Musically Unfulfilled

[Truckstop]

Hello all,

Does anyone else ever feel a little depressed sometimes about not playing the sort of music you'd really like to be playing/creating?

My problem is, is that my tastes change from week to week. Sometimes I want to be a vocalist for a death metal band and then the next week I want to start an acoustic duo playing Elbow covers.

I've got a band which I'm really happy with but I find it really hard to focus when my mind wanders and starts thinking of other projects I could start. I've had a couple of jams with some friends playing different stuff to my main band which was great fun but I'm bored of it already and totally ready to try something else.

Anyway, it just gets me down sometimes when there's so much great music out there and, as a musician, I feel like I'm not contributing enough or I'm not playing stuff that really means something to me. Does everyone else sort of swallow this feeling and get on with it? I'm amazed by people that can play the same songs over and over for years.

I've been playing covers for a while now and even though I've always made an effort to try to stay away from the usual suspects I still feel totally unfulfilled. At the same time, I really enjoy being in my band and, aside from the music, it's good for me to have a regular creative outlet to distract me from work and stuff.

Sometimes I feel like it'd be a good idea to ditch covers and work on original stuff but I dunno I just worry that my ideas would get lost in translation once other people get involved so I don't bother trying to make anything of it.

Anyone else ever feel very very small against the sum of human musical endeavour? I certainly do!

[blue]

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1459290763' post='3015275']
Hello all,

Does anyone else ever feel a little depressed sometimes about not playing the sort of music you'd really like to be playing/creating?

My problem is, is that my tastes change from week to week. Sometimes I want to be a vocalist for a death metal band and then the next week I want to start an acoustic duo playing Elbow covers.

I've got a band which I'm really happy with but I find it really hard to focus when my mind wanders and starts thinking of other projects I could start. I've had a couple of jams with some friends playing different stuff to my main band which was great fun but I'm bored of it already and totally ready to try something else.

Anyway, it just gets me down sometimes when there's so much great music out there and, as a musician, I feel like I'm not contributing enough or I'm not playing stuff that really means something to me. Does everyone else sort of swallow this feeling and get on with it? I'm amazed by people that can play the same songs over and over for years.

I've been playing covers for a while now and even though I've always made an effort to try to stay away from the usual suspects I still feel totally unfulfilled. At the same time, I really enjoy being in my band and, aside from the music, it's good for me to have a regular creative outlet to distract me from work and stuff.

Sometimes I feel like it'd be a good idea to ditch covers and work on original stuff but I dunno I just worry that my ideas would get lost in translation once other people get involved so I don't bother trying to make anything of it.

Anyone else ever feel very very small against the sum of human musical endeavour? I certainly do!
[/quote]

My band is working and getting paid. I'm musically fulfilled.

Blue

[ahpook]

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1459290763' post='3015275']
Sometimes I feel like it'd be a good idea to ditch covers and work on original stuff but I dunno I just worry that my ideas would get lost in translation once other people get involved so I don't bother trying to make anything of it.
[/quote]

Well, you certainly won't know until you try...so work on the original stuff. Get the band together and see if you like what happens.

Edited March 29, 2016 by ahpook

[KingBollock]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1459291001' post='3015279']


My band is working and getting paid. I'm musically fulfilled.

Blue
[/quote]
See, if that was all it was, that would leave me cold and dead inside. Funny old world, eh?

[JamesBass]

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1459290763' post='3015275']
Hello all,

Does anyone else ever feel a little depressed sometimes about not playing the sort of music you'd really like to be playing/creating?

My problem is, is that my tastes change from week to week. Sometimes I want to be a vocalist for a death metal band and then the next week I want to start an acoustic duo playing Elbow covers.

I've got a band which I'm really happy with but I find it really hard to focus when my mind wanders and starts thinking of other projects I could start. I've had a couple of jams with some friends playing different stuff to my main band which was great fun but I'm bored of it already and totally ready to try something else.

Anyway, it just gets me down sometimes when there's so much great music out there and, as a musician, I feel like I'm not contributing enough or I'm not playing stuff that really means something to me. Does everyone else sort of swallow this feeling and get on with it? I'm amazed by people that can play the same songs over and over for years.

I've been playing covers for a while now and even though I've always made an effort to try to stay away from the usual suspects I still feel totally unfulfilled. At the same time, I really enjoy being in my band and, aside from the music, it's good for me to have a regular creative outlet to distract me from work and stuff.

Sometimes I feel like it'd be a good idea to ditch covers and work on original stuff but I dunno I just worry that my ideas would get lost in translation once other people get involved so I don't bother trying to make anything of it.

Anyone else ever feel very very small against the sum of human musical endeavour? I certainly do!
[/quote]
I totally understand you, I'm much the same to be honest, I'm currently working with just the one band, and that started as a singer songwriter adding a rhythm section to her songs, and since we've been playing together we've jammed a few ideas/covers out and now we are looking to do two iterations of the band - a cover band and an originals band. Yet I'm still not fulfilled as this band is just rock and there's little room for really expressing ones self.

However I do write on my own and have reams of paper and ideas here there and everywhere, I have tried to get my stuff arranged and played with bands in the past yet so far I struggle to get the right people involved, a lot of what I'm writing is genre-less as it takes a lot from what I'm feeling ok the day, I guess the best way to describe straight off the cuff is jazz funk fusion, trying to find a singer to sing well in that genre is impossible as many of my songs feature complex arrangements and need very certain notes to be hit. However I'll never give up, doing my own stuff, I know how good it could be if it featured the right musicians, so for me it's a patience game and being clever, sometimes months of unfulfillment is a necessary evil to drive you on with other things!

[blue]

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1459300390' post='3015317']

See, if that was all it was, that would leave me cold and dead inside. Funny old world, eh?
[/quote]

If I made you think that it's solely about money I apologize.

There is nothing about performing, even at the bar band that leaves me cold.

To me there is nothing more fulfilling than the fun and opportunity to play rock and roll and getting paid.It's not all there is to it but it's a big part of it.

I've invested a life time to this and I'm not giving it away.

I mean even for originals bands I would think you'd get more from hearing the applause from a crowd after one if your originals is a bigger thrill than playing it alone in the bedroom.

Blue

Edited March 30, 2016 by blue

[Truckstop]

It's interesting because I still love playing live, be it originals or covers. For me, getting paid is just a bonus. I guess that's why I feel in satisfied because the reward of getting paid is no longer enough of a reward to cancel out the negative feelings I have about playing music I don't really want to play.

But actually, it's not as if I don't like the music I play with the band, it's just that I wish I had more time to indulge and work on the music I have in my head all the time. I wish I had time to learn how to record properly and learn how to play drums etc.

[xgsjx]

I can relate to Truckstop's post. Not the crap taste in music, but the band not being the genre I want to play & going off to do side projects.

Have you thought about setting up a little studio around your computer? It doesn't take long to learn how to record & there's a whole part of the BC forum dedicated to it with people willing & able to help you out. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/forum/10-recording/"]Clicky link for it.[/url]

I'm in a blues/funk band, but I have my own wee studio at home & write something fulfilling to me every month just for the BC comp. Every month I try to write a different style/genre & sometimes even sing (this month I got a vocoder to help me out, I'm that bad).

Only kidding about the crap taste in music. I like that crap too!

[CamdenRob]

Bands, especially originals bands are really a case of how much your prepared to compromise to make it work... If every member sticks rigidly to what they want then the band will never work. I am a case in point as as I absolutely refuse to be told what to play under any circumstances... hence I am currently bandless

[Grangur]

I, like Truckstop, feel unfulfilled most of the time. Also, like Camdenrob I'm not in a band. I've almost always not in a band. Work commitments won't really give me much time to rehearse in the week. I practice almost every evening, but it's playing the same stuff and scales and Modes etc.

Not being in a band and little project of it,I've never got into playing bass lines along with recordings. I don't see the point. So I play by sight reading. The choice of material for playing is limited if you're also not great at sight reading. So mostly I'm playing stuff like "Autumn Leaves", "Morning Has Broken" and "Scarborough Fair". I ask; is this what I was expecting to be doing when Mark King, Chris Squire and John MacVie inspired me to pick up the bass? I don't think so, bit it beats the hell out of vegitating and watching Eastenders.

So currently I have 9 basses in the house. (3 are currently up for sale). I like having the choice of frets or fretless, flats or round wound etc, but I must cut down more.

[Phil Starr]

What do you want out of music? It takes all sorts in this funny old world. I love performing, happy to have a hobby that pays but I just love an audience, musically I'm just a tart, I'd play anything pretty much for a decent audience. For other people it's about the money and yet others it can be about the music or sometimes just about mastering a skill. One of my best friends spends hours on his guitar perfecting music he will never play in front of another soul and he thinks I'm crazy playing Mustang Sally!

There's nothing wrong in going for what you want, if anything the crime is not finding what you want. Recognise reality but within that enjoy what you do and look out for opportunities when they come along. For me those realities are that covers are more likely to bring you paid gigs than original songs, no band will give you everything you want from music and you will never find another musician who will share your musical ambitions exactly. Almost no-one ever 'makes it' in music and scratching a living is hard and you'll have to make more compromises if you do want a living from music.

So, don't expect any single project to give you ultimate fulfillment. One band might give you the joy of live performance in front of an enthusiastic audience, another the challenge of composition and a third the chance to play the music you love. Stop worrying about the things you aren't getting out of a project and enjoy what you can. Move on when you are no longer enjoying a project and think of your music as a journey, there's things you want to see and do, but you won't be able to do them all at once.

[keefbaker]

Honestly? Best way to handle this is a micro-project. Write a bunch of stuff, record it in your house, throw it on bandcamp for the hell of it, or have a label bring it out if you can, move onto the next.

That's how I scratch my "I'd like to do X" itches. The only one I can't scratch is the jazz one which I'd like to join a band for but 1) Musicians are like hens teeth where I live and 2) I'm really really not good enough,

[cheddatom]

I play whatever I want in 4 originals bands, and write my own music when I get time. It's pretty fulfilling!

Good advice above to set up a small recording studio. I used to have this upstairs at home and got loads of my own music recorded. I never did anything with it, but it was very fulfilling. Since starting an actual studio I've not had the time!

[oldbass]

I recently ended up like the OP and the way round it for me was to move away from the pop/rock genre and to learn to read and study jazz...two things which yrs ago I would have never thought remotely possible. (maybe its an age related thing)
Anyway the house is now knee deep in music scores and I've never been happier.

[RhysP]

I've felt the same as the OP for a large part of the 37 years I've been playing, to the extent that I just don't really bother anymore.
I still enjoy tinkering with guitars & basses, but the actual writing & playing of music became an unhappy, frustrating chore for me.

[RockfordStone]

i go through phases like this regularly, i get to a stage where i am not fulfilled by what i am doing but do it just to keep playing music, the lack of fulfilment then doesn't give me the mojo to go out and find something else.

that's the curse of music i guess. it's worse when you are in originals, like you my tastes will vary from week to week, which is why my solo stuff varies so much.

it comes and goes, but if we didn't have the lows then the highs wouldn't be worth it.

[neilp]

Blue talks sense for me, that's exactly how I feel about it

[Grangur]

I use Musescore software for writing and transposing scores. They have a library of users scores. It seems to me they have folk using the software to write scores for multiple instruments they can't play. I guess its another way to get fulfilment. It's not for me, but clearly some like it.

Isn't this all a bit like the Beatles track "Nowhere Man"? I used to get depressed thinking I'm wasting my time, but I came to the conclusion that we're all mortal. What we do doesn't matter. All you do is simply moving the furniture about until we go. It makes little difference in the grand scheme of things. But if you enjoy it, do it.

[Skol303]

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1459290763' post='3015275']
Does anyone else ever feel a little depressed sometimes about not playing the sort of music you'd really like to be playing/creating?[/quote]

In a word: no!

...but then I'm probably off kilter to many here in that I don't create music by playing in a band - I do so at home, in my own time, on my own terms, collaborating with people I like working with, when I choose to do so. My music gets played, sometimes even paid for. And none of my listeners (nor even my collaborators) know what I look like. It's like a double life alongside my day job. Which suits my circumstances perfectly.

Those are the benefits, for me, of being an antisocial, isolationist, musical hermit

I known this approach is the antithesis to what many of you seek from playing gigs (it's obviously nothing like live performance). But you could very easily consider it an option in addition to playing gigs... if you're in need of creative satisfaction that you're not finding elsewhere.

There's then the option of taking your best material and forming a band to go and play it out, which is what I plan on doing once the kids are a little older.

There are so many ways to make music these days. I've written tracks using the phone I'm typing on now. So don't let a lack of fellow musicians get in your way. Just DIY!

Edited March 30, 2016 by Skol303

[4stringslow]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1459312584' post='3015328']

I've invested a life time to this and I'm not giving it away.

[/quote]

While I appreciate that dedicating a lifetime to one thing would enable one to excel, it's a big wide world out there and I couldn't bear the thought of limiting myself to just one thing.

I love music, I love playing in a band, I love a crowd enjoying our original songs, but it's not my whole life. In fact, if I had to give it all up tomorrow I really don't think I'd be too bothered - I'd just find something else to do. New things, new places, new people, new challenges . . . .

[RhysP]

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1459331847' post='3015448']


In a word: no!

...but then I'm probably off kilter to many here in that I don't create music by playing in a band - I do so at home, in my own time, on my own terms, collaborating with people I like working with, when I choose to do so. My music gets played, sometimes even paid for. And none of my listeners (nor even my collaborators) know what I look like. It's like a double life alongside my day job. Which suits my circumstances perfectly.

Those are the benefits, for me, of being an antisocial, isolationist, musical hermit

I known this approach is the antithesis to what many of you seek from playing gigs (it's obviously nothing like live performance). But you could very easily consider it an option in addition to playing gigs... if you're in need of creative satisfaction that you're not finding elsewhere.

There's then the option of taking your best material and forming a band to go and play it out, which is what I plan on doing once the kids are a little older.

There are so many ways to make music these days. I've written tracks using the phone I'm typing on now. So don't let a lack of fellow musicians get in your way. Just DIY!
[/quote]

You need the space & the quiet to be able to do this though, and that's something I ( and I'm sure many others) haven't got.
Working on my own music on my own is the ideal situation for me, but it's just not possible in a tiny terraced house full of people & animals. I bought myself some basic recording gear to try & do it but it became obvious very quickly that it just wasn't practical.

In two years I've only managed to record two finished things, and these were rushed because I had to do them in the very short & infrequent periods of time when I have the house to myself. I end up rushing, making mistakes & then as a result I get angry & frustrated. No fun at all.

[cheddatom]

maybe build yourself a manshed or rent a room somewhere?

[blue]

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1459315912' post='3015329']
It's interesting because I still love playing live, be it originals or covers. For me, getting paid is just a bonus. I guess that's why I feel in satisfied because the reward of getting paid is no longer enough of a reward to cancel out the negative feelings I have about playing music I don't really want to play.

But actually, it's not as if I don't like the music I play with the band, it's just that I wish I had more time to indulge and work on the music I have in my head all the time. I wish I had time to learn how to record properly and learn how to play drums etc.
[/quote]

I think I get where your coming from. Your obviously passionate about playing and I guess that's the main thing.

Me, I don't have any music in my head. I guess I'm lucky to be in a band where the music we play is a genre I'm well versed in and enjoy playing. I also enjoy being paid to do something that's fun.

Blue

Edited March 30, 2016 by blue

[neepheid]

There are no right and wrong answers here. The OP isn't happy with doing something which some people are delighted doing. That doesn't make any of it bad.

OP - RE: playing in originals band/writing own songs - better to try and fail than not try at all IMO.

Edited March 30, 2016 by neepheid

[ahpook]

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1459336967' post='3015517']
There are no right and wrong answers here. The OP isn't happy with dong something which some people are delighted doing. That doesn't make any of it bad.

OP - RE: playing in originals band/writing own songs - better to try and fail than not try at all IMO.
[/quote]

Absolutely...

Get your ideas together, play them to some prospective bandmembers, when you have a quorum go to suitable place and work on the music.

There.....a band ! It may work, it may not. It will most likely work for a bit then stop, so try and do a few gigs before it stops. You will meet some new people and most likely learn a lot of stuff (some of it to do with music).


Repeat.

Edited March 30, 2016 by ahpook