So you’re really into this composing and recording stuff. You just built a brand new PC based studio. You’ve got all the toys; new keyboard, digital audio workstation, tons of VSTs, studio monitors, and on and on. You dive headlong into it and are having the time of your life. It’s all so new and exciting, just like a new girlfriend.
Yeah, that’s all well and good. So what do you do when that new girlfriend turns into a wife of 2 or 3 years and the novelty wears off? What do you do when those VSTs just don’t do it for you anymore?
Well, you’ve got several choices, but none of them really address the real problem. I’ll get into that eventually but first let’s get into a few band aids to cover up the wound.
One thing you can do is simply buy new toys. And let’s face it, that’s never a problem. There is always new stuff coming out. I’ve been regularly buying and/or downloading free software going on a good year now. Just recently I to some AAS stuff, a new drum VST and even a new synth, cheap as the thing is. It helps for a while but it doesn’t fix the real problem. Usually, in a week or two, depending on the complexity of the toy, the novelty is gone. Heck, even Sonigen’s modular synth didn’t hold my attention for more than a month or two.
New toys are not the answer.
Another thing you can do is try writing and recording different styles of music. Of course this is a problem if you have the kind of job that doesn’t allow you that kind of flexibility. Some people can’t do anything but write dance tunes all day long. I am sure after a while that will get kind of dull. Either way, the new thing you’re doing is going to eventually get old too. So that’s not the answer either.
Next on the list of bandages you can use is simply taking a break from the whole thing. At one time, I was so burnt out from writing that I took from 2004 to 2008 off. Five whole years I didn’t write a thing. I couldn’t. I didn’t even want to look at a keyboard. In fact, I was convinced that I was done writing. But that wasn’t so much out of the novelty wearing off but out of frustration of having absolutely no success. After a while, no matter how much you love to write, lack of success can wear on you.
So taking some time off may help for a while, but it still doesn’t treat the actual problem. See, the novelty isn’t what should matter in the first place. Do you think Mozart had novelty when he wrote? There as nothing back then but pen and paper. You didn’t have cool new toys to keep you interested. So what kept Mozart going? The answer is really simple.
True love for music.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that if you get tired of writing it’s because you don’t have a true love for music. I’m not talking about wanting to take a day off because you’re tired. I’m sure Mozart didn’t write every single day.
But if you reach a point where you wonder if you even want to do this anymore, that means there is a deeper problem. It doesn’t mean you don’t love your music. What it means is you haven’t yet discovered how MUCH you love it.
Sometimes we don’t realize how much something means to us until we lose it or are in danger of losing it. In my case, I needed to be away from my music long enough to realize that something was missing in my life. It took 5 years, but when I realized that music really was my life, I no longer needed to be successful with it. I just needed to do music for music’s sake.
In the year since I’ve been putting together this site, I can’t remember one day that I took off from doing something musical unless I had something else that I had to do that couldn’t be put off. Sometimes life will do that to you. But I never willingly said, “I don’t feel like doing music today.”
My toys are just ways to express my music now. They are neither boring or exciting. They have just become tools to get the music out. That’s the way it should have always been. And the only reason I even get any new VSTs today is because I hear something that I feel I can incorporate into a musical idea. Most of the time, I don’t even try to program the synths anymore, which used to be a lot of fun for me. Now, I just pull up the preset I need in order to get the sound I’m looking for. It’s all a means to an end.
But the music…that’s what’s at the heart of it all. That’s all that ultimately matters. It’s not even about having hit records anymore. I gave up on that dream last year when I finally realized how much I love just writing.
Some people are lucky. They know right away that their love for music is strong and they never look back. They live their music every single day. My choir director’s husband practices his trumpet almost daily. He plays out when he can.
My friend Paul plays his flute any time he sits down to listen to some old records. He’s had that flute since he was a kid. I think he just turned 60. It’s amazing that thing is still in one piece.
Point is, you will know when the day comes when you discover that you REALLY love your music. When that day comes, toys won’t matter. Writing different kinds of music won’t matter, though you won’t have any problem doing just that if the mood strikes you. Taking a break won’t even be a consideration, at least not for more than a day or two.
And when THAT day comes, you’ll realize that this is as happy as you can possibly be.
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim