What does one do when your enthusiasm for your art has been lost? This is not me, it’s for a friend*. She says she is bored with all the songs we play, but really it’s music in general. She’s bored with the sound of her voice, she has several song ideas but hasn’t worked on them, her studio is cold and dead and she has no interest in powering it up.
Part of it is that she’s too talented. She can hear those Stevie Wonder cords and figure them out in moments. She can sing any note, any melody, etc. with no rehersal. Once she’s heard a song a few times, she knows every note played by every player, so there’s no “rediscovering old favorites” for her.
On the other hand, there has to be SOMETHING I can do to help her find the excitement in music that she used to feel. We can learn new songs, but that only works for a short time and I don’t think that’s the whole problem anyway.
*Really. Paula is her name. My lead singer. Or I’m her guitar player if you prefer.
Only recommendations I would have would be: Cold turkey for a bit. Or, find something truly out there so far on the edge, it’s almost stopped being music.
But in the end, for real music complex chords and perfect pitch are just gimicks; it either has or doesn’t have soul. Either she’s forgotten that or never got it in the first place.
Everything is just a take-off of something else, and true originality is something occasional and only lasts five seconds. Those will always be great–but there is a point where you just have to accept that not everything can be new. There’s millenia of music in history and none of it is new, and that’s not bad. Enjoying it is just a matter of just enjoying it for what it is.
There are times when people who are creative get burnt out.
Every musician, or artist lives somewhere on the scale between being a technical artist (like those with perfect pitch, and perfect technique), and the creative and inovative side (the passion and soul of the art).
Sounds to me like she feels like she is trapped in the technical side of the art and has lost passion.
The best solution I can think of is a short break, or a total segue away from her usual creative outlets.
I find musicians have a great break an can get inspiration if they stop playing for a while, and just become spectators for a while. Perhaps a short break where you guys listen to other local bands - maybe haunt the indie bars and see many other bands of varied genres. In the midst of the break, if she truely is someone who loves music, she will wake up one day full of passion again.
This won’t really help, but I completely lost all enthusiasm for my art a little over a year ago. I was one of those kids who could see something and draw a basic replica (almost exact most of the time), but after awhile I just stopped producing any art what-so-ever. Here, after all this time, I can only really muster the energy to produce some cartoons every now and again.
I guess I’m just saying it happens to the best of us. Now, anytime I think of something good to put down, it all just seems so forced and pretenious. There is no point to any of it for me anymore and I have no idea how I’ll shake this rusted feeling.
Perhaps, though, get her to listen to more inspiring music, if she isn’t already, like Postal Service, Iron and Wine, Unicorns, Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, etc - just bands that make you want to capture a half-penny of what they created. The closest I have ever gotten to doing art again is after watching some films with brilliant cinematography.
Oh, and How to Draw a Bunny, about the late Ray Johnson, also made me gungho for art for an entire week, so maybe some doc like that would help.
Another might be to learn a completely new style, or even another instrument. I’ve done this a number of times, and it rejuvenated me when I returned to the old ones.
I can help you a bit. Find a good teacher. If there’s no excitement, try someone else. NoCoolSpouseName is a painter–knew since age 3 or 4 that painting was the spot–and has never lost it. One teacher would say “don’t worry about what you’re painting, just get lost in putting brush to canvas.”