various limitations. I wanted desperately as a little kid to play music; my old man was a decent keyboardist but it looked like the 'musical talent-gene' had skipped my generation -- at least to a couple of music pedagogues who told me [or rather my parents] that I had "absolutely no musical talent whatsoever." I kept failing as a kid, but, a couple years into college, frustrated because being a cool, academic poet (in my mind) didn't seem nearly as glamorous to me as it once had and jealous of the other hippie students playing guitars under trees out on the college quad, I somehow managed to persevere through several months of ploddingly playing the same two chords over and over until they somehow sounded vaguely like music to me. I actually had learned 6 or 8 chords when I was 13 and saved for most of a year to buy a crappy, almost unplayable guitar [same one I managed to 'master' when I was 20 -- but my hands were bigger], but my roommate at the time -- who was a super accomplished player -- told me to concentrate on two -- he could see that my problem was basically not 'hearing' the rhythm so he figured if I just got better at repositioning my fingers between those two chords [we decided on Em and A7 since they were easy to get back and forth between and were the two chords in the long solo sections on Neil Young's "Down by the River" which was one of my faves. Bottom line, my limitations made the first few months all work with virtually no sense of reward but, one day, suddenly, I thought I heard a hint of music in my playing. And, from there, slowly it got easier. But it was never easy for me and still isn't. Yet I'm a far better musician than I EVER thought I would be, even after I'd been playing for a few years. And that's mostly because I kept on doing it. Sure, there were plenty of times along the way when I would listen to something I'd managed to record and thought, Oh, lordee, this is so awful. But it was still better than before, better than not doing anything, just standing on the outside of music, looking in. Persevere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BumbleBb Posted June 30, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 30, 2012 I guess for me my insecurity is rooted in the fact my having started to learn music only recently in midlife. I can't sing in tune and my playing is very beginner. So, it's not the songs I write that I'm insecure about but my presentation, especially among people who've played/sang for years and decades. I envy that history that so many have with music, having learned young and having spent a lifetime honing their skills and knowledge. I always loved listening to music, but making music has come very late in life for me. I haven't worked more on the song I had in mind yet, but when I do and know what kind of feedback, if any, I want to ask for I may post. I appreciate the encouragement from everyone, thanks guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Monkey Uncle Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 I guess for me my insecurity is rooted in the fact my having started to learn music only recently in midlife. I can't sing in tune and my playing is very beginner. So, it's not the songs I write that I'm insecure about but my presentation, especially among people who've played/sang for years and decades. I envy that history that so many have with music, having learned young and having spent a lifetime honing their skills and knowledge. I always loved listening to music, but making music has come very late in life for me. I haven't worked more on the song I had in mind yet, but when I do and know what kind of feedback, if any, I want to ask for I may post. I appreciate the encouragement from everyone, thanks guys! As a fellow late bloomer, I can definitely sympathize with your frustration. Right now I've got three partial songs that I've been working on for months, none of which I can currently play well enough to attempt even a rough recording. So I keep plugging away, knowing that eventually I'll be able to bang out a recording that I don't feel too badly about posting. Then folks will point out all the stuff that is wrong with it, and I'll go back to the drawing board. That's how we get better. Blue is right: what you're playing now might sound like crap, but it's probably better than what you were playing before, and a whole hell of a lot better than playing nothing at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BumbleBb Posted July 5, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 As a fellow late bloomer, I can definitely sympathize with your frustration. Right now I've got three partial songs that I've been working on for months, none of which I can currently play well enough to attempt even a rough recording. So I keep plugging away, knowing that eventually I'll be able to bang out a recording that I don't feel too badly about posting. Then folks will point out all the stuff that is wrong with it, and I'll go back to the drawing board. That's how we get better. Blue is right: what you're playing now might sound like crap, but it's probably better than what you were playing before, and a whole hell of a lot better than playing nothing at all. Thanks for empathizing/sympathizing. I was saying just the same thing last night to my husband. I'm not where I hope to be musically and maybe I won't get there in this lifetime (maybe I will) but it's a hell of a lot better than not being able to play at all. I'm grateful for what I can do and for being able to write, both bring so much to my life. Also thankful for the people who've helped me learn and for the support and interaction here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BumbleBb Posted July 5, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 As a fellow late bloomer, I can definitely sympathize with your frustration. Right now I've got three partial songs that I've been working on for months, none of which I can currently play well enough to attempt even a rough recording. So I keep plugging away, knowing that eventually I'll be able to bang out a recording that I don't feel too badly about posting. Then folks will point out all the stuff that is wrong with it, and I'll go back to the drawing board. That's how we get better. Blue is right: what you're playing now might sound like crap, but it's probably better than what you were playing before, and a whole hell of a lot better than playing nothing at all. Thanks for empathizing/sympathizing. I was saying just the same thing last night to my husband. I'm not where I hope to be musically and maybe I won't get there in this lifetime (maybe I will) but it's a hell of a lot better than not being able to play at all. I'm grateful for what I can do and for being able to write, both bring so much to my life. Also thankful for the people who've helped me learn and for the support and interaction here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HoboSage Posted July 6, 2012 Members Share Posted July 6, 2012 Quit stalling and post something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BumbleBb Posted July 6, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 6, 2012 Quit stalling and post something. Haven't had a chance to work on that song again yet so far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BumbleBb Posted July 14, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 14, 2012 Well I'm done with it (writing wise, not performance-wise) so I don't think I can post it here. It's not really in progress anymore. Guess I could post it in the completed works sticky but I don't know if anyone even checks that thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Monkey Uncle Posted July 14, 2012 Members Share Posted July 14, 2012 You just think you're done with it. Once you hear what other people like and don't like about it, you'll want to start editing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Canvas Posted July 14, 2012 Members Share Posted July 14, 2012 Post it! Post it! Post it! Post it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BumbleBb Posted July 14, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 14, 2012 Ha! I hate editing (beyond a certain point at least). Maybe that's why I don't want to post it as a WIP either. I prefer to write a whole new song over editing one that feels done enough. I've kind of always been that way, even with my other writing (stories, poems, whatever). My teachers did not like it. I'm fine with editing an essay or something but with a creative work, it seems to start turning into a jumbled mess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Canvas Posted July 14, 2012 Members Share Posted July 14, 2012 Oh, I know how that is. If I change the song it'll be several months afterwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BumbleBb Posted July 14, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 14, 2012 Post it! Post it! Post it! Post it! Trying to record now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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