JPF Home Page Forums New Forum For Mentor Critiques: FAQ and Discussion

Hi Folks,

We are going to jump right in and start experimenting with a new JPF Program: Mentor Lyric and MP3 Critiques.

The idea here is to pick 1 Lyric or MP3 file per week and have one of our JPF Mentors and sometimes Industry Guests do full critiques and post them for everyone to read, learn from and discuss. The idea here is to learn, not argue. If you want to participate, you have to accept that premise. We welcome all sincere discussion and people are free to share different opinions, with their reasoning behind it, but we want to avoid anyone attacking anyone's opinion. That would defeat the purpose.

Long time JPF Mentor Harriet Schock has agreed to be the guinea pig for this program to get us started. You can learn more about her at www.harrietschock.com. I am sure as we test this program out, we'll find ways to improve it and make it more beneficial to everyone involved. So please be patient, especially through the first few attempts, while we figure out exactly how to best proceed.

For now, here is the methodology I suggest.

Step 1: Each week I will create a Post for new entries. The purpose of this post is for all those interested to post a copy of 1 lyric or MP3 file link with lyrics for consideration. We will consider the first 49 entries (1 full page if you're viewing 50 posts at a time like I do). If you don't make it in the first 49, you'll have to wait until the next time.

Step 2: The Mentor involved that week will scan through the entries and choose one. I will instruct them to find a Lyric or MP3 File and Lyric that they think will allow them to make some interesting points that will educate folks. Since we hope to do this weekly, we want Mentors to be able to address different types of strengths and weaknesses so that we continue to learn as a group. (Instead of simply making the same or similar points week after week).

Step 3: Once the mentor chooses that weeks victim.. er.. selection, we will post it for open comment from everyone. The idea here is to get everyone to commit to their critiques. We don't want the songwriter to reply or post themselves however. That will come later. (I.e. don't thank people or get into cross discussions).

Step 4: Once we give folks a chance to post their own critique, we'll post the Mentor Critique. (I will do this just below the lyric/link itself as an edit. So you'll see the Lyric and the Mentor Critique and then all the other critiques. Then we'll open it up for further discussion. Points to be considered would be both the feedback on the lyric as well as how others perceived and critiqued it as well. This will give us a lot of chances to learn and discuss.

Step 5: Once everyone has commented, we'll lock the post and start on the next week's critique process.

We will also have a rule that you can only enter a Lyric File 1 time. That (I hope) will encourage people to write NEW Lyrics each week. A little extra motivation to be more prolific. I won't be as strict with the MP3's because I know not everyone can afford new demos for different songs each week. If possible, we'll expand this to have a critique of both a Lyric and an MP3 File/Lyric each week. But let's start with 1 or the other this week and see how it goes. For week 1, we will accept either a Lyric Only OR an MP3 Link & Lyric. (If you happen to write an instrumental only track, you'll have to hold off for now).

How does that sound?

Brian