Anyone else really private with their music?

For me, guitar playing is a hobby and the stuff I write is very intimate. I'm not trying to express myself to others. I like collaborating with others but I'm not a performer or anything. Are you like that?

Yes... pretty much. This songwriting thing is still relatively new to me.... and only within the past year or so did I start letting close friends hear my stuff. Then I decided to start recording some of it... and then I found this place.

When I saw this Topic, I thought 100000x that it was graceslick who started it.

Unless your music sucks, no reason to be private.

I think it's fine to take your time at putting your stuff out. I know I got up on a stage way too early. I could barely tune a guitar, let alone get through a whole song in one pass.

But making music can turn into something more when you share it, so I think it's a good thing to move in that direction.

That said, everything in its own time. Happily, today we have ways of sharing music that aren't as emotionally risky as getting up in front of 30 or 40 strangers -- still, there's really nothing like the dynamic that can develop between an artist and a live, human audience.

I don't perform live anywhere. When I have, I can't sing with my eyes open. I don't know why, but I can't do it.

im semi "comfortable" sharing the instrumental stuff that I write with people but anything with lyrics I just feel too exposed to let certain people hear it. in fact, the only song I've ever shared that featured vocals to strangers was on this board. so ya, i am very private with my music

HAHAHA! So did I! I'm sure I started a thread very similar to this last year sometime...but I think I used the word "secretive" instead of "private". lol

for some reason, girls like the more emotional lyrics.

like you are supposed to be really tough and stoic in real-life, but you're expected to bear your inner most feelings (mostly hatred and anger) on stage.

that's what i've noticed attracts the girlz in my neck of the woods

if people ask, "is that how you really feel?" and you're too embarassed to admit yes, you just go "i wrote that from the perspective of chimera between Patrick Bateman and John Wayne Gacy." Then they're like, "oh ok cool." A little white lie never hurt nobody.

John Wayne Gacy freaks me out. Cause I'm kinda jokingly scared of clowns. I am however fascinated by the minds of serial killers.

^ I agree with that. I let certain people here my stuff when it reaches a level of completion...it doesn't have to be FINISHED, but there must be some level I'm satisfied with.

Very very much so!!! The only thing anyone has ever seen or heard have been lyrics posted here. My wife got in my notebook once and read the lyrics to my very first song, said she liked it but that it was "kind of sad". I politely asked her to NEVER DO THAT AGAIN, and she hasn't. I still can't imagine playing my stuff for anybody.

Not particularly.

I'm open to a fault. So says my wife

+1

It's hard playing original material. But if you are serious about making up songs, you really have no idea if one is good or not until you play it in front of strangers a few times. People generally respond to good songs and ignore bad ones - it's interesting how quickly you can tell if material has promise when its asked to carry a moment with something at stake.

Let's see.....how do you feel about being naked?

....just sayin'.

I'm having a hard time seeing how audiences are "confounded" at the prospect of hearing a love song. There is a reason so many artists still write them and it isn't to piss off their parents.

Let's see.....how do you feel about being naked? ....just sayin'.

That doesn't apply to me!! I'm cool with naked, but private with songs.

No, I pretty much show you what I have...I don't do live stuff, maybe a front room, but here on the net is easy compared to a real audience...I can't see the net people cringe so it doesn't affect me to much. Of course I want you to like it but if you don't its not like I'm gonna bleed or something...

I'm not private on HERE. Just with REAL people. lol Not you cardboard cutouts.

My humblest apologies, your Highness. Clearly, I've just missed all those bewildered audiences walking out during love songs. I shall accept everything you say as irrefutable fact in the future.

For me, guitar playing is a hobby and the stuff I write is very intimate. I'm not trying to express myself to others. I like collaborating with others but I'm not a performer or anything. Are you like that?

The guitar is a very personal instrument. The whole way you approach it is very intimate. You cradle it in your arms and pull in to your bosom; caressing it, even. Much more so than most any other instrument. So, it first becomes a part of you.

Plus the act of creating music is a personal experience too. You "pour out your soul" so to speak. So it's quite natural to feel comfortable and private with our romance with the instrument.

But music is expression. And expression, by it's definition, needs a recipient of that expression. So, there's a natural desire to share what we have created in private. So there's that pull or a guilt to go out and seek validation. But then all sorts of other emotions come into play. (Performing can be like a trip to another planet). So, it takes some effort to get over the uncomfortable issues in venturing out. . . . , but it's worth it, just the same.

*fingers-in-ears* I can't hear you !

la dee dah, la dee dah.

(nice avatar)

I don't play my own stuff live because I don't want to front a band. I'm not open to other players adding their own flair to my songs, but I don't want to be a do-it-my-way guy either. So it's best that I just do my little recordings all by myself and keep it that way. Besides, it's too much work to run a band. My songs are totally kick-ass awesome, but I'm not so pompous that I think they need to be heard by anyone or that I have something worthwhile to say. I clearly don't.

I do play in a band though. I'm the drummer, and just show up and play. We write songs, and I have my little input, but I'm not too concerned with expressing myself or any of that {censored} with the band. I just wanna rock out in front of a crowd.

Weirdly enough, I have absolutely no problems letting friends, family, or total strangers listen to music that I've created, but I am extremely shy/protective of the music I listen to - the stuff that inspires me; the stuff that resonates so deeply with my core as to almost cause physical pain. I'd have to know a person for some years before I could play stuff from my music collection for them.