Important stuff they should teach you at recording school, but don’t. Part one, giving feedback. Make no mistake, this is a high level skill and it’s one you’re not born knowing how to do.
Unless you’re an island and never intend on working with anyone else. And by that I mean no collaborators, no clients. Here are some ground rules and you can think of them kind of like manners.
Here’s the first thing, make sure the person you’re talking to is actually asking for feedback. You’d be surprised how often somebody just wants to show you something. Thing two, your opinion isn’t really that important.
What’s valuable is your ability to understand and to channel the opinion of the intended audience. That’s a really big distinction and it probably means you got to ask some questions. Taking some time to understand the objective will help you with thing three, which is that nothing is ever an abject failure.
Point out what worked. But where it comes to talking about what’s not working, don’t bury the lead. Offer someone two, three different ways to remedy what you see is a problem.
You haven’t lived with the work the way they have and solutions aren’t always simple. If you really can’t think of anything to say, “Eh, it’s good.” That’s not helpful. The goal is to be honest and to be kind.
If something’s outside of your experience, there’s nothing wrong with saying so. Let us know your thoughts in the comments. And if you like this series on things they should teach you from recording school, but don’t, there are a lot of soft skills worth talking about.
The next one is probably getting feedback.
