I am become musician again?
Thu, 04/28/2011 - 1:08am
I just wanted to share the fact that music has crept back into my head and is sneaking out of my hands.
I wasn't writing or playing for a long time, and it was a bummer.
No full songs yet.. but big pieces.
Posting here, because grabbing strangers on the street has proven to be legally complicated.
If you don't think talking about it can jinx you: What's your longest dry spell (whatever your creative form), and can you connect it with events in your life/make sense of it?
Thu, 04/28/2011 - 10:15am
#2
I think I knew I was in a
I think I knew I was in a songwriting "dry spell" when I was bored with forcing myself into a single means of creative expression. I asked myself this question: "after all the great things you put your heart into over the past few years, why worry about how many verses and choruses you churned out?" I wrote a handful of decent really good songs over the past several years that have the traditional verse/chorus structure, but really I don't have a lot of material that I can introduce at the beginning of a Monday night for a new song applause. I've written and recorded a ton of instrumental music, sound collage, raised a kid, put a lot of energy into Sidewalk, focused on my art and honed in on my playing and mastery of my gear. Crabs on Bano put out four CDs of improvised songwriting. These are all huge accomplishments.
Thu, 04/28/2011 - 4:12pm
#3
dryness
"At that point I began to hear music in my head.."
Yeah, that's what I really mean. Not so much that I was trying to make stuff and was failing, but that the teeming melodies that have lived in my head since I can remember sorta faded away.
Thu, 04/28/2011 - 11:38am
#4
hey
its great to hear you're getting back on the horse lippe! i saw you play many moons ago at Sidewalk and i remember being very impressed by your voice and intricate guitar style.
i spent the better part of one year without a song. i was writing things from time to time, but i never considered anything in that period a finished piece. its nice to get to a point with a song you are excited about and have it feel finished. there is something in that that lets you move forward into writing another song.
best of luck!
There were a few years (1989-1992?) where I did not listen to music and lived places where I hardly ever heard it being played.
I decided I would do it--write songs etc. again if it was the right thing to do.
At that point I began to hear music in my head and be attracted to watching Austin City Limits.
Interesting thing is my interests naturally shifted from punk to country (Not quite as general as that).
For me, the abstinence was a good way to shake off the old and start fresh, effortlessly.
It was necessary, and I will do it again if I am ever motivated to.
PS I don't know much about "dry spell[s]" because I don't usually attempt to write unless I am into it.
http://barrybliss.info/