Music has been a huge part of me getting better mentally the past few years, but I’ve found pretty much nobody is that interested in hearing me play, and I’ve further noticed that nobody is interested in hearing anyone play anything outside of music they’ve already heard a gajillion times the exact way they’ve heard it a gajillion times, and that does not interest me at all.

Doesn’t hurt that I play mostly French and Spanish songs in the United States (guitar, naturally).

I’ve been to a few open mics. The “best” one was just really cliquey. Another one was really isolated was just heartbreakingly isolated–that is, people would sit at their tables, go up and play, and then sit down again alone at the tables, and maybe someone might come up and say, “nice set.” Why bother?

I also haven’t run into much possibility for collaboration. Everyone once in a while, I might run into sax player, but basically everyone is playing guitar or maybe keyboard and just wants to play and sing solo, unless they’re dating someone that wants to sing. I keep dabbling in clarinet and lap steel just so I can eventually have something else to offer musically, but don´t know who would take me up on it.

Music used to be a social pursuit, I understand, but I’m kinda coming to grips with it being an almost absolutely solitary pursuit at this point. Like, I don’t think about performing anymore, I just play for myself, and it just makes me a little bit sad.

Any ideas or suggestions?

  • one_old_coder@piefed.socialEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    I’m only an amateur musician whatever that means. I play for myself, to improve, and to make my brain happy. If I ever played on a video, it would be like a blog: for myself, to record my improvements. And not to show it to anyone in the first place.

    I just play for myself, and it just makes me a little bit sad.

    Do you like playing? It’s all that counts IMHO.

    Last but not least and very important:

    I play mostly French and Spanish songs in the United States. Mostly acoustic guitar, but I’m learning clarinet and lap steel.

    I would absolutely love to hear what you do whatever your “level” is. PeerTube preferred, but YouTube is fine too. Music is also about connection with people you know (I know you on Lemmy), and that’s another good thing.

    Edit: I would never play lap steel guitar or clarinet, but it’s fucking awesome if you do.

    • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      How is the PeerTube musician experience? Could I find community and inspiration there? Been thinking about it.

      I went on an acoustic guitar discord, maybe it was a fingerstyle, but it was just non-stop people promoting their videos and nobody watching. I mean, I guess I can’t complain because I don’t really watch anyone elses stuff either.

      • trem@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        For community, I would recommend posting your videos to Mastodon as well. You can upload to PeerTube and then just “boost” the post from your Mastodon account. Of course, also make ample use of hashtags.

        Mastodon is more focused on people and what they’re doing, unlike Lemmy which is more focused on news and discussions. That’s why I’m recommending it here.
        Like, it’s not just a technology thing. Folks on Mastodon are actually interested in getting to know people, whereas on Lemmy, they’re generally not.

        • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          I’m learning people exist as persistent entities on Lemmy, an experience I only had on the very tiniest of subreddits… this might be fun! thanks for the tip!

          • trem@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            Yeah, Lemmy is much better for that than Reddit. 😅

            But yeah, Mastodon is actually built around people being the persistent entities that you follow, so it’s like a magnitude better still.

      • one_old_coder@piefed.socialEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        I know nothing except that it’s not YouTube, and YouTube is broken for me because I have too many blocking systems on my computer. I haven’t watched YouTube for years, but I would use PeerTube if I ever wanted to show anything.

        • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          I guess I’ll throw it out to Lemmy, then: any peertube instances you’d recommend for amateur musicians?

          I don’t want to get involved with the YouTube ratrace or censorship, but just looking into Peertube’s main page, selecting “music” and it’s returning instances with between 0 and 20 videos a lot of the time…

            • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
              1·
              3 months ago

              Hm. How would I transfer my account from dalek.zone to makertube? Tried to create one and it said it already exists, and when I try to log in with the email or @dalek.zone, it’s “incorrect.”

              • trem@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
                1·
                3 months ago

                Oh, hmm, I’m honestly not sure, if it’s worth moving to Makertube, if you’ve already got a PeerTube account. The social features on PeerTube are unfortunately not too great, so I think, most of the interactions happen on other platforms anyways…

                But well, did you go through their “Request an account” form?
                https://makertube.net/signup