making music when you don't have time/have kids and when you get time youre not inspired...

[spunktronics]

what you guys do that don't have time?

i have to make everything on headphones now i have a bambino too

when i actually get time i'm knackered and sit on sofa and watch netflix docu's

[cooliofranco]

what you guys do that don't have time?

i have to make everything on headphones now i have a bambino too

when i actually get time i'm knackered and sit on sofa and watch netflix docu's

yeah. i make most of my music from 730-830AM in headphones on my laptop sitting next my kid while she eats cheerios and watches curious george. and yeah it's hard to do it at night. i would have time at night when everyone is asleep, but i'm usually beat then. i think best solution is to give up on gear and steal little moments on laptop when u can.

[spunktronics]

 

what you guys do that don't have time?

i have to make everything on headphones now i have a bambino too

when i actually get time i'm knackered and sit on sofa and watch netflix docu's

yeah. i make most of my music from 730-830AM in headphones on my laptop sitting next my kid while she eats cheerios and watches curious george. don't have time or $ for gear.

 

I'm usually at work by then, i have time about 9-12pm by which time im knackered

[Guest Chesney]

I probably have about 2 hours per week to get in the studio and make music but I can spend a little time each evening after the kids have gone to bed doing editing etc on the laptop.

It's not nearly enough time but family time is rad too so… I feel lucky I can still play with my toys when I want when I can fit it in, Most blokes can't and resort to the pub.

I'd be interested to hear what my music would be like if I didn't have to go to work.

[juiceciuj]

I'd be interested to hear what my music would be like if I didn't have to go to work.

don't have kids. just full time job and a seemingly endless supply of social/familial obligations and right now, some absolute bullshit that keep me occupied so that when i have free time i just want to fuck/sleep/vegetate

[juiceciuj]

 

what you guys do that don't have time?

i have to make everything on headphones now i have a bambino too

when i actually get time i'm knackered and sit on sofa and watch netflix docu's

yeah. i make most of my music from 730-830AM in headphones on my laptop sitting next my kid while she eats cheerios and watches curious george. and yeah it's hard to do it at night. i would have time at night when everyone is asleep, but i'm usually beat then. i think best solution is to give up on gear and steal little moments on laptop when u can.

this is kinda where i'm leaning towards. i've got this job that's allowed me to get all this gear i've always wanted over the last few years but it just sits there. back in the day i just got to know fl inside and out (for what i was trying to get it to do) and, while i never finished a single song, i have, ya know, a couple hundred ideas floating around that i used to enjoy listening to (with the unrealized prospect of one day finishing one)

[granty]

I do pretty much everything on my laptop/iPad with headphones - on my lunch break, on the train to and from work - when I'm home with my 4 year old though, forget it. It's playtime then for a few hours, then I'm caned and uninterested in doing anything. I wouldn't swap that playtime for anything though.

[Guest]

When I think of inspiration issues, I think of Mordecai Richler. He used to sit and write 8 hours per day every day. His friend and fellow writer asked him how he could do that. Where does he get the inspiration? Mordecai said if he didn't write 8 hours per day, he wouldn't be able to write at all.

So you work through that shit. Waiting for inspiration will not make you a better artist. Perseverance does. My favorite artists are the ones who can steamroll through weeks of artistic blocks and still produce fully knowing that they are creating complete garbage.

[Braintree]

I think it's a lot easier to write music when uninspired when you just continually do it all the time. It's like exercising. A lot of the time you won't want to do it, but having done it will make you stronger in the end.

 

When not inspired, I'll often focus on things that are a little more scientific and tedious like cutting samples or making atmospheric backdrops. Sometimes, doing that tends to help be inspired in the future as well.

 

Waiting for inspiration will not make you a better artist. Perseverance does. My favorite artists are the ones who can steamroll through weeks of artistic blocks and still produce fully knowing that they are creating complete garbage.

 

^ that ^

[QQQ]

sit down and work out when you actually have free time. realistically there are a few opportunities to make time for yourself:

 

before work

on your commute

after work

weekends

 

before work:

 

depending on how early you work each day you could have as much as 2-3 hours in the morning if you adjust to wake up earlier each day.

 

i've been reading a lot of interviews with writers recently and many had/have families and a large portion of them get up and write early, some as early as 4am.

 

if you have young kids and you're pooped by night time then you could try adjusting your schedule. obviously i have no idea when you go to sleep or go to work but let's say you play with your kids etc and put them to sleep by 8-9 (i'm assuming they're very young otherwise they'd take care of themselves) then you could sleep shortly after putting them to bed (if you're as pooped as you say you are - otherwise you're just making excuses not to make music). if you sleep and wake earlier each day then you have free time in the morning.

 

it'd be a complete change of lifestyle to change your sleeping habits in that way, so it depends on how serious you are about making music.

 

commute:

 

if you're the crazy type that has a career that takes 2 miles on a train each day to get to then you could go the laptop musician route.

 

after work/weekends:

 

i bet you watch TV or browse the internet or do some other unfulfilling activity most, if not all days. any time spent doing that stuff could be spent making music.

 

assuming you work a 5 day week there are 2 days free to play with. obviously having a family will cut into this time but if you're serious about wanting/needing more time you should talk to your partner and work out a plan that could give you a few hours each Sunday morning or evening to yourself, even if it just means she looks after the kid/s for a couple of hours or you can flex your creative muscles.

 

for 99% of us there are so many missed opportunities to make music (or fulfill another creative hobby like writing) but we avoid them because of laziness and casually blame our lack of time.

 

stop making excuses and go make some noise (but plug in yr headphones so you don't wake the kids).

 

edit: i hadn't meant to make this post so long. whoops. if you have time to read it all you have time to go jam out some tunes instead ;--]

[flacid]

efficient studio/space and a knowledge of your gear. 

[bendish]

If I had a choice...wake up at 6...eat...coffee...make music till midday...break...start again at 1700...till 2100 ish

 

Now...music from 1730 to 2030 most days

 

Children are a scary prospect

[Guest]

Children are a scary prospect

 

agree, this thread is depressing.

[xox]

lol if i'd wait to have time for things i'd never do anything 

[xox]

just make bad music - you don't need inspiration or time to do it!

 

 

i like how you often upload your tracks on soundcloud lately. bad or not, doesn't matter. what matters the most is being in that creative state; once you're there no matter what happens is good imo

[Shockerbrown]

 

what you guys do that don't have time?

i have to make everything on headphones now i have a bambino too

when i actually get time i'm knackered and sit on sofa and watch netflix docu's

yeah. i make most of my music from 730-830AM in headphones on my laptop sitting next my kid while she eats cheerios and watches curious george. and yeah it's hard to do it at night. i would have time at night when everyone is asleep, but i'm usually beat then. i think best solution is to give up on gear and steal little moments on laptop when u can.

 

 

Lol. That's awesome. Respect. It's amazing how much you can do on a laptop. Is your kid already into electronic music?

[joshuatxuk]

I haven't managed to, I have huge respect for those who have managed to work a full time job, pay the bills, and/or have a family and still manage to devote time, effort, and practice into music making.

 

Personally for me a little tape label and a blog - the latter of which is on hiatus - are about as close as I have come to doing anything creative. Tried remixing stuff and playing around with a free copy of ableton I aquired in the past but to great frustration. 

 

Despite having less free time than ever I still feel pretty inspired - my plan is to really figure out in my head what I want to do - no half-baked, superficial, or flippant ideas but a truly committed idea for a track.

 

That's the thing - anyone I know who manages to be in a band or focus on their music productions sacrifice something - sleep time, time dicking around on the internet, etc. Not to mention there's a diligence to it all. That's where I have not committed fully.

[qualitycontrol]

I have a 3 year old, full time job, and play in two bands.

 

I've given up TV for the most part. And I am tired everyday.

Fuck it. Could never give up music.

[Silent Member]

I'm pretty much pooped when not at work, and only make stuff when I have a deadline these days. Never been less creative, end up watching films and refreshing watmm waiting for bedtime. pls halp

[Brisbot]

This is all my experience with similar issues:

Here's the thing. Being 'inspired' is just BS that's been melded into your brain over your lifetime. Inspiration is just you looking at yourself and seeing if you're in a good mood or not. It really doesn't have much to do with music. (at least for me) 

The most important thing you can do for the music making side of your life is to build a habit of working on music. Even if you don't feel like it, you have to open your DAW and work on something, everyday that you can. Even if it's for 10 minutes. Half the time you open it when you aren't feeling inspired, you'll magically start 'feeling' it 20 minutes later.

You just have to learn to just not give a fuck what you're feeling, and open the DAW. Build a habit of it, every day.

The inspiration will come.

Also, make it a thing to get started, even if it's for a few minutes. The hardest part of working on music is starting. So instead of watching TV, open up the DAW and work for 10-20 minutes, and if you're not feeling it, go do whatever else you do you waste use up your time. So get on WATMM :P . The important thing is to be doing it everyday that you can. Till it's natural and it feels weird not too. Probably took me a month or so, then not working on music feels like I forgot something.

Oh yeah. The hardest thing for me these days is getting myself to work when I'm tired. So in the morning on my days off or an hour before bed. I can get myself to half the time. Still a work in progress.

[sweepstakes]

Hardware helps for me. You can just grab one or two things at a time - whatever you're in the mood for. Cheap, limited stuff like volcas, POs, and stompboxes are great for this because they challenge you and keep you focused but aren't intimidating, they're easy to wrap your head around.

[TubularCorporation]

When I think of inspiration issues, I think of Mordecai Richler. He used to sit and write 8 hours per day every day. His friend and fellow writer asked him how he could do that. Where does he get the inspiration? Mordecai said if he didn't write 8 hours per day, he wouldn't be able to write at all.

 

So you work through that shit. Waiting for inspiration will not make you a better artist. Perseverance does. My favorite artists are the ones who can steamroll through weeks of artistic blocks and still produce fully knowing that they are creating complete garbage.

 

Yeah, Ican really relate to that. I'm childless and chronically underemployed (by choice mostly) but even then work and other responsibilities break up the time you have, and I can't speak for anyone else but I usually don't start to really work well until the second consecutive day.  Spend 8-12 hours on the first day exerimenting with different ideas, working on sounds, and usually get the basic core elements in place late that evening, then the second day I get up, usually get started while I'm still eating breakfast and by around lunchtime I'm really deep into the whole flow state and more often than not I can get the whole structure and arrangement almost done by the time I'm too tired to keep going, but then I have to go back to work again and it'll be another week or two depending on my schedule before I have a chance to really dig in like that again.  Details and mixing are easier to do incrementally but even with only 25-30 hours that I have to be at work (plus commute time and whatever work I might be doing from home that week, which could be another 20+ hours but is usually more like 5-10 tops)

 

Fully ITB was even worse though, too much opportunity for distraction, and for me working in software just encourages getting lost in tweaking, working in circles, and usually ending up with more junk than useful material, which is hardly ever as good as what I do when I work with hardware even though I've got a lot more experience and even actual training on the software side of things.  The limitations of hardware make it easier to focus for me and just push through the first half day or so of inertia that comes from having spent a week or more focusing on work and day to day life.  If I was in a position where I could work 8 hours a day consistently I could probably have 5-6 tracks finished every week, instead of taking  two or three weeks from starting a track to printing the final mix, which s what  it's like now.

 

I wish I could work as efficiently as a lot of you do.

[TubularCorporation]

What really works best, and what I've been missing since I got back to purely electronic music, is collaboration.  Not online, actual real-time, face to face playing with other people.  Because with a good collaborator, what takes me 2-3 full, morning-to-night days of work alone is usually done in maybe an hour.

[Ragnar]

 

oh crap this is someone from watmm?

[Guest]

What really works best, and what I've been missing since I got back to purely electronic music, is collaboration.  Not online, actual real-time, face to face playing with other people.  Because with a good collaborator, what takes me 2-3 full, morning-to-night days of work alone is usually done in maybe an hour.

 

I've tried this many times and I can't. It's either I tell the other party how to do everything or I lose interest. And I'm too passive to tell them to program the rim shots "this way, not that way!" every damn time, so I'm done working with others. Unless I've always worked with people who I just don't jive with.