Music making has taught me out of perfectionism?

I used to be quite a perfectionist. I didn’t want to show anyone anything I did thinking the stuff I made wasn’t good enough. When I started music making it was the same, I rather hid my music and prevented the possibility of someone not liking it. Looking back, I think it also slowed down my progress, and of course I couldn’t get encouragement either if no one heard my music. I think I have managed to overcome this somewhat over the years. I have found my own sound and style which I like and I can stand behind it. I can post online stuff that has flaws, even mistakes. And recently, to my surprise I have been able to take feedback in a constructive way, thinking ways I could improve my music rather than take it personally. Also not everyone is going to like my style, and that’s perfectly fine. I think this change has affected other life aspects too, I no longer expect perfectness from my work skills, or me as a person, or other hobbies. However I can constantly improve and learn new things, and that’s what matters. So my fellow musicians, how do you handle feedback? Has being a musician taught you something other than the obvious music making?

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I am an artist, creating live performances and installations. One thing I learned about creating works is that what I’ve been making in my introverted, hyper-personal space has to be set loose at some point. Usually that is when the presentation deadline has arrived. And whatever the work is then, that’s what it is. It is now out of my hands and into the hands of the audience. Like passing the ball. I’ve had to learn to contain my frustrations about works not being perfectly finished - in my creator’s eyes - before going public. But once I could do that, it became a liberating thing. To be able to pass that ball and let go. And what I learned then is that the ball gets thrown back at me via reactions and feedback. And this I feed back into the work. Presentations and the feedback I get on it thus became an inherent part of my practice. I thoroughly enjoy critical discussions after a show. I can get so much insights from another’s perspective on my work. Often things that I could not imagine from my personal perspective. So that confrontation with the public is really a blessing for me.

That said, I am much less developed as a musician. I have no releases on my name, did do a bunch of shows in the period 2000-2010, but only recently picked up gigging again. I can see how music production is a little different because you set your own deadlines for publishing something online. There’s the risk of never doing it because of being overly self-critical. That’s perhaps a reason why I’m working more on live material than tracks. I want to play live shows when I can, giving me strict deadlines to work to, and the track productions will be spin-offs of that material.

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I can so relate to what you said, and I come from a similar situation, I have done more gigging than releases and I kinda like the idea of “what happens in the gig, stays in the gig” cause it’s not released somewhere but only in the memories of those who attended. I released my first official release just a few months ago, and that was a huge “pass the ball and let go” moment. I could have found things to tweak forever, but the label liked them as they were. That surprised me but I decided to trust their judgement and let go! And it felt good. I hope to release some more music in the future, maybe some tracks that stay in my live set and deliver well in the live situation. Thanks for the great reply!

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I had a hard time letting other people hear my music as well as I never thought it was good enough. What got me to share my music was sp-forum beat battles. Since it’s a challenge to make full songs on the sp404sx AND the battle is a challenge in itself (there are rules you need to follow) it made it easier to share those tracks. After my first battle it became no problem, started sharing my music (non-battle stuff) & got addicted to battles, which not only helped me grow I was able to really learn what my gear could do.

I can handle “bad” feedback depending on the feedback. Like if someone is a complete jerk I might get defensive. But so far I pretty much have agreed with everything people said, so it’s been easy to take the criticism.

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