If you don't seem to be going anywhere, should you just stop making music?

[Tricky-Loops]

Maybe ask yourself if you're not enjoying it because you're trying to force it or if there truly is no aspect of music that you enjoy.

Just before I posted this my 3 year old daughter was using her cheap electronic keyboard to generate drums while alternating playing a tin whistle and singing words into an iPad add that pitch shifts and repeats what she does. She has no thought of an audience, she just enjoys doing it and I can't see any better reason for doing it other than that.

But keep in mind that your daughter doesn't need to get money to survive (except if you're living in Cambodia, there may be even 3-years-olds who work in factories... )

Creativity can only come when there is no force...

[jancivil]

I couldn't ever not do music.

Ditto. Even when life is spinning out of control and I can't find the time or energy to be productive (like it's been for the past year), I think about it constantly, read about it, talk about it, or whatever.

right. I have had long periods where I had no real access to 'make' music but I spent my days in the library studying it.

If music isn't the richest thing in your life, per se, I think you're missing something. When 'the need for music' is driven as though an extension of one's ego structure or 'my place in life', it's not on track.

*I was born this way*. if I could have chosen to leave music for say law, I would def. have had a more comfortable life. like that...

[arkmabat]

So, it's years and thousands of dollars invested and all I have to show for it is a free Soundcloud page. I really don't feel I have the 'fire' I had when it comes to making music. Nobody buys anything. Barely comments are posted and I feel -for what?
I don't even feel I know music anymore. The stuff I hear I loathe and I've always just made music I like, and not cared what anyone else thinks.
So it begs the question, do I try and sell what I can to recoup some of my huge investment? What if the muse strikes again later?
I don't know if it's just the time of year or the mood I'm in, but I just feel aimless and restless and nothing makes me happy anymore.
Maybe it's just one of those 'life changes' everyone goes through.
WTF knows....

You may already do this but, put a cause behind what youre composing. Picture a story behind the music.

[jsp1979]

Looks like it's time for the Ira Glass video:

http://vimeo.com/24715531

I'd never seen this before, but it really rings true.

[vata44]

I would say stop if it's causing stress or heartache... otherwise if you enjoy it, then continue, if not, seek other hobbies. I think most people here love making music and could not imagine ever stopping, so it's something you need to understand within yourself... Are you neglecting other areas of your life? Do you have other inspirations that call your attention more now?

There is no shame in taking a break, calling enough is enough, or simply toning it down a bit.

[rp314]

Regarding Charles Ives.

According to his wife, one day in early 1927 he came downstairs with tears in his eyes. He could compose no more, he said, "nothing sounds right." There have been numerous theories advanced to explain the silence of his late years, which seems as mysterious as the last several decades of the life of Jean Sibelius, who also stopped composing at almost the same time. While Ives had stopped composing, and was increasingly plagued by health problems, he did continue to revise and refine his earlier work, as well as oversee premieres of his music. After continuing health problems, including diabetes, in 1930 he retired from his insurance business, which gave him more time to devote to his musical work, but he was unable to write any new music. During the 1940s he revised his Concord Sonata, publishing it in 1947 (an earlier version of the sonata and the accompanying prose volume, Essays Before a Sonata were privately printed in 1920).

Ives died of a stroke in 1954 in New York City.

The rigorous truth: everyone's journey is a personal one, full of complications. If there was some universal formula, we'd all probably be the same, just like in some Twilight Zone episode. It's more interesting this way. Especially when it comes to Art...

[ghettosynth]

It could be worse, this could be you:











And the best, really, you have to try and make it all the way through this, it's really that good, no seriously, this must be the best video on youtube.



Humor aside, I have more to say on this and I'll get back to it later. For now, enjoy a laugh at the expense of others, and, what exactly is the lead singer doing during the solo in the first video?

[ghettosynth]

So, it's years and thousands of dollars invested and all I have to show for it is a free Soundcloud page.

Only thousands? You aren't trying hard enough. You have to count tens of thousands before you can start to feel that way. I think that all amateur musicians start to ask this question at some point. I don't have a perspective on what a pro-musician's experience is, so I'll let others tackle that point of view.

So, someone mentioned joining a band to get out of the rut. Well, for me, it went the other way, I stopped playing in bands to get out of the band rut, which, if you haven't experienced it, is like being married to a bunch of other people with none of the benefits.

Playing in bands almost became a job for me, it was certainly a part time job. I had to include the income on my taxes and it was taking a huge chunk of my free time. I actually started to resent music and that wasn't going to work for me long term. I quit the then current band, traded my main tele for some synths, and started to work alone on music that I liked. I chose to not let music become a job for me again and decided at that point that I actually wanted it to be a hobby and that it was ok that I spent money enjoying my hobbies.

I sold off some gear, but not a lot and some time later I realized that most of my "way too large, but still small by many standards" guitar collection wasn't doing anything for me and I needed some other things and I felt guilty spending the amount of money that I needed to spend and so I sold off most of my guitar collection. Sure, there are times I regret some of this. If I had that tele now, I wouldn't sell it, but even more, I regret letting go of a 1960 Martin O-15 which had the best tone that I've ever heard in an acoustic guitar. On the whole, however, the musical experiences that I gained were far more significant to me than anything that I would have done with the Martin.

The point that I want to emphasize is that letting go of a few expensive things that you might have regretted investing can be somewhat cathartic. Especially if you think about some different direction that you want to go. But, also, you should decide if you're ok with music being "just a hobby", like it is for me, or "your entire life", like it seems to be for others. Making that conscious decision freed me from having to think about how much money I make from my work or even how many people like it.

Granted, I've had some experiences that really help me let go of musical success. I've played for 1000+ people as part of a band and as a live electronic solo act. I've seen my music make people dance, clap their hands, and cheer. Yeah, and to be clear, the first band that I was a part of really only made people groan and roll their eyes and I've had a few electronic performances which I think of as failures, including one live on a college radio station, so it's not all been milk and honey. Moreover, except for my sold out limited edition cassette tape only run of 50 of my first album, I've never earned any money from selling my music other than live performance fees.

I'm making another change now because I'm in a bit of a rut. I don't like my understanding of the bass/drum relationship and it's not really working for me to treat it as an intellectual exercise. I make progress, but I want to feel it. Moreover, it's been long enough for me that I miss the performance and playing in a group aspect of music. My solution is to take up the bass and get out and gig for a while.

I challenge you to think about what it is that you get out of music and why you're not getting that now. Decide what role music has in your life and accept that for it to have even a minimal role, that it often costs money. You might either have to change something about what you're doing or simply come to grips with it taking a minor role. Look, for me, my sig is serious, I have no talent, I just enjoy what I do with music. For what it's worth, I've both played with and known people with less talent who have gone further simply because they were either in the right place at the right time, or, that it was more valuable to them to earn a living making music.

Best,
gs

[donkey tugger]

So, it's years and thousands of dollars invested and all I have to show for it is a free Soundcloud page.

Only thousands? You aren't trying hard enough. You have to count tens of thousands before you can start to feel that way. I think that all amateur musicians start to ask this question at some point. I don't have a perspective on what a pro-musician's experience is, so I'll let others tackle that point of view.

So, someone mentioned joining a band to get out of the rut. Well, for me, it went the other way, I stopped playing in bands to get out of the band rut, which, if you haven't experienced it, is like being married to a bunch of other people with none of the benefits.

Playing in bands almost became a job for me, it was certainly a part time job. I had to include the income on my taxes and it was taking a huge chunk of my free time. I actually started to resent music and that wasn't going to work for me long term. I quit the then current band, traded my main tele for some synths, and started to work alone on music that I liked. I chose to not let music become a job for me again and decided at that point that I actually wanted it to be a hobby and that it was ok that I spent money enjoying my hobbies.

I sold off some gear, but not a lot and some time later I realized that most of my "way too large, but still small by many standards" guitar collection was doing anything for me and I needed some other things and I felt guilty spending the amount of money that I needed to spend and so I sold off most of my guitar collection. Sure, there are times I regret some of this. If I had that tele now, I wouldn't sell it, but even more, I regret letting go of a 1960 Martin O-15 which had the best tone that I've ever heard in an acoustic guitar. On the whole, however, the musical experiences that I gained were far more significant to me than anything that I would have done with the Martin.

The point that I want to emphasize is that letting go of a few expensive things that you might have regretted investing can be somewhat cathartic. Especially if you think about some different direction that you want to go. But, also, you should decide if you're ok with music being "just a hobby", like it is for me, or "your entire life", like it seems to be for others. Making that conscious decision freed me from having to think about how much money I make from my work or even how many people like it.

Granted, I've had some experiences that really help me let go of musical success. I've played for 1000+ people as part of a band and as a live electronic solo act. I've seen my music make people dance, clap their hands, and cheer. Yeah, and to be clear, the first band that I was a part of really only made people groan and roll their eyes and I've had a few electronic performances which I think of as failures, including one live on a college radio station, so it's not all been milk and honey. Moreover, except for my sold out limited edition cassette tape only run of 50 of my first album, I've never earned any money from selling my music other than live performance fees.

I'm making another change now because I'm in a bit of a rut. I don't like my understanding of the bass/drum relationship and it's not really working for me to treat it as an intellectual exercise. I make progress, but I want to feel it. Moreover, it's been long enough for me that I miss the performance and playing in a group aspect of music. My solution is to take up the bass and get out and gig for a while.

I challenge you to think about what it is that you get out of music and why you're not getting that now. Decide what role music has in your life and accept that for it to have even a minimal role, that it often costs money. You might either have to change something about what you're doing or simply come to grips with it taking a minor role. Look, for me, my sig is serious, I have no talent, I just enjoy what I do with music. For what it's worth, I've both played with and known people with less talent who have gone further simply because they were either in the right place at the right time, or, that it was more valuable to them to earn a living making music.

Best,
gs

Blimey, that was a good read and very honest. Nice one.

[robogone]

I stopped playing in bands to get out of the band rut, which, if you haven't experienced it, is like being married to a bunch of other people with none of the benefits.

You obviously played in the wrong bands then...

[ghettosynth]

I stopped playing in bands to get out of the band rut, which, if you haven't experienced it, is like being married to a bunch of other people with none of the benefits.

You obviously played in the wrong bands then...

Yeah, well, it wasn't this band, that's for sure...

[donkey tugger]

I stopped playing in bands to get out of the band rut, which, if you haven't experienced it, is like being married to a bunch of other people with none of the benefits.

You obviously played in the wrong bands then...

Yeah, well, it wasn't this band, that's for sure...

i like the 'Malcolm Young' bird best.

[jancivil]

per the terms 'hobby', 'professional' as posed vs 'one's entire life', I have to note that Charles Ives' profession was not 'composer', it was the insurance business. Hard to feature him coming downstairs with tears in his eyes 'I can't come up with insurance ideas any more!'

Frank Zappa consistently called his 'music music' his hobby, supported by his entertainment business or 'It's time to get back on stage with the R&B' having exhausted his money hiring orchestras.

[ghettosynth]

per the terms 'hobby', 'professional' as posed vs 'one's entire life', I have to note that Charles Ives' profession was not 'composer', it was the insurance business. Hard to feature him coming downstairs with tears in his eyes 'I can't come up with insurance ideas any more!'

Certainly, and this is an important thing to think about. It would undoubtedly be more frustrating to not experience success with music if ones work had limited reward. I imagine that I would be severely depressed if music was my only intellectual pursuit and I failed to achieve some measure of professional success. For me, that's not a concern, my work completely trumps music as an intellectual and creative exercise and, with varying degree, it always has.

Like I said, you have to address what role music plays in your life. For me, it's not so much an intellectual pursuit so much as it is a response to the stress of my work and life in general. It can have moments of stress and certainly depth, but, for the most part, it should be relaxing and experience driven. I'm long past questioning this as valid, it works for me. I could never live the life that Charles Ives led, and I'm making (accepting your) big assumptions here that may not be true, working in something that was ultimately meaningless just to pursue meaning elsewhere. I get that's one of the ways that one can make music a bigger part of their life, but it would never work for me.

Frank Zappa consistently called his 'music music' his hobby, supported by his entertainment business or 'It's time to get back on stage with the R&B' having exhausted his money hiring orchestras.

So to be clear, whatever Frank Zappa meant by hobby vs life's passion is not what I mean. To suggest that Zappa was anything but a professional musician is a bit dishonest. He clearly dedicated his life to music and whether he's "getting back on stage" to create music he could sell or hiring orchestras for whatever reason, it's all music.

For me, music is a hobby in every sense of the word. It's very important to me, but not really any more important than my other hobbies. It is, however, very different in that it is the only one of my hobbies that can be completely improvised based on the knowledge that I have and still provide me pleasure. If I get up on stage today with a rock or blues band, I will get something from the experience even if I learned absolutely nothing new technically. When I go to build synthesizers or radios, however, it feels more like work to just make something. Those hobbies require that I read, learn, experiment, and measure or they go cold. That's my work life as well, so when I need a break from work, I'm not looking for an intensely intellectual experience.

What I've discovered for myself is that I like my hobbies to be largely unstructured. I can endure short periods of structure, e.g. like I'm getting ready to do with learning the bass, but if it isn't about just doing it and enjoying the experience, it starts to feel like work and ceases to fulfill the roles that hobbies do in my life.

This is one of the reason a gigging band didn't work well for me for the long term. In order to remain competitive and keep the business machine rolling our practices became very technical and focused. For a cover band, it's important to get some of the small details right, at least the most important ones for each song, and also to keep the music fresh by learning new songs. This became really tiring. Add to that the packing and unpacking every single friday/saturday after working a full time job, which meant my Friday usually meant a workday from 7AM to 4AM. So for me, once music becomes this thing that it's constantly intellectual, it no longer is fulfilling my need for a hobby. I think of a hobby like most Americans think about television. In fact, I watch very little television because I have several hobbies.

[murnau]

Looks like it's time for the Ira Glass video:

http://vimeo.com/24715531

I'd never seen this before, but it really rings true.

yeah, it's time for this wise words!