Gig It!
Recently I found myself in another music slump in which I almost didn't feel like even picking up the guitar. I find those times pretty scary. Could I actually have lost interest in the one thing that I've always loved? Scary thought. Even though I've been through them before and even though I knew the best way out of it, I didn't feel like taking the medicine to cure it. It took a friend of mine to push me into joining him for a gig that soon after, I found myself looking forward to practicing again because I had the self imposed motivation of playing publicly. There's nothing like the thought of not being prepared and peeing down your leg in front of a bunch of onlookers to jolt you into action. Soon after, you realize you're not just practicing to avoid embarrassment, but you're having fun again doing what you love.
While it seems almost sacrilege to put deadlines on what is supposed to be a right-brain-driven-purely-creative process, the fact is, at least for me anyway, some kind of a deadline works wonders. Writing a song for some body's birthday, getting ready for a gig, writing a play that needs to be ready for the next school year (sound familiar Dead Lennie?!), etc. works to get the creative juices flowing. I guess it's not unlike forcing yourself to write in a blog regularly to hold yourself accountable.
So my advice (to myself) when getting in a slump is...........gig it!
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