Ever just feel lost?

[bluejazzoid]

Music is more about living than practicing, so whenever I feel like that I know it's time to live, love, and rejuvenate in some way that has no direct connection to making music.

I hope you are reading something good!

 

[drp146]

Hey, yeah I don't post much. I do lurk a lot.

I love playing music with the guys, I always enjoy the gig (barring certain creepy fill-ins). Lately though I've been sitting at the house, plenty of time to practice, yet I find myself staring around feeling lost. I end up reading instead until bedtime.

I know that I need to practice, we have songs queued that I need to familiarize myself with before our next rehearsals .. but I can't seem to do it.

You have to decide that it's worth it to keep going or not. If music is something you feel you can't quit, then maybe you need to go in a new direction to feel inspired again. Only you know the truth of this.

If you're going to honor your commitment to the band, then you must do the work to be ready when it counts.

 

[Stormy Monday]

Not lost, just done.

You're always welcome to come up to Melbourne and jam with us geezers.

 

[StratoMutt]

Q: Ever just feel lost?

A: Always. 24/7/12/365.

 

[Faith Nicole]

Insightful, introspective people often need a daily (or regularly occurring) "decompression" experience to help them function to life's daily expectations. It can be an emotional balancing exercise. Different people require different things to achieve that emotional symmetry. For me it has been a variety of things depending on where I currently am in life, but it was always something that allowed me to experience an emotional balance instead of a deficit.
A simple thing we do in my professional life is encouraging students to express themselves. Writing is a broad application practice. Writing about anything often leads us to a better place, provided enough time because we will often end up writing about something that is causing an internal, emotional, deficit. It's simple, maybe it won't help, but I bet it won't hurt.

Maybe I just need a bf?

I've gone through that and recently went through that again. I use to overthink, speculate and wallow in dark moods and learned to put a stop to those thoughts by allowing the distractions run their course and/or get busy with other things unrelated to music, like cleaning out hoarded areas or reorganizing or restructuring daily routines and food diets. Depression can be conquered.

Yes, unfortunately I do deal with a lot of depression. Unbearable at times, short of self-harm though. No fear there, I have to much to live for.

 

[Faith Nicole]

Music is more about living than practicing, so whenever I feel like that I know it's time to live, love, and rejuvenate in some way that has no direct connection to making music.

I hope you are reading something good!

I'm reading young adult level books. I'm a consummate reader and always read heavy context series (one book is too short). Most large novels I finish in two days. Average books are one day.

The YA books are relaxing in their simplicity and easy plot lines. My brain can actually unwind while reading them.

 

[Faith Nicole]

Lot of comments geared towards music burnout. That's not it. I enjoy playing with the guys and I enjoy the music that we do. It makes the 'lost' feeling that's interfering with practice more difficult to pin down.

 

[bluejazzoid]

Lot of comments geared towards music burnout. That's not it. I enjoy playing with the guys and I enjoy the music that we do. It makes the 'lost' feeling that's interfering with practice more difficult to pin down.

Ok, something to think about:

As much as you love reading, you never have to practice reading lol, right? I think your "lost" feeling might partly be a subconscious desire to feel the same ease when playing music as you enjoy when reading.

But your conscious mind knows the difference -- the obvious singular vs plural nature of both, and the way each activity rewards you emotionally.

The YA books are relaxing in their simplicity and easy plot lines. My brain can actually unwind while reading them.

Maybe a thing to try would be going back to playing something by yourself ---just like reading--- that is musically on par with a YA novel... something you don't have to practice, something you can play for pure joy!

As much as you enjoy playing with the band, you really should enjoy playing by yourself too (not just practicing). I play guitar 99% of the time, but when I pretend to play bass even just jamming on something like that riff in the Doors "Don't You Love Her Madly" makes me smile.

No matter my scatter-shooting, I'm genuinely hoping your lost feeling turns to easy-peasy soon!

 

[Wound_Up]

Maybe I just need a bf?

Yes, unfortunately I do deal with a lot of depression. Unbearable at times, short of self-harm though. No fear there, I have to much to live for.

Just curious. How old are you?

 

[El Gobernador]

Too many people treat practice like a marathon. That makes for a lousy practice/study session.

It isn't. Do fifteen minutes of focused study.

Read this thread. And be good to yourself. You deserve it.

Food for thought...

On Learning Music By Howard Roberts If you are like most people, you are either self-taught or you learned how to play a musical instrument in the public schools. If so, then be aware that you may have been programmed to learn in an inefficient and largely unrewarding way. As a result, many...

www.strat-talk.com

 

[Strat Jacket]

I've gone through stages of..."meh".
Sometimes you need to take a few weeks off. Then start listening (not playing) to some good stuff you haven't heard in a while. Or ever. Just listen, don't play. And when a righteous tune gets stuck in your head, let it work a while and soon you might find you are dying to try it.
And, Zing! Off and running again.

 

[rolandson]

Break? Nah, I love playing with the guys. Always a fun gig. Plus I've only been with them for 10 months now. They are going on 15 years together.

Think your answer is in that last sentence.
You're new, they've been doing it a forever.

You still don't really feel like you belong maybe? You like doing it, you enjoy them and they you, but...their history and yours isn't common yet?

Sorta like Michael McDonald and The Doobie Brothers. He became their voice, but it took a bit longer before he felt like it.

Wait til your first bar fight, where you discover you got their back and one of them has yours...

Just before John Belushi says "hit it" and you fishtail out of the parking lot.

Then it'll all be good. Just stay out of Chicago.

 

[rolandson]

You're in a place most find themselves several times...maybe many serverals of times.

Hearing that doesn't help though.

Just like anyone of us saying that you'll get through it and be stronger for it won't make where you are now any easier.

So what to do is this: Force yourself to do your homework. Every day. But not all day. 1/2 hour at a time. No more than that.

Not until you want to do more than that.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

How often is the band rehearsing? I find playing with others more inspiring than practicing alone.
Improvising with other good players is a great way to wake up your creative side.
And spontaneous interaction also improves the band dynamic in a way routine rehearsals can't.
Could you convince the band to jam for awhile?

Or could you find a jam somewhere you can sit in on?
Preferably a different style from what you're doing with the band.
Doing something new for a bit can breathe fresh life into the old stuff when you come back to it.
It also can make you a better player.

It's about more than breaking the routine: IME expanding my horizons opened new perspectives in my playing and musical awareness, paths of expression that apply to any type of music.

 

[Jimbo99]

Motivation vs demotivation is real, I find it mostly with my cycling hobby. The hardest part seems to be everything I have to do from garage to the end of the driveway. If I can muster up that much effort & enthusiasm, turning the pedals over the next revolution as I leave the driveway, never look back & keep on going. I find myself further from home and happier for that grinding out what I was making excuses for not being committed.

So it is with the guitar at times, but to a lesser extent. I find if I can get the motivation to walk over, pick it up, strap it over my neck & walk back to the amp to plug in the wireless & fire the amp up, before I realize it, I've been playing 45 minutes. And the time flew by. Maybe part of it was having the options for a lineup of different guitars.

 

[Faith Nicole]

Lots of good thoughts in here this morning. Yes, getting plugged in and actually starting is the rough part. I have forced myself to 'plug in' and then ended up spending a few hours running through songs.

Rehearsal? We've been holding off. We're in Florida and typically garage rehearse at the drummers house - he's centrally located. It's too hot in the summer months for that. My livingroom has plenty of space plus I have most everything we need to rehearse. Individual instruments are all that's required. For the drummer that's his stool, hee. I live the furthest from everyone so it makes it an hour drive for the keyboard player. Makes it not so fun for him. We've discussed starting back up to add new songs to the lineup out current 200+ are getting stale.

Just curious. How old are you?

What a thing to ask . Nah, seriously, I don't mind people knowing. I'm 62.

I'm sure I've missed some pertinent points, I'll re-read this topic on the big screen when I get to work .. yes, I still work full-time and that's depressing in itself.

 

[Wrighty]

Hey, yeah I don't post much. I do lurk a lot.

I love playing music with the guys, I always enjoy the gig (barring certain creepy fill-ins). Lately though I've been sitting at the house, plenty of time to practice, yet I find myself staring around feeling lost. I end up reading instead until bedtime.

I know that I need to practice, we have songs queued that I need to familiarize myself with before our next rehearsals .. but I can't seem to do it.

I’m in exactly the same frame of mind. Posting on here when I could be practicing or noodling. Total lack of inspiration. When I do pick up a guitar I’ll be OK but will suddenly decide I’ve had enough and put it down. Could be two minutes or an hour in, just ‘need’ to do something, anything,else. Be interested to know other’s views.

 

[Faith Nicole]

Think your answer is in that last sentence.
You're new, they've been doing it a forever.

You still don't really feel like you belong maybe? You like doing it, you enjoy them and they you, but...their history and yours isn't common yet?

Sorta like Michael McDonald and The Doobie Brothers. He became their voice, but it took a bit longer before he felt like it.

Wait til your first bar fight, where you discover you got their back and one of them has yours...

Just before John Belushi says "hit it" and you fishtail out of the parking lot.

Then it'll all be good. Just stay out of Chicago.

Don't feel like I belong? All the time.

Although I've been friends with them for a long time, the drummer 13+ years, I've not played music with them. I'm 'young' to playing music. I picked up the bass 10 years ago. Life happened and I put it away to gather dust for 5 years. I picked it back up about a month before being asked to play in the band. So 'officially' I've played bass a total of 5 years including the "wtf am I doing" learning period. It took two years to become reasonably comfortable at playing.

 

[Bane]

Hang in there, you'll get through this

 

[Della Street]

my evening practice is usually more contemplative and technical. morning practice is that of discovery and inspiration.