We are all guilty as charged and responsible for this one!
We write a song and then throw everything musically at it including the kitchen sink.
Then we scratch our heads for months wondering why it all sounds muddy/confused or too busy etc. At this early stage of the songwriting/arranging process we also think that every instrument we add to our song has to shine! erm reality check! ... no it doesn't. The only thing instruments in a song are there for ( i am not including solo parts here)
They are only there to SUPPORT the vocal and NOT to lead or ever get in it's way. I can play the piano at a very high level so do i do that in every song? Or do i do what the song in question needs me to do? Oh i just need to play a c major chord? BUT i am an accomplished pianist? But this song needs me to play a basic c major chord? See what i mean?
It is ALL about what your song needs to sell it's message and has nothing to do with how well you can play a musical instrument.
So if your working on a new song and all it needs in a section is a block triad then a block triad it is!
Then we go online with our baby/song and hit a major hurdle.
We go online to get a bit of good advice for our baby but we hate what we hear back! We then go into the mode of...I ain't changing feck all in my song no matter how busy it is so feck off to their comments the ignorant bastards how fecking dare they say that to me especially about my baby/song!
Right there. OWN GOAL! You HAVE to take on board comments from people who simply want you to address issues in your song. If your pitchy in your song should i say you are pitchy or say nothing and just pat you on the back?
If that snare drum is making my ears bleed should i not point it out? See where i am going here?
We NEED that kinda honesty in our feedback. It is crucial to getting better at songwriting.
That is what helps us to improve. You must NOT take ANY comments about your song as a personal insult because it really isn't. We are all here to learn from one another so lets do exactly that!
Johnny
