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Father Time
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12/13/2023 10:36:57 AM
a serious topic, for me, anyway
So I realized quite awhile back, at least 10 years ago, maybe 20, that while I'm not a very happy person in general, the only time I actually feel like I'm really living, being all that I can be so to speak, is when I'm working on music. It makes me feel like I'm on the up and up with the world, you might say. Yet, I go thru these stages, am just finishing one right now in fact, where I'm like dyin' to work on music but I just can't get started. I plot out what I'm going to work on, I think it and overthink it and overoverthink it but I end up stuck in one place, stymied. Goes on for weeks at a time. My spirit gets more and more dilapidated and even though I realize the cure is as close as turning on my studio and laying down even a basic drum track, I'm paralyzed. Fuck I doubt I'd even be able to write this post if I hadn't just broken the funk. I mean, what's going on with this? Why am I, as John Lennon said, so crippled inside that I can't just be free to do what i know I want to do, need to do?
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Bryon Tosoff
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12/13/2023 12:07:25 PM
totally with you FT, I go through the same thing, I think a number of us do. So I am sure you will work through it and things will be okay
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Verity Keen
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12/14/2023 6:09:22 AM
I get you FT. I've got to a stage where I just don't care about anything much. I think it's Natures way of preparing you for the acceptance you can't live forever and you certainly can't maintain the energy and optimism that you once had. Some people don't see this, they seem to find new things to start. They want to tick off stuff on their bucket list. I'm not sure if this is a sort of delayed mid-life crisis thing or a need to relive the happy times they once had with a new found freedom. I'm not in a good place now, I can think of things to do which would enhance my life but I just can't be bothered. I think sometimes you can be happy being sad, indulging yourself in self pity. I feel that I have gone as far as I want or need to go with music... it all gets a bit samey !
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Duane Flock
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12/14/2023 8:17:47 AM
This happens to me also once in a while. I don't call it a career anymore, rather it's now just an expensive hobby with a set retirement income.
Over the span of my music, I wanted to please all the listeners I could, so I wrote in all kinds of genres. All that got me was a shitload of "one hit wonders" so to speak. Anyways, when I got into a funk, I would bring up another style of music or tried another kind of instrument. I now have a couple of cool steel drums for instance. I learned to play my dad's mandolin a long time ago. Do something to change up the consistency. Put a message in when it's played backwards,........ anything.
I pretty much stick to my jazz/fusion instrumentals these days, but it helps greatly to collaborate and bounce things off each others ideas.
Cheers and Happy Holidays!
D.
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Psyche's Muse
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12/14/2023 9:58:19 AM
Yep. Gotta feel like that little kid again to enjoy bein' alive. That's me(the "real" one! ) "It" is so very hard to "find" nowadays. Smokin' some pot does "helps IT" to come around though. -M-
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Richard Scotti
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12/14/2023 1:34:00 PM
I can relate to all the posts on this thread. I’ve made peace with the fact that I’m not going to have the time or the energy to do all the things I want to do or to have all the things I want to have. I just try to keep my head above water and do my best to keep myself sane and alive while the world seems to be going to hell in a hand basket. I’m happiest when I write and record a song that satisfies my artistic needs and seems to please other people. But when I’m in between
songs I feel lost. If I try to force myself to write
something, it usually doesn’t work out. I get very anxious just waiting for the proverbial muse to give me an idea. Sometimes self motivation is hard to find. Why am I doing this? I ask myself.
What good will it do me? I don’t have the answers. I just know I need to keep on keepin’ on with the music thing. I see my songs as angels that carry me through life. Every new song is another angel to help with the effort. Sometimes some of them drift away and need to be replaced. Sometimes some of them fall ill and need to be rehabilitated. They’re good company and a great comfort in these difficult times. Life is hard. Musical angels make it easier.
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plonkarchivist
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12/17/2023 9:32:57 PM
Many artists, including musicians, go through periods of creative difficulty or difficulty starting a project. The psychological and emotional aspects of creativity can be complex.
One possible explanation for your difficulties could be a combination of performance anxiety, fear of failure, or setting too high standards for yourself. The pressure to create something meaningful can sometimes be overwhelming, vampire survivors leading to mental breakdown.
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Stoneman
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12/18/2023 12:43:03 AM
My ;ife has always been evolving in stages or phases whichever you prefer to call it. I have moments when I am creatively fluid. Meaning I am writing a producing a vast array of music and ties when I am doing maybe a song every other week. My pro activity towards my music projects ebbs and flows much in the same way. Procrastination is my biggest enemy. I fight with that daily and now that I am retired from everything but music, I am very lazy towards working sometimes. I am at a time in my life when I am no longer hurting for money and so there is no longer that emotional fire under my ass that prompts me to do whatever it takes to provide. Age seems to have damaged my hustle and my expiration date may be closer than I think. Maybe you are experiencing some of the same things. The only way to overcome most of these things is to challenge yourself and then meet the challenge. I try to view my procrastinate nature the way I view my martial arts opponents. I try to kick its ass with hard work and targeted areas in the order of importance. I pinpoint my vulnerabilities and use that information to avoid them. I also dictate notes to myself on my handheld that I replay as reminders to my priorities. This helps me to stay focused most of the time. Self motivation is a hard nut to crack. Most times you either have it or you don't. The biggest challenge in my life has always been my own will. I either will or I won't get the things done I want done. I try to focus in on I "will" get it done and once I start I don't stop until its done. Not saying this is answer for you, just saying this is what I do and it works for me most of the time. My reality of life is that I am the captain of this vessel and only I can steer it in the right direction because only I know where I am trying to go. So, I challenge myself to get a certain amount done within a certain amount of time and when I meet those challenges I look back and marvel at all the accomplishments. This translates literally to thousands of songs in 15 music genres. My current goal is to someday retire from music but I cannot do that until i have reached the goals I have challenged myself to reach. That means I have to stay busy and get all those songs in my head out of my head and recorded. It hard but you can d it if you really apply the proper level of importance to you.
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Limpid Green
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12/26/2023 5:16:08 PM
I haven't been able to do anything with music for 5 years now. I won't say it's permanent, but it sure feels like it. Kids go through phases like Halloween candy, but as we get older the phases slow down and become more monumental. It used to baffle me when artists would just stop. I think I get it now. There was a time when I didn't think I could be happy without working on music, writing, playing, mixing, mastering, I loved every step of it. Whether I was any good at it is debatable, but it didn't matter.
Then a tragic death in the family, a pandemic, a late-in-life career change, grandkids, and presto-changeo. I no longer have the music in me. Oddly, I seem to enjoy listening to music even more than I did before, but not my own. My music makes me cringe.
I hope to get past it and enjoy it again (my whole reason for writing this). But for now, I'm pretty happy in this phase.
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Chandra Moon
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1/11/2024 6:05:38 AM
I sympathise - I go through very productive phases when I'm really musically creative but it can then go dormant for years - that's why I'm only on album three and I released the first one in 2007!!!!!! I'm so grateful you're all here too after all these years - it's incredible that we all keep trying however slow it goes sometimes.
I'm one track short and can't seem to get the last one done ......................
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Bryon Tosoff
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1/11/2024 2:56:49 PM
Same Chandra, I go in a doing a haul of songs, to little to nothing then feel crippled when nothing happens, so still making a little effort but other things now take precedence
and walking is awesome for ones mental physical psychological and it recalibrates ones body mind soul
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Paul groover
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1/11/2024 7:20:53 PM
Hey Father Time i would follow you to the ends of the earth musically. Used to be loads of North American bands come over to Europe and vice versa. Why are they doing an Elvis Presley Hologramitical show in London
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