Music Industry Discussion

I love it when spammers dig up posts from a year ago.

Everyone is a critic, and criticism is free.
There are several places to get legitmate criticism for free.
Not gonna pay for it.

I often finish recording a song, and think that it sounds pretty good, or good.

(And - by then, I'm sick of hearing it, too, btw).

But - 6 months later - I have improved my guitar playing skills, and I realize I can now do better than the recording I made.

(You see, when I practice, I try to play stuff that I can not play, so I get better. And I teach myself new things, constantly.)

So anyway, - on a recording, why settle for less than my best? So I re-record the song.

Also - in the industry "pretty good" & "good" are not good enough.

There's a lot of songs which are good or pretty good; but that doesn't cut it, anymore.

To make waves, a song needs to be great, excellent or exemplary . . .

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To record a pretty good song is fairly simple. To record a good song is 3 -4 times more work. To cut a great song is 50 -60 times more work.

. . . and to record a great song IS work, a lot of work . . .
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Usually, anything can be improved. Practice, practice, practice.
Pick a technique which you've never been able to pull off, and do it 10% better.
Notice tiny, miniscule little mistakes, and ask yourself to play 10% better when you practice.
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Other people may NOT think you're making insignificant mistakes. They might be noticing your mistakes - but forgiving you, - because they like the rest of what you're doing.
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You'll be surprised what a goal of 10% improvement will do to your playing skills.
Improve your playing skills, and your song just might 'grow something' new . . .
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. . . 10% . . .

I know exactly what you mean about this. It's all too often that people these days rush their recording sessions after composition. A lot of people are worried about getting out there, and they don't focus on their sound enough. Musicians/bands/producers can have many parts about their sound that are good, but without that incentive to fix minuscule problems, they really aren't going to make it to the top. Being a perfectionist, you shouldn't always expect perfection from your work. You should always try to shoot for it, though. Only fools are truly satisfied in the end.

This problem of rushing things can be devastating to any new musical project. Especially since most amateur composers/producers have this unrealistic idea of how they want their music to sound without professional equipment. The fact is, without good equipment, your success is purely based on performance talent. A lot of the most well produced artists have both. The point is, it can be hard to slow down and not rush productions and performances, but it's the way to do it right. Your more likely to be fully successful later on, rather than slightly.

no prob,just change it or upgrade it live.

Yeah, sh*t yeah my songs are great too me! They are my insides out. Probably don't mean a hill of beans to anyone else but then ultimately why the hell are any of you doing this. I do over think it all at times and fuss about a bit, but ultimately I live with what and who I am and these songs are me. And if one other soul out there likes them...well I'm blessed!

Only a certain percentage of our songs will be our best works.
Some of our songs won't be very good, and most of them will be average.
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To increase your chances of writing a great song, you need to be learning new things, and writing lots of songs which sound different from each other.
Key words: "lots of songs."
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If only 10 per cent of your songs are your best works, and you've only written 9 songs . . . well, hey - be real . . .
If you've written 50 songs, then maybe 5 of them are your best work.
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And, look, - most of us are average. By the very definition of the word - most of us are average.
If you are an average composer ('average' being maybe 60& of us) and you now have written 5 of your 'best' songs, well, then - maye 60% of those songs are average. Or not . . .
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If you are less than average or better than average, then your chances of writing a great song go up and down.
But - realize this - anyone can get hit by lightening.
And anyone has a chance of writing a great song.
You never know what may grab an audience.
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The thing is, your best songs MOST LIKELY are NOT the songs that YOU think are your best songs.
What the audience reactions really closey, THEY will show you which songs are your best songs.
In my experience, they often like the 'wrong' songs . . .
I'm always thinking to myself - half in jest - "Hey! You're not supposed to like THAT song! You're supposed to like THIS song!

Its a process of maturing finding your musical identity.A process that takes some time.But once you have mastered the language of your instrument.You can fully express your self through it.It won't matter how much time has gone buy you can always listen and enjoy.When you learn to tap into the zone you create from a different mind set.So when you learn to do this you'll actually be impressed buy your self and say I had no idea it was going to sound that good.How did I do that?

yeah, recording can be a b!tich, no doubt. I usually have a rule that I will do the best job that I can with the skills that I currently have on a song and then move on. I don't want to spend 10 years polishing a single song so that it's perfect. I'd ratehr have all my new recordings get consistently better over time.

A lot of good and bad info on this one. So let me contribute (which may be good or bad info)

When I write, the initial melody comes to me first. Then I can try it in several genres until I find the one that fits. When I'm in a writing rut, I pulll stuff that I wrote years ago, but never finished. Sometimes I find that they were crap, sometimes I find not too bad. But I rework them with a more modern sound.

I try to avoid cliches like standard heavy metal or 60s pop riffs, but if they fit the song, what the heck.

The audience, should be "your target audience", not a general audience. People who don't dig your type of music are never going to dig it unless it is a pop crossover. So get your music to your audience, and learn who your audience is. Your girlfriend, spouse, and mom are usually not good critics (although my spouse is pretty brutal from time to time).

Finally, don't be afraid to let someone else sing or add input to your song. Alot of times hearing someone else sing it helps you to hear what works and doesn't work.

Okay, back to work!

It's always interesting to have a new musician add something to one of your songs, sometimes in a different direction than expected.

I have some songs on the link.
All Hits of course lol
http://au.myspace.com/moresillylovesongs