Ways to stave off Fatigue in our own music

[tea for two]

P.S.
Forgot to mention 'the time' can be anything from 5 minutes to 20+ years

Sounds as me
I've recently finished a few pieces I started around 2004 2005.

Actually this has helped stave off fatigue in those pieces.
Becuase I finished them, I no longer revisit them to keep plugging away at them.

So I would add to the list :
Completing pieces so that we don't return to them time and again.

[tea for two]

It is important I feel to have some sillyness in some music we compose just as it is important to laugh.
To me this helps stave off fatigue.

I have some haha silly tracks. Also some candy floss tracks.
Because there's a silly billy numpty part of me lol also because it gets too heavy for me to always make something meaningful which gets fatiguing for me.

[RichardT]

It is important I feel to have some sillyness in some music we compose just as it is important to laugh.
To me this helps stave off fatigue.

I have some haha silly tracks. Also some candy floss tracks.
Because there's a silly billy numpty part of me lol also because it gets too heavy for me to always make something meaningful which gets fatiguing for me.

Yes, I agree!

[OneWorld]

I don't overthink things and just stop. I wouldn't bother making lists though. if I had the inclination I'd do what Ed Sheeran pledged to do, and did do, and that was write a new tune each day.

I think Dolly Parton did something much the same and has over 1000 tunes to her name. She says only a handful are anything special, but seeing as a couple of them made her a millionaire, she ain't complaining. What a gal!

[NickDawes]

One of the ways I like to freshen things up is just by using different DAW's, especially if I've never used them before. With a different workflow and a limited knowledge of the set up, it can force me down different paths and get me out of my comfort zone.

[forumuser940434]

I find having a day job pretty effective in stopping me getting any fatigue in creating music!
More seriously, but in the same vein, having other pastimes is key for me.

Yes for me thats also nr #1 something completely different.

[tea for two]

I think Dolly Parton did something much the same and has over 1000 tunes to her name. She says only a handful are anything special, but seeing as a couple of them made her a millionaire, she ain't complaining. What a gal!

I adore Dolly Parton.
Isn't that just it : it's natural as a creative person to just create whilst the mojo is with us.
(Once mojo gone, fatigue can set in).

::

One of the ways I like to freshen things up is just by using different DAW's, especially if I've never used them before. With a different workflow and a limited knowledge of the set up, it can force me down different paths and get me out of my comfort zone.

This is actually practical in these days.
Well worth exploring.
Also pretty straightforward to do nowadays esp with Lite versions also ios daw's that are relatively affordable.

[tea for two]

Having alter ego/egos.
Composing stuff as our alter ego/egos.

::

JmJarre article in this months SoS.
JmJ saying
"Assembling sounds that have nothing to do with each other."

[tea for two]

Making : forget about your worries music.

(To even out any navel gazing, shoe gazing, music we might make).

[tea for two]

Don't give a flying f about trying to make music that others might get, others might connect with, others might want to listen to.

Just make the darn thing and to hell with it.

[tea for two]

Making our own take that steps away from convention.

If say we are making a Blues, Folk, Rock track : keeping a couple of times as convention, our vocal the main instrument, the rest stepping away from convention.

For instance I have Folky tracks, where the main instrument melody tune sounds Folky. The rest, the accompaniment has very little to do with Folk.

[Guest]

There is only one way I work on multiple songs at once: I want to record my vocals, and I don't want to do that if my wife or daughter are at home: I would feel very self-conscious and don't want to bother them. Then I'd allow myself to start another song. Otherwise, I feel I'd have a tougher time completing a given song, which takes me roughly a month. But different strategies work for different people. I probably spend roughly 10 hours a week working on my original songs. If I did much more than that I might burn out.

[Sam Inglis]

Interesting discussion!

If I have anything to add it's that, from my own experience, there's ultimately very little connection between how I feel about something as I'm working on it and how I feel about it in the long term. Many times when I've felt inspired or excited during the creative process, the cold light of day has shown up the results quite badly. And many times when the creative process has felt like a tedious slog, the results have held up quite well.

[OneWorld]

And to think that Paul MacCartney wrote some of the world's most remarkable tunes in a day, or Ed Sheeran, when he started out committed himself to writing a song a day, or Dolly Parton who said "I wrote over 2000 songs and 99% are garbage, but one of the other 1% made me a millionaire, what's wrong with that"

I think it was her that said "You know, I realised the harder I worked, the luckier I got"

I guess people such as those mentioned above are just of a different league to the rest of us - who else could come up with a single word 'Yesterday' 'Michelle' 'Jolene' 'Imagine' etc etc etc and box the job off and have the tune oven ready in a day or so. I just the pragmatism and matter of fact perspective the stars have.

[GilesAnt]

I think it was her that said "You know, I realised the harder I worked, the luckier I got"

It was the golfer Gary Player...though to be fair a lot of people have been credited with that line

[OneWorld]

I think it was her that said "You know, I realised the harder I worked, the luckier I got"

It was the golfer Gary Player...though to be fair a lot of people have been credited with that line

Did he ever write any decent tunes though? because as we (musicians/writers/troubadors/divas/minstrels etc) know, any of those occupations is the most gruelling endeavour of all, although putting a shift in at many of the thankless jobs many people have to do, comes a close second

[OneWorld]

OK I know I am going to get rotten tomatoes, but has anyone here been impressed by the Stock Aitken Waterman series? Yes I know it is off the shelf, Primark equivalent of pop music, yes I get that, and that is all they aspired to do, they (SAW) never intended to go up against Wagner, or Bowie, or Dylan etc, they simply went out and rattled the pot hoping to get lucky, and they put some graft in, and it paid off, they were simply earning a crust and came up with a formula that would result in tunes that where for example you get a DJ booked for a wedding do, and the DJ looking around the room and there was just one bloke stumbling about doing a dad dance, and the DJ thinking "How can I get people to their feet - easy, reach for ABBA, or SAW.....sorted, result"

Last week there was one instance where they brought Kylie in, but the way things worked out, they only had her for a few hours, she'd never been in the studio with SAW, she had a flight back to Oz in a few hours. SAW had a track but no lyrics, they wazzed off some words, Kylie took a look, ran through them once then next time around came up with a top 10 hit !!!!

I have noticed one common characteristic amongst the successful, well musicians anyway, and they say, or certainly give the impression, once it gets to the point where there is fatigue, switch off the kit and go for a pint, or sack the thing off completely. I mean would a builder continue building if he stood back to review his work and ended up looking at a wobbly wall. Fatigue is the body (and mind's) way of saying "output is not inversely proportional to input - you're on a hiding to nothing"

[Drew Stephenson]

I can't remember if it's been mentioned earlier in the thread but after a fruitless evening afternoon yesterday I was reminded that even when it feels like you're not getting anywhere, challenging yourself to learn something new, especially if it's at the edge of your ability, is a good way of staving off fatigue.

[OneWorld]

I can't remember if it's been mentioned earlier in the thread but after a fruitless evening afternoon yesterday I was reminded that even when it feels like you're not getting anywhere, challenging yourself to learn something new, especially if it's at the edge of your ability, is a good way of staving off fatigue.

After having read the book by Aspley Cherry-Gerrard - The Worst Journey in the World and the book by Shackleton I think 'fatigue?' I ain't seen nothing, it's all relative. Once while living on a farm in an impoverished country in Latin America, I watched a young woman with about the same physique as Olive Oyle- eg no muscle on her, I watched her turn to each morning with her pick and shovel and dig a trench over several 100 yards through rock and hard earth to be able to run a pipeline from the well to a storage tank, and this was in temperatures of +40C, the work she did would have bust the back of an MMA fighter I'm sure, but she toiled on day after day to the point she was almost falling over with fatigue, but she took a lug of water, a little rest then soldiered on. At night time she studied and went on to become a successful lawyer in the US

We do sometimes perform well under stress, that is what drives us on, because at times we have to experience pain in order to put pleasure into context. The trick is knowing when to stop, before you drop. Certainly when doing physical work, working whilst fatigued can be dangerous eg having accidents with dangerous machinery and tools. If the efforts are more cerebral then the dangers are of course less apparent but I can envisage situations where people over-work and I guess that could lead to mental problems.

Thus far, speaking for myself I find when output is quantitively and qualitively dis-proportionate to the effort put in, I wrap up for the day, the song will still be there tomorrow, it won't run away. Strange how you can go on a quest of all consuming passion to find that 'lost chord' but the efforts are futile, then you go back to the tune the next day and it's the first chord that falls off your fingers and off you go again.

[tea for two]

When we see such Women from various parts of the world that began their back breaking daily work from as little as age 5 all through to age 80
we can only feel awe and even reverence.

::

The creative force of the universe, of creativity, of creation itself including us is the Divine Feminine.

Hence in some cultures faiths the Divine Feminine is worshipped.
Whilst in some other cultures faiths the Divine Feminine is hidden in coded words.

::

Some may wonder why is there such an abundance of sincere male music makers, male makers of music gear, male involvement in the making of music particularly in comparison to Women.

It's because through Women were created all these sincere music men hence Women don't need to do any of these.

Moreover the inspiration all these sincere music men find including us on SoS it's from the Divine Feminine creative force.

[tea for two]

Ways I've posted on this thread are things I do myself that worked (at least for myself).

One thing I have done subconsciously which I only twigged very recently (as I was doing it subconsciously)
which I consider perhaps one of the most important :

I'm not attached to the music I make.

I work on it, I feel like giving up on it, I get exasperated at myself swearing a lot at myself, I even revel in it.

Yet I'm not attached to the music I'm not holding onto it too tightly.

This enables ideas to flow, enables pieces to be completed, as well as enables avoiding fatigue fairly easily.

This is so because even though the music we make is made physically by us
it doesn't belong to us
it's a donation to us.

If we can feel see music we make this way as well as not holding on too tight becoming somewhat detached then we can make music pretty speedily alongside staving off fatigue fairly easily.

[Arpangel]

I’ve come to a conclusion, and there is one.
Fatigue has no purpose or place, in music making.
If you feel stressed, or under "fatigue" then don’t even attempt to make any music, at all.
For the muse to take affect, and for you, to literally, and spiritually "take-off"
the mind has to be free of earthly thoughts, and influences, if we are blessed with this ability, it will just happen, we have no control over it, but you have to open yourself up to the "possibility" of it happening, and that means no earthly concerns, or distractions, and it also means being "ready" to harness the moment, and actually be in a position to make the most of it.

[sonics]

If you feel stressed, or under "fatigue" then don’t even attempt to make any music, at all.

I've heard this often, especially on this forum, but the reality for many, including myself, is very different. In fact, I disagree completely!
There have been so many occasions in my career where I, or people I know, have had to create in less-than-relaxed conditions. Last-minute changes are common in many fields. You learn to trust the skills you've developed and get on with it. To produce anything, you need to get on and start the process. Do not sit and muse over the muse.

There is a time for thought, for contemplation. That's where the ideas gestate and flourish. That time is essential, of course, but it's not necessarily the same as your music-making time.

I haven't even started talking about the wonder that is music therapy...

[OneWorld]

If you feel stressed, or under "fatigue" then don’t even attempt to make any music, at all.

I've heard this often, especially on this forum, but the reality for many, including myself, is very different. In fact, I disagree completely!
There have been so many occasions in my career where I, or people I know, have had to create in less-than-relaxed conditions. Last-minute changes are common in many fields. You learn to trust the skills you've developed and get on with it. To produce anything, you need to get on and start the process. Do not sit and muse over the muse.

There is a time for thought, for contemplation. That's where the ideas gestate and flourish. That time is essential, of course, but it's not necessarily the same as your music-making time.

I haven't even started talking about the wonder that is music therapy...

Which makes a point I take as a given - in the words of one hard working lass "Different strokes for different folks" or in music I suppose we'd say "Different Plucks for different Chucks (aspiring Chuck Berry's !)

There is no universally applied wisdom, method or perspective - some might get by on the pressure and fatigue, some might wallow in woe and become inert brought on by fatigue. All I know is that if we were all the same what a boring heap of rock planet earth would be - vive la difference, and foithamore, sometimes we work best under pressure and sometimes we don't, best just accept it and roll with the punch, happens to everyone, a bricklayer gets up in the morning and whistles his way to work, other morning he grumbling and cussin' all day long and can't lay a single brick - welcome to planet earth I tell 'em

I remember a documentary about some musicians who worked for Disney and they were working on something where as usual, the music was an afterthought. The film was a tryout for a new 'star' so the goalposts were changing all the time. Till it came to the point where Disney oiked them into the office and said "This is going to be a great movie, and I want great music to go with it, let me listen to what you've got"

Disney had a tantrum and tore the music up, rejected it out of hand and as good as locked the chaps in the studio. This was about 3:00 in the afternoon. They came out later with some of the best film score of its time.

In the documentary they were asked what was their secret, what drove them on and inspired them and one replied "Easy, it was the thought of a kick up the ass and being shown the door and not being able to put food on the table, for the family, what more inspiration does a man need?"

No arty fahty stuff, it was a case of 'Sit down at that piano and knock out a bangin' tune!'

[Arpangel]

First of all, I think we need to use a different word, fatigue in my mind is stress induced by over working someone, or something.
Disney? Please, he was enough to induce stress in anyone, Disney represents everything I dislike about the medium, and the country it originated in.
When I think of Disney I see Mickey Mouse sitting astride an aircraft carrier, or sitting above the door of McDonalds.
Grotesque, over drawn, over produced rubbish.
We can endure problems, that irritate us when trying to make music, but I find it cathartic, or therapeutic, actually dealing with these problems, I wouldn’t call it stressful, or fatiguing, it’s all, part of the process, and adds to the feeling of achievement afterwards.
As for being locked in a studio to "bang out a good tune" I wouldn’t know anything about that.