So anyway...

...why do people resort to confusion when they're burnt out?

spacey


What makes you ask Craig...are you confused, burnt out or both?

Can't people get confused before they burn out?

Yes, Yes and Yes. Or I wouldn't have asked. I guess I pushed my own envelope, broke out in a sweat and got stuck to the adhesive strip.

Well, It's not my first bout with burn out by any means. I think it results from lack of conclusion with the problems you're dealing with. Whether those problems are artistic or life associated, or both. The creation of art is many times the conclusion you've been seeking. I know I'm stuck on a song and it's eating me alive, thus, burn out, restructure, reassimulate, start over from the basic concept. Leave it alone for a while, stack it up a different way, try it again.
You got to keep on pushing on it. Bump, Bump.

We all definitely need breaks now and then or we'll definitely get burned out, or tired or exhausted or frustrated or....any number of things.

And I think Mark has a great idea too. :-)

What is the opposite of extreme focus over many months with sleepless nights and poor diet?

That is what you need.

My thoery is the reason we burn out is because we let our tanks empty out and we dont do enough to replenish our tanks. I dont necessarily mean tiredness or physical stuff I am referring to, but something else and that is restocking our tanks with knowledge, music, going out etc.

eg Many teachers burn out because they give and give and give and then they run out. I teach as well but have a theory of taking from students as well as giving. eg listen to what music they are into, listening to their recordings, visiting the websites they tell me about etc...Check them out at gigs etc.

As a composer if I start feeling I am running out of ideas then its time to replenish. Listen to some great CD's, go to some concerts, even music that has nothing to do with what I may be working on at the time.  A Jazz fusion gig can give you many ideas etc. Listen to Frank Zappa. The first 60 secs of his music will give you ideas for years!

We give a lot to our own music and projects but it is important to balance that with getting ideas and hearing things, watching some concerts either live or on DVD then our tanks get filled again and we are ready to go on for another stretch of time. And this topic was also discussed on another thread and it has been mentioned above by marcos69 and that is to work with some people too. We spend too much time locked up away all alone. It did not happen that way in the past. There were always groups of people involved in a lot of early albums. That is the best thing about the past, not the technology or the old sound but the fact more people were involved.

We also need to be able to completely STOP and analyise our feelings etc and if you do this regularly then you will see the burnout coming miles away!

I don't know that it's a matter of faith or spirituallity or mearly the stone wall of unknowing and problem to large for a quick solution.
The slow recombination of a large set of events that encompasses the re-evaluation, re-structuring, and re-computing of the human machine and the instrument, which has become a multi-tiered beast with a programmable attitude. Unfortunately I can't hire a crew of musicians, techs, engineers, and cheerleaders to urge me on. I must simply work out the kinks and make the beast perform. 

Crg


I don't know that it's a matter of faith or spirituallity or mearly the stone wall of unknowing and problem to large for a quick solution.
The slow recombination of a large set of events that encompasses the re-evaluation, re-structuring, and re-computing of the human machine and the instrument, which has become a multi-tiered beast with a programmable attitude. Unfortunately I can't hire a crew of musicians, techs, engineers, and cheerleaders to urge me on. I must simply work out the kinks and make the beast perform. 

Whatever you do, pls take it serious!

with out making this into a religious thread -- that's where your faith and spirituality are really tested -- I knwo I am going through a HUGE test now - but I know from experince after its over and done - you end up in a better place - until the next test

Crg


I don't know that it's a matter of faith or spirituallity or mearly the stone wall of unknowing and problem to large for a quick solution.
The slow recombination of a large set of events that encompasses the re-evaluation, re-structuring, and re-computing of the human machine and the instrument, which has become a multi-tiered beast with a programmable attitude. Unfortunately I can't hire a crew of musicians, techs, engineers, and cheerleaders to urge me on. I must simply work out the kinks and make the beast perform. 

A slightly Jungian perspective you might find helpful... not really faith or spirituality, though those do touch on it...  Body, mind, and soul are three, completely inseparable elements that make up the totality of who we are.  If any one of them is out of sync/balance with the other two, we lose what I'll call "traction" in life.
 
Sometimes trying to force resolution to a problem or challenge that hasn't reached its time of change is like trying to squeeze a handful of marbles really hard - very hard to get a grip on all of them without some escaping your grip.
 
Ok, that's your mystical moment for the day... hope you find something helpful here.
 
Russ

Really enjoyed your post Russ.

Reading that and looking back to when I fried...I felt like the marbles being squeezed.

I had 16 years of constant musically bombardment. Hammered into a mush of not even being able to think. Literally could not think about a chord progression. Yes it was a very strange condition. Everything I'd work for was gone.
Trying to recover was like trying to force write a tune when there's just nothing there.

Took almost as long to recover enough to try and get some of it back. No way to know how much memory was lost. How do you know you forgot something if you don't know you knew it? Glad I'd saved all my transcriptions, etc. and what little recordings I had.

go somewhere you've never been... do something you've never done... talk to someone you'd never considered talking to...face something that terrifies you.... take a brake from yourself... the world will still be their when you get back.

go every where again... naked!

So anyway, I thought of dragging my entire DAW to a Nudist Camp in the middle of winter and composing in the nude and I just couldn't work out the logistics.
I was supposed to be Hawaii this week but that fell apart. Instead of a warm ocean and a different center, I'm left with a grey day in Vegas. Time moves at a constant rate but our journey through it ebbs and flows.

Yep, rain in Vegas and the road to the nearest good ski resort is getting hammered. My little voices tell me to stay home and figure it out.
So anyway, when was the last time anybody got a bunch of artistic free-thinking minds together to work on the current situation of life.