Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Dealing with Criticism.

In my lifetime I have been critiqued by the best and the worst.

I have been critiqued by people who had no business giving their opinion and I have received crtiques that where worth gold.

Part of putting yourself up on stage as a performer is that you are leaving yourself open to ridicule as well as praise.

Now that I have started watching American Idol this year. I've noticed a lot of times where Simon is telling someone that they can't sing, and he is right. They can't sing, but that does not mean that they cannot ever sing.

While there are those who are god awful and delusional, there where also plenty of contestants that if I was a judge on the show, I would have said: "You're close, but you need to work on it. Get some professional coaching, get experience performing publicly, and come back in a year".

Even those who are terrible, I would say "Right now you can't sing well at all, so if this is something you are serious about, you need to start working really heard and get some lessons".

We all want a pat on the back and we all need it, but we also need to hear what we are doing wrong from people who have the experience to know it.

I feel very lucky that I have my friend and songwriting partner Kathy at most of my gigs to tell me what was wrong and what was right.

I also feel lucky that early on I got some very good professional critiques/advice from some solid pros in the industry.

Another thing when getting criticism is the source. The most negatives things that where ever said to me, where usually given from someone who was terrible themselves (or at least I beleived they where terrible LOL). In fact there is something to be said for the theory that untalented people are always the quickest and first to tear down people who are talented....but that doesn't mean that they are always wrong with their critique.

it's a slippery slope sometimes wondering when to trust others and when to trust yourself.

I can remember numerous times where Howard Stern would tell a band that asked for a critique that they sucked. The band would be upset, and he would say "Then go out and prove me wrong".

Which is great advice.

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