I struggle with the same dilemma. I realise now, having started playing in public at a late age (40-something), it's unlikely I'll be able to make any kind of living from it.

I'd dearly love it if I was wrong, as I could do with being able to give up the day job, but I'm realistic about the prospects (slim), as well as about my own levels of drive, passion and commitment (meagre).

As you say, in the end, assuming that you realise you're not going to be U2, you either play for the love of it or give up.

I'd rather keep singing hoary old Beatles covers at open mics, dress up in a bad suit and sing "La Vida Loca" with my local choir while slightly pissed, and occasionally drag my attempts at songwriting out, blinking, into the unaccustomed light of a songwriters' night at a local pub, to join similarly-afflicted people-of-a-certain-age in a very humble version of the great game.

One real positive for me is "discovering" that I could sing - that other people, professional musos even, think I have a great voice. That simple knowledge doesn't make up for everything else, but it makes up for a lot.

(Weird... you know what, writing this little piece of "self-regarding nonsense" has actually cheered me up a bit!)

I've been in and out of bands since I was 15. Started taking it seriously about the age of 19, and between then and about the age of 35 went after it with a vengeance. Released stuff during the 90s, mostly dance stuff, and was pursued by labels in two separate bands.

One imploded thanks to the singer being a serious cokehead and one hit a brick wall when the A&R who was doing the chasing was sacked and his replacement liked our singer, but wanted to sign just her, with the other two of us behind the scenes only. That singer, bless her, refused the chance. She was (is) certainly talented and gorgeous, so could have been a success in pop easily. After the band came to a halt a few years later she went after what she actually wanted to do, which is singing in choirs, working with orchestras. She's a full time professional soprano these days, making a small fortune around the world. Which is great. She worked far harder at what she does than I ever have and deserves every bit of her success.

I had one more outfit that I worked with after that, for about five years in my mid 30s, but I realised that I hate playing live, hate pushing what I do on people who didn't really care one way or another and that what I actually enjoyed was the creative side of things. But even then not always. It was more that it was a compulsion. I had to make music, and it sometimes feels like a fever. I sometimes can't listen to music for enjoyment because what I hear is ideas, and moments of inspiration, when what I'd like to be able to do is listen to a song and enjoy it for what it is.

I struggle with the idea of being a musician these days. I'm 42 now, with a two year old son and I've written 4 pieces of music since finding out my wife was pregnant, which coincided with the death of a parent. Some of it is thinking, a bit like parts of the preceding posts in this thread, that I'm possibly too old. I'm too used to doing it with a view to 'selling it'*, rather than enjoyment, And that feeling of compulsion also isn't enjoyable all the time.

Besides which, I still want to be Joe Strummer when I grow up, and at 42 I'm not sure that's ever going to work.

(*it would be nice to look back on my life and think I made a nice living out of music. I've done a quick tot-up in my head: about £7000 and a 16 track digital studio that's now about 10 years old. That's better than some I guess, but it's hardly a wage, and far far below the minimum wage level for the amount of time I've spent doing it over the years!!!)

...these are merely things that can come along if you happen to be successful. I would say it was a learning process to see what you might be able to do with an instrument, or a tune, initially for your own pleasure, but to be shared if you are happy to perform to other people. Then came the ability to record and this changed everything. The cheaper and simpler this recording process became (as well as the easier availability of smarter keyboards and computers) the more people were tempted to have a go. Some believe they can make a living out of it, but I bet most will not be able to. "Is the music any good?" is a big question, the answer to which may depend upon whether your playing it, listening to it, sharing it, or looking at it from a commercial perspective. Music still helps us get through the long, dark, frightening nights and helps keep the beasts at bay. I must stop watching 'Game Of Thrones'.

I'm not sure where it started. The earliest I remember is my friend Matty was the singer in a band when we were, what? 11? They had Tom Calvert on guitar, who was legendarily good and had been playing Rodrigo in assemblies to general ecstatic swooning from the lady teachers ever since juniors. They also had Alan Thomas on drums, about whom hushed rumours circulated that he could actually stay on the beat.

I was so envious. My mum and dad wouldn't hear of me playing the guitar, but it was all I wanted. They were classical all the way - my dad is a musician of some repute in his admittedly fairly small pond - and just really didn't *get* pop. As far as they were concerned, it was a fast track to drugs, whores and homelessness (I confess to being intensely relaxed about the first two).

So I rubbed a long for a couple more years until eventually I couldn't stand it any longer and bought a bass on the sly, formed a band and just didn't tell my parents. Eventually I started on guitar too, and thenceforth I was in bands non-stop between the ages of 14 to 25.

Then, at uni, I got into a band called Fivemilesmile. We did alright. Eventually we changed our name to Idiot Bear and started doing our own songs. People liked us. Then we graduated, released a couple of records on tiny indies, moved to different areas of the country and it became impossible to do it properly. I jacked it in in 2003. The band are still my best friends.

The thing is, I'm competent but not brilliant. As a singer, as a guitarist: competent. I've sometimes thought I'm a rather better than competent songwriter, but now it just all goes into my laptop and stays there. There's so much faff and heartache and frustration involved in bands that I tend to just chicken out and do my own thing these days.

But I miss it. God, there are days that I miss it, when I walk around all day craving the feeling of my guitar slung low, jumping off drumkits, feeling that spine-arching thrill of a song sounding good, that symbiotic telepathy that you get playing well-rehearsed music with people you love.

And then I find I have to go to work, and I simply don't have the time or the emotional resources to do anything but just pour it all into the laptop and leave it there. It won't leave me alone, and at least half the time I just wish it would fuck OFF. I'm not good enough to deserve a compulsion to make music. I wish my compulsion was matched by my talent, but it isn't, and that's a fucking pain in the arse.

Still, on the plus side, at least we never found ourselves in the position of relying on it for a living. THAT's a proper curse, for most.

I was mad keen from the age of 17-30, and played in loads of bands, then just got sick of it. I never even pick up my guitar or bass nowadays.

I knew it was over when a couple of my mates got a record deal and set out on tour in a van. All I could think was 'rather them than me', whereas even a couple of years earlier I'd have been jealous.

The highlight of my brief musical 'career' was flicking through the radio dial in the car one night and coming across one of our songs playing! It was only local radion, but still.

is now well behind me.

My hearing would be going seriously downhill if I did much more playing in bands, I already have mild tinnitus from rehersing or playing gigs 4-5 days a week without earplugs.

For various reasons I was always really intense about writing, playing, and I don't want to back to that level, it's not healthy at all. But it's hard to get back to enjoying playing just for fun.

That was until I started playing guitar with my 16 month old daughter. We lay the guitar flat like a lap steel, she bangs on the strings and I change chords. Brilliant fun!

I came to making music pretty late on in life - much too late to even consider it becoming anything more than just a 'hobby'. That's not to diminish its ridiculous importance in my life from that point on. However since moving over to the wrong side of my half century I have had many deliberations (mostly with myself whilst walking the dog and trying to come up with the killer 3rd line in verse 2) about the validity of doing it. Why is this an issue - why do I still feel slightly embarassed about admitting to others that I write and play music at my age? All around us the evidence is that the good 'rock/pop' musicians have not taken enforced retirement at 29 (as it was assumed you had to when pop was youg) but actually matured gracefully (ok there are excepptions!)and evolved with time. Still in the back of my mind there is a voice saying 'time to grow up and find something more suited to your advancing years - this is a young mans game'.

One the many quandaries is that inevitably you will play your recording or gig in front of friends and generally its doesn't sound quite as slick or professional as Bruce Springsteen - often to their surprise. But if your hobby is golf you dont say to your mates 'Hey Im playing a round on Saturday do you want to come and watch ?'.

Ive seriously considered jacking it all in, selling my guitars just to take the pressure off myself. But I think I have reached a compromise and understanding which is as all the guys above say, we do this because we love it and its not really in our power to stop.

Solo folkie (age 17-19): Wow! I'm singing and playing my own songs in a coffee house basement - and some people are politely applauding! (To be fair, a lot of other people are staring at their shoes embarrassedly or talking over me, but it's a start!)

1st band (age 18, 1988): We're clearly going to be the Next Big Thing. We sound like a cross between Roachford and the Hothouse Flowers - how can we lose!!

2nd band (age 22, 1992): We've still got time to be the Next Big Thing. Let's buy a Grunge pedal.

3rd band (age 25-27): This is our last ditch bid to be the Next Big Thing. Oh *when* will Oasis pack it in and give us a chance...

4th band (age 30): Not so much a band member, more a guest singer - singing jazz standards with the founder of Pigbag (on trumpet), and the future mayor of Haringey (on sax), in North London pubs.

Solo folkie again (age 35): Songs getting a little more bitter and twisted. Drinking before and during a set helps.

5th band (age NOW): Why make music? Because it's so much fun. And now the industry's collapsed, that's all that's left.

Not that I would want to. My ideas for songs come mostly from short combinations of words which grab my interest - something someone says, the order words might come together in an unrelated thought. They then jump-out at me as something that could work, that could lead to a further idea, a subject perhaps. I can't remember ever not writing songs really, I made things up to sing as a child (I can remember a bit of one about a Tiger!) and first started writing them down when I was about 11. I was already playing a bit of keyboard at that age (not very well, and I've still never quite got the hang of it) but at 12 I got my first guitar.

Whilst I was writing all the time and recording my songs (I got a Fostex 4-track at 15 or 16, and a couple if years later moved to PC recording), for a fair while it became more about playing. My only music qualification is a GCSE, but it was of most value that I could spend a chunk of school time playing songs with other people. In 6 form I played in 3 bands, 2 of which involved me playing other people's songs and it was only one of those two that really went out and gigged (me on bass). I eventually moved away to university and finally had a band I could front myself (vocals/guitar/songs), but aside from a nice demo it never went anywhere. No one had a car, we didn't have enough gear, no contacts, and whilst I could happily stand there and sing, I've always completely lacked the ability to try and sell myself or what I do.

After university (2005 onwards), I've made more "solo-records" and focused more on the writing, and presenting songs rather than a being a guitar player. I did a few acoustic gigs but it's been about 3 years since I've bothered with that, tired of being talked over in pubs. I make records in the 'album format' because that's how I listen to music, I play and produce everything myself, create artwork (though my good lady has done me some great illustrations for my last two front-covers). This year I got a midi-keyboard and made an electronic record, which I felt was a successful attempt at doing something new with it. I've also taught myself video editing as a new way to present the songs. This is really the only thing I believe that I'm good at, the only thing I do (outside of personal relationships) that I feel has value. It would be a nice feeling if more people heard it, but there's so much out there it's just a drop in the ocean. I'm proud that it exists, regardless, and the whole process of making music is one that I just really enjoy. I always meant to send stuff out, but I've never even looked up the address of a record label. Not much point now though, I couldn't afford to leave my job for it, and perhaps if I depended on it for a living I might not find it quite so much fun.

I am no musician, can shape four or five chords and blow a recorder, that's it. Yet last week I bought the Rebirth app for my iPad. It contains:

2 x TB-303 Bassline synths
1 x TR-808 Drum Machine
1 x TR-909 Drum Machine

I'm slightly over 40 and have started making music for myself just for fun - and what bloody good fun it is.

Now, back to you proper musos.

my double bass with a group of like-minded musicians. However, I don't miss lugging my double bass around on trains and buses, only to find that the evening's venue is a tiny pub. One landlady took one look at me and it, and said (in lieu of "hello"), "I don't know where you're going to put that fucking thing." I was so tempted to suggest a couple of places I'd like to put it.

but I grew up surrounded by musicians practising day and night which put me off learning an instrument completely...
I can only play very rudimentary piano in a self-taught, half-arsed way, I used to have a good singing voice but then I developed a phobia about singing and after twenty years of not working that muscle I can't even lift a light hum.
The closest I've come to a career in music was when my brother asked me to write the lyrics for his band. They could all write music but none of them could think of any words to go along with it.
I threw myself into the task enthusiastically and they thought my lyrics were great (they were really a lot of pretentious quasi-poetry full of long words and more concerned with finding clever in-rhymes and intellectual puns than actually making any sense, but the guys in the band were the sort of guys who enjoyed those sort of things...)
These days I thank the gods that the band broke up before anything was recorded...if it had been in the age of YouTube I would have had to go through the rest of my life blushing with embarrasment.
When they broke up I was so hooked on writing lyrics that I thought I should have a go at writing the music myself, so I promptly went and bought myself a cheap synthesizer and started writing songs. No potential hit-singles by any standard, and I've only ever sung them to one person, once.
The positive response wasn't enough to give me any popstar dreams. I don't even feel quite comfortable that my friends and family knows who I am, so introducing myself to the world would be a bit of a nightmare!
And when I sit down to play I plug in earphones so my neighbours can't hear me play, and sing in my head only (where I still have a lovely singing voice!)
Purely for fun.

I think that at the back of most muso's minds, be they 18 or 78 is 'What if', y'know the whole Alan McGee just happened to walk into our local boozer as we rollocked through a storming rendition of our latest self penned epic .......... or is it just me? (I'm 46 by the way)

I've been a working musician since my teens and I'm now past 50.

I'm now doing it full time, playing with 5 bands and trying to earn a living. There's nothing else I'd rather do. There's nothing else I *can* do.

And don't forget the social aspect of music. There's nothing better than sitting in a circle with some other musos, passing round a few songs.

making music again a few years ago. I started doing a few remixes and writing library music. Earlier this year I lost my job and went full time self employed and no longer have time for it. It's such a drag having to actually work to earn money.

Anyway, this morning I recevied an unexpected royalty cheque - $125. Not much but it's really cheered me up and I think I'll be hitting the studio again later!