Entering the new year of 2010 brought on the usual questions for me which were along the lines of How is my career doing? Will my health hold up for touring?, Am I getting burned out?, Have I… WAIT! What was that last one? Am I getting burned out? Well, the truth is, heck yeah. If I’m being perfectly honest (and YOU should be too if you’re an energizer bunny touring musician), I get burned out constantly.
In fact, even if you are not living the surprisingly hectic life of a musician, it is still very likely that even as a hobbyist one can run the risk of burnout and eventually allow the guitar to sit in the corner like a plastic plant or some piece of unnoticed furniture.
However, I am used to this so I’d like to share some of my best “tricks of the trade” from my toolbox to combat and successfully overcome the burdens of burnout boredom. As simple as these efforts might seem, they have been effective in allowing me to not only sustain a 30 plus year career, but actually continue to enjoy playing.
Here’s your first tip in a nutshell. Learn a new piece of music. Select it with the following criteria. You like the tune. Period. Get to work, exhibit extraordinary patience, have a method or better yet, methods to your approach, and enjoy the craft. There are many passes necessary in revisiting a tune as you watch it grow within you.
Originally posted 2010-01-07 20:08:42.
