The Quandry of the artist...

There are many problems that face an artist in the production of his work. An artist's job, once he/she has an inspiration of some sort is mainly a process of "discrimination", choosing or aiming to keep or enhance ideas of good quality, and to eliminate or minimize the effects of bad quality...


The same with the making of the recording. Attempting to create that which compliments and adds value to the tune's concept, and reworking or throwing out anything that detracts.

In order to do this, an artist needs to be "quality sensitive". He or she must know the difference between fine champagne and "bathtub gin", so to speak. Usually this is built into the artists nature and so they are often known as "tempermental" in many aspects of their lives above and beyond their art. Often, I will be far from the end of making a recording, I will play what I've got to check my tracks (which are full of mistakes and imbalances), and my wife will say "Sounds fine...leave it like that.".....What?....NEVER!

Of course this is the nature of being an artist. If we settled for the level of quality we have, we would never improve and refine our art. We'd still be drawing "stick figures", like in kindergarten.

And herein lies the quandry of the artist. My sensabilities, skill and knowledge grow so dramatically with each work that I produce, that by the time I have finished, I really should throw that work out & remake it using all the knowledge that I got while doing it. But if I did, the same thing would happen all over again, and I would be re-making that tune over & over for the rest of my life, and no one would ever hear it!

So there has to come a point where I have to say..."good enough". And send it out into the world even with all its flaws.

As a result, while on one level I have a deep affection for all my tunes, on another level there isn't a single one I wouldn't tear apart & re-make. If I'm really tuned in, as I am when I'm working on music day to day, I actually cringe when I hear my finished tunes. With my newly gained knowledge and artistic senses I could have done so much better a job with it now, and all the mistakes are apparent.

And so I will never be an accurate judge of my own work. I have to focus on the feeling I have for the tune and try to ignore the technical aspects....

So to all of you out there with a tendency toward the critical...try not to be too harsh. To an artist, all work already finished is inferior, even to us...That work has a life of its own now. If its lucky, it will find a person who appreciates it, just the way it is..........