I’m a failed musician.

[an anarchist]

I was an aspiring musician from ages 17-25. Not consistently throughout the past 8 years, but I put enough of myself in to where I earned the right to call myself a musician. Or so I tell myself.

I have nothing to show for my trials and work in music. Nothing to show for it other than the portion of sanity that the pursuit cost me.

I shelve my music project now. It’s been a long 8 years with it. I can go 80 more with it. I can keep going until my magnum opus is complete. But I must give it up, if I am to succeed in a normal life.

I have failed time and time again in all parts of life, but this failure in particular stings. It cost so much of me, and I have nothing to show for it.

Can I even call myself a musician?

Any other “failed musicians” here? i.e. you had to move on.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I'm still a superstar in my mind. Rock on !

 

[an anarchist]

I'm still a superstar in my mind. Rock on !

Heck yea!!!

 

[Eddi]

I own quite a few guitars but I can't play any of them very well.......

But I can do all my major and minor barre chords

I don't put in much practice time though, so I shouldn't find this surprising

 

[Twilight Hue]

Heck yea!!!

That's the spirit!

---

 

[SalixIncendium]

I'm no longer playing and haven't for 20 years, but I still consider myself a musician because I can still play if I pick up an instrument. I don't consider myself failed because during my prime I was a working musician and brought home a few hundred dollars a week. Sure, I never got my lucky break and became a big time rock star, but I still had a good time.

Wouldn't a "failed musician" still technically be a musician?

 

[Twilight Hue]

I own quite a few guitars but I can't play any of them very well.......

But I can do all my major and minor barre chords

I don't put in much practice time though, so I shouldn't find this surprising

I played drums in the school band, but I was so terrible, I was drummed out of the school band.

And that was the end of my drummer days..

 

[Twilight Hue]

I'm no longer playing and haven't for 20 years, but I still consider myself a musician because I can still play if I pick up an instrument. I don't consider myself failed because during my prime I was a working musician and brought home a few hundred dollars a week. Sure, I never got my lucky break and became a big time rock star, but I still had a good time.

Wouldn't a "failed musician" still technically be a musician?

I think there's always a niche for any failed musician. It's that wonderful beautiful world of alternative music.

 

[Revoltingest]

I was an aspiring musician from ages 17-25. Not consistently throughout the past 8 years, but I put enough of myself in to where I earned the right to call myself a musician. Or so I tell myself.

I have nothing to show for my trials and work in music. Nothing to show for it other than the portion of sanity that the pursuit cost me.

I shelve my music project now. It’s been a long 8 years with it. I can go 80 more with it. I can keep going until my magnum opus is complete. But I must give it up, if I am to succeed in a normal life.

I have failed time and time again in all parts of life, but this failure in particular stings. It cost so much of me, and I have nothing to show for it.

Can I even call myself a musician?

Any other “failed musicians” here? i.e. you had to move on.

Failing to live up to one's ambitions
is the lot in life for 99% of humans.

You did it, so you're a musician.
If you enjoyed it, then all the better.

 

[Revoltingest]

If I had life to do over again....before finger
injuries limited things, I'd want to learn to
play like Francesco Piemontesi.

 

[PureX]

I played guitar from the age of 9 until my late 30s. Was in a few bands here and there, and even opened for Jimmy Buffet once many moons ago. But never made a dime that I can recall. Eventually, when I finally got sober, I realized that I needed to put the music-making away as it was not helping me. That was 30 years ago.

I was also a working sculptor for many years and still make them on occasion upon commission request. But mostly I'm retired from that as well.

But I still love music and art and feel that I put my 'two cents' into these in my time. I was born an artist, and will be an artist until I die. Because that's my nature. I can't not be that.

So I think you should wear the label that suits your nature.

 

[Yerda]

Absolutely. I played in punk and indie rock bands in my youth. We were quite crap, but we wrote our own stuff and while the form isn't for everyone we were had our moments.

Been playing on and off with a covers band over the years and made much more money over a few gigs than I did the whole time trying to write and play my own songs. I really love playing and I'm starting to get to the stage where only really technical stuff is out of my reach. Planning to get involved in more trad stuff soon.

 

[Orbit]

I was an aspiring musician from ages 17-25. Not consistently throughout the past 8 years, but I put enough of myself in to where I earned the right to call myself a musician. Or so I tell myself.

I have nothing to show for my trials and work in music. Nothing to show for it other than the portion of sanity that the pursuit cost me.

I shelve my music project now. It’s been a long 8 years with it. I can go 80 more with it. I can keep going until my magnum opus is complete. But I must give it up, if I am to succeed in a normal life.

I have failed time and time again in all parts of life, but this failure in particular stings. It cost so much of me, and I have nothing to show for it.

Can I even call myself a musician?

Any other “failed musicians” here? i.e. you had to move on.

I was a musician from 1983 to 1997. I played lots of clubs, most notably The Roxy in Los Angeles. I'm on exactly one album/CD, toured once, am on two music videos on youtube, and the videos were broadcast on TV a couple of times. If you wanted to label that according to success/failure, it's probably closer to failure, but who cares? I had a lot of fun.

 

[Mock Turtle]

I started off with an acoustic guitar fairly early but biting my fingernails then didn't help much and for some reason I didn't fancy using a plectrum. Never had any lessons and apparently didn't have the patience to progress on my own. I tried with a tin whistle later - after liking so much Irish folk music - and this too didn't get very far, although smallish fingers might have aided any progress. Later, an electronic keyboard was tried but that didn't get far either. I probably preferred simply listening to the output of others more.

 

[The Hammer]

I play a frame drum. I doubt it qualifies me as a musician.

I never played in any formal bands, or had schooling or training. I just like hitting things .

 

[The Hammer]

I forgot to add that I also have a Jaw har in a key of F I use from time to time also.

 

[amorphous_constellation]

In one perspective on this, I am a 'failed musician' in that I have not made much money with it, though I had a few chances though. I definitely am not doing music for a living, but I don't want to give up on trying to find a way to eventually have it supplement my income. You can go on youtube for example, and find some artists who put up say, 20 songs, and then one of them got 5 million hits. The rest of the songs got a couple hundred, but one got 5 million. Well, that's probably a couple thousand bucks right there in ad revenue, if they monetized it

And the thing is, I do have an ear for creating catchy original stuff, I think, but I can't do it unless I put in a good amount of work. I know a few things technically about how to make a good recording, on the engineering side as well, sort of.

For me, maybe it's just a matter of being motivated to do it, partly. If I spent all of my free-time next week trying to make something, then I would have something by the end of the week. Maybe it wouldn't be perfect, since that part of my brain / creative ability is getting a little rusty, but I would have something. And then from there, once the ball was rolling, I could probably start making the process go quicker

People have different reasons for quitting, but I think I just have to try to do something with it, so I'll probably never really quit. A lot of things can be difficult about it, and it takes a lot of effort and time, which maybe I can't get back, but that's kind of a risk I have to take.

A lot of my free-time right now, I just spend reading, or listening to podcasts. Or enjoying the outdoors. I think that doing this probably has helped hone some of my perspectives, and it can be mind-expanding - obviously that what these things try to do for people, but it is not creative.

Basically the mode I've been in for a long time, is just about me trying to consume other people's art or information, and this can help to build me into something new in a sense, and it is a challenging and noble use of time probably, but it is not about me taking on the role of being much of a creator. And the whole problem is, is that I don't know where the balance is - once I start really creating myself, then I know I will have to basically sacrifice a lot of my potential to consume

One thing I do know, or think I know, is that would be nice, if I could have made money with guitar leads, rather than make it by you know.. climbing to the top the slippery press, and trying to release this heavy object from it with an allan wrench, and then I can't see what size I need, because the hole is dark, so I have get a new size, then I put a pipe on it, just for leverage to get it loose, all the while I don't want to fall.. etc. etc. It's like.. I don't think I was really born to do that, you know what I mean?