Musicians: Do you have to make yourself do music? (1 Viewer)

[Scientician 0.8]

Inspired by @Unicron's comments in that working from home thread I am curious whether other musicians have to force themselves to play music or does it differ from person to person? I can go six months without playing an instrument or evening listening to music and sometimes I feel bad about it and try to force myself to play/practice/write more. Occasionally this works well but a lot of the time I just think am I fooling myself and should stop pretending to be a musician. I am writing a lot of poetry/lyrics, at least a lot of fragments but my motivation to follow through on a song from start to finish has approached the lowest I recall. I have never been the fastest more fecund songwriter out there. When Gaz or any of the Padraigs are milling out 20 tunes a week I'd be lucky to write a new daycent tune every 3 or 4 months.
Anyway, thoughts? Any point in forcing the point? Is it time to give up the ghost? Does it matter? Are straight white men who wear glasses the worst thing that ever happened to pop music?

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

I read something by somebody recently who made the point that creativity is almost entirely habit/process. You have to get into the habit of doing. It made sense to me, I used to spend loads of time making music, now I spend time thinking about starting instead of just doing it.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

I read something by somebody recently who made the point that creativity is almost entirely habit/process. You have to get into the habit of doing. It made sense to me, I used to spend loads of time making music, now I spend time thinking about starting instead of just doing it.

I do a lot of writing (history related mainly) and I find it comes in bursts. Sometimes I write a few 1000 words in a day, then I get, like with the music, a fallow period, sometimes lasting months. I still find writing easier than music making though.

 

[ann post]

No, but i take deliberate breaks from writing where i completely refuse to follow ideas and only play as a function of the other acts i moonlight with, which covers and stuff i'm not responsible for creatively.

I think it works better than thinking that if you are not writing then something is amiss. when i let myself write its not just a switch, its more like 'i'm open to the idea of writing'. In any case I write in torrents and usually try and pull the plug before the well dries.

I hate all that tortured artist creative montage shit.

 

[Anthony]

I have to kick start it. But once it's rolling it flows.

 

[therealjohnny]

I play the guitar habitually every day. I get ansty when I'm in a house with no guitar
I don't know how creative it is, I'm not really composing anything. Just widdling, soloing, maybe finger picking a song I know.

 

[george mcfly]

I play the guitar habitually every day. I get ansty when I'm in a house with no guitar
I don't know how creative it is, I'm not really composing anything. Just widdling, soloing, maybe finger picking a song I know.

I'm kind of like this with my synths. I just like playing them and I like the maintenance aspect that comes with having a lot of old equipment. I just love synthesizers.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

I play the guitar habitually every day. I get ansty when I'm in a house with no guitar
I don't know how creative it is, I'm not really composing anything. Just widdling, soloing, maybe finger picking a song I know.

Friend of mine does 3 hrs a day on guitar, every single day.

 

[east hastings]

I went through a patch there from around summer time until last month with barely doing anything. Then in the past month i've the guts of around 10 songs i might be able to finish, while i'm writing at least a song idea on a daily basis

 

[Unicron]

Picking up something to just play is easy, or even recording demos too. "Properly" recording something or mixing is hard as I find them to be quite immersive and I need to be able to make at least 2-3 hours available to do them. Can't do it in fits and starts unless it's a nuts and bolts thing like comping vocals or cleaning up clicks and hisses.

Incidentally, I've never really describe myself as a musician, "musician" is a job and I work in an office.

 

[egg_]

I used to have to force myself a bit, eventually I got to thinking why am I wasting my life time doing something I have to force myself to do? If I don't enjoy it then why the fuck am I doing it at all? Some sort of lame vision of myself as a musician I had when I was 15 that I'm trying to live up to. Fuck that

But then I moved to writing pretty much exclusively on midi/keyboards and it turned into FUN. You can just bang some shit out, fix the timing, and tell if it sounds good instantly, rather than having to make it up then spend an hour learning to play it well enough to see if it sounds decent. Nowadays I spend my daily hour or so of me-time on music most weeknights, and as often as not I'm buzzing after it

 

[dudley]

Nowadays I spend my daily hour or so of me-time on music most weeknights, and as often as not I'm buzzing after it

When you gonna *lay* it on us, egg_?

 

[Scientician 0.8]

When you gonna *lay* it on us, egg_?

He's hoping to get a standing ovation.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

He's a regular Jimmy Hen-drix.

 

[therealjohnny]

dear god

 

[pete]

cracking up here

 

[pete]

(not really - these yolks are terrible)

 

[GO]

I have absolutely no choice.I have no desire to do anything else at all.
If I'm not messing about with a song..I'm learning about new ways to say the same thing over and over again.Only faster,catchier louder etc..

If I'm not actually working on something..I'm thinking about waht I'm gonna do when I start working on something.And it is work.But its rapid.

SPend my whole time trying to nab snippets of words from anywhere I can see them.

If the day comes that I run out of ideas..I'll knock it on the head and get a real life.

But..to answer the OP's original Q ...sometimes I'm not in the mood and I have to force myself.If I don't I get depressed and feel like a total loser.
Cos I care that people know I take this malarky very seriously.As serious as people with actual paying jobs take their careers.More seriously probably..cos I gladly do it for free!
Putting in a 16 hour shift is no problemmo!

Its called being an artist!

The guitar is my paintbrush and the computer my canvas

 

[Burgerbarbaby]

Part of my brain needs to be deep into a groovy drum beat on a regular basis. If I'm not hunting one down I get withdrawal symptoms. And if I've been away from my drums for a while I am aware that I need to put an awful lot of work in, in order to get back to where I can be musically happy and productive. The time I have to put back in to get "home" again exponentially increases the longer I've been away. Currently I'm back playing a little after an enforced absence of about 2 years. It's a bastard. It's like I'm two different players...one can to some extent competently operate a drum kit, but has no real musical motion. The other more important part of my musical brain is dying to spend a couple of hours every evening endlessly playing something boring and repetitive until I hit some kind of mindless nirvana, which is when I loosen up and the creative stuff starts to happen for me. It makes me very happy. But even getting in gear with this part of my brain is going to take months of trying. I've been working up a head of steam to get going over the last while, and I've been playing some frame drums, which really helps my sense of rhythm and groove. And I've lately been listening almost exclusively to the music which has been most inspiring to me. So I'm raring to go.

In short: If you have the itch, scratch it as often as possible. If you don't it will be back, and itchier next time. If you only get the itch once in a while, there's nothing odd about that, don't worry about it. You just have healthier skin than a lot of people. Some lotion once in a while, and stay out of the sun and you'll be grand

 

[Burgerbarbaby]

There was a serious point hidden ham-fistedly in the last paragraph by the way