Safety And Desire
You're Just Saying That
That’s what we often think when someone gives us a compliment…’you’re just saying that to make me feel good because you don’t want to hurt my feelings with what you really think…because what you really think is that it’s not that great’.
And the truth is…sometimes they are just saying they like it in order to make you feel good.
But it’s hard to tell. Not everyone is lying.
So there’s the rub.
You can spend time and energy deciphering who is telling the truth and who isn’t…and then once you’ve deciphered, you can spend time and energy dwelling on the ones who don’t actually like it.
Or you can take heart in the fact that some people (probably most people) are telling the truth…and that the voice in your head saying ‘you’re just saying that’ is actually your own voice just trying to sabotage a good thing.
You Have To Like The Work
First Monday of the month…new Hum Love play list on Spotify and Apple.
When you write the first part of the song you don’t know if it’ll ever get finished.
When it gets finished you don’t know if it’s going to get recorded.
When it gets recorded you don’t know if it’s going to get released.
When it gets released you don’t know if anyone is going to listen to it.
When it gets listened to you don’t know if anyone is going to like it.
When people like it you don’t know if anyone is going to let you know.
There’s too much unknown for you to be in it for the accolades.
You have to like the work.
If you don’t like the work it’s just too much work.
Open With Your Closer
It’s an interesting idea to consider anyway.
You know how hard your ending slams. It’s the hit. The big song. The one you know works every time. The crowd pleaser.
Could you bump it to the front and then build the rest of your show?
That’d be a pretty good show.
And then maybe in six months do the exercise again.
»» Coldplay starts with confetti, lasers, light up bracelets and a hit. And it just gets better from there.
Song Pressure
There’s all the pre-release build up you hear about the song before you hear the song itself…and songs have a hard time living up to that hype.
Why?
Because before you hear the song, the song can be as magical as you want it to be. Your imagination runs wild with expectations. Dreams of how great it’s going to be. You’ve felt the highs that music can give and everyone is saying that this song is going to take you there.
It’s too much pressure. Songs are smaller than that. And bigger than that.
A song is a little offering from the artist. Meant to be heard and experienced and then it’s over. But when done right it leaves the listener different than before they listened. Which is a miracle.
»» This is also why it’s easier to hype to kids and still exceed expectations…because they haven’t heard and seen and experienced all the music that an adult has. Their imagination for what a song could be is limited but ready to expand. If you can reach them with great music during this time, you will claim the spot in their mind associated with ‘Woah, I’ve never heard anything like this that made me feel like this before’.