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

[Kriminal]

i was similar...felt like i achieved everything i wanted to on a computer...lost my mojo...so i joined a band. I wont go back to computer music again.
I still like testing and making patches on the PC, but only in short spurts, the creativity is short lived.

Ive never tried to be an 'artist' (get signed make money etc) tho it would be nice, my goal was to create some music, and i did that.

i dont feel like ive failed, or anything negative about it at all. I just dont feel like making music on computer anymore....

[robogone]

Swings and roundabouts really Dave. Think I've gone through quite a few phases including making no music at all between about 21 and 25.

Right now I kind of like just occasionally grabbing an instrument I don't play that well and letting rip regardless of whether it sounds good or not.

[tehlord]

I spent decades making music for an audience of 1... myself

Good to see some things never change





/runs

[rp314]

Freud began smoking tobacco at age 24; initially a cigarette smoker, he became a cigar smoker. He believed that smoking enhanced his capacity to work and that he could exercise self-control in moderating it. Despite health warnings from colleague Wilhelm Fliess, he remained a smoker, eventually suffering a buccal cancer. Freud suggested to Fliess in 1897 that addictions, including that to tobacco, were substitutes for masturbation, "the one great habit".

Making music is a much better substitute...

[Mushy Mushy]

Freud began smoking tobacco at age 24; initially a cigarette smoker, he became a cigar smoker. He believed that smoking enhanced his capacity to work and that he could exercise self-control in moderating it. Despite health warnings from colleague Wilhelm Fliess, he remained a smoker, eventually suffering a buccal cancer. Freud suggested to Fliess in 1897 that addictions, including that to tobacco, were substitutes for masturbation, "the one great habit".

Making music is a much better substitute...

Get an SH101 and do both together.

[robogone]

Freud began smoking tobacco at age 24; initially a cigarette smoker, he became a cigar smoker. He believed that smoking enhanced his capacity to work and that he could exercise self-control in moderating it. Despite health warnings from colleague Wilhelm Fliess, he remained a smoker, eventually suffering a buccal cancer. Freud suggested to Fliess in 1897 that addictions, including that to tobacco, were substitutes for masturbation, "the one great habit".

Making music is a much better substitute...

Ironic that fast musical noodling is referred to as "wanking"...

[polyslax]

I spent decades making music for an audience of 1... myself

Good to see some things never change





/runs

I'll have you know I have a dedicated following of 7... wait, ok... 6 rabid fans spanning the globe!

No, you're quite right tehlord, and I didn't mean to imply that things were so vastly different now. Validation is great, but with or without it I'm going ahead and making tracks.

[tehlord]

I spent decades making music for an audience of 1... myself

Good to see some things never change





/runs

I'll have you know I have a dedicated following of 7... wait, ok... 6 rabid fans spanning the globe!

No, you're quite right tehlord, and I didn't mean to imply that things were so vastly different now. Validation is great, but with or without it I'm going ahead and making tracks.

I was teasing of course.

I think the www is a double edged sword really. On the one hand it's theoretically a great vehicle to get yourself heard, but on the other hand it now contains so much noise that it's almost redundant.

But as has rightly been pointed out, unless you do what you do because you love it, you really might as well give up. It's very, very unlikely you'll ever see a return from online sales.

[jancivil]

I couldn't ever not do music. If someone doesn't feel that way, there are other things in life to do I guess. there aren't for me so I can't relate at all to this. I don't know what to say about someone else's idea of how to proceed or what drives them.

There seems to be a disconnect, 'I do it only for myself'/'no one buys anything'.

I'm not good at selling things myself. Music and selling (music and obtaining approbation for this kind of thing) are two different things as far as I know.

[Aloysius]

n/m

[rp314]

I spent decades making music for an audience of 1... myself

Good to see some things never change





/runs

I'll have you know I have a dedicated following of 7... wait, ok... 6 rabid fans spanning the globe!

No, you're quite right tehlord, and I didn't mean to imply that things were so vastly different now. Validation is great, but with or without it I'm going ahead and making tracks.

Imagine what the Music Cafe forum would be like if you went on any kind of a serious sabbatical.

Request for leave - denied!

[cryophonik]

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.

[paveloso]

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....

Yeah, I can totally relate, I've been there. The fire comes and goes.

In my case, I know it's because I've tried for years to make music my living and just have not been able to. It does become frustrating after countless unsuccessful attempts, and so the drive just fades sometimes. I mean... "what's the point, anyway?", right?

However, if you really have it in you to make music, play an instrument, write songs or whatever, it always comes back after a while. And when it does, you will regret having sold your stuff.

The little money you could get back from selling used gear (hardware or software) nowadays is just not worth it, IMHO. Maybe if you're a serious GAS patient like I am, you could try to trim your setup and sell some of the least useful stuff. That'll ease the post-purchase guilt and you will still have your basic (or not so basic - it depends!) gear setup.

Is this beginning to sound like group therapy?

Just my two cents, anyway.

[robogone]

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.

[cryophonik]

...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.

Your daughter is Imogen Heap? Cool!!!