TIPS TO HELP SONGWRITERS GET BETTER SONG CRITIQUES

​sometimes, people get frustrated with the kind of feedback they get on their songs, but when we dig into the issue, we discover that they really didn’t give the feedback giver much to go on. Here are some tips to help you get accurate, helpful feedback on your songs. The kind of feedback you can count on, and use them to grow your work.
 
Don’t submit finished demos if you can help it. It’s hard to give people feedback on a finished product. If you’ve already spent $800 on the demo, it breaks my heart to tell you that your second verse is ALL messed up. I’m probably going to go easier on you, because I don’t want to crush you and make you feel like you wasted your money. I’d much rather give you feedback on a work tape or a work in progress. Then, I feel like we can fix everything that needs fixing before you spend your money. Unless you send me the finished product and tell me that you don’t have problem redoing it. Then I’d know you have enough money to waste and I don’t need to feel guilty about being honest,

Tell me exactly what kind of feedback you want. I love it when people say “I want to know if I should demo this song.” Or, “I’m trying to make this a pitch for Bruno Mars, can you tell me if I’m close?” The more accurately you can describe what kind of feedback you want, the better feedback you will get. When one sends me a demo and say “What do you think?” they shouldn’t get upset of I say, “I think I’m hungry!”. And that is not my sarcasm there, it’s simply them, not asking me properly what I think on what aspect of their song. Before commenting I need information such as what they want to do with this song, etc. These factors will affect my judgment.
 
Let me know who your target audience is. Let me know if you consider the song a commercial song or just a song that you want to be great. Sometimes, the professional who is giving feedback assumes that everyone is trying to write a commercial song. If that’s not the case, they need to know. It’s best to tell that up front in either case.
 
Tell me what level of brutality you can handle. Some people get offended if they get criticism of any type. It’s ok to say, “Go easy on me, I’m feeling fragile right now”. The best feedback is going to come when you say “I can take it. Let me know everything that’s wrong with it.” In general it’s good for your own feelings to tell the critiques how far they can go and how direct they may be. 

Author

Hangi Tavakoli is our in-house established and professional music producer with 20 years of experience in songwriting, music production, mix and mastering. He has written and produced more than 5,000 published songs to-date, including some major hits in international scale.