Earlier this week I wrote an article about how difficult it is to be heard as a songwriter and a performer. In that post I explored only a few of the barriers to reaching an audience today-I deliberately understated, actually.
If I were to list all of our potential obstacles in one article, it’d be an exercise in discouragement. And of course more discouragement is the last thing that any songwriter needs.
So today I’ve got an encouraging reminder: even if you don’t have a legion of rabid fans climbing your gate and scaling the trellis to hear your latest music, that doesn’t reflect your music’s value. Some of my favorite music on this planet is obscure, known only by a few-but by those few, it’s enjoyed very deeply.
Lack of attention doesn’t mean lack of worth
Obviously we want people to listen to our music and love it. We want them to listen now, we want them to listen closely, we want them to appreciate every little nuance. Because we labored over every line of lyric and we debated every note of that melody, right?
But truthfully, it’s not fair to expect such rapt attention.
When’s the last time you gave a piece of music your full attention? When did you last sit down with a lyric sheet and listen carefully? And when did you last go out of your way after a performance or a CD to seek out the performer and tell them what you loved about their music? If you truly do all that with any regularity, you represent a tiny and noble sliver of the population. I tip my hat to you.
Don’t take lack of communication as disapproval. Some of the most popular articles on this website attract zero comments. Zero! None. Yet I can see from web statistics that these pages are viewed often and, judging from the amount of time spent on page, these pages are also being read in full.
My point is that no feedback is not bad feedback.
It’s a lot of work to punch through the noise and earn listeners, and I think it’s a good idea to acknowledge that from the start. Pace yourself and stay in the fight long-term, because success almost never happens overnight. Don’t take it personally; instead, take it as an enjoyable challenge. Take help from companies like Qualtrics who can help you get an idea about your engagement, and how your music is being perceived by your listeners. It is important that you gauge your viewership and streams – as that too could be a form of feedback for you!
Still not satisfied? Want to be heard? Then get out there. Go play live. Go publish your music and invite reviewers to take a look. Be tough and resist discouragement. It’s a fight, yes, and that’s what makes it satisfying.
photo by 246-you
At the amazing Horse & Writer songwriting event this week, Skip Ewing talked about attention and the critical importance of both listening acutely to oneself and also attending, listening fully to others, WITHOUT judgment. It’s a gift, in all ways.
But we also talked about the reality of what one has to do to shape one’s music to the market WITHOUT COMPROMISING ITS HONESTY OR ARTISTIC POWER. Possible. Not easy, but possible.
Nicolas, you always nail the important ideas, at the perfect time.
http://horseandwriter.com
Ruth! Welcome back!
Listening fully to others is a gift indeed. And not an easy one to give, which is what makes it so generous.
Thanks, Ruth–I think about this stuff obsessively and I’m glad it’s finding some use outside of my own head. 😛
So did you write some songs on this trip?
Ha, that reminds of that interview with Fiona Apple when Craig Ferguson.asks her if writing cheers her up, she says:
“Yeah, it cheers me up but the worst feeling in the world for some reason is like…And this has been happening since I was eight years old and I would write little songs and I would be so excited and get my mom to come in and listen to them. And as soon as I would be done playing the song I would get so depressed. And I still don’t understand it. It’s just like a let down. I guess I expect somebody to hear it and the world just becomes bigger and brighter all of a sudden because I’ve played this song out loud for the first time, but that didn’t happen.”
Craig: “No, you’re confusing that with drugs.”
So I guess that teaches us that having such expectations at least at the beginning is kinda natural as well as it is common for some people to be too self-absorbed (for various reasons).
Adding, in the words of Craig: “Writing songs – good, drugs – nooo, no.”
That’s right! Thanks for reminding me of that; I’d totally forgotten. Funny little clip and very true.
http://lyricworkroom.com/words/life-hit-me-with-whatever-an-interview-on-songwriting-with-fiona-apple/
What’s weird is that sometimes you can play beautifully and nobody seems to care. Other times, you feel like you didn’t play your best, but everybody seems to love it. Performance has always been strange to me that way. o.O
Oh, familiar stuff. I guess many musicians can say the same.