Creative Passion Shifting

[bigcatJC]

I'm not sure where to put this, so in MISC it goes. Mods, feel free to move if needed.

It's been many, MANY years since I've played in a band, but I've always kept up my bass skills and always enjoyed the practice. That is, until the last couple of years. Practicing has begun to feel like a chore and I have to make an effort just to pick up the instrument. I was losing that passion for my instrument.

Then a few months ago, I got into digital recording with Reaper, free VST effects and instruments (cheap, yes, but there's some great free stuff out there). I'm programming strictly in MIDI so far, no "real" instruments recorded. Heck, I don't even have a MIDI keyboard yet, I'm entering notes with the mouse! But you know what? My passion has been re-ignited, just shifted in a different direction.

I have access to exotic "world" MIDI instruments I've only dreamed of using. Orchestras? I got lots. Takes me back to my concert band days playing clarinet and bass clarinet. Simulations of every analog synth I can download? Yep.

Plus, I'm fairly prolific for the first time in a long time. And I've learned more about arranging and producing music in the last few months than I ever knew before. Is my stuff top-notch? No. But it's better than any music I've written before. And I'm getting better song by song, learning tricks, playing with chords and theory in ways I never did. The bottom line is this - There's a musical joy in me that I've not had in a long, long while.

But...

Sometimes I feel guilty looking at my bass sitting in its gig bag. I'm sure I'll eventually get around to incorporating "real" instruments into my recordings, but for now, I'm happy not to. But I still feel like I'm betraying something I've put a lot of time and effort into. Maybe it's temporary, like setting something aside instead of letting something go.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Maybe you switched instruments for a while and felt like you ought to be playing bass, even though you're happy right now? Or am I nuts?

 

[chickadeedeedee]

I've had a similar experience in the visual arts. I've been drawing since forever, loved making little illustrations and comics and got quite good at it! But it got to be where it was something I was doing just because it was what I did, like I had an obligation to keep my skills up even though I wasn't enjoying the process or the final product. I picked up some oil paints earlier this year and decided to try my hand at painting, and I loved it! Made pieces I was proud of for the first time in the last couple years, and had no trouble getting myself to sit down for the hours it took to finish them. Lately if I pick up a pencil and paper it's just to jot down a couple thumbnails for a new painting. It feels strange, just drawing ought to be so much easier, the materials are as cheap and easy as it gets and yet...

Likewise, I just started on bass! I'm doing good to put a song on in the background and pull out the root notes every measure, let alone actually replicate a bassline. Same with painting, I'm working with a totally new medium that's frankly obnoxiously tedious and difficult to control compared to my familiar pencils. But somehow it's easy to spend the hours on that and nigh-impossible to get out a sketchbook and do the thing that I know, the thing that I can use to show off and impress people and that makes up a very-deeply ingrained part of my identity. But I can't make it go.

I've decided not to fight it. There's a lot of skill transfer between drawing and painting as there are between different ways of making music, so I don't count it as lost time. And maybe I sound crazy, but I think people should do the things that make them happy, if something makes you miserable, it's okay to stop? Temporary misery is one thing, the tedium and frustration of practicing a new technique will always exist, but it's made worthwhile by mastery and being able to make and do new things. But you need to be able to enjoy where you're at, and be inspired by what you're aiming toward. If you don't have one or both of those things going then you're just being miserable for nothing.

 

[Stumbo]

I spend time, sometimes full time, on acoustic guitar. Now, with digital graphic arts, I found another medium for creative expression.

It's all good.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

Shift happens. Some things you eventually come back to, others just turn out to have been a one time deal. Do what you love while you love doing it, and when you don't, do something else. Don't feel guilty...