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ronan
Administrator
Canada
2103 Posts |
 Posted - 15 July 2009 : 09:20:29 AM
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Hi members of the Compose Forums.
I am honoured that Mike agreed to my becoming the forum administrator. Mike has done a remarkable job of managing this forum since its inception in April of 2004 (if memory serves). He is still the owner of the site, so you can still contact him through the forum.
Having been a member of the forum since its beginning, I have seen how well Mike has managed to navigate us through good times and bad. The golden years of the fourm was, arguable, its first two years. There were a lot of active members and the membership list was growing. There were interesting challenges that dozens took part in. Discussions were lively and sometimes impassioned. Generally, a good time was had by all.
I will be using those first two years as a goal and I urge everyone to help get us there. This can be done if members are respectful of each other’s opinions, musical skills, and knowledge. Though I have been guilty of this in the past, I want to make it clear that, as administrator, I will not tolerate personal attacks on other members.
Music is a passionate undertaking, whether as composer, performer, or listener. It is also very personal. There have been lots of discoveries about music and the human experience in the past few years and I would like to get some discussions going on them. For now, we all have to remember that when someone puts notes on a staff and posts it, they are taking a personal risk. Imagine how you would feel if you put weeks or months into creating something and the comments you get are dismissive and negative. If I post something I’ve been working on for a couple of years and someone responds by writing, “This is garbage.” I would either be crushed or respond aggressively. So, let’s try to avoid posting that kind of response.
On the other hand, those who post their music should expect it to be criticized. Criticism does not mean negativity; it means that someone with more experience, or a different perspective, than you could point out where your work could be improved. You might disagree; you might even feel that you are being attacked (after all, the work is a part of you), but let’s try to keep things in perspective. If someone says to you that measures 33 through 45 of a work you’ve posted are weak, or don’t fit with the style of the rest of the piece—whatever—try to think about what they are saying in an objective way. Be honest: if their suggestions work for you, incorporate them; if they don’t, then don’t incorporate them. Getting defensive is understandable, but does not achieve anything. That is not to say that you might feel someone has misinterpreted your music and you explain what it is that you were trying to achieve. But remember that it is your music and is it really all that important that a handful of people on a forum, out of all the billions of inhabitants of this planet, don’t like or disagree with what you’ve done?
So let’s all strive to be positive, helpful, respectful, and—above all—have fun.
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Administrator: http://www.composeforums.com |
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A few words from Ron
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