Ways to stave off Fatigue in our own music

[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...