Posted by Ahsanul Haque | 2010-02-03 22:54:33.538586 Discuss This Shed
Musicians, like people from every walk of life, hit a brick wall or two once in a while; this is when they think of giving up. Now, to lump all musicians into a single group can be crude. Every musician has their own set of goals and objectives. Some want to play that latest Mily Cirus song for fun, some want to write songs, some want to be the next Van Halen, yet some just want to rock out in their showers. That being said, at some point people do feel like giving up.
How one deals with thoughts of discouragement, demotivation and giving up, is what separates a strong musician from a weak one. There are literally a billion reasons one could come up with for lacking motivation. Life, economic realities, bad breakups, disabilities, addiction and so on. But in my opinion, as long as you're still in good health, all those billion reasons have more than a billion solutions.
Just like hacking code, every solution in real life has multiple solutions. Sure, every solution may not be efficient, but the efficiency of solutions comes from experience. The important thing to realize is that if you have a problem, you can fix it. Have a lot going on in life? Cut down on the number of hours you play, but don't give up. Bad breakup? Stop moping around and starting rocking out. Can't afford better equipment? Take up a second job. Only you can fix your problems. And if you quit before even looking for solutions, then the only reason you're giving up music is you.
Personal problems aside, a major factor that might influence in giving up is lack of recognition. Sure, you can play music for playing music, because it makes you happy. But let's face it, musicians want appreciation and people want great music. It's a two-way relationship. If this was the 60s and you gave up solely because you weren't popular enough, then I might cut you a little slack. But in this day and age, that is merely an excuse musicians use to cover up for their lack of ability. Nobody knows your band? Well, buy some cheap shared hosting and a domain and put together a little page for your fans. Register a goddamn MySpace page if you can't afford hosting. Make a Facebook page. Add a hundred million people as friends and make them listen to your music.
Don't even get me started on recording/production. Take a look at some of the amazing music that the FretWar guys have been putting up. You don't need a label deal. In fact, fuck the labels. Buy some cheap recording gear and download a copy of Audacious to record and mix like a pro. Even a goddamn $5 microphone will give you decent sound quality. Any 12 year old kid sitting in his basement can record amazing quality music with just about nothing but his guitar and a $400 netbook.
The point I'm trying to make is, when you feel like giving up, no matter how many solutions you have, you will try convincing yourself that giving up is the only option. I've just been hit with CTS from RSI. The last time wasn't so bad, but this time it's much worse. My fretting hand can't take any pressure, so I'm taking a break from my gigantic practice sessions. The pain will go away in a couple of weeks, but there's also the possibility that I'll have to painfully relearn the way I play. This might even mess up my chances at music school.
But you know what? Once the pain goes away, I'm going to rock fuck out.
