Let's face it. The one ingredient that is a must for making good music is talent. By definition, talent is something that one either has or doesn't have. No amount of practice is going aquire it for you and no amount of encourgment by family and friends is going t bestow it upon you. And another thing; it takes a certain amount of talent to recognize talent (in other people) when you hear it. Not having talent carries with it the burden of not only not realizing that you suck, but how badly you suck.

If you feel a need to encourage people like this, then encourage them to do one of two things, depending on whether they're amateur or pro.

Amateur - encourage them not to embarrass themselves in front of their friends.

Pro - encourage them to find another way of making a living; they're giving talented, well trained professional musicians a bad name. Do a reverse, turn amateur.

I have to wonder if we aren't doing a disservice to this untalented lot by encouraging them to strive for goals they can never achieve and feeding their delusions that they'r better than they are.

I already know that I'll come under fire for this, BUT, if you compliment someone on a performance that is truly putrid, I have to question whether YOU know the difference between good and bad music. I'm not talking about subjectivity here, I'm talking about performances that most of the known world would collecively agree was bad, bad, bad.

We should all know what's coming as soon as we hear "I did this in one take", or "there might be a few mistakes", etc., etc. That's a clue to me that they already know it sucks. If that's the case, take the time to put something out there that you think is good and leave off the excuses.

Lastly, as someone pointed out, if you post music to a board full of musicians (real or imagined), expect it to be critiqued, sometimes by someone who knows what they're talking about and doesn't feel the need to hand out "warm fuzzies" just for the hell of it. That being the case, I would have to say by way of advice, "If you can't stand the heat.......".


Of course, I could be wrong about all of the above.

chas