I am a firm believer in getting critiques of my work. I guess it's relative as to who is best to critique your work. The folks here at JPF have been quite helpful to me, for one avenue.

When I get critical responses, it is often apparent that the person is correct. Their suggestion would unquestionably make a song better...but it was something I failed to see or think about before. Sometimes a person will make a suggestion that I *know* will not work, because it does not fit with my "songwriter's voice", in other words...it would no longer be "my" song. Then there are times when I don't initially agree with someone's suggestion, but when 20 people have the same criticism...they may be right.

Just last night, I was at a critique session....two professional writers who had a different opinion of almost every song that was played for them. When it came time to critique my song, they had different opinions...different opinions of why the song doesn't work! So, in that case, I concentrated more on the fact that this particular song probably doesn't work in general.

Anyway, JPF is a very useful place for convenient, no cost song critiques. If you're just starting out, I especially think it will do you some good to utilize this resource. NSAI, as mentioned before, is also a great place. It does cost to join, but you get more bang for your buck out of it than any comparable organization, IMO.

Good luck to you.

Randy

http://www.songramp.com/homepage.ez?Who=RandyB
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/4/randybakermusic.htm