My opinion of what's wrong/needs to be improved on with SG music scene.
- Thread starter noojoo
- Start date
visa
New member
This brings into question the concept of an "international scene". What exactly is an "international scene"?
Every internationally successful band stands where they are because they put in the sweat and blood to work up the ladders of their own local scenes, where there are hundreds of thousands of terrible bands that crash and burn. You just don't hear about them, but crappy bands are everywhere in the world.
If you're saying "The best Singapore has to offer cannot compare to the best that the world has to offer", well there's not much we can do about that in the traditional context. That's because these people have a market so large that there is a huge professional industry dedicated to the cause. We don't have that opportunity. We don't have the large pool of musicians who are able to quit their jobs to live off their guitars, or the market to sustain them. (Even then, we have people who are pushing the envelope to break into the international market!)
Are we going to give up though, and say that we can never make a difference? What is the purpose of music? It's not a competition like the Olympics. If you can inspire others, make a difference to their lives and make Singapore a better place to live in because people can go to a local gig and enjoy themselves, then I say we have a music scene worth being proud of.
Every internationally successful band stands where they are because they put in the sweat and blood to work up the ladders of their own local scenes, where there are hundreds of thousands of terrible bands that crash and burn. You just don't hear about them, but crappy bands are everywhere in the world.
If you're saying "The best Singapore has to offer cannot compare to the best that the world has to offer", well there's not much we can do about that in the traditional context. That's because these people have a market so large that there is a huge professional industry dedicated to the cause. We don't have that opportunity. We don't have the large pool of musicians who are able to quit their jobs to live off their guitars, or the market to sustain them. (Even then, we have people who are pushing the envelope to break into the international market!)
Are we going to give up though, and say that we can never make a difference? What is the purpose of music? It's not a competition like the Olympics. If you can inspire others, make a difference to their lives and make Singapore a better place to live in because people can go to a local gig and enjoy themselves, then I say we have a music scene worth being proud of.
visa
New member
tim said:
If I didn't, I wouldn't be here, and I wouldn't do what I do. The same can be said for every musician and gig-goer who puts their time, money, sweat and blood where their faith is.
I said "let's take the bullet, head on." I made a conscious effort to find common ground with you, and you say "whether you realize it or not."
Blank-
Your attitude sucks.
tim098
New member
Cool, I honestly didn't think you would say that. But I can tell you, not everyone sees it this way. And I can tell you this with even more confidence, out of those who say what u just did, less then half mean it and back it up with actions. Its just how people are.
Well then, everyone should get some sleep. And ai yo visa and blank you two should duel each other in a guitar hero battle at the soft gathering laaaa. my moneys on blank :lol:
What? Here comes the personal attacks again.visa;765650 I said "let's take the bullet said:
We do have a common ground. We both believe we can progress! Yes!
My attitude sucks?
I basically believe the exact same thing as you do, just that you are more friendly about your phrasing.
You did admit that local music here, compared to international music, is mediocre. Through your comparisons of the education system and what not, you said, I quote.
daryl
New member
i loled.
anyway,
i would suppose that means the bands in other countries, the states, europe, uk, japan. using them as a comparison point would give a bigger picture
yeah that's what i meant. not just in terms of success or records sold. rather, the quality of the music. i know that's its subjective blah blah but there comes a point we got to admit that aesthetic judgments can be disinterested and objective to a certain extent. lets see, gse vs the killers or franz ferdinand. who wins?
i agree with this aspect that we can be proud of it.. but it would be so much more awesome if i could enjoy a singaporean band as much as i enjoy listening to radiohead... you see. you're talking about enjoyment. we're talking about quality of music. it's a different issue.
visa
New member
Any other poster could have made posts the same way and I would have said the same thing, so no it is not personal. I don't even know you. =p
daryl
New member
YES WE CAN. YES WE CAN. YES WE CAN.
well i always thought the whole point of the thread was to address the what now question but it turned into a 'does local music suck?' thread or rather it was a 'KEEL BLANK WITH WALLS OF TEXT' thread for a while when danelectrico was here
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visa
New member
Well this is going to be difficult. For one, the production quality in Singapore is NOWHERE near the UK or US. They have people who do that for a living there, and competition is cut-throat.
If you're talking about Radiohead's live performance, they honed it over thousands of gigs in hundreds of venues. I'm willing to vouch that if a local band had that kind of gig experience, they would be of such calibre as well.
If you listen to very early Radiohead (when they were still called On A Friday), it was messy, out-of-sync dingy stuff that wasn't particularly impressive. That's pretty much the standard of local bands right now, but we don't have a path to progress up.
visa
New member
I'd like to bring up a thought that's been in my head for some time now, which is that competition always leads to improvement.
We always push ourselves harder when there is someone to beat.
(The most important thing of all, of course, is an underlying sense of purpose. If we get involved in any issue where the sole motivation is to beat the other party, it's rather senseless and hardly meaningful.)
But when there IS competition, we are always driven to be at our best, if not better. I believe that bands overseas are at the standards that they're at because they have to kick each others' butts to win over fans. It's a healthy sort of one-up thing that goes on.
I don't think this sort of healthy competition is encouraged enough. We either have carebears who do the "I love everybody" thing, or the unhealthy sort of scathing, rumour-spreading politics-driven competition- both of which which don't do anybody any favours.
What could we do about this?
We always push ourselves harder when there is someone to beat.
(The most important thing of all, of course, is an underlying sense of purpose. If we get involved in any issue where the sole motivation is to beat the other party, it's rather senseless and hardly meaningful.)
But when there IS competition, we are always driven to be at our best, if not better. I believe that bands overseas are at the standards that they're at because they have to kick each others' butts to win over fans. It's a healthy sort of one-up thing that goes on.
I don't think this sort of healthy competition is encouraged enough. We either have carebears who do the "I love everybody" thing, or the unhealthy sort of scathing, rumour-spreading politics-driven competition- both of which which don't do anybody any favours.
What could we do about this?
daryl
New member
not just production quality, although it matters. re production quality, i think we can work towards it. we do have professional studios in singapore yes? and we can mix/master overseas yes?
i'm mostly talking about the quality of songwriting. of course, comparing radiohead to any other band would result in shit for the other band. but it's an ideal to work towards.
i dont have specific examples cause i cant think of any my brain's kinda stoned, but the idea is for more creativity better songwriting in general i think that would attract support
daryl
New member
@visa: we always push ourselves when there is someone to beat, yeah.
firstly, i think that carebears shouldn't exist. if you want some carebearing, go talk to your girlfriend or your mommy who would give you all the praise you want. once its done, go face the real world outside where people aren't so patronising.
i don't think it's just about competition. it's also about having an open mind and taking criticism from all fronts. if someone says something about your music, the policy that should be adopted is not to ignore, i feel, but rather to consider it and make an objective judgement as well as you can.
complacency seems to be the order of the day in singapore. we can all be ac/dcs...
firstly, i think that carebears shouldn't exist. if you want some carebearing, go talk to your girlfriend or your mommy who would give you all the praise you want. once its done, go face the real world outside where people aren't so patronising.
i don't think it's just about competition. it's also about having an open mind and taking criticism from all fronts. if someone says something about your music, the policy that should be adopted is not to ignore, i feel, but rather to consider it and make an objective judgement as well as you can.
complacency seems to be the order of the day in singapore. we can all be ac/dcs...
Actually a personal attack is a personal attack, though obviously to a much lesser degree than if you said it in real life and we knew each other.
Like if I said "Dude, you're stupid as hell midnight marvel is the best band in the world you're just ignorant and extremely self-absorbed." to you, well I don't know you, but it is a personal attack. You're making assumptions on my personality based on my opinion of someone's music.
Anyway. I agree with you on the competition thing.
That is exactly the point I was trying to make about how mediocre bands stale the scene. If there isn't that much competition, we get this "Oh, why bother if we can just go half-way." thing. With everyone going half-way, the standard gets set there.
And most people aren't that self-critical, especially here where very little actual criticism is about, and they are happy with putting in half the effort. It's not to say what's wrong with them, but what could be done better.
I'm happy to see we actually agree, and it's just through all the walls of messy letters that my main message got altered.
As for radiohead, I think people treasure their songwriting alot more. People accuse them of being boring on stage!
SherT
New member
Self-criticism only works if the party in question possesses the capacity for rumination. Going back to an earlier point, that's going to be an uphill battle in the local context because of the fact that the carebears are more abundant than char kway teow. Sure, more support for local music, hell, anything local is always good (except Singapore Idol, that was a complete and total embarassment, considering Jaclyn Victor was simultaneously pwning our faces just across the causeway), but not when it becomes a fashion accessory that you wrap around your neck, as is the case with a substantial proportion of individuals, if you get my drift.
To be frank, I have no input to offer with regards to a solution at this point in time, save for someone or some group being able to rise above the crop to achieve palpable sucess, and drill into the community's collective head that cliques and contentment with mediocrity isn't the way to go. When a culture is built around that, it institutionalises a sense of false repose where everyone thinks "Ok, we've made it."
I have friends from the Phillipines living here who tell me about how the scene back home is so fiercely competitive that you'll get chewed up and spat out if you so much as attempt to take a stage without some semblance of quality. They have seen some of our top bands here perform many times (not going to name names here), and commented that some of them have quality, but a number of them would have been boo-ed off stage, even venturing into specifics about what they didn't like about the performance (sounds like a ripoff of *insert band name here*, why the hell are they all just standing around?, drummer making too many mistakes, sound at the venue stinks, et. al.)
Considering that most of them aren't musicians themselves, but they simply go to shows for the honest appreciation of The Music (sadly, a concept that's been clouded by gimmicks and internal politics here for a number of years now), yet are able to provide this level of constructive critique, this really speaks volumes about the state of affairs here. Food for thought? Perhaps, I mean come on, the average gig-goer here doesn't even know what the next band up on stage (or the band already playing, for that matter) is called.
Just 15 years ago, more than 80% of their radio broadcast content was imported from overseas, and now 90% of their content is 100% local. The bands that have "made it" over there are making a decent living off shows and album sales, and I've been told that a couple of them who have come over to perform in other parts of South East Asia do so because they have been filtered out by pinoy quality control. They simply can't cut it back home.
Judging from the standard of performing pinoy bands, and well, their musicians in general that I've seen locally, the system seems to work very well for them. Consistently high quality is apparent, and I daresay, even if the travelling bands don't meet the standards back home, they are already operating at an elevated plateau from most of our bands here.
Indeed, it wouldn't be fair to make a comparison of revenue and fanbase with the Phillipines because geographically and demographically they pwn our faces, but I'm not centering on the figures here; rather, I'm speaking of the quality they bring to the table as a result of a culture that fanbase has built. You may tie it down to gig experience, you may tie it down to the fact that they have played so many more venues, and have so many more opportunities available to them, but consider this; what's the point if you have no reason to improve?
Daryl took the words right out of my mouth. Whether you're playing on a 15x5 stage to 10 people, or in a 800x800 arena to 10,000 people, if everyone's just out to give you a backrub and a cuddle for the lacklustre, logically speaking, would you think about change?
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The foremost priority for us as a community is we need to learn how to break out of our comfort zones.
To be frank, I have no input to offer with regards to a solution at this point in time, save for someone or some group being able to rise above the crop to achieve palpable sucess, and drill into the community's collective head that cliques and contentment with mediocrity isn't the way to go. When a culture is built around that, it institutionalises a sense of false repose where everyone thinks "Ok, we've made it."
I have friends from the Phillipines living here who tell me about how the scene back home is so fiercely competitive that you'll get chewed up and spat out if you so much as attempt to take a stage without some semblance of quality. They have seen some of our top bands here perform many times (not going to name names here), and commented that some of them have quality, but a number of them would have been boo-ed off stage, even venturing into specifics about what they didn't like about the performance (sounds like a ripoff of *insert band name here*, why the hell are they all just standing around?, drummer making too many mistakes, sound at the venue stinks, et. al.)
Considering that most of them aren't musicians themselves, but they simply go to shows for the honest appreciation of The Music (sadly, a concept that's been clouded by gimmicks and internal politics here for a number of years now), yet are able to provide this level of constructive critique, this really speaks volumes about the state of affairs here. Food for thought? Perhaps, I mean come on, the average gig-goer here doesn't even know what the next band up on stage (or the band already playing, for that matter) is called.
Just 15 years ago, more than 80% of their radio broadcast content was imported from overseas, and now 90% of their content is 100% local. The bands that have "made it" over there are making a decent living off shows and album sales, and I've been told that a couple of them who have come over to perform in other parts of South East Asia do so because they have been filtered out by pinoy quality control. They simply can't cut it back home.
Judging from the standard of performing pinoy bands, and well, their musicians in general that I've seen locally, the system seems to work very well for them. Consistently high quality is apparent, and I daresay, even if the travelling bands don't meet the standards back home, they are already operating at an elevated plateau from most of our bands here.
Indeed, it wouldn't be fair to make a comparison of revenue and fanbase with the Phillipines because geographically and demographically they pwn our faces, but I'm not centering on the figures here; rather, I'm speaking of the quality they bring to the table as a result of a culture that fanbase has built. You may tie it down to gig experience, you may tie it down to the fact that they have played so many more venues, and have so many more opportunities available to them, but consider this; what's the point if you have no reason to improve?
Daryl took the words right out of my mouth. Whether you're playing on a 15x5 stage to 10 people, or in a 800x800 arena to 10,000 people, if everyone's just out to give you a backrub and a cuddle for the lacklustre, logically speaking, would you think about change?
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The foremost priority for us as a community is we need to learn how to break out of our comfort zones.
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Danelectrico
New member
daryl, first up i've no intention to flame blank - i doubt i've mindlessly insulted him or said anything i haven't backed up with examples. if you don't like long posts, don't read mine, simple. i seldom post irrelevantly here because i have no time for that. i'm just trying to share things that i have learned over time based on whatever limited experience i have been lucky enough to receive.
so now that i've established that this is not a blank must die thread, can we move on? thank you.
for starters there is no international music scene. take English music. a majority of artists with commercial and critical recognition are from either the US and UK, and this has reach to the rest of the world. countries like AU, the rest of the EU and Canada occasionally launch artists onto the US/UK dominated international platform, but these are few and far between. For non-mainstream music there may be certain pockets of growth that arguably are sufficient to create a swell of recognition; Norway and Finland for extreme metal, Sweden for indie pop, Canada for independent, more experimental left of centre indie rock, Australia for old skool 70s-ish rock n roll etc.
So where does that leave Singapore music? Will we ever reach that international stage, even for non-mainstream music - which Impiety has done - but this is more the exception than the norm?
It's not even about whether our bands are good enough to start. Like juggling, you start off with two pins, and you gradually add more until there are a lot of pins in the air at any one time. Very few bands start off being world class just out of the garage. Below i summarise some of the challenges we face.
Hypothetically, I think if [insert band of your choice] were born here instead of where they were, there would be no way they would ever have gotten where they were. Environmental factors (society, school, mindset, peer pressure, lack of support); lack of playing venues to drum up grassroots support or any touring track to gain experience and garner a larger fanbase; lack of experienced and knowledgable guidance (management); lack of opportunity within the industry with regard to promoters, record labels, publishers, simply because the branches here are neither equipped nor intended to support artist finding and development. the music industry is founded on territorial licensing; in other words if you sign with a record label, your assignment or licensing of your rights is on a territory by territory basis. A new artist might have to assign worldwide rights, but the label's only obligations are to release in specific territories that it has sole discretion over.
What does this mean? This means a US artist signing with a major label would contract directly with the label's US entity. The contract would initially start with the label releasing the album within the US, and then seeing how it goes from there. If the label has worldwide rights, it may decide to either release the albums in other territories or it may sub-license those rights to other local labels that may be more equipped to distribute and promote in those territories.
On the other hand, a SG band for example, would only have the option of contracting with the SG label entity for release within SG. Occasionally the territory will include other Asia pacific countries, but the reality is that unless the label is equally placed in all those territories, it is not going to be the case that the artist will get priority in other places. Say a label has SG, HK, MY and PH offices; the SG contract gives the artist the impression that the album will be released in those other countries. But will the HK, MY and PH offices, each their own independent entities with their own goals, targets AND roster of local bands, have any incentive to push an SG band, when their cut of the deal will be much lower due to the lower percentages derived from a sub-license?
That plus other politics and difficulties - for eg labels do not support touring (exception being new 360 contracts which are a hybrid of management, publishing, distribution, concert promotion deals), so even if your album is released there, how is the artist going to arrange for gigs and tour support? And, don't forget you'll be competing with that country's own local music industry.
Extrapolate that when thinking about what needs to be done to break into the US or UK - and it's even more staggering.
The truth is - you can't do anything without extensive touring and promotion. It's the only way to get recognised and while internet sensations can be made, artists derive most of their revenue and fan base from touring. So if you want to make an international career in music, prepare to tour. Out of pocket for the first couple (that means - accomodation, backline, gear, transport - not to mention preparation for your route, ie assuming booking, press etc is all taken care of).
When you finally get about to it - when you tour, you are playing 4 to 7 nights a week for up to a couple months. I've always maintained that one live show in front of a crowd is worth a hundred rehearsals in terms of experience and growth. Being on the road with a limited budget and scarcely any guidance from anyone other than yourselves and your crew also faces you with tons of challenges that you need to learn to quickly solve and resolve; as well as with opportunity, contacts and experience. Not to mention varying audiences who might be anything from enthusiastic to indifferent to hostile.
If a band even makes it to two or three tours, it's like trial by fire; their professional standards increase tremendously. They are the best they'll ever be at that moment of time, they're running at the top of their game. As a unit, they should be ridiculously tight and their only limitations would be each members' personal skill level. And of course, all that self evaluation and self criticism that daryl rightly deems is so important - you come face to face with it all the time.
Now look at any of us in Singapore. Not one of our bands playing Baybeats has even come close to that level of opportunity or experience. And you're wondering why the newer bands don't impress you much? But yet, during some gigs here with foreign headliners, the local support bands manage to hold their own despite the lack of comparative experience and often far inferior onstage gear and without their own crew. That's something to be proud of. Occasionally some support bands are noticeably terrible to the point of being embarrassing. Should promoters use that as an excuse to axe local support acts and curtail opportunities for new bands to play at more prominent gigs, just because they may not be at a certain level? You may have your own views, but I'm firm in my stance that these bands need to have as large a platform as they can get. Of course you need to have auditions to ensure a certain standard is met, then you give them the gig and encourage them and try to push them to do their best, and it's the band's responsibility not to throw that away.
Our scene needs to grow, slowly and in its own time, and while we need to find ways to overcome the geographical and infrastructural hurdles that seem beyond us (unless there's some major cash injection here), and in the meantime improve ourselves as best we can. Blank, your intentions I am sure are good and you're an advocate of tough love, but just saying "you're not good enough" only goes so far as a reality check. you gave your suggestions on how this can be addressed, i say that's a good start and that's to be appreciated. however i believe there's much more to it and fully understanding why this is what it is goes a long way to trying to find ways to fix and overcome these issues.
no one of us has all the answers and these are just my thoughts. i could be completely wrong or foolhardy, but i'm going to maintain that being proud of what we have here and what we've accomplished in a few short years despite all the factors against us, is good enough as any place to begin as a source of inspiration. NOW let's start to do the heavy lifting.
so now that i've established that this is not a blank must die thread, can we move on? thank you.
for starters there is no international music scene. take English music. a majority of artists with commercial and critical recognition are from either the US and UK, and this has reach to the rest of the world. countries like AU, the rest of the EU and Canada occasionally launch artists onto the US/UK dominated international platform, but these are few and far between. For non-mainstream music there may be certain pockets of growth that arguably are sufficient to create a swell of recognition; Norway and Finland for extreme metal, Sweden for indie pop, Canada for independent, more experimental left of centre indie rock, Australia for old skool 70s-ish rock n roll etc.
So where does that leave Singapore music? Will we ever reach that international stage, even for non-mainstream music - which Impiety has done - but this is more the exception than the norm?
It's not even about whether our bands are good enough to start. Like juggling, you start off with two pins, and you gradually add more until there are a lot of pins in the air at any one time. Very few bands start off being world class just out of the garage. Below i summarise some of the challenges we face.
Hypothetically, I think if [insert band of your choice] were born here instead of where they were, there would be no way they would ever have gotten where they were. Environmental factors (society, school, mindset, peer pressure, lack of support); lack of playing venues to drum up grassroots support or any touring track to gain experience and garner a larger fanbase; lack of experienced and knowledgable guidance (management); lack of opportunity within the industry with regard to promoters, record labels, publishers, simply because the branches here are neither equipped nor intended to support artist finding and development. the music industry is founded on territorial licensing; in other words if you sign with a record label, your assignment or licensing of your rights is on a territory by territory basis. A new artist might have to assign worldwide rights, but the label's only obligations are to release in specific territories that it has sole discretion over.
What does this mean? This means a US artist signing with a major label would contract directly with the label's US entity. The contract would initially start with the label releasing the album within the US, and then seeing how it goes from there. If the label has worldwide rights, it may decide to either release the albums in other territories or it may sub-license those rights to other local labels that may be more equipped to distribute and promote in those territories.
On the other hand, a SG band for example, would only have the option of contracting with the SG label entity for release within SG. Occasionally the territory will include other Asia pacific countries, but the reality is that unless the label is equally placed in all those territories, it is not going to be the case that the artist will get priority in other places. Say a label has SG, HK, MY and PH offices; the SG contract gives the artist the impression that the album will be released in those other countries. But will the HK, MY and PH offices, each their own independent entities with their own goals, targets AND roster of local bands, have any incentive to push an SG band, when their cut of the deal will be much lower due to the lower percentages derived from a sub-license?
That plus other politics and difficulties - for eg labels do not support touring (exception being new 360 contracts which are a hybrid of management, publishing, distribution, concert promotion deals), so even if your album is released there, how is the artist going to arrange for gigs and tour support? And, don't forget you'll be competing with that country's own local music industry.
Extrapolate that when thinking about what needs to be done to break into the US or UK - and it's even more staggering.
The truth is - you can't do anything without extensive touring and promotion. It's the only way to get recognised and while internet sensations can be made, artists derive most of their revenue and fan base from touring. So if you want to make an international career in music, prepare to tour. Out of pocket for the first couple (that means - accomodation, backline, gear, transport - not to mention preparation for your route, ie assuming booking, press etc is all taken care of).
When you finally get about to it - when you tour, you are playing 4 to 7 nights a week for up to a couple months. I've always maintained that one live show in front of a crowd is worth a hundred rehearsals in terms of experience and growth. Being on the road with a limited budget and scarcely any guidance from anyone other than yourselves and your crew also faces you with tons of challenges that you need to learn to quickly solve and resolve; as well as with opportunity, contacts and experience. Not to mention varying audiences who might be anything from enthusiastic to indifferent to hostile.
If a band even makes it to two or three tours, it's like trial by fire; their professional standards increase tremendously. They are the best they'll ever be at that moment of time, they're running at the top of their game. As a unit, they should be ridiculously tight and their only limitations would be each members' personal skill level. And of course, all that self evaluation and self criticism that daryl rightly deems is so important - you come face to face with it all the time.
Now look at any of us in Singapore. Not one of our bands playing Baybeats has even come close to that level of opportunity or experience. And you're wondering why the newer bands don't impress you much? But yet, during some gigs here with foreign headliners, the local support bands manage to hold their own despite the lack of comparative experience and often far inferior onstage gear and without their own crew. That's something to be proud of. Occasionally some support bands are noticeably terrible to the point of being embarrassing. Should promoters use that as an excuse to axe local support acts and curtail opportunities for new bands to play at more prominent gigs, just because they may not be at a certain level? You may have your own views, but I'm firm in my stance that these bands need to have as large a platform as they can get. Of course you need to have auditions to ensure a certain standard is met, then you give them the gig and encourage them and try to push them to do their best, and it's the band's responsibility not to throw that away.
Our scene needs to grow, slowly and in its own time, and while we need to find ways to overcome the geographical and infrastructural hurdles that seem beyond us (unless there's some major cash injection here), and in the meantime improve ourselves as best we can. Blank, your intentions I am sure are good and you're an advocate of tough love, but just saying "you're not good enough" only goes so far as a reality check. you gave your suggestions on how this can be addressed, i say that's a good start and that's to be appreciated. however i believe there's much more to it and fully understanding why this is what it is goes a long way to trying to find ways to fix and overcome these issues.
no one of us has all the answers and these are just my thoughts. i could be completely wrong or foolhardy, but i'm going to maintain that being proud of what we have here and what we've accomplished in a few short years despite all the factors against us, is good enough as any place to begin as a source of inspiration. NOW let's start to do the heavy lifting.
MarkDrumsYou
New member
I dunno bout you... but at the real world where i am playing right now which consist of YOUR so called "not so patronising" people, i do receive real flattering remarks from people who come up after gigs to talk to me. Does this make me COMPLACENT and make me think i'm great and hence stop improving on my playing? no! i still keep on my daily practice and these feedbacks let me know of how people feel of my playing etc. so why are you so bitter about praises? To me, i do often praise musicians who really play very well and deserve the compliments. Maybe the bitterness comes from your poor playing and hence no praise? den work on your playing lah.
anyways just to share this... i popped by Rafael Moreira's guitar clinic and he said that some people like to talk alot but they are not doing anything at all. All they do is criticize but aren't of any good themselves, which i really agree. I think people like Blank and Daryl could ask themselves if they are of any good to the music scene, and if they are, play some good music and show it.
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