Brian's Daily Blog

When Your Best Isn't Good Enough

It's been a struggling two years, in effort to produce my first professional indie album. The album was to be called "Carribean Blue". Of late I've felt much more proficient in the craft. I was writting better tunes, and recording them well to boot. Playing all the instruments and handling the production is no easy task, and I've been getting darn good at it.

I've always received good feedback from friends, and concert goers. This gave me the confidence to enter into the NCSC Songwriters Contest. It was incredibly tough to choose two songs, that I would only be allowed to perform with one other. My music is more complex, and the whole makes the song, not just a guitar & vocals. Nevertheless I choose the two that sounded good solo and entered the contest. "Just A Man" & "Memories Fall". Those along with "I Need You" and "Carribean Blue (I Fall)" are some of the best work I've ever done. I thought I had a good chance of being a finalist, and thought I'd be a shoe-in for honorable mention.

Well It looks like that confidence was seriously misplaced. I neither placed or received honorable mention. Simply a thanks for trying, oh and here's a link for a free songwriting course. Good grief... since when did songwriting stop being an artform, and begin being a curriculum item. I would have appreciated, at least, some feedback on what I can improve on. At least I'll get a 100$ gift certificate to OASIS, whom was going to produce my CD.

Now my mind, swirling with doubt, is seriously debating spending the 1300$ it would take to realize the debut LP. It seems my best isn't good enough for a simple contest. How can I hope to be successfull in the real world, if I can't produce what they consider a good song. I've been playing for 16 years, and have made improvements. Maybe one day I'll posses the skills, licks, vocal hooks they're looking for. Meanwhile it's back to the drawing board... or scrap the idea entirely.

posted by B.C. @ 4:31 PM