ilovefuzz.com

Well guys I'm about to ship off for another 11 hour day. I work at a bike shop and I'm one of the salaried employees so when it's nice I'm pretty much there around the clock. Between work, my girlfriend, and living in an apartment, I maybe have 10 hours a week to actually play music.

I know some(most) of you guys have better jobs than me, as well as a family in some cases. How do you possibly make time for music? My GF just started an internship at the local newspaper, which means she's at work until midnight four days a week. At thi point my best bet is to get in two or three hours of jamming before she gets home, and that's if I decide not to do any chores. Also at that point I'm stuck using headphones (either through the four track or my PC) and guitar with headphones sucks, unless I'm making ambient sounds.

I'm a little frustrated that my artistic outlet is taking a HARD back seat to every other aspect of my life. The downside there is that I'm still buying pedals and shit (yeah I'm gonna go crazy with that Space + Pocket Piano MIDI when I'm at work...) on lunch breaks and during TV time. I guess my major complaint is that I have a confined living space so I need to set up and tear down every time I want to play. If nothing good comes out then I've wasted time and made a mess. If I had a "studio room" it might be different, as I could just plug and play, but at this point in my life that isn't an option.

How do you guys navigate this shit? I'm fucking tired and I haven't even brushed my teeth yet.

I barely get any time anymore to be honest. Just wrapped up a work project that had me on the road overnight 3 nights a week since January. I've been learning though. Whenever my son and wife are asleep I go upstairs and play or build. I've actually recorded more in the past few weeks than I have been able to in the past two years really. On average though, I really only get about 2ish hours a week tops since my son was born. But I bought him his own guitar which he actually loves, and I introduced him to pedals too. So we've been 'recording' together, letting him do his thing and then I edit it. He's started to enjoy coloring too so we made 'album artwork' the other day

I feel your pain. I'm usually incredibly busy, and my work is sound. So I often finding myself craving quiet during the times I have to play. I've found two tricks that usually help me get my creative juices out.

First, I schedule time for it. Even if I have nothing to play and my hands are being as coordinated as a frog in space, I'll still soy there and strum away. This can be frustrating at times, but overall it does more good than bad.

Second, I have 2 rigs. One's all the bells and whistles, one is a cheap vox amp with no pedals that I keep by my bed. This way I can just turn it on, no fuss, no worrying about tone, just playing. Only downside is that I have fallen asleep in weird positions with my guitar on top of me

DRodriguez wrote:I have fallen asleep in weird positions with my guitar on top of me

Hardcore!

Yeah. I don't have a lot of time for music. Haven't even touched the DMM that came in the mail on Wednesday. But normally, I can get in two, three, four hours a week to mess around with stuff. Like skully said, it's mostly when everyone else is asleep. Which means that I am going without sleep in order to play.

And drums...! Forget it. Maybe two or three times a months, and those are usually stolen. But it's too much fun to give up.

I try to play every day, even if it's just for five minutes. Something. Every day. It helps a lot to just make myself commit to that.

Right now I'm in a show prep for a bodybuilding show and my mind is gradually turning into mush (it happens). So while I have time everyday, kind of, I don't have the will or motivation.

I'm self employed, so I'm at home, but I'm with my 3 year old all day. She can't be left alone while I go jam out for an hour in the basement and my basement isn't finished, so not really an ideal place for her to hang. When my wife gets home, I'm either too tired from the gym and watching her or I only want to play for 15 mins.

Most days I find myself noodling...sigh.

I really, really need to get it together. I think I want to go to an instructor once my daughter start pre-school. Not for bass though, maybe for a classical instrument of some kind. That way I'll have a renewed love of instruments .

DRodriguez wrote: First, I schedule time for it. Even if I have nothing to play and my hands are being as coordinated as a frog in space, I'll still soy there and strum away. This can be frustrating at times, but overall it does more good than bad.

This times several million. Have projects, invest time in them, and set aside time to work on them, even if doesn't end up being productive.

I try to play at least an hour each day, ideally two (one in the middle of the day, one in the evening). Sometimes I'm not really in the mood, but I'll almost always find something that strikes me as fun. If my usual impro-stream-of-consciousness-funtimes doesn't work, I'll practice technique, look up some weird scale/chords etc. Guitar is sorta like therapy/meditation to me. Also, I find that I GAS less for new sparkly things when I play regularly.

Disclaimer: I don't have kids.

Time to play is tough, job kids wife all chew up time.

Don't knock headphone practice though, you just need the right setup,
I have been jamming with a boss ME of some type or another for Years and it works pretty well
you just have to accept that there is not perfect tone anyway

I don't get to play every day but I try to carve out a few good chunks of time during the week when i can work on things.

My kids love music so that helps, it can be bonding time, they have drums and guitars and stuff everywhere so we jam quite a bit,

youngest is 2 so he loves twisiting knobs, it's not always musical but he found a few sounds on my timebender that were so good they got saved as presets

lately the struggle has been making limited time really count for something, learning new things and not just re-hashing stuff I already know

Work less > earn less > don't spend money on anything but bare essentials > spend newly acquired free time on music

If you have money for pedals you don't have the time to use, then there's a pretty large imbalance there. I hope that doesn't sound rude but i think anyone serious about any kind of artistic outlet has to consider these things. Doing exactly what society expects of you is probably the easiest way to drive yourself into a corner.
I'm the type of retard who would prioritise artistic outlets over any kind of relationship, social obligations or luxuries in life so take that with a grain of salt, but yknow.

Another thing to consider bwv is that you don't live in the GET A JOB/No Money For 'Freeloaders' hellscape that is the norm over here.

D.o.S. wrote:Another thing to consider bwv is that you don't live in the GET A JOB/No Money For 'Freeloaders' hellscape that is the norm over here.

Sure, i have it much better in that regard.
But just because it's easier to do here doesn't mean it's impossible over on your end.
You can move interstate or overseas. Do any number of shady or less socially acceptable jobs that can make things work. I know that sounds like utter naivety but i think somebody has to say it, because when everybody you talk to is in that situation its much less likely that they'll be able to give you the kind of hope necessary to pull out of it.
I hate seeing nice, creative people be trodden on by obligation so I'll keep saying it. Nobody has to agree, its just food for thought.

If i ever make a similar thread one day you have a free pass to internet slap me, D.o.S.

Yeah you're totally right, in the sense that if you want to do it you have to make time to do it. I'll also totally say that I buy the most gear when I'm going through lulls, so I can relate to El Chet as well.

Yeah I sold every pedal but my Mini and I've been cranking out the riffs like mad.