General Music Chat

Do you guys think there is a difference in these two approaches? On your musical goals or quest? Is it possible to achieve both?

JJ

probably depends on your definition of those terms.

imo there's no such thing as "perfection" when it comes to art. there's nothing wrong w striving to acheive "perfection"... as long as you don't have unrealistic expectations of ever achieving it.

excellence on the other hand is ALWAYS something to be strived for.

both terms are highly subjective and in the eyes and ears of the beholder.

"Progress, not perfection"

Perfection has always gotten in the way of achieving excellence, for me.
Sometimes you gotta know when to say, "F*CK IT" and just go get the job done or it will never get done at all.
Being a perfectionist has its downside.

Do you guys think there is a difference in these two approaches? On your musical goals or quest? Is it possible to achieve both?

JJ

Excellence: usually comes with specialization, mastery of a discipline and to excel in an endeavor

Perfection: Beyond Excellence in all endeavors; Beginning at Alpha and ending with Omega.

Strive for excellence. You'll never be perfect...

To seek perfection is a trap. Excellence is... excellent!

I agree I believe we can achieve excellence (in our opinion) but perfection is God's alone.

I love this subject. Perfection - to me - would be achieved when every nuance in a written piece is perfectly re-created. The element which will never reflect perfection is the insertion of human motion and emotion.

In my experience, near-perfect-excellence is achieved when an improvised passage falls in place because the souls of all participants (performers and observers) are deeply connected in an unpredictable manner.

In all that, I am perfectly flawed, which is excellent!

Nothing wrong with having both. On a good day strive for perfection, on a lesser day settle for excellence.

I knew a girl once that had a perfect ass yet her personality was
the bride of Frankenstein. So I guess it matters how much perfection
you are looking for too.

She was as perfect as I needed her to be. [/b]

I believe you're all missing the point. YOUR opinion doesn't count. Your audience's opinion DOES count. What's perfect or excellent to YOU doesn't matter, remember that.

I'm an excellentist, but am often accused of being a perfectionist.

However, a quick play on words....
you can write a GREAT song, and then make an imperfect recording of it..

Not that the recording needs to be perfect, but that play on words suggests such. Bottom line is that short of excellence, the song can very well suck and fail simply because of it not being excellent, but imperfection is still the applied term.

In the end it doesn't matter. If you ever aren't happy with something and you release it anyways, you will ultimately regret it, or you just didn't care enough about it for it to matter.

I've released less than excellent music, and will NEVER do it again. I'd rather piss off the producer, engineer, and everyone in the band than to embarrass myself again.

And on another note- If the studio guys keep trying to tell you it's good enough when you know it's not... fire them, pay them, TYVM, and take your masters elsewhere. They should work with you, not talk you into leaving unhappy, or being happy with something you are not.

all depends on how much money you want to throw at it..and if you believe there will be a paying audience for your material.. I would think 5,000 units would suffice to go the extra mile for perfection, if it is used to get live gigs with as a demo then excellent works or even good will work..

There was this guy who had sought the perfect woman. One day...He Found her! Unfortunately, she was searching for the perfect man...

no such thing as "perfection"....EVERYTHING can always be improved upon.