Changing musical interests.

Subject: Changing Musical Intersts
From: PNB
Date: 02 Jun 07 - 05:42 PM

I started learning how to play the Highland pipes about 15 years ago. Got very serious about it, to the point it became an obsession. Trying to improve all the time. Learning tunes for the band that I played in. Doing parades, weddings and funerals. The whole nine yards. My wife and I even started a Celtic store. Have owned 29 different sets of bagpipes over the years. Bought, sold, traded. Kind of catch and release with bagpipes. Still have a few sets to get rid of and will keep a set, just in case the bug ever rears its head again.
Well, as life goes, I have lost interest in piping and have switched to ITM and STM. Have switched over to Zook, mando and Octave Mando. Has anybody else gone through this? I have friends that stayed with piping for over 45 years and still have the fire in the belly. In some ways, I feel guilty considering the blood, sweat and tears that I put into piping.
Just curious of this happens a lot.

Subject: RE: Changing musical interests.
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jun 07 - 07:56 PM

It's burnout. I used to be addicted to our ITM session. Couldn't miss it, there almost every week for 9 years. Haven't been there for over a year now.

Subject: RE: Changing musical interests.
From: pattyClink
Date: 02 Jun 07 - 08:00 PM

1. What is ITM and STM?
2. Lots of people switch instruments as they go through life, but active musicians do usually keep a hand in whichever ones they have mastered. I don't know how common 'quitting cold turkey' is.
3. Have you literally vowed never to touch the pipes again? Perhaps you will drift back after a few years.
4. People burn out. The nutsier you are about a thing, the more obsessive, the more chance of burnout.

Subject: RE: Changing musical interests.
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jun 07 - 08:20 PM

Irish Traditional Music... it is an obsession.

Subject: RE: Changing musical interests.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Jun 07 - 03:14 AM

I'm sure your neighbours are much happier now!! (Joke - I used to share a house with a highland piper - I was very glad when he took up the mandolin).

It sounds as if you've not really changed interests, just instrument. I used to play penny whistle and recorders a lot. Trouble is, the sessions I could get to just played the same bunch of tunes over and over, so I never progressed. I haven't given up playing them, but it has been several years now since I went to a playing session. I sing mainly now. I'm performing the same sort of tunes as I used to, just in a different medium.

I think you'll probably go back to pipes. The mere fact that you've kept "a few sets" 'in reserve' indicates that the fire hasn't gone out, it's merely dampned down a while. The accelerant will be some new tune you hear and you'll think 'that would sound great on the inflatable goat', it's how these things go.

LTS

Subject: RE: Changing musical interests.
From: PNB
Date: 03 Jun 07 - 08:52 AM

"I'm sure your neighbors are much happier now!!"

I would practice in my attached garage. I have had people beat on the door, to ask me to open it so they could hear better.
If I played outside, some of them would grab a lawn chair and a glass and sit and enjoy.
And in the coldest winter months, I have had as many as 4 other pipers in my living room practicing and have my wife in the next room. I was/am lucky my wife has always endured my musical passions.