Taking a Musical Break

A majority of my friends know me in the context of music (I play bass guitar and drums), and they know I live and breathe music in all its variety. So it may sound strange that I am taking a break from that. The sad truth is that I am feeling the burnout and lack of skill growth on my instruments, and feel I should step back to rest and catch up.

The break is only about my public musical engagements. For any given week when I play at any church, for instance, I expect to spend about 18 hours in preparation and delivery. That week, I may download the songs and active-listen, practice on instrument against the original recordings, attend practice or rehearsals, practice again with set modifications, do scriptural review (music spiritual basis + sermon/series notes), personal "heart prep" (so I am in the right place spiritually to lead worship), and then play during the actual services. Sometimes there is travel involved. The preparation is a little different when I'm guesting in another band, as I have to learn their set and style. I've been fortunate to participate in everything from bar gigs to charity events and studio appearances. I enjoy the musical opportunities until the burnout arrives (now an annual thing, it seems), when you feel the passion slowly dying. You need rest from it before you lose it.

So until late January or early February 2014, I'll be on a sort of break. What shall I do with the freed up time? Well, my day job has already ramped up so I need the weekends for rest and recreation. During this break, I also want to work on improving my bass guitar and drums technique, so when I emerge I will be a better musician. I am also angling to work on completing my current 3 web development projects (LeafCompass, SKIVI, and Geldzin). Technically, I'll have improved skills in PHP/Symfony2, WordPress Theming, and HTML5/JQuery. True geek.

I'll perhaps cut off my dreadlocks (kidding!) and spend more time with my wife (truth). We are in such a season of our marriage that requires more presence and availability on my part, so I want to at least redesign and rehearse a new personal workflow centered around family life. It should also afford me a path to revitalize my business STRIVE, especially what services I want to offer next year. Lots of exciting things on the horizon!