Frisco Fred - Posted - 05/26/2011:  15:35:51

I composed most of the songs I play.  I do know some standard Bluegrass songs, but I'm proud of my own.

That was until I tried them out on my brother's girlfriend... She set me straight...

"John, people don't want to hear songs like that, they want to be entertained... "

Guess that says it all

Banjov1 - Posted - 05/26/2011:  15:55:56

Ouch!!!

I'd try some different audiences

Flying Eagle - Posted - 05/26/2011:  16:06:22

I hope that she was just joking and made the comment tongue in cheek; if not, then your brother's girl is a tactless twit.  Ignore her and keep being creative.

JW

Sultans of Claw - Posted - 05/26/2011:  16:19:18

Follow your muse, and ignore her. 

dmiller - Posted - 05/26/2011:  16:31:54

quote:

---

Originally posted by Frisco Fred

I composed most of the songs I play.  I do know some standard Bluegrass songs, but I'm proud of my own.

That was until I tried them out on my brother's girlfriend... She set me straight...

"John, people don't want to hear songs like that, they want to be entertained... "

Guess that says it all

---

John Lennon's "Aunt Mimi" once said: 

“The guitar’s all very well as a hobby, John, but you’ll never make a living out of it.” 

Guess that says it all too, eh?    Keep on keeping on!  

Crimjo - Posted - 05/26/2011:  22:26:45

I never thought anyone would like my songs, but I found out nearly ALL of my friends loved um, you've got to have the right crowd. 

However I mean, she could be talking the truth in that perhaps you don't need to switch the songs up, but maybe your stage presence, or give out some eye contact, perhaps every once and awhile give a yeeeeehaawwwww! 

But seriously do what you want, if they sound good to you that's all that matters. And personally....someone that candid is usually either joke or a humongous bi***. 

Ronnie - Posted - 05/26/2011:  23:25:52

Every song was written by someone.

MrNatch3L - Posted - 05/27/2011:  03:02:01

quote:

---

Originally posted by Frisco Fred

...

"John, people don't want to hear songs like that, they want to be entertained... "

Guess that says it all

---

Guess that says nothing. Except one person's personal subjective opinion. Someone has said something similar to anyone who ever had any degree of success with their music. Have  her tell that to BEEFUS. 

It's a big world out there. Somewhere there are people who will like what you do. But you have to believe in it first. If you don't, nobody else will. And even if nobody else does (I'm kind of trying to find that out with my new project on robertpalomo.com) if YOU like your music, keep on playing it. Life is too short to play somebody else's music all the time.

Frisco Fred - Posted - 05/27/2011:  05:30:11

What a supportive group we have!

"People don't want to hear songs like that, they want to be entertained"  has to be one of the funniest comments I've ever gotten.  That's why I posted it.  But no one could ever beat the comments of a lover who's preparing to distant themselves, i.e, _____ (insert past lovers name) could really play that song good.... or, _____ played that song at _____(insert club or bars name) last night, now I know what it should sound like... 

While I've never aspired to make my living recording music or performing on stage, I might just write the complete book of "Comments I've Received While Playing My Banjo"... LOL

BTW; Robert, Cool tunes, good causes.

Edited by - Frisco Fred on 05/27/2011 05:45:26

mike gregory - Posted - 05/27/2011:  05:40:07

John Hartford said

"I do what I enjoy.

And if others also enjoy it, well and good.

And if not,

at least I haven't wasted my time."

Until that woman has outpicked and outsold and out-entertained the late great Mr. Hartford, she is entitled to her opinion, and you are well advised to consider it as only a part of all the advice you should be weighing and sorting.

Now, I'm going to your homepage, and there damn well better be some Music Files there, so we can make up our own minds.

Frisco Fred - Posted - 05/27/2011:  05:49:15

quote:

---

Originally posted by mike gregory

 

...Now, I'm going to your homepage, and there damn well better be some Music Files there, so we can make up our own minds.

---

 Are you nudging me into learning how to record too?  Brutal, Mike, just flat out brutal.

mike gregory - Posted - 05/27/2011:  06:01:08

I have the audacity to suggest "Audacity", a free online recording program.

Most of my Music files are just me, a banjo, a $10 microphone, and the Audacity program.

Some of the songs, recordings of me, made by others, I played out of my speakers and INTO the $10 microphone, onto an Audacity track.

It ain't real hard to do, or I wouldn't DO it.

<-------------Does that look like a hard worker?????

DantheBanjoMan - Posted - 05/27/2011:  06:21:27

Fred,

I missed the meeting where we elected your brother's girlfriend as the Official Representative of Musical Taste for All People Living on Earth. 

I wouldn't give what she said another thought.  Keep on writing tunes!

Bell - Posted - 05/27/2011:  09:19:05

Writing your own tunes! How cool is that? Pretty darn cool in my book. Don't take her comments seriously, it's certain creative death. Keep creating my friend.

Frisco Fred - Posted - 05/27/2011:  10:27:49

I posted Kim's comment because it was funny.

It's like saying, "Oh, you don't want to go to their party... They're only interested in how people look"... LOL

BTW; I was over in the new "Tech" section recently looking for recording equipment.

dickinnorwich - Posted - 05/27/2011:  10:42:10

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bell

Writing your own tunes! How cool is that? Pretty darn cool in my book. Don't take her comments seriously, it's certain creative death. Keep creating my friend.

---

John:

My friend, I have to join this support group and offer the following:

Music, as an art form, is a very personal thing, meaning that nobody else can touch it or take it from you.

I've written two, so called, "Jam Favorites;" one called "Hammer Down" which I wrote for a local friend with whom I skied regularly who prided himself in being the first one on the slopes in the morning and the last one off the slopes at night. The second one I wrote for my friend, Bill Sullivan, after he passed away almost 4 years ago.   The point is, these songs were first and foremost expressions of high regard that I held for these people. Nobody can change that. Playing somebody else's music, or playing music to try and sound like somebody else, or playing a banjo with somebody else's name on it isn't particularly satisfying as an art form. At least not for me and I suspect it's not for you, either.    

dlc - Posted - 05/27/2011:  12:01:48

Ronnie is right.

EVERY song we've ever heard was someone's unheard original at one time.

I, too, prefer to write new songs of my own - in a style that appeals to me - instead of modifying someone else's work to fit my "style."

Hang in there!  And, as has been said, remember that your opinion on your music is the only one you should seriously worry about.  

wgoehrin - Posted - 05/27/2011:  12:08:17

Hear hear. But I will admit that an attractive, unavailable woman making fun of your banjo is a little well...immasculating. 

minstrelmike - Posted - 05/27/2011:  13:42:06

I don't want to irritate anyone needlessly and I also write my own songs but I know one of the classic musical annoyances for many folks is the singer-songwriter doing slow, loooong ballads at the open mikes.

I suspect every single one of them loves his or her own music and doesn't think that he or she is one of 'those kinds' of singer-songwriters.

I know I'm not ;-)

wgoehrin - Posted - 05/27/2011:  17:16:27

If they ain't got the jive, minstrelmike, they ought be boo'd. It's true, I think, that large audiences want uptempo and lively. For an inspired banjoist though, the drive is nearly always there. Even in slow tunes. 

mrbook - Posted - 05/27/2011:  17:40:39

I get the humor. About twenty years after college, I found myself in the company of my old student council president, who I didn't think much of when we were younger. In the course of a conversation, he admired how happy I seemed in my chosen profession. He was quite unhappy in his, but his final comment was, "You seem so relaxed and happy - and you don't have to know anything to do it, right?"   I could have been insulted, but I merely smiled and said, "That's the beauty of it."  I haven't seen him since, and hope I never see him again. I believe some people don't think about or listen to what they say - but they do provide funny stories. 

Sultans of Claw - Posted - 05/27/2011:  17:58:46

She's not heavy, she's your brother's. 

ChuckS - Posted - 05/27/2011:  18:49:31

She would have probably liked where I was working today.  Some shop rat had the tunes set to a radio station targeting 12 year old girls.  Endless Spice Girls and similar tripe. 

Robxx - Posted - 05/28/2011:  02:07:30

John, the world is full of people who seem to take delight in putting others down. We all of course have sat and listened to performers we'd rather not listen to.  I don't know how it is in your country, but here everyone gets a chance to sing and play. Whether they sing their own songs or others, or if they are good or bad it doesn't really matter. I like the variety of styles and abilities.

I know however, a few singer song writers some are very good, some are boring in the sense that they sing more or less the same tune to everything they do, and play the same style usually guitar.

One person I know does this and has his guitar always in an open tuning. One day soon I am going to ask him if he would put his guitar into standard tuning and play some major chords. His songs are so boring and long, it'd be just great to hear something melodic for a change.  though I have got to be very diplomatic about this.

Without hearing your songs John, we have to guess, but the fact they are bluegrass must bode well, because it's such a happy and lively sound.

A so called friend put me down in a similar way the other night, when sang a song for the first time with a lady who's just started to sing some harmony with me, and another song I did for the third time, having eventually found a key (retuning the banjo etc) that suited my voice.  When I went to sit down after he turned to me and said "Hmm needs some work"  I could have kicked the AH  I reckoned I'd done pretty well.  But then he had made some pretty dire mistakes (which I didn't mention to him) when he'd performed just before me !

Very hurtful these remarks can be. Constructive critisism is one thing, snide comments are totally another.

mike gregory - Posted - 05/28/2011:  04:56:42

I recall reading an interview, many years ago, in Rolling Stone magazine.

Neil Diamond said that he made it his JOB to sit down at his kitchen table and try to write three songs every night.

He said that he had thrown away hundreds of songs, but... out of the few that he kept, there were a couple of real good ones, which is why Rolling Stone was interviewing him, and not somebody else.

Out of the perhaps a hundred songs I've written, very few were (in my opinion) good enough to post on the BHO music files.

Give 'em a listen, and be reassured, you are quite capable of being better than that.

BNJOMAKR - Posted - 05/28/2011:  11:57:43

Once I was showing a guitar pickin' friend of mine a banjo tune that I had made up. He was playing along with me, and after he kept playing one of the cords wrong, I stropped and said, " You don't go to a D right here, you stay in G before going to C..."   He looked at me and replied, "Maybe you do,... but I don't!"  Oh well, so much for my creative endeavor!