Feeling so uninspired. What should I do?

[spacelordmother]

Oh, I think you know.

oh that. i thought you meant a nettle enema or something.

trouble with 'you know' is that it becomes an end in itself and you end up noodling yourself to death and not noticing that you've been playing meaningless shit for days.
i've never been for it. the few times i tried it i always felt it took more out of me than i got out of it. just a personal thing.

i get more done with a clear head. though i probably feel my frustration more than someone who is numb. it's all down to what you can handle i suppose. i can handle frustration but i can't handle that 'you know' fogginess. it's claustrophobic.

one of the reasons i gave up bands for a long time was band members turning up stoned and useless. when you are trying to get some energy going in the room and someone is just flopping around saying 'whatever dude' and playing like shit.

but some of my favourite bands did their best stuff off their tits, so not saying it doesn't work for some. just not for me.

I'm not necessarily advocating for you know if it's not your thing, but part of the issue I experience is that "uninspired" usually means "trying too hard." If you can find a way to just let go and play for awhile it's hardly meaningless. Just enjoying the feel of your instrument and the sound it makes can lead to new ideas and in the end is really what we should be doing when we play.

[kbit]

re kbithecrowing packing up your stuff. that has the oposite effect for me. badly. you then have ideas but may be too tired or too short of time to unpack, so the ideas just get lost in inconvenience. i would probably say the oppostie in fact. remove impediments to doing.

Yeah I can see it not working for some people, but if you're feeling too tired or don't have enough time then it might not be the right time to work on feeling uninspired anyway

[D.o.S.]

@ryan summit, which burroughs documentary? interested. have seen a few things about cut-up technique but not much else.

I assume that he's talking about Burroughs: The Movie.

Not being that guy but I finished off my undergraduate degree with a capstone on cut-ups and Burroughs/Gyson, so I have an unhealthy amount of research material frittered away on the subject, and can probably point you in the right direction in regards to that.

[Chankgeez]

I think I'd be scared of what's in a Burroughs fritter.

[Achtane]

I usually have to go do something else to gain musical inspiration. So, seeing a band, going somewhere with a friend, staring at the ocean, going for a walk, stuff like that. Maybe you'll see some light shining through something in an interesting way and it can be the inspiration to find a certain musical texture. Whatever.
Anything to break up the monotony of making BS noises in the same room all over again.

[tabbycat]

I'm not necessarily advocating for you know if it's not your thing, but part of the issue I experience is that "uninspired" usually means "trying too hard." If you can find a way to just let go and play for awhile it's hardly meaningless. Just enjoying the feel of your instrument and the sound it makes can lead to new ideas and in the end is really what we should be doing when we play.

agreed re 'trying too hard'. fatal. in love and songwriting, both.

but i think there are different shades of letting go. and i think some have more meaning or value to me (in the sense that they are more useful with regard to generating ideas) than others.

the most useful one i think is the one where you lose your inhibiting critical oversight, but are still paying curious but non-judgmental attention to what you are doing. you remain alert and open to the possibilities you are generating. that's why i posted the steve vai link. whatever you think of him as a guitarist (i don't know a lot about him tbh) he expresses that idea of 'uninhibited but open and attentive' really well in this clip (58m45s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djA3ZG3dHj0

i find 'herbal remedies' make it harder for me to keep that 'pilot light' of attentiveness on. they just fog me out and i lose my ear, if you know what i mean by that. everything starts sounding the same. but maybe other ears it sharpens.
each to their own and vive la difference.

@gone fission
re the roses, if you haven't seen this you have to. could be subtitled 'how we sold our souls (and our careers) to a hairdresser in a sheepskin jacket'. it's the baggy spinal tap.
The Stone Roses - Blood On The Turntable 1

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XND_FvHyVUk[/youtube] (5x 10 min parts)

[ryan summit]

i think it was "a man within"
not that reading soft machine
or listening to those old clips or whatever
or doing alot of........whatever
or talking to dos(id take this one in a heartbeat)
wouldnt be inspiring as well
but after i watched that i wanted to play
cant tell you exactly what it was

[Jwar]

Where did Ugly Nora's thread go??? That limitation could help with inspiration! I was thinking of signing up but can't find the fucking thread now.

I feel uninspired all the time. Comes with the territory of being a bass player without a band. You get that "what's the point" feeling a lot. I've been thinking of setting my bass aside of awhile and trying to learn some acoustic guitar. I just love that sound. It inspires me to hear it.

[Gone Fission]

@gone fission
re the roses, if you haven't seen this you have to. could be subtitled 'how we sold our souls (and our careers) to a hairdresser in a sheepskin jacket'. it's the baggy spinal tap.
The Stone Roses - Blood On The Turntable 1

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XND_FvHyVUk[/youtube] (5x 10 min parts)

That's depressing as fuck, and kind of aptly is more about the hairdresser than the band's music.

[tabbycat]

@gone fission
re the roses, if you haven't seen this you have to. could be subtitled 'how we sold our souls (and our careers) to a hairdresser in a sheepskin jacket'. it's the baggy spinal tap.
The Stone Roses - Blood On The Turntable 1

That's depressing as fuck, and kind of aptly is more about the hairdresser than the band's music.

and it happens on a depressingly regular basis. great bands get forbidden from releasing anything for years while managers, ex-managers and would-be managers squabble in court over their percentage.
meanwhile a band with massive potential hides out in some secluded country mansion and waits while their advance and talent go up in sweet smoke.

[ancientbones]

I feel uninspired all the time. Comes with the territory of being a bass player without a band. You get that "what's the point" feeling a lot. I've been thinking of setting my bass aside of awhile and trying to learn some acoustic guitar. I just love that sound. It inspires me to hear it.

Not even really sure what's going on with the band situation anyways. My bandmate's a guitar player as well but he can actually play drums so he said he wanted to switch. But now he's flip flopping about it and trying to convince me to switch to bass and for us to find another drummer and stuff. I don't want to play bass. Just ain't my thing and I don't have the gear for it.

Sometimes it's just so discouraging. You try so many bands and none of them ever go much more than 3 or 4 practices before crumbling apart and all the other members going on to join better more successful bands or starting their own thing. I'd like to have a bassist and a drummer and my friend on guitar, but every person we meet willing to join either flakes out or just wants to "jam" and not really be a band.

[KaosCill8r]

I actually want to get a band going with another 2 multi instrumentalists and take turns switching instruments. How much fun would jamming be. When the Jam starts to stagnate it's time to switch instruments and see where it takes us. Sadly I'm just having a hard time finding people to jam with yet alone other multi instrumentalists, so at this time it's just a pipe dream.

[tabbycat]

Sometimes it's just so discouraging. You try so many bands and none of them ever go much more than 3 or 4 practices before crumbling apart and all the other members going on to join better more successful bands or starting their own thing. I'd like to have a bassist and a drummer and my friend on guitar, but every person we meet willing to join either flakes out or just wants to "jam" and not really be a band.

yep. i know the species and i hate them. they never seem to realise it's not only their time they are wasting.

[spacelordmother]

I'm so glad/so lucky that I have absolutely zero interest in playing music with other people in any capacity!

:edited for clarity per DOS' comment below:

[D.o.S.]

Sometimes it's just so discouraging. You try so many bands and none of them ever go much more than 3 or 4 practices before crumbling apart and all the other members going on to join better more successful bands or starting their own thing. I'd like to have a bassist and a drummer and my friend on guitar, but every person we meet willing to join either flakes out or just wants to "jam" and not really be a band.

yep. i know the species and i hate them. they never seem to realise it's not only their time they are wasting.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to play music with people on a regular basis without being in a band, IMO. They're two very different things, and people that are cut out for one may not be cut out for another.

I would never want to be in a band with some of the people I jam with regularly, and I suspect the feeling is mutual, even though the musical connection is there in spades.