[trpullen]

Originally Posted by PorkPieGuy

I never thought that I would be writing those words but it is official folks. I've been pursuing music as hard as I know how for close to 15 years now. I've played hundreds and hundreds of shows, gotten to tour a little, and spent countless hours practicing so that maybe one day I would get the chance to play music full-time. Well, at age 32 I think that I'm finally ready to call it a day. I'll still play at my church every weekend and I'll do the occasional gig here and there, but as far as going out and finding gigs to play out at night on weekends, well, I think that I'm done.

Financially speaking, music hasn't been really good to me in the past year and a half. I've struck out on my own and done the solo thing for a while. While I miss having other guys around, I've enjoyed doing things on my terms. But I'm married (to an extremely supportive wife) and I've got a little 1-year-old (who loves music) and I have a great job teaching at a local college. I may be going back to school to get my Ph.D., which is extremely exciting and scary at the same time.

I spent every spare day off last winter and spring in the studio getting my solo record together, recording all of the guitar, drums, vocals, bass, and keyboards. I didn't have much of a Christmas break, no Easter break, and no Spring break last year because I was investing my time and energy in the studio. I even canceled our annual Easter camping trip so that I could record. I put out a CD that I could barely afford to get pressed and bought some equipment that has yet to be paid for. I've played a lot and I've gotten paid very little. I've played a couple of "no-shows" without pay. On average, I'm going in the hole anywhere from $20 to $50 a show (multiply that by 4 or 5 shows a month. That's a nice car payment!). When I was playing drums, I was going in the hole a lot more (believe it or not).

I have a hammered dulcimer that's being built right now that I'm going to enjoy learning to play and I may do some weddings here and there, but I'm no longer wanting to tour or be on the road full-time. Due to our church playing predominately Praise and Worship music, I'm getting the HD to teach my little girl hymns that I grew up singing in addition to my own recreation. I'm thinking of recording a Christmas record with my HD at some point and possibly setting up and playing at some old country/general stores around the area.

It took 15 years, but I'm really worn out. Somewhere along the way, music became a lot less fun and a lot more work. I started dreading gigs instead of looking forward to them. I want to look forward to playing out again and not dread it.

Have ya'll run into this too?

I am going to do my best not to cross the religion line here. I was in the same boat as you are. 250 shows per year, etc. Finally just burned completely out.

Focus totally on your church playing. Consider your time and effort part of giving your "gift" of music back to God. When you don't "HAVE" to do it and are doing it freely and cheerfully, your entire outlook will change....promise.