Finding the Kink in Your Song Hose, Part 6: What Are You Holding Back?

After all this time spent identifying and straightening out kinks in your creative process, we’ve got one final set of obstacles to overcome.

In this article we’ll deal a bit with the psychological blocks that tend to arise just before you launch your finished music into the world. Whether you’re performing or releasing a recording, you can think of these jitters as a form of stage fright.

You’re about raise the stakes by taking your work public—this is an exciting and unnerving time, and cold feet are natural enough. You can overcome them as many have done before you.

Let’s explore some of the most common neuroses. 😉

Fear of being ostracized

Forget about what grandma will think. You can always ask friends and family of delicate constitutions not to listen to your music or not to attend the concert.

The more polite and socially neutral you are, the more boring you become. Please give us your weirdest, your darkest, your most emotionally honest, insightful, and outspoken material. This doesn’t mean you have to force it to create artificial shock value—and it doesn’t mean you have to share everything about yourself, either. I’m just saying that I think you should be courageous and speak the truth as you see it. This is easier said than done, even when you know you’re completely safe and alone with a blank page.

Here in America, I enjoy freedom of speech. But no matter where you live, the censor—the policeman—is within. I think we all subconsciously fear that voicing our true thoughts on any given topic could result in social rejection. I’m asking you to avoid censoring yourself.

Does honesty require courage? Yeah. But it’s crucial. Be bolder and braver than your audience. Tell the truth and write what you believe. Do that, and you’ll rest easily at night despite what anybody else says about you or your work.

Fear of looking dumb

What if our most emotionally honest moments strike everyone else as melodramatic or lame? What if our most poetic, heartfelt truths make everyone else roll their eyes?

This is a risk all songwriters face when they present their own songs to the public. It’s scary to expose your own work. When you’re responsible for every note of the melody and every word of the lyric, that’s a whole new layer of fear to deal with. Take courage and know that we all take that same risk whenever we publish—or whenever we leave the house, for that matter.

Fear of criticism

Embrace bad reviews. They do you little or no harm, and in some cases may actually help you attract public attention.

The more vehemently judgmental a bad review is, the better. It means that you’re getting a reaction out of somebody, which means you’re not boring—and that’s a very good thing (see above).

The less constructive a review is, the less it should worry you. You can’t control the reactions of other people past a certain point; all you can do is offer your best work.

If a reviewer has some useful critical points about your album or performance, though, I think you owe it to yourself to pay attention. Consider it a free learning experience. Don’t get all defensive and deprive yourself of the chance to learn something. This art is a constant learning experience.

Next I want you to think of one of your favorite songwriter. Conjure his or her face in your mind. Picture Johnny Cash. Fiona Apple. Rebecca Black. Whoever.

I can guarantee you that artist has had more than her share of bad reviews. She got booed off the stage some Saturday night. Probably many nights. She’s probably had moments of deep doubt and frustration. Likely she was tempted to give up dozens of times before you ever even knew her name.

So what? She survived. So can you.

It’s natural enough to fear criticism, because most of us have more than enough self-criticism happening inside of our own heads—but it’s a natural price of putting yourself out there. Don’t allow anyone to get you down for long. Remember the good feedback you’ve gotten and carry on. What’s the worst that can happen?

Seriously. When you’re really afraid, answer that question for yourself: what is the worst thing that can happen?

Fear of imperfection

When you care deeply about your art, it’s natural that you’ll always be tweaking things, changing out lines, trying out new chords—you’ll always be improving your songs.

And of course you’ll experience natural growing pains along the way. If you’re reaching and stretching as an artist, you’ll inevitably be frustrated with your own work at some point.

Chill. Relax. Keep learning about the craft, keep rewriting, and keep writing new material. Your tastes will always be ahead of your abilities somewhat—but with constant improvement that gap will become less painful over time.

It’s okay to be a work in progress, and it’s okay to release CDs that are going to be somewhat less awesome than your later ones will be.

Quality control is healthy. I wouldn’t urge you to release material that you really feel is substandard. But when your work is good and interesting, and you hold it back, I think you’re doing the world a disservice by letting it gather dust on your shelf.

Yes, quality control is healthy—it’s perfectionism that’s unhealthy.

C’mon, who cares if your song’s  not a shining beacon of revolutionary thought and sound? If you gave it your all, and it’s presentable enough, let us hear it. Your definition of “presentable” will change as time goes on, and your core fans will enjoy seeing your work improve over time.

Conclusion

When a song or album is nearly complete, you’ll likely hesitate for some or all of the reasons given above. Know this: we all feel those last-minute fears, including your favorite songsters, the ones you look up to.

Creating anything involves risk. There’s always a chance that your work won’t get the attention it deserves, or won’t be well-received. Find the strength to publish anyway. As a songwriter, you are what you publish, and your songs are your legacy.