In today’s article I’m going to talk about the importance of feedback. And no, I’m not talking about the kind of feedback you get from your guitar, which can be cool or annoying depending on what it is you’re trying to do. I’m talking about the feedback you get from your peers. You know, you’re fellow songwriters and music producers. It’s always good to hear what other people think of your stuff. How else will you know if you’re on the right track or not?
Now, let me qualify this with a little caveat. Ultimately, you have to decide what feedback you’re going to listen to and what you’re going to do with it. Everybody has an opinion and having an opinion doesn’t automatically make one right or wrong. Just because somebody says to you “I don’t like your song because…” and then gives you their reason, doesn’t mean that reason is the “correct” one. It’s just one person’s opinion. Now, if 100 people all tell you that your song is really bad and all give the same general reasons why, it’s a safe bet that you should probably listen to them. So yes, feedback is important but the more of it you get, the more data you will have to work with in order to determine what it is you’re going to do with it.
Let me give you an example of some feedback I got the other day.
I had put together this piece of ambient music that you can listen to below.
Now, I thought it was pretty good. I traded off between several instruments on the lead so it didn’t get boring. The pad had a nice airy sound like what I was going for. Overall, it had the feel of an old Paul Hardcastle type tune. I was generally pleased with it.
So I posted it up on this music production forum looking for feedback on the production end of it and not so much on the composition or performing end. The responses I got were interesting to say the least. And when I thought about them, I realized that they made good points.
Overall, the main criticism was that the piece didn’t go anywhere or progress. It stayed on the same even plain throughout the entire track. There were no lows and highs, no change in dynamics. Now, if this were meant to be a meditative piece then maybe that would be a good thing. But that wasn’t my intention. And in listening to the piece, I realized that they were right. Even though I changed leads throughout the piece, each lead was still more or less the same dynamic and the pad in the background never varied. There were never any cool sounds sprinkled in throughout the piece. Nothing to really break it up a little. In short, the piece was stagnant.
This was a real eye opener for me as I never really heard this piece like that. But if you listen to some old Paul Hardcastle stuff, you will hear that he does just that, even with his more laid back tunes. You’ll find the odd synth noises coming out of nowhere to spice up the piece. You’ll hear changes in dynamics, even if they’re only slight changes.
I’ve started working on another piece where I am going to focus a lot on dynamics and shifts in timbre. The piece may turn out to be a chaotic mess but it won’t be boring and stagnant. And eventually, I’ll find a happy medium between the two and as a result, my music will improve.
Here’s another example of some feedback I got on a song of mine. You can listen to it below.
In this track, the feedback I got was something I would have never thought of. The vocals in the beginning didn’t sound real. Now, realism in this track wasn’t something I was particularly going for, but obviously something about the track suggested that I was going for realism with the vocals in the beginning. So invariably, I managed to accomplish something that I didn’t want to accomplish that ended up making something else in the song come off as less than authentic. Had I maybe used more synths, the vocals in the beginning wouldn’t have been an issue.
Your listeners will sometimes point out things to you that you would have never thought of in a million years. And that’s how you get ideas. That’s how you grow as a songwriter, a performer and a producer, assuming you’re one of those poor souls who has to wear many hats like I do. When the day comes I can hire a mixing engineer, I’ll do just that.
Like I said, you do have to take feedback with a grain of salt. Some people like to look for things to complain about, even if they’re not really there. Remember, not everybody loved The Beatles. But if 100 people all say the same thing about your music and very few have anything good to say, you might want to listen.
Personally, I love feedback. I think I’ve done most of my best writing after getting feedback on my tunes. Sometimes just the right word can spark an idea. For example, the song I’m working on right now, I probably would have never written had I not been told that my airy pads track laid there like a dead raccoon. The last thing I want to do is put my listeners to sleep. I’d rather they walked away scratching their heads saying to themselves, “What the hell did I just listen to?” At least then I know I made an impression.
You need to decide what’s important to you. If you record a tune and somebody tells you it sounds like something that should be on a meditation CD and that’s what you were going for, then keep it and keep at it. You’ve managed to do what you set out to do. But if that’s the LAST thing you wanted to do, then you might want to consider making some adjustments.
That’s what I do.
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim