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Its human nature to be unsure about anything. It keeps us from walking off cliffs just to see if we can fly. Remember that a bad song or riff or piece of music will not kill you.
If you do not know how to handle criticism, music is not the hobby or business to B in, because someone wont like your whole GENRE of music, one girl will not like your dressing style, one guy will think your music is "too commercial". *shrugs*
put an MP3 on th einternet, and take criticism on the chin, then either work on it some more, or make another one. I personally thrive on criticism. I like to post my classical *attempts* on what are primarily hip-hop sites. WHy? Because if I get several, begrudging, "aw, that aint that bad..." responses, I figure thats pretty high praise.
If I wantd someone to rubber stamp everything and tell me how wonderful I am, I'd only let my mother and my old lady listen, LMAO
You gotta gt something "out the door", and you gotta do it constantly. get the criticisms, and then go right back and do it again.
I find myself working more and more on fewer and fewer tracks now. There's nothing perfect yet, thats not even an option, LMAO, but every couple of tracks, it takes another small notch up. Some times I am making "the same thing" even though each is different, then I get a jump. Then I stagnate again, then I get another jump up. *shrugs*
make as many things as you can, and look back and see your progress. Its inspiring. I have heard it said that some actors cant watch their own blockbuster movies until many years later. many musicians hate to listen to their own CD's. SOmeone once told me that directors only exist so someone can tell the actor "no", and that producers only exist to tell the musicians "yes".
I dont think any artist of any genre (acting, musician, sculptor, painter...) is ever really "satisfied" with ANYthing they have created.
*shrugs* post Mp3's all the time ANYways. Or your not moving forward, if only baby steps. Every so many baby steps, you take without knowing it, a larger than normal step, and get off of one plateau... which of course puts you right onto another plateau. Its the nature of anything.
I know I am a benchrest reloader, and we all joke about having OCD! We HAVE to, or we wouldn;t be any good at it. But... here and there, you find a guy spending a whole night on each round of ammo he makes. If he's not cutting holes, someone explains to him to get out and just SHOOT MORE.
I dont care if your reloading ammunition for target competitions, or painting portraits, or obsessing about an acting part, or making music tracks... there always comes a point where you get *diminishing returns* for the time you are spending.
One musician said his producer just "grabs" or "steals" songs without warning, LMAO. He said it makes him "queasy"... but, nothing would ever be "done" if it didnt happen.
Its ironic... many people in the hobby, wont spend any time on anything, they just keep making stuff, every day a new thing, but it never gets much better. Other people, will spend months obsessing over every aspect of every track, to th extent they dont get to do more stuff and grow.
The proper amount is somwhere inbetween, I guess.
A little or even a LOT of perfectionism is necessary... too much of the elixir is a poison, though. SOme writers spend their whole LIVES working on one masterpiece. Others are very prolific and make dozens or even hundreds of saleable works in their life.
*shrugs* its all about what your "musical OCD" can tolerate, I guess
make it, record it, play it out, let people on the internet or in real life check it out, take criticisms and try to put it all to good use on the next piece. SOMEone has to get a record deal SOMEtime, right? Its a lottery. each track you make is another "sweepstakes entry". You can enter as many times as you like, LMAO