What's the longest you've gone without doing music?

[Garrett Williamson]

one week and it drove me insane.

not just not doing any music, but hardly listening to any music. I was gone somewhere and I was painfully missing my Michael Jackson music.

[Nase]

While I don't actually say, "Okay, let's see if I can write something that improves in this area of my writing music, in this piece! Legs go!!", there are probably more than a few times that I just attempt something I've never done before, and it turns out to be something I'm quite happy with. As a result of that, I get better at something I've never tried before, and thus, I improve. Then, I look back and see what it is in particular that I actually improved on. For example, I used to be pretty meh at orchestral, but I recently got about 1.5 minutes' worth into an Assassin's Creed ReMix that is in a film-score, orchestral style, and it's just getting so fun to do it, knowing it's a substantial improvement since my first attempt at orchestral music. I was basically putting all the tips I read all over OCR, directed at *other* people, into practice.

So for me, I don't really directly think about getting better; it just happens sometimes. I don't beat myself up over it---I treat improvement as a "whoo!" moment.

that's creative exploration, and a good thing.

it's really just a matter of observing if your approach leads to possibilities widening up or narrowing down. as it happens, possibilities widening up is the only workable definition of "getting better" i've found so far.

another general rule is that your possibilities tend to widen up when you're having fun.

my reservations against BTTLO exist because i know that this mindset can decrease fun if too dominant. that's the gist of it.

[XPRTNovice]

Ugh. I'm in the longest dry spell of music in my life. It's really awful. All of my instrument skills have atrophied to the point where I feel like I'm in high school again, and I've barely written anything in the last year or so. It's easily one of the most frustrating aspects of my life right now, and I've found myself saying "I'll have more time for music next month" over and over again for like a year.

[Nase]

i know the feeling. one possibly comforting thing i can say is that the actual loss in skill is never as bad as one makes it out to be. i've noticed it has a lot to do with confidence, something you just develop and maintain naturally when you're playing regularily.

once the confidence is back, your playing flows better again, and thus the skill re-emerges. so it's not like you have to relearn everything.

it's more like remembering what it's like to feel good playing music.

Edited August 8, 2014 by Nase

[TeraCMusic]

Hmmm. I'd say like a month or so, when I was in pharmacy school. I was so depressed that I switched majors LOL. I'm doing music therapy instead, which means music all day, every day!