The Auditorium

This was a moribund site whose mission is A place to share music as you write it and other stuff like that. Someone asked for criticism of their music on the Music: Practice and Theory site on Stack Exchange, and someone mentioned (and reactivated) the Auditorium. Intrigued, I uploaded a link to the YouTube version of "My father's eyes". So far, there seems to be only three other people active, all names known to me from MPT.

Following is their criticism (names omitted; each person has their own paragraph):

• I listened to your song and I think it has great "bones". The song structure is good, the lyrics are clearly heartfelt. I think the performance and production are holding it back. For my tastes, the drums are mechanical and the high hat in particular is insistent and not exactly a good fit for the theme of the song. I might replace it with lazy, quiet, ride cymbal. The best thing would be to find or hire some great musicians to handle the most important parts and re-record it. I think the melody could really soar with a great singer (no offense), and having at least a human drummer lay the foundation would improve it a lot. A soloist might be nice, also. Not to play an actual solo, but to fill in the sound, play counterpoint with the vocals, and "humanize" the whole thing.

• I think your recording as is makes a descent [sic] demo. Song structure, melody, etc. are solid. There are so many ways you could work the demo to a final performance. A general idea: think dynamics and expression rather than singer with a rhythm section. The lyrics express some heavy feeling, disappointment, frustration, even some bitterness. A singer could go from nearly speaking the lyrics to singing to howling and really let their feelings out.

• I listened to your other YouTube songs. Your style is consistent, good stuff. I'm reminded of some songs by Elvis Costello like Almost Blue and Kid About It. There is some similarities with the basic song material, but his recordings show how it can be presented more dynamically.

My reaction: Thanks for the feedback. I'm well aware of my (lacking) abilities as a singer and also the lack of dynamics. I do try to introduce dynamics into the music but as a singer I try to model myself on Nick Drake or Randy Newman: they don't have dynamics and Randy isn't exactly a singer! If I were to describe my recordings in one word, they're too "polite".