The OffBeat #21: (Guitar) Feedback as a Creative Tool

Professional development doesn't have to be painful

Feedback—from your guitar amp or from your boss—can be uncomfortable in the moment, but it’s also packed with potential.

In a recording studio or on stage, electric guitar feedback is caused by a sound loop that creates its own frequency, resulting in that infamous shrieking noise.

But guitar greats like Jimi Hendrix pioneered the use of feedback in their music, controlling the seemingly uncontrollable to enrich their creative work.

Even if you’re expecting the sound of feedback, like a guitar player attempting to generate it (John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers), or if you’re not but it becomes a happy accident (like John Lennon in the very first note of I Feel Fine) it can be harsh when feedback first squeals or vibrates out of the amp. But thinking of feedback as a tone that can be harnessed to add power to your work takes the acoustic edge off.

Same deal with feedback from your manager, peers, or even your loved ones. Whether or not you’re prepared for it, or you asked for it, it can be uncomfortable. But consider feedback as a creative tool: you don’t have to do anything with it, but it has really cool developmental potential.

Have a great week,

Allison

P.S. I’m partnering with The Creative Factor on a new monthly Book Report series. Check out the second installment for three offbeat takeaways from one of my favorite reads of 2023 so far, Richard Powers’s The Overstory.