You may have noticed that my week away from the blog turned into ‘the rest of the month’. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have picked up my return to blogging was scheduled for October 1st. That would be today.
I’ve enumerated my reasons on my personal blog, but suffice to say I just kind of needed a break.
I guess the same is true of most creative endeavours. Most people I know who make music for a living have times when picking up their instrument is the last thing they feel like doing – no matter how much they love playing, composing, performing and so on.
And in fact, sometimes the downtime is where the creativity comes from. People who do meditation claim (and I have no reason to doubt them) that from the silence springs the most creative and productive energies. If you don’t power down from time to time, you just kind of run out of juice.
In the business literature, there’s a metaphor about a woodsman or a lumberjack, or whatever they’re called. His tool is the saw, and you cut down trees with it. That’s it’s job. But there’s nothing dumber than the guy who won’t stop to sharpen his saw because he’s too busy cutting down trees. It’s not a bad metaphor.
So – I’m curious. What do you do to sharpen the saw? When you step away from the music (or the creative endeavour, whatever it happens to be) what do you do so you can go back to it energised and refreshed?
23 Comments
I took a break, too. After doing 73 almost daily Morning Tune Up videoclips of improvised music to greet the new day and all the production work in the studio, Elizabeth and I rented a cabin in the alps.
Altitude 2000 m, no road, no cell phone, no e-mail, no people.
Just cows, eagles and many more wild animals. Stunning nature. Cooking on a wood stove, collecting wild plants.
Pure medicine. One week of silence to change perspectives.
Before we left, we had ordered all the material for our studio hard – and software update. When we came back, everything got delivered and we jumped into new exciting work; taking everything apart, cleaning, rewiring / soldering / installing the new devices and digging deep into 1000 pages + manuals. Everything is up and running now, we have already produced and delivered new tracks.
Yesterday I wanted to continue my Morning Tune Up series.
I set up the camera and played a very inspired bluesey tune.
When I was done, I found out that the camera was in photo – not video mode. All I had was one picture of me turning on the camera.
Pure Zen.
Morning Tune Ups are at http://sexyguitar.blogspot.com
It’s good if you don’t have 3000+ people subscribed to your blog. Makes me feel a lot more comfortable about y’know. Just riffin’.
What I do is not bring my guitar when I go on vacation :)
Thanks for the update Andrew. Sometimes life is more interesting than blogging anyway. My saw sharpening mainly consists of turning off the computer, listening to music (or not), spending time with my wife, watching movies, and just taking each day as it comes. I find that taking breaks from working on music gives me time to reenergize and approach what I’m working on with fresh ears and ideas.
Thanks Andrew! It’s good to take a break and then begin again with good energy. Traveling is what I try to do for a change. I’m going to the Canary Islands next week, so I’m going to disconnect from my blog too… :-)
Stepping away from the music is not always an option. Who’s gonna pay the bills while you’re away?
When you’re down, things get really interesting. Always an opportunity to connect and stretch yourself. I’m not saying kill yourself, but do feel the pain and stay with the music anyway. Being a musician is like being an Olympic athlete. The winners win by the narrowest of margins.
One thing that has kept me on the straight and narrow path is connecting with other Indies – listening to their latest releases and hearing their stories.
Connecting with others – knowing that you’re not alone – is the best way to stay motivated and inspired. Someone around you everyday kicking you’re butt. Someone around you everyday cheering you on.
Here’s a link to one of the things I listen to every morning – for a good ol’ healthy dose of daily Indie inspiration:
http://launchpad.famegamesradio.com
And that’s they key – fill yourself up every day – not just once or twice a year. Do – but don’t over do. Go at your own pace. Be smart and disciplined enough to give yourself at the very least, 50 minutes of inspiration a day. The well should never run dry.
(Now get off your butt Andrew! The Indie world needs you!!!!)
that’s easy. i just focus on something else, music is an infinite field of possibilities – so when working at the mac becomes less creative, i concentrate on playing or songwriting with a real instrument and vice versa or figure out better ways to teach. this way i never experienced the need for a break in all those years. playing different instruments instead of having to focus on ‘just’ one helps as well.
there’s an important difference between the lumberjack and a musician because the woodguy’s possibilities are not many, one to be precise: cutting trees – a musician can do virtually anything from teaching to playing live to recording to writing to pushing his/her band forward through the internet to……..lots of different types of creativity there. if one fountain dries out, just use another to let the first one recoup.
forgot: jumping to a different task often gives you fresh ideas for the other ones and therefore the idea to simply not ‘dry out’ even can become a powerful tool to stay in the game…
Sharpening the Saw – An awesome concept I came across reading Stephen Cowey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
I play acoustic guitar and sing in my room….instead of electric guitar in the band and sing to an audience :-)
If it’s not already, this should so be one of the 100 questions too!
Tough question to answer easily. However, in addition to some of things already suggested, perhaps you should consider the continued viability of NMS at all. You may not be all-blogged-out – NMS may have simply served its purpose and its natural lifetime has come to an end?
I’m not suggesting NMS is no longer a good read (it is), just examining another angle and my impression is that you like to keep moving forward, trying new things, etc. and NMS isn’t so new anymore.
Good luck.
P.S. I spent some time in hospital recently with an iPhone and no Wifi > the silence was serene.
If you need a break, its the best thing you can do-give yourself a break…
If you need inspiration…
Drawing on the Right side of the Brain and The Artist Way are great sources of methodologies for that…
J
T o kind of expand on what Andrew (not Dubber) commented above, I can see where rethinking NMS content could be something to consider after the “100 Questions” are done (or are they done already?).
I am not saying that because it has gone sour / bad or anything like that. It is more a thing of redundancy gaining momentum in the general topics you have covered so far. I hope that makes sense and does not offend you, it was not my intention to offend.
As for what I do to break away from the writers blocks and frustration that inevitably occurs for all musicians; Family time of course…time with my wife and daughters is really my first priority but I would say they are very generous in giving me “music” time. When music gets the best of me, they are the best remedy.
Selfishly, when the family is not around I like to read. A lot. Reading is my personal escape from music overload. It is the solitary thing I can do at those times and it is incredibly relaxing and surprisingly very inspiring to my musical process.
Kepp up the great advice and feel free to keep us updated on the newest prudent blogging trends (the ones that are useful of course!)
Cheers,
Milton
2 weeks dry-stone walling in Derbyshire.
Physically and mentally challenging to the max
I sleep, do thai boxing and surf.
Then back to it with a vengence!
I invariably need to power down after practicing consistently for about two weeks. Every time I do this I feel incredibly guilty, but I suspect its necessary to recharge and focus on other things. Reading lots of books and blogs like this are great during downtime because they are related to the music-making process and are highly productive in ways that can ADVANCE your ability to continue making music.
Switching back and forth between direct music-making and reading about how to market and expose it is like a perfect little dichotomy.
thanks for asking!
AKLD is starting to shine and the sun is slowly heating up
we had daylight savings kick in
i dusted off my bicycle
bought a new tent
bought some festival tickets
ohyeah ;-)
I actually step into the world of other arts for relaxation, but more so than not, I actually get inspired. I’ma musician, so I’ll often delve into the world of movies and even a lil bit of books.
Note that the books I read and movies I watch are not intended to be and are not categorized as educational, but more times than not, they actually are. Peeping the way an artist whose a non-musician mind moves often serves as a catalytic spark for creation.
Business, music, movies, whatever, all dip from the same big “artistic” pool anyway.
Good to see you back – thought you ights had a bit too much Lagavulin.
key things for me in saw sharpening..
1. get….away..from…the ..computer
2. be nice to self – lunches out on impulse, sit in a cafe without worrying about the time.
3. cultural activity is great for grey cells – preferaby hi-brow – art galleries, classical concert, preferably modern, or similarly jazz.
4. read more – I mean fiction. Sometimes while doing 2.
5. I don’t do countryside really but enjoy the odd citybreak doing 3, & 4. eg. Summer hols this year were 4 days in central Manchester and I’m off to do 4 days in Dublin soon.
I find tunes soon enter my head while away from things – take a mini recorder to hum the ideas into. When back – off I go in the studio and music floods out.
There is nothing like picking a fight to re-fuel your creative engines. I don’t mean a fist fight, or anything violent. What I mean is taking some form of action, or making some sort of contribution to a cause you believe in. Stir things up, rock the boat, antagonize. Maybe its just me, but doing those things is a total a rush. Especially for a timid & polite Canadian like myself.
Following the rules, politely waiting in line, accepting injustice, taking orders, – is the norm. Fighting back is not. Try it for yourself and see…you may be surprised by the results.
Here’s an example for anyone who maybe a little intrigued:
http://www.studiomanifesto.ca/WP01/privacy-commissioner-of-canada-sides-with-studio-manifesto/
New environments or even just a long drive or walk can work wonders.
And not to sound preachy, but physical activity – gym, yard-work, strenuous hike, etc. – has a great effect for me. Endorphins and whatever else gets released are great creativity enhancers.
Silence, a good bottle of red or a fine whiskey and some amazing NZ nature usually does the trick. Failing that, my favourite place is horizontal on my couch with a DVD to fall asleep in front of does wonders.
Just back from some amazing gigs on the Delgirl. So many motels on flight paths/near busy roads, but after a while you dont notice and zone out. BUT coming home its the silence I really appreciate
Know what you mean Andrew, sharpening that saw is a great way to time out on a busy life. I used to be on the computer every waking hour of the day, it takes it out of you. I used to dread the thought of being offline, but now i love taking a break from technology and enjoying the raw things in life, simple things like some personal company, nature, good food and a part of life away from music and business, even if it is just for a few days.