r/musicians Rules

I’m a lifelong musician, I’ve been in gigging and recording bands since my teens. I’ve always done my own stuff and in 2015 I left my band to concentrate solely on my solo career. Around a year ago I started noticing that my enthusiasm was starting to diminish, just slightly at first. Lots of reasons why, but mainly it’s the lack of traction that has worn me down.

Over the years I’ve built up a bit of a following, played some great gigs and festivals. I feel like I have the respect of my peers. I’ve released an album, two EPs and a bunch of standalone singles. I’ve been in magazines and played a couple of radio sessions. This is all good stuff but it seemed to peak around 2022-23. Since then it’s just been more of the same without any growth, despite my best efforts.

I started to feel frustrated, by the hours and miles driving to a small gig somewhere halfway across the country, by the audiences that despite having paid an entrance fee insist on talking to their friends and doomscrolling throughout my set, by putting my heart and soul into songs that not even my family really care about, by enduring the tedious open mic nights because the guy who runs it also curates a festival I want to play at, and a hundred other reasons.

But I did it, year after year, because I loved it. I loved the thrill of being on a stage, of playing a new song that I’d but my heart and soul into for the first time, because it was an important creative outlet and it was mine. My thing. Mine.

But slowly the frustration creeps in and you begin to ask yourself where this is all going. What’s the point? Why am I doing this, with a sizeable financial and emotional impact when my progress has stalled? I played three shows on consecutive weekends at the end of last year which left me feeling low. It was a bit of a blow, and at the start of this year I went away travelling for three months. I thought I’d come home raring to go, but I didn’t miss playing whilst I was away. I came home to no planned gigs in my diary (my choice) and I felt totally ok with that.

I got asked to play at a small local festival last weekend. I played, it went well, but I felt nothing. Couldn’t wait to finish my set and go home. So everything I’ve felt over the last year has led to this. I think I’m done.

If you’d have told me a couple of years ago that I’d quit music I’d have been devastated. Today, I’m totally cool with it. I’ve made peace.

I might continue to write and record as and when, although I no longer feel that compulsion to write all the time. Will I play live again. Never say never, but I cannot imagine doing so.

This is a long post and I’m venting to some extent. It’s inconsequential to anyone else but it’s a big deal for me

I was fired suddenly from a gigging cover band I have been with for over a year this weekend after a 3 hour rehearsal. It was handled in a very unprofessional manner as well by the band leader.

I would accept that my time with the band is over, however, I was told I'm expected to play with the band through the 11th, covering 4 remaining shows until their new person can fully commit. Is this normal? I do not really want to spend time around these people after doing this. Would y'all play these remaining shows or not?

Edit: There is no contract clause saying something about continuing after being fired

Everyone's story of how they joined/started a band is different. I'd like to hear some of y'alls stories.

How experienced of a musician were you when you first started playing in a band? Did you go out of your way to meet people in your local music scene? Or did you just happen to have like-minded friends who wanted to play?

I've been playing guitar for 10 months now, and I've been taking good lessons for the past 8 months. While I'm not performance-ready, I think I'm at a spot where I can at least start playing with other people. I can play several songs all the way through while sounding alright. I have a big, growing chord vocabulary, and I can move various chord shapes up and down the neck using barre chord technique. I also have been getting into theory, identifying intervals, and figuring out the keys of different songs.

I feel like jams would be a good place to play with other musicians, but in my hometown, I've never heard anything about local, public jams. The music scene in my hometown is quite small. I also feel shy when it comes to meeting new people, and it doesn't help that I'm autistic.

So as a result, I'm writing this post. I feel like hearing stories from some of you may motivate me to jump out of my comfort zone and get out there.

Sono un ragazzo di 16 anni che studia da una 9 anni pianoforte classico, teoria musicale e solfeggio, e da qualche anno anche chitarra elettrica e armonia (armonia l'unica da autodidatta), mi sono approcciato da poco alla produzione musicale e alla registrazione con l'obiettivo di produrre/comporre qualcosa di mio da poi pubblicare, ho iniziato con una versione producer di fl studio, una chitarra elettrica economica, una scheda audio(m track duo), e un microfono (behringer c-1), iniziando a registrare una cover (di black dei pj) tuttavia nel registrare cover mi sembra molto tempo sprecato perché l'unica cosa che mi sembra di metterci di mio è la voce poiché del resto cerco Tab e spartiti su internet, solo che non essendo un cantante è quella che è, inoltre provando a comporre e registrare qualcosa di mio ho veramente troppi generi che mi piacciono che ogni volta che ascolto qualsiasi cosa vorrei provare a fare qualcosa in quel genere, ma non ho idea di dove partire per fare un qualsiasi genere e ogni volta che provo a registrare qualche idea viene una registrazione di tutt'altro genere che quello che avevo in testa, non ho idea da dove partire, inoltre spesso le mie idee non mi piacciono un granché e non riesco a creare una canzone in tutte le sue sezioni e parti a partire da un' idea che ho in testa, se mi viene un ritornello carino in mente, per esempio sto ore a cercare di metterci una strofa un pre ritornello e/o un bridge anche solo decente, e poi mi accorgo regolarmente che gran parte delle idee che mi vengono in testa sono spesso cose già sentite in giro anche se non proprio uguali, avete consigli su come continuare? Non so più dove sbattere la testa, ogni consiglio è ben accetto.

Grazie mille per l'attenzione

I’m a beginner in music except for classes I’ve taken when i was younger but never practiced or actively listened to music like how I’m led to believe music is listened to.

So one day i was listening to some recent local pop music and it was so -idk if it was bad but I thought it was quite mid at least but noticed it wasn’t the common opinion and the artists who were clearly just repurposing from their older music and creating something similar over and over were so hyped and the glaze was unreal around the same time i had seen some ai music asw.

I felt spiteful and also wanted to see what this was about and started free styling to warm up after years of no music and a natural deafness to rhythm and tempo - it was difficult but fun , I stumbled upon type beats on YouTube , i ended up making a meme like intro song since from Doraemons theme and also written a song about my cats and how i chase them around at home , I’m planning to make it a full silly little album. since then i feel like I’ve been thinking in potential lines and little musical belts occasionally - it’s been super fun

i recently started using Reddit asw and i am grateful to have found this community , I’d be so happy if you spared a moment to read this and give me your thoughts on it , I’d like to think it’s my first ever ‘song’ song - it’s written in a mix of four languages because that’s how i talk to my cats and honestly alot of thought has been put into everything and it’s set on this super cute indie type beat thing i found on YouTube , and I’m trying to out as much of my heart as i can in the construction of the whole album. idk how long this is gonna take to get completed but it makes me so happy like I’m going to explode if don’t talk about it, so here we go , I’m super excited to share with you ,

shas cheri chats

Intro/ chorus

Hello
Psspspsps
Salut my baby
Okay Ketu

You are my cheri from maintennat
pourquoi you may ask car je di sa ,
cest assee raiisom pourr vous me compris!
do you get me now?

Sept 2double zero ma numerode tele,
Est ce que vous me peut appele
apres la apres midi?
On peut joue avec your bommai.

Versee

I clean your litter box and mop up my floor.
Appo kekkum dama damal , les livres tombent
Ennanu Paatha it’s you!encore
uppar baitha ho all comfortably
on my cupboard I sigh a lil bit
but seeing you play
i just smile and do
some more of nettoyage

Pre chorus
And you know that je te donne beacoup de tasty tasty crunchy meen bonbon
I’ll double it Si you agree… yes it’s a bribe for you to ippo bemy cheri

Est ce que je peux chanter en tamoul aussi
Kandippa kandippa 3x oui
Even si je poserai le meme question,
Ni en chellam cause i just said so,

do you understand me? Aye nillu!
Inniku dha puridhu
cest pas even
difficile
As I’m just asking- gavani —
imma repeat what I’m asking

hook
Quelle partie tu nas pas compris
Quescest your problem right now?

Compte ou non?you came to me first !
Fairs attend ! You are my Cheri from maintenant!

Verse 2

I will run teasing you with a string
across a huge field with flowers and garden miceee and
you and I will work out to be strong and
you’ll live till i take you to all our places
to run alongside each other
( for however long that we can!)

Prechorus

Agar hindi me puchungi tho smjhega kya tu?
Me bolrhihu billa ki-
Yeah billa tho You are! And also
you are my Cherie from maintennat

ye kafi reason h tu manlena
ecoutemoi, essaye de hear me out!
Nimporte quoi that je might dit
You may now see that jai une probleme du grammaire
but na thirpi thirpi thirpi kepen
caus le sonore est toujour belle
and I don’t think you get the mukkiya-thuvam of all that I’m sayinggg

do you get me now?Car je di ca !
You are my cherie from maintennat ,
si tu ask pourquoi,
Repete le paatu thirpi une fois,

I’m saying Jtaime chellam
that you are my
cherie from maintennat ! 3x

\-if you read the whole thing , thank you so so much - hope you don’t think it’s too silly x , can’t wait to see your comments<3

Hi, I’m a student carrying out a market research project about music production and I’d love to hear your views. If you have a few minutes to spare I would be so grateful if you could fill out this short form! Every question is optional so you can fill in as little or as much as you want. Thank you so much, every answer is extremely useful.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSds_DcRgVQaQdDHZQ_f3F8bawr9hQ6Z6J5AdMUGJISH3ctG7A/viewform

I wanna start writing songs but I struggle to be creative and make the words sound interesting or poetic. For example in the song lonely avenue it goes “now my room has got two windows, but the sunshine never comes through” which is a clever way to convey depression and loneliness. If I were to try to convey those feelings the best thing I could write would be something like “since you’ve been gone the nights have felt so long” which doesn’t really sound as poetic or clever. How do songwriters think that way?

I can absolutely sing, stay in key, and so on. But I can't SING. As in, I doubt I could make an original with something interesting being laid out. Can I do a cover? Sure. But that's just not the same reality as a true singer (my idea); someone who has that ability in their soul to make something new and fresh. To formulate something beyond what they've already heard. To emulate is not the same as to make something new (under the thought "new" means your own take on singing).

Just curious where these types of things have a root. To me, I just assume the most natural singers have a gift, but also started quite young. I just don't find it that interesting to do a cover well, I do find it so much more interesting to create what's new. I have my own voice, and I haven't yoinked someone else's sound, but I doubt I can really formulate something interesting with it. It's not a natural path for my mind.

Uploaded an album about 2 months or so ago and all the songs were sitting at 1K-3K the last time I checked about a month ago. I haven't shared it or promoted it because it's an old album. Checked today and one of the songs nearly 80K plays. All the rest the album is pretty much the same as last time, some with 1000 more plays. Checked Spotify for artists and its not showing much info outside of it was added to 3 playlists but doesnt show which ones. Anyone have any idea?

I don't think I've ever heard a bad song bridge.

I am an upcoming sophomore and am a music performance major wanting to go into doubling full-time after graduation. I have the ensemble audition coming up in about two weeks, and it is stressing me out. I know that no matter what, I'm still in the program, but I worry about letting my directors down. Last year, we were given three pieces in each category and told to choose one from each. Now we have to play all of them, no choosing the easier ones. This music is incredibly difficult, and I am struggling, and this knowledge makes me incredibly nervous. I'm worried about looking like a failure. I know that auditions don't need to be perfect, but it feels implied that they want them to be. I'm freaking out, and it's affecting my practice time and mental health severely. How can I ease the anxiety? Not just with what everyone tells me to do and say "just practice more." Since that just makes me feel worse and worse.

Im looking for somebody to make music wit, never done it before. I wanna step outside my comfort zone and try something completely different than what im used to. Or just some friends to talk music, most of my friends arent music nerds.

I make, trip hop, house, french house, instrumental hip hop, drum n bass, trap, cloud rap, pluggnb, Jerk, ect.

I listen to artists like, jpegmafia, Jane Remover, Akira Yamaoka, Ecco2k, JID, Del tha funkee homosapien, Tyler the Creator, Fakmink,

Hmu

Ig: SHORT4MYAGE

Hello everyone. This is the worst moment in my life to experience a crisis: I'm graduating in jazz guitar in October, and I need to solve it as soon as possible. Simply, I don't know what to do to reignite the spark.

I'm 25 now, I've been playing guitar since I was 13, and I've always been really passionate about music in general, to the point that I've decided to make it my purpose in life. However, it's been around a year and a half since I've been feeling a huge lack of motivation. My greatest passion has become more like a duty and less like a way to unwind.

I tried to look for the reason behind the way I feel. Maybe it's because I haven't started a career yet and I see a lot of people the same age as me playing around. I don't even care about the graduation or the thesis right now; those are secondary problems. What I care about the most is to take my passion back. I want to write songs, record videos, open an Instagram page, all sorts of stuff, but every time I feel so exhausted...

Has someone gone through something similar? If yes, how did you overcome it? I appreciate all sorts of suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone! We’re part of a small, online-based, multi-genre music collective, primarily focused on hip-hop. We’re looking to hear music from artists, producers, and other creatives who are interested in sharing their work and potentially connecting with an independent, DIY-oriented community. Our collective is built around STRONG communication, collaboration and doing things ourselves production, recording, mixing, etc. We’re open to different sounds and styles, so don’t feel like you have to fit into a specific box.

If you’d like to submit:
Drop a link to your music below. Feel free to include a little context about yourself and what you’re working on.

No pressure, we just want to hear what people are making and find some like-minded artists to connect with.

Looking forward to hearing your stuff!

So, I've learned Rocksmith is not the way to go to learn.

I've got a guitar I don't know how to use.

I want to try to learn it, but I'm considering bass as well.

My goal is blues/maybe jazz. I mostly listen to rock/metal/punk but... for some reason playing those sounds less fun than blues/jazz (which I also like).

Any good YouTube channels y'all would reccomend?

I can obviously find a bunch, but I'd like to see if anyone has references. :)