Receiving Compliments & Pinch of Salt
When showing off your art to family and friends, or even when you play a gig, you will always receive compliments. Very rare is it for somebody to tell you to your face what’s wrong with it. No art is perfect, people will always have opinions about it, good and bad, that they would prefer to keep to themselves. When you play somebody a piece, often they will want to compliment you whether it’s good or bad, because that’s what friends do. It’s being nice, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
The problem is this. Sometimes, it’s possible to fall into a false sense of security that what you are doing is in fact good, at a time when you really must objective about your art. Ask yourself the honest question about how good it is. Is it a good competitor amongst Jeff Buckley, John Lennon or David Bowie? Could you show them up with your tune and performance? The purpose of this question is not to belittle your music or your ego, but rather to continually remind you to keep pushing to the next level of writing and performance, one step further than the last. Do not let this discourage you, quite the opposite, you should be encouraged. And do not let you friends & family lull you into thinking you’re great. You may only be great by their standards, not by the standards of an A&R man at a record label.
So: Good is the friend who tells you the truth.
Being told you’re rubbish
This will probably also happen at some point. I’ve been told I can’t sing, my songwriting is rubbish and I can’t keep time. In retrospect, all of those things were true, though I didn’t see them at the time. I took it all with a pinch of salt (most of the time) and kept pushing harder and harder to improve. I still get negative feedback, but these days less of ‘give up’ and more constructive stuff like ‘don’t strain your voice’. Listen to what people say, and then act on it in a positive manner.