who do you turn to first to play your work?

[Stanley Pain]

at any stage of it's development...

[Acoustic Interloper]

My wife. I am not always necessarily looking for a positive reaction -- she hates dissonance -- so sometimes the negative reaction is a confirmation. She is pretty objective in her criticism, and not always in agreement with me, which of course makes me feel *really* good when she says, "I really like that piece."

[Kassen]

The first person to comment without being asked to.

[Stanley Pain]

[jkn]

My wife tends to hear my stuff first long before anyone else. I have a very small circle of friends that I post in progress work to for feedback.

[moue]

I generally play my new tracks for close friends. What i find and what bothers me most is that i generally get no reaction whatsoever from them. Nothing spontaneous anyway. Noone has ever turned to me in the middle of a track and said, 'hey, this is really good.' It's always at the end of the track and i turn to them and ask, and they then tell me that they like it, or whatever their opinion is.

Has anybody else run into this? I find it really strange, because i will always tell someone if i really like something, even if i don't know them.

maybe they just don't like it... but i'd rather someone tell me that they don't like my music than to get no reaction at all.

thoughts?

[Kassen]

[Kassen]

[nobody]

My girlfriend. Like Acoustic Interloper's wife, my girlfriend's positive reactions are a good sign. She likes my style of music, but it's not her main thing - she's a metal-head. But she has broad taste and is, I've notice, quite discriminating. And since she's also an artist (another medium), she knows the importance of honesty. If she doesn't like it, she will tell me.

And like Kassen's GF, mine will let me know which sounds she likes when I'm messing around with the synths and something pops out at her. She'll also tell me, either verbally or by covering her ears, when something I'm doing is just very grating on the ears.

I have a friend with a cochlear implant who likes my music. In a way, that's funny to me because my style of music isn't what I'd peg her for liking - but that makes the compliment no less appreciated.

[Sam_Zen]

First, me.
Because I think I've trained myself a bit to be able to switch as a listener between consumer, composer, or producer.

[nobody]

[Sam_Zen]

You're right about the limitations of this approach, but I still think it has to be done first in the row.
And I certainly agree about giving it the time, to experience it again. Playing a piece of last year.

As soon as a work is presented to others, your control is gone, it's up to the listeners to judge the experience.
One could start safely by playing it for close relatives. This has the danger of getting responses like :
-"yeah, quite nice" etc. Things like that have little valid feedback.

[nobody]

No kidding. I used to date someone who said everything I did was "nice". *sneezing* Bullsh--!

[Antimon]

On the other hand, a reaction like "OMG, this is so great! Hey everybody, listen to what Stefan did!" can be equally polite and useless. One often wants some kind of precise criticism on details. But I find that such comments are often hard to communicate or understand, comments like "that should be warmer" tend to be blurry. I personally allow myself the amateur's luxury of not really showing stuff to anyone before I think it's completely done, and often not even then.

/Stefan

[nobody]

[Sam_Zen]

[nobody]

[Wayne Higgins]

If Cleo lays there does nothing, it's ok.
If she looks at me and licks the air, it's good.
If she winces and gets up to leave the room, it's time to start over.


ps: (above)Montgomery Village, MD. wow, I used to live in Gaithersburg!

[nobody]

[Wayne Higgins]

MUCH cheaper. Jefferson County, FL is the only county in Florida without a stop light. Many more cows than people. Great place.

I was born in Bethesda. Spent summers with my grandparents in Gaithersburg. Had some great times up there.

[nobody]

An entire county without a stop light.

Man, that's my dream. Heck with the crazy system we live in.

[PCAhype]

Man I'll grab the first person that's around when I finish an initial mix. Usually that's my roommate. But I've recently changed roommates and this new one listens to some really terrible pop-punk garbage. I usually find that later if my girl or his girl says they really like it or if it makes them cry, then I'm on track. hahaa

[x_x]

1. My imaginary pet
2. Band mates
3. Friends

My imaginary pet always says what I want to hear and gives me self-confidence(no wonder it's on the first place in my list). Band mates are somewhat snobby and understand some of what I try to do, most of the time they're very supportive and give me positive feedback.

I try to show it to friends that don't have much musical knowledge just to hear they're opinions. But it's hard to explain to them what algorithmic composition is.

I've also shown it to programmers and orchestra mates. Strangers with musical knowledge give good feedback too, I've posted things on garageband.com just to see the reviews.

hahaha I remember once there was this gal I liked, and I showed her my myspace and she like freaked out! She doesn't speak to me anymore LOL! What's her problem? What a bipolar lunatic.... Anyways... I love to hear opinions of my music, bad or good. I especially love when people tell me to change something, because sometimes I do change it but I change it the opposite way of what they tell me.

[blue hell]

[Jyoti]