giving good feedback for artists

[swansdown]

What things do musicians like to see when reading feedback, particularly from non-musicians?

Usually I post

- that I liked it + why I liked it (try to identify the parts)

- emotions I felt while listening

- atmosphere or mood the piece invokes

What else would be appreciated?

(Did a little search for feedback threads. If I missed any existing ones, my apologies. )

Edited September 8, 2023 by swansdown

[timaeus222]

Constructive criticism is good, if you trust yourself in giving advice or you want to give advice.

[WillRock]

Honest, polite feedback. It can be anything, constructive, or not. Just a simple why you liked it can really help make someone feel proud of their work for example.

[Garpocalypse]

Constructive is good but don't feel that you need to give detailed musical advice in order to contribute. There's plenty of sources for that kind of advice that someone seeking it can get. It's the comments from the listener with untrained ears or little idea what is going on harmonically with a piece that i am really interested in and would like to see more of on the forums. I'm sure others are interested in that as well.

It looks like the list you mentioned is about all that anyone could be looking for. Which is more than a typical youtube comment.

[timaeus222]

Constructive is good but don't feel that you need to give detailed musical advice in order to contribute. There's plenty of sources for that kind of advice that someone seeking it can get. It's the comments from the listener with untrained ears or little idea what is going on harmonically with a piece that i am really interested in and would like to see more of on the forums. I'm sure others are interested in that as well.

Yeah, definitely. Those kinds of people have almost zero bias on production values, so they tend to be almost entirely subjective, which is great for arrangement practice. Of course, something more than "that's pretty cool", or "nice" would be helpful.

[Esperado]

It's the comments from the listener with untrained ears or little idea what is going on harmonically with a piece that i am really interested in

this is actually helpful to me. I find that I want to be more helpful in giving feedback to other artists ,but when confronted with a mix beyond my production comprehension level, i tend to just stay quiet for fear of sounding uneducated. But thinking of it, a more green perspective can actually help differentiate what a listener gets, from what the producer hopes the listener gets.

[swansdown]

That is very helpful, thank you all.

What I'll start adding more often is why I liked a piece or what I liked about it. From what everyone has said, this seems to be the best thing I can contribute.

Would this sort of non-musician feedback be useful on the work in progress forum? Just now, I've realized I've stuck entirely to the review threads. Can't say I'm around a lot, but I could pop in there too.

[Dark3den]

If you thought the piece was terrific, then the best feedback you can give is to share it with others. Let the producer know that you shared and liked. If something isn't quite up to that par, I think it's nice to receive useful feedback, such as, what didn't work well in a mix. Of course, tell them something you truly enjoyed first.

[swansdown]

That's a good point too. Definitely spread the word about it.