how to get un-bored?

[Buddy]

I tend to agree with Tigersoap that this may be a phase of growth. I would recommend that you just set the stuff aside and go on doing more appealing things without emotionally 'closing it off', so to speak. I guess it would be more like acting towards your new destiny, as distinct from acting against the musical stuff. Just set it aside and go on if that's what you wanna do, but leave things 'open' for future possibilities.

So far, I've spared you my experience, but I used to actually dream of playing piano and would sit in awe for hours listening to great players. I played the 'air piano' for the longest time.

I've owned two keyboards over the years and taught myself everything I could about music. I could both read it and write it (music for piano/keyboard, that is). At some point, I just finally let it go because I reached my plateau. Apparantly, I only wanted to take it far enough to solve some "mysteries" about music - how it was done and what were the mathematical underpinnings and such.

Now that I do know about the 'mysteries', I am satisfied, and I can just listen and enjoy with a much deeper appreciation for the creativity and hard work involved. So in a sense, I guess that's all I really wanted: to know more about what it was I enjoyed so much.

My last keyboard was eventually stolen from a storage shed and although I filed the proper paperwork with the police and all that, it became obvious to me that I no longer had any attachment to it, so I left it at that, evidently having grown out of it. Strangely enough, I felt kinda glad for whoever wound up with the keyboard because I know they will enjoy it. Sounds weird, I know, but it's true. :)

 

[abstract]

In this instance, abstract is not in a position of power within the band structure. Instead of assuming the role of leader, he is undermining his position by asking his co-workers what to do [when he alone knows already]. It might be pure democracy, but it doesn't work in reality. What needs to be resolved is whether his bandmates will accept him as the one who runs the show.

I never wanted to be the leader. Allow me to clarify.

In an older, now non-existant band, I was always butting heads with the other guitar player

because he's a narcisisst, and that just made anything an uphill struggle because I had no time to actually

come up with anything when i'm constantly trying to fight off musical tyranny. He really did want to run the show,

he even had the gall to proclaim himself "manager" just cause he was booking the shows!

So after that, instead of having to ward off narcisissm, my new issue is trying to get someone to help me write

and share ideas. I've met a lot of people who claim to be musicians, but some of them couldn't put up

even one idea after I came up with multiple things. That's what the conversation was portraying.

I don't WANT to be the one guy driving the whole band, in any case, because that's not teamwork.

I don't WANT to have to come up with everything, I don't want to be commander or director,

I was just tryin' to have some fun, but i can't have fun when i'm spending all the time in a band

fighting the other guy or trying to boost creativity in my bandmates that isn't there.

I feel like i'm ranting at this point...

 

[Bidoche]

I never wanted to be the leader.

All there's left to do is play with musicians who like music! Forget the power trippers. Do auditions with serious bands that are just looking for a guitarist. Time to move on.

 

[Renaissance]

I never wanted to be the leader.

All there's left to do is play with musicians who like music! Forget the power trippers. Do auditions with serious bands that are just looking for a guitarist. Time to move on.

Bidoche, perhaps you're projecting some stuff onto abstract as it seems you're missing what he has repeatedly expressed. Seems he simply doesn't want to play, and as others have said, it looks like it could be a result of growth.

 

[bjorb]

- Hey abstract.

Living through life, confining us with activities, which subdue to the needs of the predator. Being it to feel special, out of fear. And all those which are full of intent and anticipation.

Becoming aware of those. Off all those factors which exist for ego.

If you just keep doing what you are. Shattering those illusions about yourself.

You know, you may find out what you truly love. Something that doesn’t demand.

Something you just enjoy. Nothing more nothing less.

Just want to say, maybe you truly like to play guitar. But it got buried beneath all kind of programs.

 

[abstract]

Hi Abstract, I think that you do have something to show for it. It seems to me that you might be going through something like an emotional bankruptcy where you’re becoming more conscious of the illusions about yourself. I think there's a corresponding loss of energy that comes with that since these illusions were like the fuel which drove your actions. Loss of illusions means loss of fuel, loss of fuel means loss of drive. I think that your identification with this loss of drive is what your calling ‘boredom.’

Not that any of this is a contest, but kenlee, I believe your post has made the most sense.

This is Mouravieff's term for a turning point in life where one constates that the external life can no longer provide meaning to life.

This may or may not take the form of a crisis in external life but the essential idea is that formerly held inner 'A influence' values of worldly success, romance, learning, career and the like suffer an irrecoverable crash.

Seems to fit my situation, yes?

s long as man, against all evidence, remains sure of himself and, even more, as long as he is satisfied with himself, he continues to live in the absurd and in consequential, taking his desires and illusions for reality.

Sounds like what I did when I thought guitar was all I needed.

aybe it was this wishful thinking that was the very thing that sabotaged your potential to be creative and be truly happy?

yes.

It created boundaries around and within you, since you had a mental impression, an image, about the results that could be expected from all the time and energy that were put into the music. When the expected images didn't materialize then you lost your desire to play. But imo the desire for reward was that very thing that limited you from being truly creative in the first place, where creativity is it's own reward.

yes.

 

[cholas]

Thanks Bud.

In watching both my parents do something very similar, I had always wondered how someone could lose interest in playing music and one day just stop or 'reach a plateau'.

Your story, and this thread in general, are sure helping in this understanding.

I think in a way I was even frustrated with my folks for their choice. :(

 

[Buddy]

I think in a way I was even frustrated with my folks for their choice. :(

I think the general tendency is to feel that a person giving up what appears to be a musical interest is somehow "a waste", when really, any objective knowledge gained in any pursuit is eternally valuable as potential, if nothing else, and would be conserved across evolutionary state changes, osit. I would think that even if there were no such thing as a 'soul', the Universe would still preserve any patterns of objective knowledge I were to gather and integrate while alive, as a part of 'Itself' upon my passing, so that nothing would be wasted...but those are just my thoughts. :)

In watching both my parents do something very similar, I had always wondered how someone could lose interest in playing music and one day just stop or 'reach a plateau'.

Everybody is different. Some may go just so far because it's just a hobby. Sadly, some people may quit because their dreams die for one reason or another. You would have to talk with your parents to get their reasons.

In my mechanical state, my 'passion' was just part of my dreaming. Like a piece of driftwood on an open sea, I was just going with a flow, chasing my feelings for whatever satisfactions were there to be had. When I exhausted this 'passion', I realized it and just let it go.

 

[cholas]

Very well said Bud. Much appreciated.

Everybody is different. Some may go just so far because it's just a hobby. Sadly, some people may quit because their dreams die for one reason or another.

I think this is key. And I'm just coming to the full understanding. From what I gather, we all 'get' something different out of the activities we are involved in. In trying to relate: a few months ago I sold my sailboat that I'd 'invested' in for years and traveled in extensively. But I was finished. Hit that plateau. My sailing friends were shocked, couldn't understand. To many of them it was, as you say, like giving up. The focus though had simply moved.

'What ever lights your fire' does seem to hold true in these situations.

I think in my folks experiences, they had simply reached their plateau in performing. The flame had died out, replaced by another.

 

[Zorpho]

All of us have music in us, I'm sure you'd find your instrument if you tried a few, if it's not guitar or keyboard maybe you should try brass or woodwind, you know ? Maybe try a sax or a horn or clarinet. What about drums?

 

[shijing]

Hi Zorpho, and welcome to the forum :)

We encourage all new members to make an introductory post in the Newbies section. You can take a look at other introductions there and see how it is done -- just a bit about yourself and how you found us.

 

[Zorpho]

I know exactly how you feel and have been going through the same thing. I just put it down to depression but when I think about it why aren't I bored with everything else, why am I still pretty cheery generally?
I found that if I had a few beers then that spark would come back but that's not a very positive way of overcoming this problem.
I've been playing since 1966/67 and have had lots of axes & amps etc but my present rig consists of stuff I used to dream of but still I find it an effort to pick up my Goldtop or my G&L ASAT Commemorative signature Tele.
What's wrong with me?
Maybe I need a band, some friends who are on the same wavelength.
I'll let you know if I beat it.