What's the worst feedback you've ever gotten?

So I’m learning about 10 new songs right now and because of that I’m referring to tab while I’m playing in practice. It’s going ok but I’m usually a, “I can play it from memory if I can play it” kinda guy. Like maybe a quick peek at tab but that’s it.

So while I’m squinting at tab on my tablet I’m focused and not moving much.

Last practice we are almost an hour in and my guitar player says to me, “Dude you gotta keep time!”

I thought woh, it would have been better just to kick me right in the balls. Is my timing really that sh*??!!??

Instead of getting pissed (cause I thought I was keeping up) I paused my rage and he continued, “yea man you gotta move your body! It’ll help you and it’ll help the audience get into it too”

So yea it went from a “dude you f*n suck” to a “hey move a little” which I wasn’t doing because I was reading :sweat_smile::face_with_hand_over_mouth:

So anyway, not actually horrible feedback (accurate) but for a hot second, there were almost tears :rofl:

Anyway, that got longer than I would have hoped. I’d love to hear other people’s feedback horror stories…

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I just started so all I have is my 13 year saying, “Uh, no, that’s not right.” Honest feedback, I guess :laughing:

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so not exactly to the OPs question but as i teach and practice art and design, the worst feedback i have ever gotten, ever given, and/or ever heard is:

“i love it.”

or

“i hate it.”

these are equally useless comments in terms of improvment, learning, etc… while one makes me feel good and one makes me feel bad, neither help me get any better.

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I love it! :rofl:

Very true. It’s even hard on here posting covers because everyone is super supportive which I love but direct feedback is what can help you grow most.

I like the **** sandwich approach.
1 positive
1 negative/constructive
1 positive

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i have written quite a bit about giving and receiving feedback — specifically in visual art & design but certainly applies to music as well, including this little website:

https://howtocrit.com

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Nice! I think as an artist leading with questions like, “this part felt rough for me what do you think? Any ideas on how I could be better?”

Sometimes we are just negative on ourselves or we are too close to tell that that specific part felt rough but it was the rest of the piece that was actually off.

Bass has been a master class in getting feedback and killing my own negative self talk.

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“If you walk away feeling like garbage, or like you were beaten up, it was not a useful crit.”

:100:

I definitely saw a lot of (and probably produced) tears during my art school days :grimacing:

This is important - being in the mindset to be open to feedback and learning, rather than fearing any type of criticism :slightly_smiling_face:

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As a drummer : playing my heart out in front of other guys ( from another band ) in our practice space , and it went really well.
After a few songs the drummer of the other band comes over to me and says : you know , I also give drum lessons… what a douche…

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My friend asked us to jam once (he plays guitar) but had this kiddo drum set, mind you I’ve not played since 5th grade.l and I’m a big 300lb male.

I hit the drum 3 times and he’s like, “you suck stop playing”. Meanwhile the dude owns 40 guitars probably 100 pedals but has never played a full song :clown_face:

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Send me the tapes and I’ll let you know if was right :wink:

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Sadly no tape…
There is a reason I prefer drunks over alcoholics :rofl:
Didn’t take me long to remove the problem of him from my life…

Not you @MattyD

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John Entwhistle stood there like a bored uncle rolling his eyes at the antics of the kids. Good company to keep

Not saying you have to do that but you know, there are some iconic players who didn’t jump around like a flea.

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I was playing in a band with some mates years ago in a pub in Reading. We finished the first half of the set with our track “On the rise”, which segued from a Black Sabbath bass riff I stole (Warning) to the lead singer screaming (he was trying to imitate Portishead), to a full on thrashout with me hitting my distortion pedal and cranking out feedback from the 100W vocal PA I was using as a bass amp.

We broke for the intermission, and the singer came back from the bar and said “The staff say we have to leave”…

Crazy times! And people worry about going on stage with the wrong compression pedal :rofl:

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“The staff say we have to leave” that would be a badass tagline or name for a metal band. :broccoli:

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:smile:

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“play one the drummer knows”

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Oh yeah, all familiar problems here. I can tell you this, you’ll be amazed what you’ll hear if you’ll record your band playing then go back in for a listen. No one ever sounds like what they think they do and in my band, we record all our shows for review. We had two songs the other night where we had almost a 1 minute gap in between songs from players dicking around, tuning, etc. We pride ourselves on a 10-15 second turn around from song to song but I never would have guessed that happened.

The more you play the material the more familiar it’ll become. Hang in there and catch the drummer screwing up on something so you can return the favor! :slight_smile:

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Best worst feedback I ever got was in the military during Initial training.

On the parade square. 149 people facing one way and me facing 180 degrees the wrong way at the end of a drill maneuver.

Drill Sergeant marches across with his pace stick under arm. Slowly looks me up and down and screams in my face.

“I don’t know what your doing sir, but you’re doing it all fucking wrong”

I still smile thinking about that some 35 years later. I’ve also stolen that line and used it on countless job sites.

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