JPF Home Page Forums Hangin' with Harriet

I'm so happy you guys are talking about the chapter and the whole area of critiquing. It's so hard to do what I suggest in the chapter, even for me sometimes, when I'm on a panel and the other pro songwriters are each trying to get the other pro to go first in the critiquing after hearing a song, so they can have more time to think of something positive to say. But I have seen people get so much better that if I had told the person only the bad stuff in the beginning, he might have given up. For the most part, my students are already good or they wouldn't be attracted to my type of teaching. But on panels and in seminars when I have to critique songs from people who just walk in the door, it's often a tough job not to break the spirit of a creative person, but it's so very important not to. As Big Jim pointed out, some people need harsher comments just to get through to them. I remember my mentor, whom I mention in the book a lot, the late Nik Venet, one time at a seminar in Austin, Texas, tore up a lyric sheet of the girl who submitted the song--right in front of everyone. I disapproved of it and asked him afterwards how he could do a thing like that. He told me some people just need a gentle word and they feel invalidated. He told me that this girl was so convinced her writing was great, and not in a confident way but in a way that would not let any help in, that he had to do something drastic to get through to her. I am not advocating this nor would I do it, but I realized then that there are major differences in people. So as a policy, I try not to invalidate, because someone who may "seem" confident, may be protecting himself with bravado and could be easily crushed.

P.S. I really am leaving town but not until Thursday.