How often do you break from recording / music???

Jay C

Jay C

New member
just wondering if and how often do people take days off from their craft... if i don't do a little bit in a day, ( even just listening and scrutinizing some of my tracks), i feel like i've lost out on time i could have been learning.. but sometimes i just feel tired or fatigued from it and don't feel like sitting at the computer.

how bout it? when is break time?
 
Whenever you feel burnt out. As a hobbyist, the times when you have turned from "composer" to "editor" its time to take a day or two off in a peaceful place that really inspires you and gather thoughts about what you want your project to eventually turn out to be musically. This is assuming that you are in the songwriter position.
 
I just took a break about 5 minutes ago so I can grab something to eat before going back in to do some more tracks. :)

With my day gig, I don't record as much mid-week since I get home a bit later due to my compressed work schedule....but on my 3-day weekends, holidays and most vacation days....I'm in the studio every day almost, unless I have some other chore that needs doing. I rarely just spend the weekend sitting around doing nothing.
That said...there comes a weekend every now and then where I'm just not motivated. That usually happens in-between productions, but when I'm working on something, I can go for weeks without taking time off.
 
". I rarely just spend the weekend sitting around doing nothing."

Oooo! Sweeeeeet! I am now fully retired as of 2 weeks ago, and I STILL can't do that!

Dave.
 
More time off than on lately, too much 'real life' going on, not much 'quiet time' for recording. It was all a bit frantic while I was working on my now-released 2nd CD< so that may be why I'm not spending as much time recording/mixing, although I did do a remix of a Todd Rundgren song for a contest that ended this past week.
 
Jay C said:
how bout it? when is break time?
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Whenever it is.
If I go back to 1992, there have been a few blocks when I've done very little {summer '94~summer '95, most of '97, much of 2003~2004, parts of 2006~8} but even then, alot of that time I spent composing and arranging in my head. From June 2009 right through till Easter of this year, I was moreorless on a constant roll, remixing old material but also recording around 120 songs {in various states of completion}.
I don't ever recall applying the brakes consciously, it just happens and for a variety of reasons, new job, getting married, kids arriving, sheer 'couldn't be botheredness', "other things".
I love creating music but it's not the be all and end all of my existence. Since April, I've not done any recording at all because I've been revamping and repairing much of my music collection due to faulty discs from 2004 {the infamous 'Blackburn batch'}. It's been long and arduous but fun in a masochistic way and I've learned a whole load about editing and FLACs and APEs and software that I never knew existed.
Have I missed recording ? No, not a bit. Am I ready to get back to it ? Yes. Do I feel I've missed out ? Nope. Did I feel I needed a break ? Naw.
For me, it's just life. It happens.
 
haven't really taken a break in 49 years ..... I did take vacations about once a year back in BR but over here I can't afford that so .... no breaks.

Also never did the family thing which often leads to time off from music.
But it's never been a hobby ... always been my primary income.
 
I took about a 5 month break. I had been working on a pet project with some old high school band mates. We got together about 2 years ago after talking about doing it for 10 years. Anyway long story short, the guitar player, my best friend since middle school, was diagnosed with cancer one month after our first "session". The cancer attacked him hard, but the chemo and radiation just fucking ate him alive. We got together once more but got little done, but really, it didn't matter, it was just an excuse to do what we loved ,and that's play some music.

So anyway, ive always been kind of a seasonal type of home recordist , summer is for playing gigs, winter is for recording.

You should do whatever your inspired to do .
 
When I won the lottery and could afford to hire musicians to play everything for me...

Oh wait, that never happened.:(
 
For the past year and a half, I no longer live with my studio. Basically, I moved out of my parents' house, where my recording studio is, my drumset, etc. etc. So since then, my general recording output has nosedived. I always used to throw together covers and little ditties, or drum videos, every month or so. But last one I did was probably a year ago.

I still rehearse with bands regularly of course.

But since I only make special trips to my studio for band rehearsals, and rarely a recording session these days, you can say I'm mostly on break. I have a drum pad and digital piano at my apartment, but even those I don't play all the time.
 
I am a "semi-pro" who depends on a day job for my primary income - so the 60 hours a week commited to working/commuting and the 35-40 hours a week committed to sleeping leaves 168 hours per week. Of that amount I probably spend about 30-40 of those hours involved in some type of musically activity - either gigging, practising an nstrument/learning new songs/working with instructional videos, writing or recording/mixing. I retire at the end of next year - so I anticipate my weekly time committed to music will increas to 100 plus hours per week.

Since I first started to play an instrument in approximately 1956, I've never taken more than a day or two "away from music" - and even then I would be listening to music and mentally dissecting arrangements, etc. Naturally, when I was a full time "professional" musician I literally never took time away from music (unless you count getting wasted - and even then it likely always involved other band members)
 
I pretty much never take a break. I overlap recording projects (usually by the time I finish one song, another one is ready to start tracking, or at least very close). Considering I gigged almost every week end for about 20 years, I'd say I haven't taken a break from music in about t25- years.
 
RAMI said:
Considering I gigged almost every week end for about 20 years, .
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I guess that's gigging ...... if I only played weekends though, I'd consider myself retired. I played 7 nights a week for 40 years and I find playing only 5 nights a week to be scarey ..... where the hell are those other two days?!?!!
 
Lt. Bob said:
I guess that's gigging ...
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Playing weekends is still gigging. It was my full time job, meaning I didn't need to do anything else for money because gigging on weekends payed me well enough to support myself and then some. So, yes, it was most definitely gigging. :)

For a few years, I used to play 6 nights a week when clubs used to hire bands for 6 nights a week. That doesn't happen around here any more. We used to play Monday to Saturday and travel on Sunday. There, now am I as cool as you? :)
 
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No offense to anyone....but to me, playing out seven days a week would be more like grinding instead of gigging. :D ;)
 
Gigging 7 days a week sounds like working. No thanks.

I'm good with one or two gigs a month, and even that annoys me most times.
 
Lol. What? Boob knows that I mean no disrespect. Me and him's buddies. He knows very well what I deal with with my two bands. :laughings:
 
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