As I read these very good replies, I thought maybe the challenge would be to turn the question around and ask "What are my reasons to NOT make music". (Yes, another of Eddie's long winded posts.)

Simply stated, I lost my love for it, and like when I lose my love for a woman, she is sent packing. Is there really much difference between the love of music and the love of a person? Not really. You sacrifice, you compromise, you live with both every day they are in your life.

I got tired of playing in front of a crowd of people who wouldn't know good from bad if they sat in it. As long as they can get drunk, they are happy. I consider those to be the "lowest common denominator" audiences. I want to play in front of a group of musicians and have those musicians walk out of that room saying "Wow. Those guys can play and sing!!" Thus I want to do much more complex music than the lowest common denominator bands play. And there's the challenge. Try to find musicians who want to put that kind of time into a band that is built to blow people away with their skills. My perspective of playing music is NOT to play what the drunk at the back table wants to hear because it was playing on the radio the first time he had sex. His memories are not my memories and they do not matter to me. At all. I want my audience to sit spellbound and gasp for air at the brilliance they hear coming at them, much the way I did when I heard Frank Zappa in concert, or the amazing Cleveland Orchestra playing a Mozart program.

That is no longer attainable in the microwaved, high-speed, instant gratification world in which we now live. If I was to start rehearsals with guys I recruited today, the target date would be like July 1. THAT is how hard they better be prepared to work. 4 rehearsals of 4 hours per week between now and then. And we are going to do it again until I, as bandleader and musical director, says it is right.

Starting to see why I don't have a band? grin

I am seriously AWFUL to work for. (And sometimes, WITH.) Note the verb. Work. Music is hard work. It is NOT a fun hobby IF you are doing it with higher goals in mind. If you set your goals low, like many bands in my area do, and play the generic list of 45 that every band plays, enjoy your shows, but you will never see me there. I think years back I started a thread about "the list". Brown Eyed Girl, Mustang Sally, ANYTHING by Lynard Skynard.... pretty much any of the unimaginative 3 chord junk that you can play when you are 10 and just started lessons.

My final instructions for any memorial that will be held after I pass include the stipulation that the last thing to happen will be the playing of MacArthur Park. That has been my idea of a masterpiece since 1968, and in my opinion, the way music is supposed to be written. I listen to it and play along with it every day. My "Make-A-Wish" dream (if I were dying) would be to meet my songwriting idol Jimmy Webb AT MacArthur Park in Los Angeles and spend an hour over lunch talking about songwriting.

So in closing, I have accepted that now at 65, I can't reach that level. And there is no participation trophy in music, just the Grammy. Thus I have pretty much put it away. Time for a new hobby. This year I will get out and shoot more and enter some competitions.

And that is why I DON'T play music.

Last edited by eddie1261; 01/07/17 08:28 AM.
I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.

1. How much did you make in 2023?
2. Send it to us.