I'm looking for advice. I occasionally write songs, but I haven't been doing it that long. I've been told I should aks a few honest people for feedback/criticism. I'd love to do this, but there just don't seem to be any people who are willing. I've e-mailed words to friends, I've sung the songs, and mostly the responses boil down to 1) the song being completely ignored, or 2) "nice song."

Maybe the reason is that people think I'm a bit more sensitive than I am. I honestly don't care about "it sucks" unless the person can explain why it sucks, and perhaps offer suggestions on making it not suck. "It sucks," "don't give up your day job," etc aren't criticism and don't take any actual thought to come up with. On the flip side, "nice song" doesn't take any more thought than "it sucks." Whether or not an individual likes a song is important, but it's not the same as and honest critique, and that's what I need.

Maybe it's because no one has the time, energy or will to listen/read critically and analyse the thing, then find a way to tell me what they like or what they think sounds dumb. This takes work and a willingness to do something folks may not be comfortable with.

So does anyone have any advice on how to find a few honest folks who are willing to critique songs?

Is there any sort of songwriting "workshop" on the web?

I've been to ONE songwriting workshop at a festival, and it was a particular songwriter explaining how he wrote songs. An hour isn't enough time to do more. I need hands-on experience. Are there any workshops like that? (Not that I could get to them!)

Is there any interest in doing it here?
The same reluctance to possibly hurt the feelings of others exists here. Personally, I don't care if people want to do the critique thing anonymously. I'm not stupid (not on a consistent basis, anyway ;-), and I can tell the difference between warm fuzzies/cold pricklies (ooh - the 70's all over again) and a critique - a critique is specific.

Ideas? Comments? Clues?