Can I hear what you guys have to say? I have sacrificed lots of money and time, neither which I could afford to give for music. All I've gotten in return is a lot of discouragement and family members telling me to stop. I can't stop! I'm also plain tired of the people in this business, don't even want to look at them anymore. Why do you guys do it??

Quite frankly I dont do it. I'm not a musician. But I feel your pain. There was a time when I really got into stop motion animation. I got all the equipment and everything, and made first film. It was painstaking hours of hard-ass work! And I'm but an amateur! My fam+friends said I shouldn't continue. But I did. And now I'm proud of my films.... And I geuss the satisfaction is what kept me going.

We do it out of love. I've been playing guitar for a little over two years, and I'm HORRIBLE. Although I know this, I still have hopes of forming a band; I'm still looking to buy gear to make my tone better (even though I know I shouldn't). Why do we do it? Because we get this unexplainable feeling of happyness. That enjoyment of playing the chords to your favorite songs, improvising while they're playing, or just creating your own stuff. It just gives us this one of kind happyness that we can't feel no other way. Maybe I'm just rambling, who knows? But what I do know is that at the end of the day when I look back on what I've done I can say, "I enjoy this."

For myself, I do it because I have no choice. I play piano, and I have always been naturally drawn to this instrument. For a long time, I usually just played around and did it for fun. One night, I wrote this really beautiful poem, and I thought to myself that it would make a great song. So, I sat at my keyboard and within a couple of hours this melody started to wrap itself around the words. I discovered that my natural ability for music was far deeper than I thought. I've been writing music and performing ever since. It's been challenging and meaningful. I can't imagine my life without my music.

I don't do it for the prospect of becoming rich and famous. Performing my own music has empowered me and brought out the courage that I didn't know I had. I am far stronger now as a person because of my musical pursuits.

So, I just do my music. It is inherent to who I am.

Its how u go about it, self serving is how u get the most joy out making/playing music.
making/playing the music you want to do first and foremost.
But i think it helps to be hell bent on perfecting the craft.
I kinda stumbled onto music,
have been doing it for years without taking it seriously, so it never interupted my life,
my studies.
its thoroughly taken over now, but i dont let it interupt but merge with my life, just changed my college major to music theory and that was that.
im a writer first and foremost so, its basically years of reading good writers, not only music, but literature, Hemmingway, Huxley etc... and perfecting the craft of writing. Taking that concept of good writing in conventional literary standards and converting it to conventional song writing.
In my opinion lyrics are the core of good music.
Brian Eno said it best , ""Song-writing is now actually the most difficult challenge in music,It's very easy to make music now but lyrics are really the last very hard problem in music. What I think lyrics have to do is engage a certain part of your brain in a sort of search activity so your brain wants to say, 'Here are some provocative clues as to what this song might be about'."
so very true, in this day and age anybody can make music
but realy no one makes quality lyrically meaningful songs.
simply because its a very hard craft.
so i take that approach, and since i put myself completely into the songs.
they are apart of me, each song shows an aspect of my personality, secrets id never tell to anyone. laced in lyrics and music.
and thats why i keep doing it
its a form of venting out frustration, anger, love horniness, funkyness, melancholy.
with just words and music.
i don't care if i'll ever get famous,
could give two shits but i'll always make music,
i could be working at a dead end job 9 to 5, and after the clock i'll get off and work on some tracks.
i can be poor and lose all my money, i'll start singing on the streets.
its a part of me
its who i am.

Theres a very thin line between The Musician, and the music
and with the best musicians, that line is blurred or completely doesn't existto the point where there is no begginning nor end
The Musician, The writer, is the Music and The Words.
they are one
[Edited 1/1/07 6:28am]

that's how i feel too but it's not fair to the people around me. Lot of time with nothing "socially" valuable. You're bound to be misunderstood for it and it gets old.

I think the question should be, "Why Don't More People Do It?" I truly feel that pursuing some sort of artistic endeavor results in an appreciation for culture and the arts and a better understanding of life in general. Plus, I'm rarely bored.
[Edited 1/1/07 20:36pm]

As George Clinton said...

FUNK IS ITS OWN REWARD!

mozfonky said:

anybody who has told you to stop is worthless. keep doing what you do no matter what and remember this is only earth.

we do it because we need to do it. can't expect family to understand that necessarily. they'll figger it out in time.