I seem to have lost my passion for making music. How do I know if it's just a phase or permanent?

Anything about MUSIC but doesn't fit into the forums above.
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All very good points here guys but if the op has lost interest,passion and drive he probably wont want to learn anything new.We all know what it feels like when you just want to get down and create something new and i am sure most of us know what its like when you dont/cant, but ask yourself what else you have lost interest in.My guess (i could be wrong and most probably will be)is that your focus is on the music because it was and is your escapism,i from my own personal experience,if ever i thought that my music was going down hill i would also mentally go down hill.I love music and i am also very passionate about so its kind of like my best buddy.Try not let it get the best of you cos i am sure its probably a glitch and it will defo come back. :( :scared: :wink: :ud: :)
The inner workings of vurts mind are a force to be reckoned with.
music is a need in my life...yes I could survive without it but tbh I dont know how
myfeebleeffort
https://paulroach2.bandcamp.com/
https://hearthis.at/83hdtrvm/

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Doesn't sound to me as if you were ever a musician. As you said , you pushed buttons and used loops and samples. This is the thing, the plethora of tools widely available and affordable make it too easy for some folks. Especially sample libraries. I know someone who claims to be a musician who couldn't tell you what a chord or a progression was, doesn't play an instrument, owns pro tools and makes music by using loops. In fact, he has way better equipment than I do because he can afford it and he wants to be famous, although he doesn't say so. What I have noticed with him, however, is that his passion for making music is slowly ebbing because while he is making, he isn't creating. I guess the status of viewing oneself or calling oneself a musician is just too hard to resist. I myself think we're hardwired to create stuff, not just throw stuff together and mix and match stuff made by other people. I also think that anything worth doing, and I mean anything, is not easy. If it's your passion, then it's fun, that doesn't make it easy. I love writing melodies, bass lines, rhythms. I also love figuring out chord progressions and creating chords. In fact, the latter is what I do when my eyes are closed in order to induce sleep. If your heart is not in it, find another home for it.

Ciao!

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Several people have mentioned a key word in opening up creativity: learning.

I think if you're not constantly learning - in some form, either formal or informal - you're going to become stale: you'll have done "everything".

Some activities don't require creativity (e.g. the ones you list as absorbing your time) but some, like making music, do. My top hobby is learning - I have to make time for everything else! I'm "lucky" that I'm now back at university studying ("lucky" to have lost my job...). Anything vaguely new distracts me from what I'm meant to be doing into learning mode.

I like playing music - drumming - and try to compose because that's also a learning process (about myself). But I'd also back up those suggesting a more formal route if you're looking to get into composing more seriously -- I got what US people would call a "high school" education (O-level in the old UK vocabulary) in music (covering notation, etc) and I know my keyboard notes, played clarinet in the school orchestra, but that was ... ugh many years ago and long before I started making music for fun. Even so, having that fundamental knowledge is a wonderful foundation.

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In my experience, asking why you're practicing an art (which lurks at the heart of your post) isn't very helpful - it will soon confront you with the gaping hole that is 'what's the point of anything?'.

If you've really lost your passion for making music then it really shouldn't be a problem because you've simply lost the passion for making music! Congrats - you have now lots of time on your hands to pursue writing or painting or another artform, or simply decide being on the giving end of culture isn't for you.

If you've lost the passion for making music AND you feel you're the worse for it/miss out on something/it shouldn't be so, chances are you're just in a rut (usually caused by failure to get out of some comfort zone or other), or you lack the ability to make music you like, or it's just a plain creative lull as described in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZXccVxJ ... AAAAAAAAAA

The mere fact you're posting about it suggests to me the latter - so it might be worth asking yourself what you can do to make music fun again (getting more proficient, trying out fun new techniques) or if you simply need a break.

Marco :D
Last edited by Bonteburg on Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Bonteburg wrote:In my experience, asking why you're practicing an art (which lurks at the heart of your post) isn't very helpful - it will soon confront you with the gaping hole that is 'what's the point of anything?'.

If you've really lost your passion for making music then it really isn't a problem because you've simply lost the passion for making music! Congrats - you have now lots of time on your hands to pursue writing or painting or another artform, or simply decide being on the giving end of culture isn't for you.

If you've lost the passion for making music AND you feel you're the worse for it/miss out on something/it shouldn't be so, chances are you're just in a rut (usually caused by failure to get out of some comfort zone or other), or you lack the ability to make music you like, or it's just a plain creative lull as described in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZXccVxJ ... AAAAAAAAAA

The mere fact you're posting about it suggests to me the latter - so it might be worth asking yourself if what you can do to make music fun again (getting more proficient, trying out fun new techniques) or if you simply need a break.

Marco :D
+1 Life is about having fun(so i've been told) :P
The inner workings of vurts mind are a force to be reckoned with.
music is a need in my life...yes I could survive without it but tbh I dont know how
myfeebleeffort
https://paulroach2.bandcamp.com/
https://hearthis.at/83hdtrvm/

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1-2-Many wrote:This one's Easy! Everything's a Phase, Everything!
+1 I get ribbing when I say this fairly often but life is about cycles as is I believe pretty much everything, the key is in the timing of the cycles. In this case I would suggest you can't have inspiration without the occasional periods of a lack of inspiration :shrug:
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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iDumi wrote:
Sendy wrote:Ask yourself, would you be sad if you could never make music again?
No... It doesn't feel like I would... this is my answer right now.
Well this answers the question to you if it is just a time that goes by or if it is a time that never ends, your music"black hole"

The answer shows, that you decide to make music you are not running on the order of somebody or on a secret command or something that forces you to make music.
The musician is you and all choices are in your hand even the decision of when you start again or how long you will have a break, and even the break you have now...........you decided it, no on else.

Your are the boss and you can decide to stop it or to start again, don't forget you are not musics victim you are its master:)

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pljones wrote:Several people have mentioned a key word in opening up creativity: learning.

I think if you're not constantly learning - in some form, either formal or informal - you're going to become stale: you'll have done "everything".

Some activities don't require creativity (e.g. the ones you list as absorbing your time) but some, like making music, do. My top hobby is learning - I have to make time for everything else! I'm "lucky" that I'm now back at university studying ("lucky" to have lost my job...). Anything vaguely new distracts me from what I'm meant to be doing into learning mode.

I like playing music - drumming - and try to compose because that's also a learning process (about myself). But I'd also back up those suggesting a more formal route if you're looking to get into composing more seriously -- I got what US people would call a "high school" education (O-level in the old UK vocabulary) in music (covering notation, etc) and I know my keyboard notes, played clarinet in the school orchestra, but that was ... ugh many years ago and long before I started making music for fun. Even so, having that fundamental knowledge is a wonderful foundation.
Pretty much a same story as yours Peter, Swap Drumming for guitar playing and it is nearly identical. Similar also in how i try not stagnate as it is all too easy to do. When in a 'this is not feeling good' mindset and creativity is lacking what i personally do is forget about opening anything DAW or related on a computer (even to the point of just not even using one of my computers at all), Then pickup and (if its an electric which it is most off the time, Plug-in to my pedal board/chains and amps/cabs) and start playing/practicing even the most simple of stuff. Also i will/do always put on albums that remind me exactly what I am first and foremost: A very humble music fan and musician second then audio engineer/mix engineer and all the other more technical side of things third most

Like John mentioned and again it is also another thing which resonates with me personally, Creative/Inspired Cycles...They simply can not and would not exist without the fully Uncreative/Uninspired Cycles as both have to exist in my book for there to even be good times, bad times and downright horrible times. Again what i mentioned i do above can help bring about good times but also just as easily bring on a feeling of hopelessness depending on alot of variables but frame of mind has got to be the most important of said variables for me

Good luck iDumi with whatever may the outcome be, Take care and all my best to all as always :)

Dean

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Pretty much the same thing here. Learning, to me, is key to everything.

Same with the cycle thing. There are going to be times when being inspired are going to be there..and then not there. Sometimes it is better to go with the flow, other times maybe not so much.

And, as always, know that you have friends here as well. Take care!! :)
Barry
If a billion people believe a stupid thing it is still a stupid thing

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Yes, everything is a phase... I know where you're at. I had one almost one year 'pause' in interest in making music and it seems I'm there again. I don't feel a 'writing block' or anything like it, I just don't see the point. I've been unpractical person for most of my life, writing songs just for yourself is not practical and doesn't feel good in the long run, sometimes I just feel I should focus on something serious. But who know, feelings change. So I'd advise against selling the gear, it might come handy one day.

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I was bored of music not too long ago. I found that I wasn't thinking big enough with my music. Writing music at the same 'level' for ten years will bore you. Listen to new genres of music, study music theory, learn to write stories (it helps with writing music, believe it or not), learn sound design, and stop using samples and loops. Once you get the element of creativity again, the desire to create will come back as well.

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I'd give up on the pot. It's well known to reduce, or even kill interests & motivation. I'm suffering a similar problem due to psych drugs (taking them & then recovering from them now that I'm off them). In my case, I'm sad about the reduced motivation because I love music. Things just don't catch my interest as much, sound wise. Then again, physical discomfort has much to do with it too. Sitting in an uncomfortable workspace and using a misbehaving computer cause discomfort and frustration. No one wants to feel like that. Music making requires effort but gaming and whatever other entertaining time wasters I have don't, so I get caught up wasting time instead of being productive. So I've found I need to exercise and get in shape. Exercise gets me moving physically and emotionally. The increased oxygen to the brain is probably one of the key points there.

Any way, that's my thinking on the topic.
- dysamoria.com
my music @ SoundCloud

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I've been making music since 1999. I had ups & downs, but it was always about expressing myself & let myself be wondered by "found sounds" & strange noises in the first place.
I did a couple of self-made CDr homemade releases, had a couple of release on underground "labels" too, it was always fun.
Lately I've been producing less music since I'm quite busy with my studies but I have enough spare time (at least a couple of hours) I make a track! :-D

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I resonate with most of what's been said here.

Firstly, learning new stuff is also one of my hobbies... a pretty big one. Right now I'm reading and absorbing lots of information, with quite a bit of enthusiasm, about android phones, flashing ROMs, kernels, modding, theming etc... Also very recently I tried my hand at video editing and montage in Vegas. That was fun... Only yesterday I was thinking about starting a blog where I would write about the latest and hottest in the gadget industry... so my creative drive is not dead, it's just wandering aimlessly, trying to find a niche.

Music is, as others have said, just a way for me to express myself, and up until recently it's been THE way. Before that, all throughout junior high and highschool I wrote poetry (some good, mostly bad) and some prose.

There was a time a couple of years ago when I started taking piano lessons... but it was a terrible experience. Maybe I had the wrong teacher but all the lessons did was to discourage me to the point where the first lesson was my last. My (large) fingers would stumble on the keys, pressing 2 keys at once by mistake and so on... Regarding theory... I asked the teacher to start from the very basics and I don't know if she did, but I think I remember something about intervals, whole notes, half notes etc. There was a flood of information that confused and discouraged me even more when I realized how much there is to learn and how difficult and unnatural it felt to me.

Then I tried learning on my own. I bought a 25key midi controller and downloaded some tutorials but that went no where. Back then (this was some 3-4 years ago) I was always inspired and churned some 6-7 tunes a month. I felt learning to play slowed me down and kept me from making music. It was slow and I didn't feel it went anywhere. Then I sold the midi keyboard.

About not being able to make music any more... ever, I feel differently today. There are things I never tried and always wanted to do, the main one being a road-trip around the country side to find and record folklore. I'm a big fan of Romanian folk music and balkan music in general and I've been wanting for years to go find and record unknown rural artists for an album, but I never got around to doing that. There's also lots of ideas about tunes, rhythms all floating in my head. So right now... I think I would be pretty sad if I was never able to make music again.

Furthermore, I feel I have achieved all the goals I had when I started at this. Like I said I never wanted fame and riches (yeah, I know... how weird) but I did want some recognition. And I kind of got it. I released a couple of EPs, only last week a track of mine appeared on a pretty famous compilation, feedback is generally tremendously positive concerning my tunes, people from blogs etc started asking me to make mixtapes for them, I get asked to dj quite a bit more than I used to and to be stranger than weird... all this doesn't encourage me. It actually feels I have nothing more to achieve, that I have done all I set up to do and to be honest that is depressing.

Regarding weed... I know they say it can kill motivation but the effect it has on me is quite the opposite. Everytime I light up a joint, after the very first puffs my brain kind of switches to "creative mode". I suddenly have lots of ideas and I feel I have to open up Live and do something. If I'm at home, I do and I tinker away, going with the flow but I almost never commit to anything. Close>save?>click NO... If I'm not at home and I smoke weed I have this weird feeling that I could be making some seriously bad-ass beats if I had my computer.

And to make an unnecessarily long post even longer... I have wanted to learn how to play the accordion for a while... Or some of those wind instruments they play in balkan music.

In the end, I guess I answered my own question (with invaluable help from you guys) and this is all just a phase. Damn it.. now I feel like a sensitive prima donna on her period.

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I just gave up.

I've been making music since the mid 90s and I gave it a rest once or twice and kept coming back and playing in new bands. Ever since I had a child and got into my 'dream' career, music has been put on the shelf.

It's different this time because I no longer have random tunes or melodies that come to mind anymore. I had sort of a noisy mind which was what drove me to create and experiment with sound. Now I have no creative impulses it seems so even when I pick up my guitar on that rare occasion. I have nothing driving me anymore.

I bought a newer sound card last year and haven't even used it once. Had a problem installing it and never went further. That was proof to me of how little I care about creating anymore.

I love the idea of getting back on stage and being in my local scene again but that only has to do with ego and socializing and isn't enough to drive me to be creative.

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