10 Tips to Help You Deal With Musical Burnout

Details: musicians blog; Updated: 02nd November 2022

Have you ever been so burned out, musically speaking, that even the thought of getting out of bed to face another day as a struggling musician has you reaching for the snooze button?

You're not alone - burnout is a real thing that affects everyone, from beginners who can't see any signs of improvement all the way up to stadium bands who feel like they're phoning it in on the 20th stop of their tour.

Burnout, put simply, is the state of being tired of it. Tired of trying and failing to learn a tricky guitar solo, tired of trying and failing to score a record deal - at some point, most of us will ask ourselves: why bother?

Whether you're experiencing burnout right now or want to know how to avoid it in the future, these 10 tips will help you to reignite your musical spark and keep your flame alight, one day at a time:

Take five

The first thing you need to do when you're starting to feel the weight of the world on your shoulders is: take a well-earned break. You don't have to spend every waking hour working on your craft to prove how dedicated you are - in fact, overworking yourself will most likely do more harm than good.

If you're dividing all your time between practicing at home, practicing with your band, and travelling to and from gigs, you might think you're living the dream - but this will quickly turn into a living nightmare if you don't break it up. Remember: too much of a good thing is bad for everyone.

Taking a step back from an intense schedule gives your brain a chance to process all the information you've been feeding it. Try playing some sports, going on long walks, or reading a book or two to take your mind away from music entirely.

Doing something completely different will let all the experience of practicing and performing you've built up sink in. Then, the next time you sit down at your piano or strap on your guitar, you'll feel like a born-again musician as it all comes flooding back to you - and you might even have gained some extra inspiration while your mind was focussed on other things.

Don't neglect your life outside of music - this way, whenever music seems hard, you have another source of comfort and joy waiting for you. Rather than waiting until your subsequent burnout to take a break from music, divide your time between giving away to your craft, and taking back for yourself.

We can work it out

While you're taking a break, look deep inside yourself to work out why you're feeling so fed up with music. You might have to ask yourself some tough questions, but the first step to solving a problem is identifying and isolating it.

Here are some of the questions you could ask yourself to help you identify what's making you feel burned out:

Are you struggling to master a specific part?
Are you tired of playing the same songs?
Are you feeling isolated from your bandmates?
Are you missing spending time with your friends and family?

Take some time to answer these questions honestly and break them into smaller, more achievable goals. Here's our advice on how to tackle the above:

Problem: You can't quite get the hang of a tricky piece of music, which can leave you frustrated and lead to feelings of unworthiness.

Solution: The truth is you're not unworthy at all, but you might need to be stricter or more structured in your approach to practicing. Dedicate a regular time slot where you can focus on only that piece - listen to it, watch YouTube tutorials, and think about asking a musician friend or even a music teacher for some advice.

Problem: You're bored of playing the same songs, so you might find that you're on autopilot and might even stop caring about how well you're playing them.

Solution: On a personal level, try to think about each song differently - can you make any subtle changes to the way you play it, or are there any unusual cover versions out there you can listen to? On a band level, make a few new song suggestions to the other members.

Problem: You're not connecting with the rest of your band, so you quickly start feeling lonely.

Solution: The first thing to do is talk to them about it - they might feel the same way. Arrange a social activity in a different, non-musical setting - or even consider spending time or jamming with other musicians.

Problem: You're feeling homesick, which can make you resent your surroundings and wonder if you've made the right decision in leaving your familiar setting behind.

Solution: Ask your family and friends when you can next meet up, so you have something to look forward to. Talk to them about how you feel, and trust that they will support whatever decision you make - they will have your best interests at heart and will most likely know you better than you know yourself.

Thank you for the music

There must be a reason why you're doing this in the first place, so let yourself feel some appreciation and gratitude for the music that is such a big part of your life. You can lose sight of this if you start viewing music as more of a job than a pleasure.

Remember: music listening is just as important for a musician as reading is for a writer.

It can be easy to fall into the trap of overthinking and over-analysing every piece of music you hear once you're an accomplished musician - you might wonder how to play it, how it was composed, and whether you'd have done anything differently.

While these are beneficial skills, it's also helpful to switch off this analytical way of thinking and remind yourself how to just enjoy a piece of music.

Music is so much more than a sequence of notes - it's a story, an emotion, a multi-layered work of art.

Switching off and allowing yourself to simply experience a song or a soundtrack will help you to reconnect with what made you fall in love with music in the first place.

When pushing yourself to achieve as much as possible to the best of your ability, it's easy to forget to appreciate the little things. Let yourself feel grateful that you have such a great connection with music, and you'll start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Harder, better, faster, stronger

Taking a timeout from music is an excellent time to reevaluate your goals as a musician. For a more fulfilling life as a musician, you need to aim for delayed gratification from bigger, long-term goals.

Don't waste your time by just playing fun, easy songs you know off by heart - that's like ordering junk food at a drive-thru: quick, tasty, but not nourishing in the slightest. Instead, set your sights a little higher and push yourself by learning songs that test your skills.

There are many styles of music that don't require you to know that much musical theory to be able to play them - in fact, that's usually what makes them great - but if you're in a band that plays in one of those styles, you might not think it necessary for you to spend your time learning scales, modes, arpeggios and other musical techniques. For guitarists, the same goes for techniques such as fingerpicking and tapping - if the music your band plays doesn't require these techniques, you might not see the point in learning them.

Remind yourself that becoming a musician is a deeply personal journey - it's not up to anyone else what you learn, so don't limit yourself. Learning a new technique will open new doors to new ideas, even if it feels like starting from square one.

If you're ever unsure about how much you're progressing, compare your musical journey to a plant growing. If you water and nurture it every day, it will grow taller and stronger - but you don't notice this yourself every day you look at it. However, if you invite a friend to look at your plant, and then ask them back two weeks later to look at it again, they'll notice how much it has grown.

In much the same way, even though you will improve as a musician if you practice often and effectively enough, you might be too close to those improvements to notice them. It will probably take someone from the outside looking in to tell you how far you've come.

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

Timing isn't only necessary when you're playing a song - it's also the key to leading a productive life.

Time management is an essential skill to master - scheduling your days effectively will help you get more out of them. Even if you've got a pretty good routine going already, it's worth taking the time to write out how you currently spend your time on each day of the week, then compare that to how you want to spend your time.

The closer you can stick to your schedule, the more control you'll feel you have over your own life. It'll help you realise how much time you might have been wasting - but it will also show you how much more time you gain.

Say, for example, you work a 9-5 job - what a way to make a living! So you might have to travel back home, change out of your work clothes, get dinner on the table, maybe fit a couple of daily chores in - and the next thing you know, it's 7:30pm, and you're slumped in front of the TV for the rest of the evening.

While this is understandable (we've all been there after a hard day at work!), it's not going to help you feel inspired musically. There's a good couple of hours between finishing your dinner and that time in the evening when practicing music starts to annoy the neighbours!

When you've got too many options, deciding what to do can take up all the energy that you should spend on doing what you've decided. To avoid this, have a think about which evenings you can spare, and plan in advance what you're going to fill that time with - then, you can get stuck in straight after dinner without wondering which of the thousand-and-one things you're going to tick off your musical to-do list.

You get what you give

To get good at anything, you need to have discipline. Discipline does not mean forcing yourself to work more than you can physically or mentally manage. It also doesn't mean punishing yourself when you don't achieve as much as you hoped - it simply means following a set of rules designed to help you to better yourself.

Aside from good time management, you need a sensible reward system to mark each milestone you reach and feel like you've earned it.

It's essential to keep things in proportion and in perspective - you need to keep your goals, as well as your expectations, in check.

Don't be too generous, either with your personal practice or with your aspirations for your band. If you set your bar too low and take a break every five minutes, you'll train yourself to quit as soon as the going gets tough and won't bother pushing yourself to achieve your true potential.

Similarly, if you think a booking agent's going to organise a world tour for you based on the great reaction your set got at an open mic night, you're going to be disappointed. Success and stardom should not be the only reward you're chasing; you'll burn yourself out trying to chase those bright lights.

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On the flip side, please don't be too harsh with yourself during your private practice sessions, and don't lower your expectations too far regarding your band's future. Wearing your fingers to the bone every time you pick up your guitar or sit behind your piano is not a sustainable practice model, and you'll quickly run out of steam.

It's also possible to push your band too hard when you do not see the results you want quickly enough. Getting a tricky new song to sound right could take weeks, and building up a fanbase can take months, even years - so be careful to celebrate the smaller victories.

You can achieve the balance between these two extremes by measuring your progress and forgiving yourself for not progressing at lightning speed right away.

For yourself, see how much you can achieve during, say, a 30-minute practice four times a week, and review how much better you've got after a month. If you've spent that time trying to learn how to play a song that you couldn't before, and you manage to learn it, think about how you can treat yourself - could you perform the song at an open mic night, or do you maybe feel that you've earned yourself a new band t-shirt?

For your band, make sure you only set realistic goals because then you'll have a much greater chance of meeting them and a much lower chance of feeling like you've failed. Try not to expect everyone to get new songs note perfect on the first attempt, and take each round of applause at your gigs and each new like on social media as it comes. Over time, they will amount to something more - it just takes gathering each piece of the puzzle to see the complete picture.

Lean on me

When you're trying your hardest to make your band a success, you may fall into the trap of thinking, "this HAS to happen, therefore I HAVE to be the one to do it". This might ring especially true if you were the one who started the band.

If you find yourself thinking this way often, then it's likely that you're taking on too much responsibility, and it may be time to start dishing out jobs to the other members.

While this might sound like an awkward subject to broach, the benefits will more than make up for it. Explain to your band how you're feeling, and talk through each responsibility that needs taking up with them.

You may find that within your band is an untapped resource of ideas. One might be a digital marketing whizz who can boost your social media presence with a few well-placed hashtags. Another might be a born negotiator who can talk their way into scoring a support slot or a better fee, and someone else might be handy with a camera and take care of photo and video duties.

With those weights off your shoulders, you will feel less burnt out and more supported and have more time to focus on the areas of being in a band that you excel at. Now, less admin is eating up your schedule, and you'll have more time to fall back in love with being a musician.

Ch-ch-changes

A change is as good as a rest, they say!

While we all have our favourite types of music, some of us pride ourselves on being purists in one genre or another! - it's no secret that there's something of value to be found in every type of music.

Try out this exciting exercise:

Pick a genre of music, whether that's country and western, 80s synth pop, or industrial metal, that you never usually listen to
Search online to find that genre's biggest hits
Listen to them with the same analytical ears that you lend to songs that you learn for your band
Figure out the chords, the bassline, the vocal melody, or whatever part suits your role in your band
Treat it as a serious cover version and learn the whole song

You may well find that there are certain rhyming patterns, structures, or rhythms that you wouldn't usually come across in your usual genre. Plus, if you like what you've come up with, you can present it to your band and see if they want to learn it - you might win over some new fans!

Here are some genre-defying cover versions that, despite the odds, went on to become popular in their own right:

Jolene

In Dolly Parton's original, her begging of Jolene not to take her man is given an almost hopeful slant, with a toe-tapping rhythm and some playful country guitar:

Jolene - Dolly Parton

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The White Stripes completely do away with any glimmer of hope: Jack White pleads in a devastating wail over Meg White's simple yet highly effective drumming:

Jolene - White Stripes

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It's My Life

Talk Talk's biggest hit captured the imagination of listeners thanks to its imaginative combination of vintage 80s synthesisers, sound effects, and Mark Hollis's soulful singing:

It’s My Life - Talk Talk

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No Doubt updated the synth sounds for the 00s and added scuzzy, pop punk-style guitars to the chorus, creating the perfect backdrop for Gwen Stefani's distinctive vocal style:

It’s My Life - No Doubt

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Hurt

In the dark, atmospheric closer to Nine Inch Nails' 'The Downward Spiral', Trent Reznor almost whispers over a discordant, uncomfortable chord progression:

Hurt - Nine Inch Nails

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Country legend Johnny Cash stripped the song right down, transforming it into an acoustic ballad brought to life by his unmistakable baritone:

Hurt - Johnny Cash

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Pick up my guitar and play

You could be experiencing burnout because you don't have enough creative outlets or don't have the right type of creative outlet.

If you spend a lot of time practicing a particular technique, such as sweep picking or slap bass, that you never end up using in the band you're currently in, this can lead to a lot of frustration.

You've invested time and effort into all your skills, so they deserve to see the light of day. If you don't feel like you're getting your fair share of the spotlight in your current band, or even if you love more than one style of music and one project alone can't accommodate that love, then it might be time to branch out.

Equally, it's not uncommon for bands at any stage in their career to decide that they need a break or even go on hiatus. While that might be the best decision for the group, it might not be the best decision for you - so rather than waiting for things to start happening again, think about taking matters into your own hands.

Before you dive headfirst into starting up a side project or second band, be honest with yourself about whether you have the capacity - we're talking enough energy and time to give all your projects the attention they deserve.

As long as you can manage that, having another project on the go might help you feel creatively fulfilled. You might play in a hard rock band but want to go full metal or think you've done all you can as an acoustic duo and want to experiment with electronic music.

Whether you have a musical life outside the group you're in and try your hand at being a solo singer-songwriter, it's never too late to pursue a new musical direction.

Here are five musicians who were in multiple successful bands that overlapped at various points:

Dave Grohl - Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures
Travis Barker - blink-182, Box Car Racer, +44, Transplants
Alison Mosshart - the Kills, the Dead Weather
Damon Albarn - Blur, Gorillaz
Corey Taylor - Slipknot, Stone Sour

Should I stay or should I go?

You only have so much time and energy to spend, so don't waste it on being a people-pleaser.

When you're starting out, it can be tempting to say "yes" to each and every opportunity that comes your way. After all, you never know which acoustic duo formed at an open mic night or a guest spot on a local band's EP will turn into the real deal!

However, be picky about which projects you agree to be a part of, saving your time and energy for things you care about. Don't spread yourself too thin for the sake of music projects that your heart just isn't in.

Even if you're in a band which you've been a member of for months - or even years - it's worth asking yourself whether it's fulfilling you musically.

If you've already tried shaking up the set list and having another project on the side, but you're still finding that your band is stagnating, it could be time to cut your losses. This can be an incredibly tough call to make, but if things don't feel right in your band, getting out could be the best thing for all of you.