Constant writers-block

[joe-tofu]

Hey there,

I feel like my writers-block kinda stuck with me, so I thought I'd start a random-writers-block-rant-thread - not really asking for help, but if you've got some tips ... let 'em hear

When my old band broke up 1 1/2 years ago, I barely touched my guitars for nearly 6 months before I started a new project, which goes in a totally different direction. I played kinda rock'ish thrash-metal in the old project, now we're doing something that I would describe as death-metal.

So the new direction was really inspiring at first with me writing stuff that I wouldn't have even thought about in the old band (blast-beats'n'stuff). But on the other hand these new tempi and the different song-structures kind of block ideas from time to time (and they show me, what a bad guitar-player I am *haha*).

The new song I'm working on is the perfect example: I had a basic intro-riff-idea, we worked on a simple bridge and now ... nothing. I'm sitting around, playing the few existing seconds over and over and noodling around on my guitar. Unfortunately it takes a maximum of 30 minutes before I give up, beeing pissed off by my lack of ideas. Sure, the best would be to let it sit for a few days and to try not to even think about that song-bit, but I just cant imagine, that that helps. It never did for me at least.

I have capable musicians with in my band, yet I'm the only writer. So there is little to no input from "outside".
Is there some kind of remote writing-help? Kinda like a reamping-service?

 

[djyngwie]

Write, write, write! Don't worry about quality, just get something done. You can always sort through the stuff later.

 

[abandonist]

Listen to music you don't normally listen to.

 

[m3l-mrq3z]

Listen to music you don't normally listen to.

Great advice.

My own personal advice: don't force it or you'll end up writing your own version of "St. Anger".

 

[joe-tofu]

Listen to music you don't normally listen to.

You mean, listen to music that have nothing to do with what you want to write? That sounds clever.

My own personal advice: don't force it or you'll end up writing your own version of "St. Anger".

hahaha

 

[m3l-mrq3z]

You mean, listen to music that have nothing to do with what you want to write? That sounds clever.

It's not supposed to inspire you. At least not only. When you listen to new music, you will stop thinking about the kind of music you like to make and start thinking in more flexible ways, thus being more open for inspiration.

Never sit down and say to yourself "I will write music NOW!". It won't work. Most of the stuff that comes out will be shit.

 

[abandonist]

I play severely damaged sounding music.

When I get stuck in a rut I tend to just divorce my listening habits from heavy stuff entirely. Switch over to nothing but hip-hop and pop. Tupac and Bone Thugs, early Dre, Sage Francis. Pat Benatar. Kanye West, Kansas, CCR, shit that has nothing to do with it. Then I'll start layering riffs over it in my head after a few days, then I go back to the tar pit and make some more hate.

I also get a lot of inspiration from design books and photography. Patterns and scenes. Set the score to it. It's what I do when I write menus as well. Do it without any input from recipes and just hammer a whole thing out in half an hour while super inspired.

 

[Mega-Mads]

I cant write without my drummer. I rarely make riffs at home.

 

[7stringsofdoom]

While all the advice here is solid, I'm going to offer my own from a different perspective.

Think about the style of music you are playing/wish to play. Think about the music that has influenced this decision. What is it about this music that you particularly enjoy?
When you know what it is that you like hearing, analyse it. I find that the best way to do this is to actually learn how to play the songs on guitar. You might notice the kinds of chords, intervals, rhythm, structure etc... used.
By doing this you are developing your own musical vocabulary and understanding what makes these songs sound good to you, and how you can apply this to make music you would want to hear.

Tl;dr- Learn songs on the guitboard and apply what you learn to your own writing.
Of course, I could just be saying a load of bullcack . You don't need to do what I say. Not everything is suited to everyone.

 

[guitareben]

Just write something, anything - usually (this includes myself) people expect everything to sound as good as the stuff you listen too... which is the same as picking up a guitar and expecting to sound like Steve Vai after a week's playing.

Writing music is very much like an instrument - the more you do it the better you get ^^

So anyway, just write SOMETHING. And then write another song... and another etc

 

[m3l-mrq3z]

I cant write without my drummer. I rarely make riffs at home.

 

[joe-tofu]

Just write something, anything - usually (this includes myself) people expect everything to sound as good as the stuff you listen too... which is the same as picking up a guitar and expecting to sound like Steve Vai after a week's playing.

Writing music is very much like an instrument - the more you do it the better you get ^^

So anyway, just write SOMETHING. And then write another song... and another etc

I'm too much a perfectionist for that. When I write something, I expect it to be of the same quality as the last song, I wrote. That's totally idiotic - and I know it. Maybe I just have to force me, at least trying it. I can always go back and pick those ideas apart.

 

[cronux]

dude, just write

the thing is that after a while, you'll see that some of the stuff you wrote was spot on. makes me laugh now that 2 of my band's new songs have a riff or two that are 3-4 years old

and the reason why i put 3-4 old riffs in new songs is because i forgot they were ever written, at the time they were MEH, but now - AWESOME

go figure

 

[SenorDingDong]

Write, write, write! Don't worry about quality, just get something done. You can always sort through the stuff later.

This is actually the best advice you will ever get. I'm an actual writer, as well as a musician, and I live by the ideal that writer's block is simply a state of mind.

It's like running, really. You hit the wall and you have two options; push on or sit down and give up. The fact that you sit and give up after thirty minutes--most times it takes me thirty minutes to actually get in to my groove while playing. But that's just me. Maybe you're most prolific in those first thirty minutes of playing and after that playing becomes useless to you

When you're in a bad place, every idea seems like shit anyway. I suggest possibly using a cheap tape recorder and recording these sessions of "noodling around." Might be you find the things you're playing don't sound so bad with some perspective.

 

[Mega-Mads]

HAHA i might become him if i get sponsored by KFC =)

 

[m3l-mrq3z]

They don't serve baby-sandwiches at KFC.

 

[Mr. Big Noodles]

Never sit down and say to yourself "I will write music NOW!". It won't work. Most of the stuff that comes out will be shit.

I think that's horrible advice. Stravinsky forced himself to write every day; he was one of the most prolific composers in recorded history, certainly in the twentieth century. Bach wrote a cantata every week for three years straight as part of his gig in Leipzig. A cantata consists of seven movements, and is usually written for a large ensemble, so we're talking a lot of notes - I assure you that he had to force at least some of it. One should not be afraid of playing a few bad notes here and there. That kind of apprehension can kill creativity and the translation of thought into music very easily. My band's old guitarist was impossible to jam with because whenever we would improvise, he wanted it to sound like a perfectly composed song and would call it off as soon as anyone hit a "wrong" note. Can you imagine what a damper that put on the flow of ideas? It's fucking improvisation, dude. You know, the entire basis of music as we know it. Lighten up.

What I will say is this: don't make music that does not represent your capability. A lot of what you write may not meet your standards, but the entire purpose of taking risks is to learn what does and doesn't work. You don't have to commit everything you write to your repertoire, so I don't think you'll be making your own St. Anger unless you say, "Well, shit, I wrote it, so I'd better release it to the public now." What defines you as a composer is your taste, your subjective ability to accept and reject ideas. Feel good if you write a bad idea and then say to yourself, "Wow, that was really awful."

 

[trianglebutt]

I think different people work different ways. Over the years I've developed the ability to realize when I'm forcing music. Whenever I realize I'm forcing music I stop and take a long break. Sure, you can force yourself to write stuff, but whenever I force it everything sounds like shit. 99% of my music I deem "good" was written unexpectedly.

Also, writing music is completely different from improvising. Improvising is true stream of consciousness, of course there's going to be wrong notes. I see writing as assembling a very abstract puzzle. There's always multiple ways to solve the puzzle but generally there's one solution that works far better than the other solutions. Sometimes you have to step back from the puzzle for a few hours or even days before you can find that perfect solution.

EDIT: I'd like to add that I see improvisation as the initial stage of the writing process. Usually when I know I'm in the zone and coming up with good stuff I just hit record and jam on riffs for ten minutes. Then I go through and pull out the ones I think have potential to become songs. Once I've established those base riffs, the writing process truly starts when I start coming up with riffs that play off of the base riffs, start arranging things, start thinking about vocal lines and such. I have folders full of riffs that never made it to the second stage. Sometimes I pull a riff from one of those folders weeks or months later because I had a new inspiration for how that riff could function in a song.

I think the best advice is just to relax.

 

[Loomer]

They don't serve baby-sandwiches at KFC.

...yet..

 

[Bloodbath Salt]

Listen to music you don't normally listen to.

Definitely +1. Since you're writing thrash, listen to some Dick Dale.
Write part A. Then when you get stuck, start writing part B. Then figure a transition or if you're gonna make a part A'. Or at least that's what I do.
Just remember the most important rule of thrash, aggression.