Full time work and not losing touch with your musical self?

[MitchT]

I admit I find it a real struggle keeping in touch with that musical part of myself when I'm working full time. Over Christmas I had two weeks off, the first spent wringing all the crap out of my head and the second enjoying my most intense burst of musical creativity in a decade. The problem is, nearing the end of my first week back at work, and as work starts to take back over my life, I can sense that relentless torrent of ideas and creativity starting to slip away from me again, like the scene in Titanic when Rose lets go of Jack's hand and he disappears into the dark abyss of the North Atlantic. I already feel like my working life is interfering too much again, like it has made a fog between me and my creativity and the fog is getting thicker and will soon set like concrete. For many of us musicians the 'day job' is an inevitable part of life, so how do others manage to stay in touch with that creative flow when they only have an hour or two each evening in which to write and produce?

[VinceFox]

cranking. although technically that's two things.

[CrabDan]

Same here! Polished off three tracks this week!



Can't answer your question though. I'm in the same boat.

[GetCarter]

I guess I'm lucky with regard this, though HAVING to do it does have many pitfalls. I enjoy listening to music far less than I did when it wasn't my day job. Enjoy the freedom of doing it only when it suits.

[prand]

I got an accordion for my 40th birthday, I asked my family for one as a bit of a challenge to learn how to play one from scratch, but I've had it out of the box just three times in two years (although I managed a passable rendition of "Happy Bithday" when I was given it).

I used to play the piano and a lot of guitar, but not often at all now. Job and two young kids uses all potential learning and practice time.

[InertialTooth45]

I know the feeling, I've been having drum lessons for the last 6 months or so but am struggling to find time to practice too regularly with work and running training. It's not that I don't have time but the time I do have I feel like I need to relax. I was away over xmas and spent a lot of time thinking about creating some songs and songwriting, but since being back I've barely given it another thought!

[Alfanatic]

I feel the same. Things change when you're grown up with a job and a family, just don't have the free time I had when I was younger, the free time I do have is very structured and predictable - and has a time limit - and I spend most of it trying to unwind. It's not so easy to be creative and getting ideas down when you've got a two hour (or whatever) time limit, end up setting objectives and goals and feeling unfulfilled if I don't get something down in time.

Got a few music projects going, all amateur and rubbish, but I just can't churn out results that quickly. I've got plenty of tunes in my head, some have been in there for over 25 years, but it takes forever for me to get them all down on silicon because a) I don't have a band so I have to work out and do all the instruments myself, b) I'm a really st singer and all my songs have lyrics so I'm never happy with the end result anyway. At the moment I'm probably averaging one song complete every six months.

[Greenwich Ross]

Just chip away at it. I'm part way though an album but it's taking an age. So, I just come home, bang down a few tracks. Sometimes they're ok - sometimes they're crap. If they're crap, I just re-record them another day. It's slow and inefficient but I'm getting there. I find the biggest problem is just being mentally tired all the time.

One tip, though, is to get a set-up at home (or wherever you play) that can literally be turned on with one switch and you can crack on straight away. If you've got to unpack things, plug things in, etc. then you'll probably find you can't be arsed. That way you can literally do one guitar take (or whatever) and then turn it all off and go and do something else.

[Alfanatic]

I also find that just being mentally worn out all the time gets in the way, I'm more inclined to just strum along to something I already know instead of pitting new stuff down, but you are right, I am fortunate in our current house to have enough space to keep a permanent music room, a switch turns it all on, all the guitars are hanging on the wall and the keyboard is set up. I do play a lot more now than I was before because of this, I'll get a few hours a week in, which is good, however most of that is doodling, which is not, but life just feels so busy

However, like you say, it is productive, even if slow.