Re: What do you do when...
Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:59 am
i need to be more honest about this stuff or i'll end up having to go to shows i'll hate
Gearmond wrote:D.o.S. wrote:It's even worse when its your friends.
I have one friend who does acoustic-folky stuff. I have another friend who does Ben Folds/Gilbert + Sullivan style piano pop.
Since you don't want to burn bridges, the "it's not really my jam, but it's done well" is a great one to turn to.
but what if its crap?
All depends on how much you want to be friends with this person. If you want to end it, be brutally honest. If you want to remain friends, go with "it's not really my thing... but you go, girl!"
And if they REALLY dig for opinions, try to be constructive with your criticism. Don't address the overall level of crappiness, find things that they can actually act on - "Well, it would be good if you could punch up the dynamics between the verse and the chorus," "That phrase you used in the verse lyrics didn't really work for me - maybe try some other way to express that," "The harmonies got kind of pitchy around the prechorus - what if you went down instead of up?" - that sort of thing.
EDIT: Of course, if you do that, and they take you up on the advice, you're setting yourself up to hear it more when they're done with the revisions. Just a word of warning.
