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

I have been listening to a lot of podcasts while driving around Europe over the last week and have come to realize something quite profound (well for me anyway). The vision board I posted a couple of days was full of things I hope to achieve in 2017 but said nothing about why I hope to achieve these.

In one podcast I listened to they were saying that you should always understand why you are doing something rather than focusing on the what. When you say yes to something you are always saying no to something else and when time is short and there is so much one CAN do, understanding why you are doing something is crucial for choosing what want to focus on and for your success (and contentment!).

While it is easy to understand why you are doing certain things (for example, I understand why I need to work out three times a week) it is not so easy for things I do for my music.

So, I started thinking about my own particular whys and I came to realize that I don’t really know why I have all these musical goals.

I would love to hear from other members of the forum. Are you making music to make a living or build a career? Are you doing it to build a legacy? Are you doing it for the joy of producing art? Are you playing the lottery (hoping to get a lucky strike?). Do you just want to give back? Do you want to fill time?

What are your reasons for making music?

Hi Joanne,

interesting topic. For that I'll have to sit down in the evening over coffee and definitely answer. Even now I can say that 90% of love for music.

My life has been saturated by music. I grew up in a musical family and it was part of daily life. In that respect, I'd say I just have the music in me...

Because I have no tangible reason to play music, I rejected many opportunities that I have had over the years to participate in bands, rejected writing for long periods of time. (I'm there right now), and as a normal course of action, decline to play spontaneously at parties or if asked to jam by friends.

The only tangible goal I think I'd have with music would be to get it right once and write a hit song. I don't need the money nor do I need the fame. That just seems to have always been the ultimate tangible accomplishment to reach.

Charlie

Why do I play music? I have to play music. Why do I have to play music?

• I'm addicted to it
• It gives me great pleasure / it's my bliss
• It's my creative outlet
• It has been my only way to introduce myself to members of the opposite sex, and it ended up having me meet the very best woman in the world, who is currently my wife of 38 years
• It is my job, it puts food on the table, it paid off the mortgage, bought cars, boats, vacations, and so on
• It is my gift and I need to use it

Take your pick of any or all of the above.

When I was a little child, my favorite toys were the ones that made music. I played melodies by ear on those toy pianos, 'xylophones' and so on. And on the toy piano that didn't have the 'black keys' (they were painted on the white ones), I learned which white key to start the song on.

I played plastic recorder, drums and then saxophone in school, and every year that I was eligible, I became first sax in the all-state band. As a tenor sax player, that is an accomplishment, because by default it goes to an alto player.

In junior high school I got in this little rock and roll band (drums, bass, two guitars and me on sax). We were terrible, but everybody was back in those days.

We got hired for a junior high school dance. There I was on the stage with my best friends playing the popular music of the day that we liked so much and worked so hard to learn, and I looked out over the audience and that cute girl who didn't acknowledge my existence was 'making eyes' at me. And if that wasn't enough (and it was) they actually paid me money at the end of the night.

I knew that is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Now I'm past the age where many folks retire, and I have no plans to retire. I've added bass, guitar, flute, wind synthesizer, keyboard synthesizer, and vocals to the sax and drums to the fix, and as long as I can fog a mirror, I'll be playing music. As long as I can get a gig, I'll be gigging.

So after all that, I guess the answer is being a music is not what I do. Being a musician is what I am.

Sorry if that's TMI.

Insights and incites by Notes

The music is inside and it just bubbles out.

I started music around the age of 12. I played trumpet and when in high school I also played French horn. I started guitar at 14 and was in bands playing rock songs of that time. I was playing trumpet and guitar in bands after high school but had to quit the trumpet because of severe asthma. Meds allowed me to continue playing in bands as playing was now in my blood.

After getting married, having a child and a mortgage I started playing in wedding bands, as the money and the playing conditions were much better than the bar scene. I stayed playing in wedding bands until I retired from playing out about 20 years ago.

But I kept on playing via MIDI sequencers and a keyboard. When DAWs came out I added my guitar to the mix. Now I play guitar, bass, wind controller (my lung functions are back at 100%) and a little keyboard.

Why do I continue to play today? Because after years of playing what the customer wanted I can now play what I want. It's a great feeling being able to express yourself via music.

I listened to all the "clear channel" stations on all night radio when I was a kid...went to sleep listening to everything from rockabilly to country to R&B to blues. My dad was a fan of big band music and I really can't recall a period in my life when music was not a daily part of my life.

I was a partner in a recording/booking venture in the 60's (rock) and played in bluegrass bands off and on from 1976 until 2004.

Janice was always musical, played clarinet and after our 1982 marriage she learned guitar and mandolin and sang in the bluegrass bands. We played festivals, clubs, and a variety of other venues and played a lot...too much really given that we were both working full time. Not long after my retirement we decided biking and hiking was more fun and left the band and quit playing but never slowed down on listening.

We discovered BiaB in 2012 and ended up making music again. We've never harbored any commercial aspirations but we did have a successful bluegrass CD in 2002 that we recorded as a trio with the great fiddler Randy Howard (our website has a page on him).

Today we listen to a variety of genres...if it has soul we are all in. FWIW, we stream apple music in the home and in the vehicles daily enjoying those curated "for you" playlists and a zillion other options.

J&B

I don't play professionally (although I do draw a salary as church Director of Music Ministries). But if I couldn't play/sing music, listen to music, arrange music, transcribe music, experiment with music and sounds, etc, there would just be a clear void in my life.

If I'm angry, I'll just go bang it out on the piano. If I'm working on something at the computer, my right hand often goes over and noodles notes on one of the two keyboards sitting next to me. Yes, I still sing in the shower (usually unconsciously). There is nothing like raising my hands and having the sounds of the voices of my choir come washing over over. I continue to convert my vinyl album and cassette tape collection to digital, not because I have to, but because doing so reminds me of the music I haven't listened to in a while and it's just fun (and then I can finally listen in the car).

It's just something I have to do. Life would not be complete for me without it.

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.

Thanks for the interesting responses everyone. It seems that everyone here does it for the joy of producing by their art. It is inside them and they have to. Notes also makes a living out of it and John draws a salary.

I suppose for me, I am a little like Charlie in that I don't need the money (but a little bit of fame might be nice :D). I am probably just letting everything bubble out of me (as Keith said) and who knows one day I might just win the lottery. And I guess all the things I am doing is just buying more lottery tickets.

When Don McLean was asked what the song "American Pie" meant he apparently replied that it meant that he never has to work again.

Eddie. Reading that is a treat. Especially this

"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"

This is a question worth asking. Without a purpose we're just running on a gerbil wheel.

It takes as much time and energy to flail at the wind as it does to accomplish specific tasks. Maybe more, since real tasks have a start and finish, whereas flailing can become a habit that never ends.

Having said that, I think self entertainment can be a legitimate purpose, as long as you can set it aside when real tasks demand attention. The difference between choices and addictions is the ability to refrain from them when necessary.

You are truly a wise man, Pat Marr.

Not a wise guy, a wise man!

Big + 1 from me! My Serbian basketball coach used to tell us we were "running around like chickens out of head". Sometimes I feel like that!

Because I am a musician, well in my mind I am anyway.

Sorry to be so long winded Jo, lol

Happy New Year!

Hi, Jo !:))

For my part I have had
the advantage of having
been born to musical parents
so there was a lot of music
from the start but, what really
pushed me to start writing
music was the yearly European
Songcontest that in my opinion
often displayed quite poor
contributions (not every tune, though)
Came to think that I could do
better myself and as I am a fairly
good guitar player I wrote 16 songs
and requested some funds for putting
them on a record that in fact happened
in 1992. The music had been there
all the time from boyhood and thus it
just had to pop out given the right
means and occasion !

Later I discovered the barbershop genré
and am today a 16 year member of Nashville
based Barbershop Harmony Society !

I did leave everything out when my wife
got ill (later to die) and after her
death in 2011 I slowly took up writing
and producing again especially after having
received a copy of BIAB ! Writing songs
with this remarkable program has led to
over 80 songs written over 2-4 years !

I think I´ve reached the point where
it has become a passion and then there are
all the wonderful friends too !:))

I´ll be writing music til I won´t
be able to hear the chords I´m writing
or singing, and I hope that it won´t happen
soon yet !

Cheers
Dani

Pretty much everything Notes said other than I didn't marry a singer.

I started my musical career in the Air Force in Japan, that morphed into doing Vegas shows in the 70's which morphed into doing full time local gigs which morphed into part time local gigs until now I will do the occasional gig. This is in addition to all the fun I have working with these programs, doing some live recording, mixing them down etc.

I figured out years ago that I'm a big ham. I love it when people tell me how great I am. I rarely hear that doing taxes, ha ha. I just did two gigs on Catalina Island, one on Dec 30 was a private all jazz house party where I played a nice old upright piano. For that night I was a star, they loved me. Then for NYE I was in a very loud classic rock band and I was still a star based on a few screaming Jon Lord type B3 solos I did. Literally it was the drunker they got the bigger the star I became.

I'm reminded of the classic joke "I'm such a ham if someone opens the refrigerator door and the light comes on I'll do 20 minutes in front of a dead chicken".

There's a lot of truth in that.

Bob

Ha...hope you reveled in that glory.

Me...I mysteriously acquired an addictive propensity for song writing right after my USMC picnic. (I'd been playing drums since high school so music was in my future)
Probably some neuronal aberration on my part.
Music/song writing is still in my blood, has never waned (pun unintentional) and has remained a creative therapy process as I approach my 70th year on Orb Earth....end of story.

Carry on....

Ditto. Plain and simple. And I started out by saying/thinking: "Well, if they can't play what I like on the Radio Stations, I'll create something that pleases me." And it does. Not just me, got a few fans along the way.

Life without my music is just not my kind of life.

Of course! Why do you think I'm talking about it here?

I'm awesome and I want everybody to know it!! I cudda been a star man, shudda been a star...I was THIS CLOSE...

Bob