B+

 
Believe me...I'm all about doing things right. My personality is an INTJ, which basically says that I can put my stock in the idea that there's a concrete way to do something: my way.

But at Songbird Camp, I had the realization that maybe every song doesn't have the potential to be perfect. Maybe I'm not expected to finish each day with a masterpiece. Maybe the idea of perfection is the enemy of an attempt at authentic art.

Steve Longbrake (pictured), who led the discussion on personalities and collaboration, said that his personality tends to make decisions quickly. "B+ is good enough," he said. To my personality, this doesn't jive. But I did realize that sometimes it's best to let a song be a B+ and just move on.

The first night of the retreat someone asked Luke Laird when he decided a song was finished. I expected him to talk about how often he works days and days perfecting the lyric or melody, but he simply answered, "At the end of the day."

If we spend all our time trying to make a B+ song an A, we may never get around to writing the A+ songs.

Keep writing (and moving on),

Ben