I am in my early sixties and over a period of five years have recovered from cancer.
I have a small studio in my garden and spend all my time writing and playing music. It is all I want to do.
Nothing wrong with that you might say but I feel that I just have to create more and more music.
I love to go to my studio at seven in the morning and stay there till late at night, my wife sometimes comes to the studio to see if everything is alright because she has not heard one word from me.Time is meaningless.
I have always played guitar/mandolin/piano etc. since I was very young, music was always played by my grandfather and he influenced me a great deal to start playing.
Sometimes I wonder if I am over doing the music thing?
Last week I attended a friends funeral and a musician friend of mine commented "Oh! You managed to get out of the studio then?".He also said and I quote "It must be like like Hitsville USA at your house!" Well I didn't mind either statement because they were really rather true except that Hitsville USA has much more money and success than I could ever dream of?
Some musicians find it difficult to write and get into the habit of writing, me I just love it.
I suppose it's like masturbation when you are a teenager, once started it's difficult to stop.
Still it keeps me out of trouble (the music not the masturbation) and off the streets, must go, have just started another track and it is calling me to create a new tune..............Joke(please excuse the shaky writing)...end of joke.......

Welcome!

The Lady Elf often gives me the ‘one hour to go’ shout up to the studio when we’re going out. It always surprises me when, ten minutes later, she arrives to tell me that we’re about to leave - in her world an hour has, indeed, passed. Odd thing, that. I suspect a time vortex emanating from my MiniMoog; either that, or it has something to do with the lamppost and faun in the mic cupboard.

Really glad to hear that you’re back into making music, man, but don’t forget that there is a big world outside those studio doors, so don’t let it pass you by. Go watch a squirrel, hug a cat, drive a kart, visit a theme park, shout at a game show, or… well, anything! Inspiration is to be found in all these things, so it’s all creative time.

Of course, being English, we don’t indulge in self-abuse of any kind.

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Hi Elf, Thanks for the kind reply to my first post.
I know exactly what you mean about time passing so quickly it just evaporates.
I have some other interests but music creation is my main interest.
I won't bore you with the mundane stuff, suffice to say I'm in the studio now and I'm gonna pick up where I left off yesterday.
Thanks once again for the reply it was really kind of you.......regards dylan.

hi,

to second the elf, welcome to SoS! i just read your post and must say i really enjoyed it. it was poetic and almost magical. i was listening at the same time to a poem of the swede who just won the noble prize being read aloud by an internet classical station, it turns out he is a musician and was writing about playing haydn after a long day as a psychologist in a swedish youth facility. there was a deep synchronicity about reading your prose-poem while hearing his writing on the escape that he achieved in playing haydn. can't quite explain but it was a magical moment and i wouldn't have had it if i hadn't clicked on your post. thanks!

as for the substance of your comments, i often think that people who are not trying to be creative are so much poorer than those who do attempt to make things of beauty. whether it is music or painting or poetry or what not, i think that matters is trying to make the universe a more beautiful place than it would be had we not been here. the image of you losing yourself in your studio all day making music is what it's all about, as far as i'm concerned.

i hope you post more here. congratulations on fighting the big C with heart and soul, and not losing your spirit as evidenced by your playing day and night.

best wishes,

dubbmann

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"Patsy had the drug tolerance of Keith Richards and the moral rectitude of Brian Jones." - Dr. Walter Bishop, "Fringe"

Nothing wrong with spending time doing something you love, but on the masturbation front... music is communication - its supposed to have an audience or be an inclusive activity. Its not like its a rare thing for a man to be in his shed escaping from having to spend time with his wife, but is it the best?

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Daniel Davis
Edinburgh Recording Studio Windmill Sound

Hi Dubbmann, Thank you for the kind reply I was pleasantly surprised with such an eloquent reply.
Your observations regarding Haydn, the poem and the music on an international radio station amazed me. How can you do so many things at the same time, the only other person that can multi task are women?
They can listen to three conversations at the same time whilst watching every one in a large room full of people.
My own experience of this relates to her In Doors who seems to remember peoples faces from thirty years ago no problem.
She once pointed out a couple in Detroit airport that we had met ten years earlier. She should have been a cop?
If I think I have cleaned up the kitchen after cooking something she will find crumbs I have missed, she should have been in forensics. No multi tasking for me, I find listening to a mix of music problematic enough.
I'm so glad you perceived a magical moment whilst multi tasking your way through your day, my last magical moment was when the doctor said to me that I didn't have to go back to the hospital for any more check ups.
Recently there has been a few musicians in my area who have died. This seems to spur me on to greater things.As they say "Unfortunately they are picking them off our shelf now?" So sad but true.
I love to dream of my ancestors two hundred years down the line saying he wrote some wonderful songs didn't he?
Now thats worth staying in the studio for, besides the pleasure I get from creating a tune that someone likes...
Once again my kindest regards to you and thank you for your elegant reply.......dylan

Dear Daniel, Please don't take all my comments with so much seriousness? If you read the last line I do mention that I am making a joke. My studio is not a place to escape my wife although I must be honest and say sometimes when we are getting on one another's nerves she is glad to see me go and make some music.
The masturbation analogy is just something that young men seem preoccupied with and nothing else. I could have said it's just like a dart thrower who has problems letting the dart go for example.
I didn't want to get involved in a masturbation debate suffice to say it's a human trait that we now accept as normal behaviour.
I hope that you were not offended in any way and I apologise if you were.
My idea was not to compare making music with masturbation but show the addictiveness of recording ones own music.
Thank you for taking time to reply it is far better than being ignored I say.
Keep writing and performing and good luck........dylan

hi dylan,

i didn't mean to leave this thread hanging, i've been thinking about daniel's reply and want to reply to it at more length when i have time. for now just let me say that i disagree strongly with the idea that music composed for your own purposes isn't really music. if robinson crusoe had made himself a wood flute and friday had been deaf, should he have not played music on it?

i will start a thread exploring this and some related thoughts shortly, so i won't elaborate beyond saying that i think that music is a wonderful tonic to the soul, and creating it even more than listening to it. that's what i loved so much about your OP, about the idea that you just derived so much happiness in your garden studio and that it had helped you over the last years when life got difficult with health issues, etc.

in short, no one should ever have to apologize for trying to create art. i'm old enough to know that the SAS motto goes, "those who dare, win," sadly isn't true; but i also know more than ever that those who don't dare, can't win.

best,

d

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"Patsy had the drug tolerance of Keith Richards and the moral rectitude of Brian Jones." - Dr. Walter Bishop, "Fringe"

Quote dubbmann:

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the SAS motto goes, "those who dare, win," sadly isn't true; but i also know more than ever that those who don't dare, can't

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There is an older one, dubmann, which goes along the lines of 'fortune shines on the brave'. I really like this thread. I think it gets to where the making of music, recording of music, and publishing of music (or not) is finding itself at a dichotomy. We make, or write it because we have to. It's something on the inside that has to be on the outside. For me that process is outside my control. But does it need to be shared? Pete Townshend was of on one about this yesterday, at some conference in Manchester if I recall correctly. He said musicians 'need' to share their music. Why? Why would you? If nobody was going to pay for it and everybody was looking forward to taking your music apart? ****em I say!

I'm probably as old as you, I've had my moments in the sun, even my music has actually, and I don't really need to prove anything to anyone. But I still need to make my music. I'm looking forward to your new thread. I think its a good topic to discuss. And in a nod to the OP I get just as lost in my studio too. We all do. I asked my wife to take a look at this thread earlier this evening and she said "yep, that's normal"! Bless her!!!

So here's the gauntlet: Music composed specifically for others is commercial, trite *****. I mean its a puzzle. Its a challenge. It might even be accomplished. But its not necessarily 'music'.

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Strictly project and just for fun

Quote dubbmann:

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disagree strongly with the idea that music composed for your own purposes isn't really music.

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double tall +1 with extra sugar and cream

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http://ryanmead.net

If it's not composed for others, it may be music, it may be genius, but it doesn't exist. Like the fridge light with the door closed or the noise of the tree falling in the deserted forest.

So, is there a difference between 'composed-to-order' and 'commissioned'?

Quote tacitus:

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If it's not composed for others, it may be music, it may be genius, but it doesn't exist.

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Correction. It doesn't exist for others. So what? What gives others the right to be included, if the composer doesn't want to include them?

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Strictly project and just for fun

Well it's almost a month since I posted this and it seems to be only positive comments. I look forward to the new thread about making music whether it be for oneself or to give away free, or sell for profit.
Still making music is nectar from the Gods as far as I'm concerned.
Keep doing what you do.......happily.......dylan.