Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you… It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.
I was at an after recital/concert meet and greet with Itzahk Perlman. I was around 8 or 9 at the time. One of the other kid’s mothers asked him if he enjoyed practicing as a child. She was horrified when he answered honestly, saying that he hated it and his parents had to make him practice until well into his teens. I snickered, and my mom swatted the back of my head to keep me quiet.
Totally agree. I never really go for the advice that it’s good enough just because you tried your best, or put your heart into it, or felt like you were expressing yourself. Sometimes it still sucks. That’s not to say it’s a reason to give up, though. If anything it’s a reason to keep trying. After 30 years of playing music, I don’t think that feeling ever fully goes away, either.
All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste.
That’s a pretty daring statement. I’d say “because we feel the need to express ourselves” which is quite a different -and far better defined- thing than “good taste” which is whatever I think it is and you bunch of troglodytes won’t understand anyway. Or vice versa.
Except the point Ira is making is that your tastes are good. He’s trying to build up the listener. I understand your perspective, and you’d be right if he was saying “My tastes are good”, in an exclusionary way
But he’s not. He’s saying “You’re not happy with your work because you know what sounds good and this isn’t it. But it will be. Keep going.”
Just that something is inclusive and sounds nice doesn’t make it true. And I don’t think anything that is obviously a BS statement could make me feel good. If you’re allright being flattered about your taste by a person that doesn’t obviously give a fuck about taste, fine. I’d find it distrurbing and completely undermining someone’s trustworthness.
That fact that something should be this way or another does not correlate with how it actually is.
It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.
Ira Glass
I was at an after recital/concert meet and greet with Itzahk Perlman. I was around 8 or 9 at the time. One of the other kid’s mothers asked him if he enjoyed practicing as a child. She was horrified when he answered honestly, saying that he hated it and his parents had to make him practice until well into his teens. I snickered, and my mom swatted the back of my head to keep me quiet.
first… couple of years? i thought i was supposef to sound like shit forever??
Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) - Baz Lurhmann
Totally agree. I never really go for the advice that it’s good enough just because you tried your best, or put your heart into it, or felt like you were expressing yourself. Sometimes it still sucks. That’s not to say it’s a reason to give up, though. If anything it’s a reason to keep trying. After 30 years of playing music, I don’t think that feeling ever fully goes away, either.
That’s a pretty daring statement. I’d say “because we feel the need to express ourselves” which is quite a different -and far better defined- thing than “good taste” which is whatever I think it is and you bunch of troglodytes won’t understand anyway. Or vice versa.
Except the point Ira is making is that your tastes are good. He’s trying to build up the listener. I understand your perspective, and you’d be right if he was saying “My tastes are good”, in an exclusionary way
But he’s not. He’s saying “You’re not happy with your work because you know what sounds good and this isn’t it. But it will be. Keep going.”
And I think that’s pretty goddamned positive
Just that something is inclusive and sounds nice doesn’t make it true. And I don’t think anything that is obviously a BS statement could make me feel good. If you’re allright being flattered about your taste by a person that doesn’t obviously give a fuck about taste, fine. I’d find it distrurbing and completely undermining someone’s trustworthness.
(Friedrich Nietzsche)
Jesus dude, who pissed in your Cheerios?
There, there. Now let’s cry a little more and maybe try that Am once more if it doesn’t hurt your little hands too much.