Jan,

My understanding of the forum is that it's a "Showcase" forum and not a "Developing musician/songwriter" forum. I disagree with many of PRearden's comments because he was, in my opinion, looking at the forum as something that it wasn't designed to be.

Because the forum is meant as a showcase for songs, my personal observation has been that everyone who posts a song there does so because they are immensely proud of their work and would like to share it with the world. Also, as has been already mentioned in above posts, the expertise of song submitters covers a huge spectrum - from raw novices to accomplished experts. This makes making appropriate comments difficult unless you've been around a while and are aware of a person's songwriting journey. The one certainty, though, is that everyone who posts a song, generally posts what they consider to be the absolute best they are able to compose at that point in time when they posted. I have no desire whatsoever to "step" on this personal accomplishment. People should be allowed, and even encouraged, to feel proud of their work!

I noticed that the PRearden also mentioned that if a person wanted to gain more experience in Songwriting, they should join a songwriting forum. I wholeheartedly agree with this. To me, as indicated above, the Users Showcase is not about songwriting tuition.

As an aside: for a number of years, I have been getting my songs critiqued by a group of local songwriters whom I trust and hold in high esteem. That being said, I have found that critiques can sometimes be based on personal prejudices or lack of musical understanding under the guise of "this is how music works". For example, comments about how "an introduction must be 4 bars long" when a huge number of successful songs have not had 4-bar intros; comments about how a lyrics' rhyme scheme must be one of a handful of possible patterns. To my mind, such comments don't show an appreciation for how song structure dictates and controls a listener's attention and emotion. For example, The Beatles wrote "Yesterday" with 7-bar A-sections; if you change that to an 8-bar A-section and try it out, it's easy to appreciate that the odd number of bars are essential to the song's emotional integrity. I always balance what people say against my understanding. My observations suggest that many posters in the Showcase Forum do not have this ability to put a critic's comments into musical perspective.

Recently, I attended my 15th weekend songwriting seminar. This represents over 150 hours of tuition from some of the best songwriters in the world today (Pat Pattison, Steve Seskin, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Jason Blume, Steve Webber). At this most recent seminar, I sat there thinking about how much I still have to learn. I don't know enough to comment legitimately on the work of others yet. Personally, I prefer the User Showcase to stay as a showcase forum and as a place where users can feel proud of what they've produced. To my mind, the forum should be a place for fun and maybe even to show off a little bit.

Regards,
Noel

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