Hey Reader,

Over the next 30 days I'll be emailing you more each week...if you would rather stay getting our weekly email only, click here.

Family and friends are great, but...

Your family and friends are great - they want nothing but the best for you, they love you, and want you to succeed in the projects you take on...but...they are perhaps not always the best test audience for your songwriting (right?).

I remember when I started out performing live when I was 17, my mum would come to all my shows, smiling just as wide as you could imagine, joyfully nudging her friends (or random strangers) in the ribs, glowing with pride.

I get it. I now have kids (7 and 10 years old, currently). When my 7 year old does a backbend, kicks her legs over, and then farts on cue, I think she is absolute comedy-acrobat genius. I could not be prouder of the comedic timing of a well-placed fart (or even the accidental addition of one) by my adorable daughter.

All of which is to say, family and friends are not very reliable for objective feedback.

But feedback is essential to our growth in any field. Without it, we are left wondering “Is this working? What am I missing here?”

The key is to find the right mentor/s. These might be:

• a trusted teacher from high school or college
• co-writers
• bandmates
• other local songwriters we perform with
• a friend with excellent, and translatable taste.

What do we do when we don't have these people in our lives?

In the absence of access to these, we can treat our musical heroes as 'invisible' mentors - we can use their body of work as a source of study, observation, and inspiration. We can analyze:

• the songs forms
• the types of language they use
• the chord progressions
• the melody shapes and patterns
• the processes and methods they used to write.

Yes - we then need to assess our own work against theirs; not for the purposes of judgment, but to understand where our attempts are falling short of our vision - and to try again. To edge our capabilities closer to our goals.

How do you get meaningful feedback on your creative work? Hit reply and let me know.

🌺 Keppie

PS - If you get the opportunity to attend a feedback session with a great mentor, instead of asking for 'general feedback', try asking this one powerful question: "If you were a co-writer on this song, what would be the first thing you'd change?" It pushes someone to be invested in your song, by imagining their own name on it, and draws feedback out of the realm of 'theory' into real-life. Want to see feedback in action? You can also take a sneak peek inside the feedback sessions we run over here.

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