{"id":94,"date":"2016-06-11T23:45:36","date_gmt":"2016-06-11T23:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/info.cliffalmond.com\/?p=94"},"modified":"2025-10-24T02:04:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T02:04:56","slug":"tools-of-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/info.cliffalmond.com\/index.php\/2016\/06\/11\/tools-of-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"Tools of Balance"},"content":{"rendered":"
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So, you spend all of this time getting your playing together, doing tons of gigs, recording, touring, and everything else that comes with being a musician.\u00a0 You are having fun and you get caught up being busy and making a living.\u00a0 Playing music becomes a self fulfilling prophecy when you are positive about it.\u00a0 It becomes even more addictive and more fun the better you get, and the more gigs you do.\u00a0 However, if you aren\u2019t careful, before too long its really easy to get overwhelmed and burn out.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to develop some approach to a sense of balance, and when we are caught up in our lives as musicians this can be very difficult.<\/h4>\n

This overwhelmed\/burnt out feeling can come in many different forms.\u00a0 Sometimes it sneaks up on you over the course of weeks or months, other times it may show up after only a few days of concentrated effort.\u00a0 It may come as fatigue, lack of concentration, or you may find yourself hating everything you are working on, writing or playing.\u00a0 People have very different experiences with this and will often show symptoms without realizing it. Being a Musician I tend to become quite obsessed with whatever it is i\u2019m working on.\u00a0 I\u2019m almost always preparing for something, even if there is nothing to prepare for.\u00a0 Many of my musician friends are like this, and I think there are elements to that thought process that are crucial to development of an idea, or any sort of musical development.<\/h4>\n

The problem for me usually kicks in when I realize that I am just going through the motions or \u201cspinning my wheels\u201d just for the sake of working on something.\u00a0 Some are better at this than others, but in my case many times I keep going just to make sure that I am prepared, or that my ideas are developed and sounding the way id like them to.\u00a0 It can be very difficult to let go of whatever routine you may be working on long enough to get perspective.\u00a0 But usually if you force it you risk the elements of over thinking things, and you stop being \u201cin the moment\u201d.<\/h4>\n

I\u2019ve noticed that Music and the concept of creativity require a delicate balance.\u00a0 Learning an instrument takes great discipline, time, faith, etc. and we all must learn to persevere through these elements to acquire some fundamental knowledge of our instrument.\u00a0 But creativity has to come from the proper state of mind.\u00a0 Quite often if you are over thinking or obsessing you will, without realizing it, limit your own ability to create by judging too much or worrying about what you played a minute ago, etc.\u00a0 The ability to let go and move on to the next idea is a difficult thing to do and it requires a certain clarity of thought.\u00a0 This is a crucial element of improvisation, and must be worked on as hard as any other element of an instrument.<\/h4>\n

So how do we work on this Balance?\u00a0 I think the most important thing is to notice when you are reaching the burnt out phase, and take a step back.\u00a0 You may need to take a day off, or even days off.\u00a0 Even if you are in the midst of a tight schedule.\u00a0 I have noticed that getting away and clearing my head can do wonders for my approach.\u00a0 It can take a day, or even a week which I don\u2019t always have when im preparing for something, but sometimes just the proper state of mind can have more to do with the performance than even practicing.<\/h4>\n

We all have to remember that we have been preparing to play up to this point without even realizing it.\u00a0 Every hour of having the instrument in your hands has added up.\u00a0 Even playing with people you don\u2019t enjoy playing with, or practicing in your parents garage.\u00a0 Every time you have that instrument in your hands you are moving toward something.\u00a0 Even if you are learning what NOT to do. This doesn\u2019t give you license to be OVER<\/strong> confident however. Over the years I have had many students who have complained about their band mates and how down they are when they do gigs with people they don\u2019t enjoy playing with.\u00a0 I remind them that if they can make the band sound good despite the weaker players they will be growing much more than they would if they were just alone practicing.<\/h4>\n

Using these \u201ctriggers\u201d in lesser situations or when we are \u201cburnt out\u201d can have a really useful effect on our routine.\u00a0 If you are in a practice or band situation that isn\u2019t satisfying, it\u2019s just a matter of time before you can become frustrated and burnt out.\u00a0 Also it\u2019s important to keep in mind that this feeling doesn\u2019t discriminate.\u00a0 I\u2019ve felt this feeling in small clubs, and in arenas in front of 20,000 people. If you are touring your mind will often focus more on the travel conditions, what you had for dinner, how much sleep you had, etc.\u00a0 You have to learn how to get your mind in the right state to really sound the best you can.\u00a0 A sense of balance can be achieved through time off, working out, or any other activity you see fit.\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes it can make all the difference, and can keep you more focused in the long run. It\u2019s worth exploring your own thought processes to do so.<\/h4>\n

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So, you spend all of this time getting your playing together, doing tons of gigs, recording, touring, and everything else that comes with being a musician.\u00a0 You are having fun and you get caught up being busy and making a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/info.cliffalmond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/info.cliffalmond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/info.cliffalmond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/info.cliffalmond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/info.cliffalmond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/info.cliffalmond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2840,"href":"http:\/\/info.cliffalmond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions\/2840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/info.cliffalmond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/info.cliffalmond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/info.cliffalmond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/info.cliffalmond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}