{"id":531,"date":"2010-10-12T09:29:23","date_gmt":"2010-10-12T17:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/?p=531"},"modified":"2012-11-09T14:59:15","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T22:59:15","slug":"songwriters-are-you-too-self-centred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/songwriters-are-you-too-self-centred\/","title":{"rendered":"Songwriters &#8211; Are You Too Self-Centred?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-9055632105156461\";\n\/* Half Banner for Blogs *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8550216682\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 234;\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><\/center><br \/>\nFor the umpteenth time this week, I received a &#8220;hello&#8221; from a songwriter on a popular music-sharing website I have a page on.\u00a0 It&#8217;s nice that people say hello, but I know what they&#8217;re really saying.\u00a0 Usually it is a disguised request for a critique.\u00a0 &#8220;Come and listen to my songs&#8221; or &#8220;I sure would like to know what you think of my music&#8221; is what they really mean.\u00a0 Sometimes they come right out and ask;\u00a0 well, at least that&#8217;s honest!<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-img\" style=\"margin: 1em; display: block;\">\n<div>\n<dl class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 250px;\">\n<dt class=\"wp-caption-dt\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/21625048@N00\/2555518922\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-img-configured\" title=\"Songwriting Class\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3072\/2555518922_b7257b8f6e_m.jpg\" alt=\"Songwriting Class\" width=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/dt>\n<dd class=\"wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution\" style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\">Image by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/21625048@N00\/2555518922\">Shazari<\/a> via Flickr<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Part of being a songwriter is connecting to others and getting feedback, as well as getting advice on what to do with your songs.\u00a0 But you are already somewhat self-involved simply by BEING a songwriter (I mean, who else do you write about except yourself or someone you&#8217;re infatuated with?? \ud83d\ude42 )\u00a0 so there comes a time when you have to not only step away from yourself, but do a little bit to help others along their path.\u00a0 So consider the following etiquette:<\/p>\n<p>1. <strong>Don&#8217;t Be A Spammer<\/strong> &#8211; when you sign up to a place like Soundclick or MySpace, don&#8217;t spam everyone else on those websites with a &#8220;listen to my new song!!&#8221; message.\u00a0 Seriously, doesn&#8217;t it suck to get spam like that from others?\u00a0 And when you do, do you go off and listen to their songs immediately and with wild enthusiasm?\u00a0 Okay, maybe some of you diehards do \ud83d\ude42 .\u00a0 But think about how YOU would feel if someone made you feel obligated to listen to their music all the time.\u00a0 You&#8217;d probably feel like they were pretty full of themselves!\u00a0 Isn&#8217;t it nicer to discover other people&#8217;s music on your own?<\/p>\n<p>2. <strong>Don&#8217;t Be Offended<\/strong> &#8211; if somebody doesn&#8217;t like your song, get over it!\u00a0 This is a big world and it&#8217;s utterly impossible to please all of the people all of the time.\u00a0 Do you like every song you hear?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 Which leads me to my next thought&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>3. <strong>Take a Step Away<\/strong> &#8211; when you are too close to your songs, you can&#8217;t possibly be objective enough to fix what ails them, let alone listen with any objectivity to feedback you receive about them.\u00a0 If you find it difficult to remove yourself, then don&#8217;t make every song you write all about you!\u00a0 Mix it up a bit, make some of it fictitious.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve given this advice before in other articles, but it can&#8217;t be said often enough&#8230;it&#8217;s only about you when you&#8217;re in the bedroom by yourself writing it, once you take it out the door, it&#8217;s about everybody else.\u00a0 Think about that.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-9055632105156461\";\n\/* Half Banner for Blogs *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8550216682\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 234;\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>4. <strong>Take The Time To Listen To Your Peers<\/strong> &#8211; join songwriting circles, open mic nights, anything that exposes you to other songwriters. You&#8217;ll learn a lot from them, including what NOT to do. Listen to their songs and give them feedback. This also goes for online songwriting websites where you can post your songs to be critiqued. If you post a song, then critique two others. Make it a habit. And of course, critiquing is a great way to learn, so what can you lose?<\/p>\n<p>5. <strong>Be Polite<\/strong> &#8211; the songwriters who get the most exposure, the most connections and establish strong relationships with people in the business are those who know how to be nice. Sounds simple, doesn&#8217;t it? Be polite and thank anyone who gives you advice, directions, suggestions. They&#8217;ll remember that.<\/p>\n<p>I used to critique songs years ago. It took a lot of time and sometimes it was the last thing I wanted to do at the end of a long day, but if somebody asked, I critiqued. I finally stopped one day when I got a nasty response to one of my critiques. Imagine that&#8230;I took the time to give a detailed response to somebody&#8217;s song and they blasted me for it!<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s a self-centred songwriter. Don&#8217;t be like him!<\/p>\n<p><em>IJ<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=154c3f11-4904-4243-9f35-fac6cc581494\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the umpteenth time this week, I received a &#8220;hello&#8221; from a songwriter on a popular music-sharing website I have a page on.\u00a0 It&#8217;s nice that people say hello, but I know what they&#8217;re really saying.\u00a0 Usually it is a disguised request for a critique.\u00a0 &#8220;Come and listen to my songs&#8221; or &#8220;I sure would [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings","category-opinion","category-tips"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prwoq-8z","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}