PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic What are your reasons for making music?

For much the same reason I shoot, cook, make furniture, fix computers, and write "articles" in a journal that nobody reads.

Because I can.

I started lessons at 4 years and 10 months of age, in April of 1956, and that adds up to over 60 years of music in my life. Along the way I picked up a BA in Music from Akron U, played in about 12 states and all over Ontario Canada, made a lot of friends (now mostly estranged) and met a lot of great people in the audiences. I got a lot of pleasure from music all those years but anymore I don't. Once it became a job I pretty much retired from it. I now play only annual band reunion shows (2 per year on one weekend) and every year I reevaluate whether what I will get from it is worth what I will put into it. One of our guys this year mentioned that he wished I had more fun doing it, and that really resonated with me. It isn't fun. But I never believed it is supposed to be "fun". Music is hard work, not fun. Fun is playing cornhole at the barbecue. Music is hard work and serious bidness!!

If I had to rely on music to make a living, I would probably view it differently. I don't have to as I make enough on retirement to live rather comfortably. However, if I had to rely on music for a living, I (A) couldn't because my skills have eroded, and (B) wouldn't want to. 60 years of anything is enough. That CD I did last year was about the end of it for me, but that's just how I am wired. Once I have done something, I have achieved that goal and there isn't a lot of motivation to do it again. Like if I ever won a shooting competition, I would never enter another one. I have done it. That bar is now on the floor and it takes nowhere near the effort to step over it as it did to jump over it. I want challenges that push me. Like, I would like to win a cooking competition. If anything I would do a solo act where I don't have to deal with a bunch of moods and personalities. Being in a 7 piece band is like having 6 wives. Imagine it with 13 people.

What is funny is that AWAY from music I am fun, funny, relaxed.... but put me in that music context and I am like General Patton leading the troops at Normandy. I have never been able to keep a band together when I am the leader because I am a difficult boss when it comes to music. "The singing has to be better. Do it again." "You are speeding the tempo up. Do we have to practice with a click track?" "That solo is too complex and because of that you are stumbling over the notes. Play less notes with more feel." "Rehearsal was at 7. Why did you get here at 7:05?" "Eat your fast food dinner on your time. We are working here." "You will not drink at my gigs. You don't drink at your day job, do you? Then why do you want to do it at your night job? On MY time!"

And that sums up General Eddie in a band leader role.... LOL!

It makes me sad when I meet people who feel like they have nothing to offer other than they can play an instrument. And you can spot them because when you meet them that is the first thing they mention. If music is all you can do, get outside and talk to people more. This is why I LOVE this place. Such a diverse group of people here who share life experiences from many fields of expertise. Not those guys who are 50 and still live with roommates because they want to wear a badge of "full time musician" and make no money, have no health insurance so when they get sick there has to be charity benefits for them, drive 15 year old cars that never have gas in them and are always broken down, eat Ramen noodles every day (but have money to spend at every jam night in town - gotta "make the scene, man!") etc...

Edit to add this philosophic thought:

It has never been my goal to become the richest corpse in the graveyard. I don't care if I earn even a dollar more than what I need to stay afloat. That said, I am also an extreme loner and rarely go out. I can't remember the last movie I went to, or the last concert I attended. I lived extremely poor for most of my life, and I consider paying $11 to see a 110 minute movie or $100 to see some old has been in concert performing their greatest hits, all of which I can listen to here at home, as a waste of money. I don't socialize, I rarely date, I only have a small handful of people I call friends and when I do force myself to go somewhere I find a reason to duck out after a short appearance. PTSD is a horrible thing sometimes. It keeps me from trusting and letting people get close to me because my life experience is such that when you let people get close to you they can just as easily disappear. The way to avoid that pain is to not let people in.

Or write songs about it. Most of my CD was songs about being hurt by people. And once by a car! And in the past by alcohol.