What if I stop making music for a year

[hhuang9611]

Hi guys,

So a little bit of back story. I am currently a college student (non music major) and I am planning to apply for PhD program, which means I need to dedicate my time and efforts on that for the next 10 months or so. Making music has been my biggest hobby for about a year, and I think I have made a fair amount of progress along the way, making some self-pleasing tracks etc.

I am wondering what would happen if I stop making music for almost a year due to school work (maybe not completely stop though, but I will not be able to make any well-finished tracks). Would it be easy or difficult to pick up where I leave when I settle everything? Would I simply regress a lot?

Thanks in advance for all the replies.

[an-electric-heart]

I'm having a huge break soon too, but I've been doing it for 20 years, so I reckon for me it'll all come back when my break ends... just like riding a bicycle.
But, in your case (essentially being a beginner), I think you probably will regress a little... I don't know though.

[foosnark]

You might regress a little bit but it's like riding a bicycle -- you'll get it back quickly with a little practice.

(...Or a medium amount of practice, if it's something like building up callouses for guitar... or a LOT of practice if it's something fiendishly difficult like the violin and you stop playing for 25 years and then try to pick it up again :cough:)

[jancivil]

Everybody's an individual, no one can know how you'll do. 10 months is not all that long, however.

[vurt]

why wont you be able to make well finished tracks?
just because you're working less time overall on music, put all the time in to one or two ideas, rather than needing to rush through an individual track in a short time.

[Bombadil]

There is also the likelihood the away time will give you a fresh view of things, and you may have a clearer idea whether you want to continue, and in what way.

[funky lime]

I've found that the more free time I have, the less music I make. And inversely, less free time means more music. The scarcity of free time creates a sense of urgency, upon which creativity might thrive.

And I'll echo the sentiment above, that stepping away from a pursuit might provide you with insights you might have missed, a forest for the trees kind of thing.

[harryupbabble]

I was watching a YouTube clip a couple or so days ago. In that clip, one person says "Once you go black, you never go back". A woman didn't say it. A black guy did. Giggles. No, the black guy's name wasn't Giggles. I was just conveying my giggleness. Giggles.

Yeah, some people that go on vacations ends up liking the place so much that they move there for good because they can afford to.
Isn't Keith Richards permanently living in the Caribbean? Mick Fleetwood and John McVie are living in Hawaii? Separate houses.

Anyways, what if in college you find you love what you are learning more so than music-making and become that for life? Great.

On the other hand, for example, last year, I quit scrabble from February to October and for a couple of days during the comeback I was getting my twin butt cheeks kicked. Not physically, of course. It's actually hard to physically kick twin butt cheeks especially if your body language is poor at hiding your intent and even harder if you verbally state beforehand something like "I'm going to physically kick your twin butt cheeks" but you happen to have much shorter legs and the other person is someone like Steven Seagal in his prime and 6 foot 5 inches tall.



Back to scrabble... about a week later after the comeback attempt, I was kicking other people's twin butt cheeks again. Not physically, of course. I find online speed scrabble easy. I suspect I'm a natural at it. Offline speed scrabble is another matter and a lot more frustrating since there is no computer to do the scoring for you. It takes 30 seconds or more for humans to write down the score. It really breaks up my "I'm in the zone" rhythm.

On the third hand, with music-making, I am the opposite of a natural, and it's different because I spend most of my available time
questing for a satisfactory music-making method instead of actually making music.
I figure "What's the point of being prolific with an unsatisfactory music-making method?"

So yeah, if you are a natural at something then naturally, absence from it won't affect your ability that much? But if you suck at something and you took a vacation from being sucky then when you come back to it you will suck even more, for a little while?

[lfm]

If you play an instrument, try keep that up - its stimuli for brain.
Playing an instrument usually means getting ideas that you like - just keep an dictaphone nearby and record 10-30s of that idea whenever there. You can go through that when you return to combat - you loose no ideas this way.
Mixing and recording skills does not go away.

So focus on you studies and stop worrying.

[donkey tugger]

I gave up for 7 years to pursue a career in heavy binge drinking. Imagine my surprise when returning to doing music that I was still crap at guitar solos, and still didn't understand sinthesisers.

[Aloysius]

Do it. Study.

[hhuang9611]

Thanks for all the replies guys! I guess I can just hope that I won't regress too much when I come back. Nonetheless, there will still be a little bit of time before my study plan kicks, so I'm gonna enjoy make music for a few more days.

[ATS]

I find breaks good for my music.

[ATS]

I'm having a huge break soon too, but I've been doing it for 20 years, so I reckon for me it'll all come back when my break ends... just like riding a bicycle.
But, in your case (essentially being a beginner), I think you probably will regress a little... I don't know though.

I guess I will have to be patient waiting for the next album.

[Deep Purple]

Why would you have to stop music entirely? I can imagine that working on writing and recording material will take up time you don't have, but why not just spend what time you have learning to improve whatever instruments you play? Unless your instrument(s) have significant set up time before you can play them, why not just pick one up whenever you find you have time, and just work on some skills or learning other people's music/songs?