Welcome  to Day 3 of the retreat! Grab your cozy slippers and your guitar and let's dive in:

So since yesterday’s video was all about sharing your work, today’s video is about the next logical step in this sharing sequence that you might have already been thinking about: what if you get some un-asked for criticism of the songs you share?

Ugh. Nothing is worse than the feeling of that first bad review or uncalled for response from someone who just, clearly does not get it. Or worse, someone you love telling you that they don’t like the song. Or asking you, “Why are you even doing this? This is bad.”

There is a major difference between constructive criticism, and non-constructive criticism.

First of all: if someone tells you, “Your songs are bad, you should stop.” That is SO irrelevant. That is not constructive, it’s just mean. People who say that are trying to break you down, and therefore not people you want to give any energy to. Their opinions don’t matter.

But here is where Day one’s lesson on knowing your “why” starts to become so important: If you know why you write, then you’re going to be in touch with the joy that songwriting brings you. If you know you love songwriting and it’s in your blood to make music, then that’s the only reason you ever need to write songs. Fuck anybody who says otherwise!

Here’s the thing yall: everyone is going to have an opinion. When you share your music, you’ll get ALL those opinions. You just want to stay focused on finding the people who love your music and love you, not the irrelevant people who want to break you down, the people that want you to stop doing this thing that brings you so much joy.

Whew, now that we got that out there, let’s move into today’s song prompt!