I Need Inspiration.

[Oceandrinksboat]

I have been trying to write a song for nearly a month now, but nothing seems to stick.
I'm stuck in a rut and its bumming me out.

I've listened to my favorite artists, found new artists, experimented with other genres but still nothing is working.

I need advice or tips, something that'll put my pip back into my step!

Please and thank you!

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Read a book. I've heard a lot of inspiration comes from books.

But what do I know, I went to school in California, I cant read..

 

[Cyn__Theia]

Play more. Experiment outside of what you're comfortable playing.

As far as your song(s) is concerned, what is it about it or your attempts that are causing it to become stuck or dead-ended? Do you grow tired of trying to write or compose it? Why is that? How do you go about writing it? Maybe there is something about that approach could be changed. There are a lot of variables to consider when approaching the context of a song and what you do and/or how you perceive a song's subjective direction.

 

[80H]

need to be inspired*

 

[Oceandrinksboat]

I usually get stuck trying to transition every riff and make them sound like it flows.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

I like to write things that at just a little above my current skill level, so that I'm learning something while I'm nailing whatever it is I've written. It keeps things interesting, and helps me to always be growing and learning. Work on whatever you've got, see if you can get something out of it, and if you can't, move on and try something else. You might find that whatever you are working on is just stale, and letting it sit for a bit may give you renewed interest in it. This works for me on all levels, whether it be switching what part I'm practicing or switching between entire songs/ideas. I also find that it gives time for muscle memory to sink in, and so when you come back, you will sound better and be more satisfied with your playing.

Finally, it's often said that making good art involves making lots of mediocre art first, and it's very true. Maybe there just isn't much to what you're working on right now. There's nothing wrong with that. Get what you can from it, and move on if that's what it takes. Don't let yourself get stuck in some completionist rut.

 

[Dana]

Stop trying so hard

 

[HungryGuitarStudent]

Sometimes taking a break and doing something totally different (for example, sports) helps clear my mind. Writing music too intensively sometimes makes me feel like I have my nose stuck too close to the sheet of paper. In other words, I found that stepping back by doing something else gives me the necessary perspective. Listening to music outside your comfort zone may also help (i.e. broadening your horizon). Good luck !

 

[jco5055]

I would say to try to write songs in a different way than you usually do. I'm assuming you're using your guitar to write, and you'll write an instrumental and then add vocals etc?

I would try to write a vocal melody, or at least write a melody away from the guitar such as with a piano etc. I've found for me personally that I hardly ever start on guitar, it just seems from a creative standpoint (besides soloing) I just can't write guitar-based stuff. It might be the same with you.

 

[Solodini]

I agree that starting with melody could be useful. Is it a specific song you want to write? Is it for someone? About something specific. If you have an idea of what you like melodically, from other songs, take those melodies, transpose them into the key you need then chop out chunks you like and rearrange them to form something pleasing. This will probably start to imply a chord sequence.

Some chunks you can probably transpose through the key, too. If there's a section which goes root, 6th, 5th in a major key, that could also be transposed to start on the 4th of the scale or the 5th of the scale. A 6th above the 4th degree of the scale would be the 2nd degree of the scale up an octave (making a 9th), a 5th above the 4th degree of the scale would be the tonic of the scale up an octave (the octave of the scale), so the passage could be used as 4th, 2nd, tonic. The same method could be applied from the 5th of the scale. Is that understandable? If not I can explain a bit further, although learning some more theory would help.

How's your knowledge of chord function?

 

[Mr. Big Noodles]

I have been trying to write a song for nearly a month now, but nothing seems to stick.
I'm stuck in a rut and its bumming me out.

I've listened to my favorite artists, found new artists, experimented with other genres but still nothing is working.

Sounds like you don't really have a direction. Generally, we use art to say something that cannot be expressed as poignantly in words. There's a bit of extra oomph if something is said through song rather than a simple verbal statement. Of course, in order to say something through song, you first must to have something to say. I'm going to give you some advice: you don't need inspiration, you need to form an opinion. This opinion must be strong enough that you're willing to write about it. Furthermore, you don't need a lot of new things; one old thing will suffice, with the stipulation that you must follow it to completion. Favor depth instead of breadth. Poetry does not come up a lot on this subforum, but as an artform, poems are a concise example of this kind of depth.

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.

- W.H. Auden, "The More Loving One"

The poem is using stars as a metaphor for a relationship or relationships in which there is unrequited love. Auden keeps talking about stars throughout. Having that continuity of metaphor allows internal rhythms to develop: the colloquialism "for all they care, I can go to hell" in the first stanza is reflected in the third stanza with "stars that do not give a damn." The idea is repeated, but the perspective is shifted: in the first stanza, the speaker is the one who is being ignored, the sufferer of the stars' indifference, but he iterates in the third stanza, "I cannot, now I see them, say I missed one terribly all day." The tables have turned! The speaker is capable of the same indifference. Here's another internal rhythm: the poem begins with the speaker looking up at a star-filled sky, but the stars disappear in the last stanza, leaving the sky empty. There is motion here, development. We progress from a state of having these objects of desire, which do not return attention, to rejecting them in order to protect our own fragile ego.

The poem explores different facets of this unbalanced relationship, as well as its implications: how it makes the narrator feel, speculating how the other party must feel, exploring a hypothetical situation. All the while, the metaphor is consistent. If stars were used as a metaphor for lovers in the first stanza, then it became trees in the second stanza, then balloon animals in the third stanza, the thing would crumble immediately. The image of a starless sky in the ultimate stanza would certainly not be as powerful. Why let it stray? Keep the subject matter close, really explore it, find a metaphor and then exploit it in every single possible way.

(I'm far from an expert in this field, so if an English major wants to come in and school me, be my guest.)

This can happen in abstract music, too. You don't need words to have self-referential art.

J.S. Bach - WTC, Book 1, Prélude and Fugue No.15, G major


The fugue starts just before the 0:49 mark. All of the entrances of the subject (the main melody of the fugue) are color-coded in red. Later on, the subject is inverted (turned upside down), and the guy who made the video color-coded the inverted subject in blue. All you need to do is look at how often the subject or the inverted subject comes back, and you'll get an idea of how music can be built of these little building blocks. They don't always come back the same, either: you'll hear the subjects in various keys, at various pitch levels, in both the major and the minor mode, always changing the character but still retaining the contour of the original subject. There are also countersubjects that return over and over again, but they're just black notes on that video. See if you can spot them; one is a pedal tone riff. The glorious moment is when, amid all of that busy counterpoint, the subject and the inverted subject suddenly come together homorhythmically at 2:50 (the last measure of the first system at that time of the video).

I doubt you'll be writing a three-voice fugue anytime soon (that one goes up to five voices at the end - yikes!), but it probably wouldn't hurt you to try to think of ways to recycle and rehash a single thought until it spins its own musical web. Nurture the ideas that you have so that they flourish and provide you with deep artistic satisfaction.

 

[JohnIce]

My approach is that it's like working out. When your chest is exhausted, do legs instead. Even if all you want to do is build a bigger chest (or writing songs), doing 300 pushups a day will not give you what you want. It'll just leave you drained and unmotivated.

Music, writing, painting, movie making, all art is just trying to do the same thing, which is to tell a story. You wouldn't start making a movie with nothing to film. Songs are the same, they can get pointless and when they do you can get writer's block quickly.

So what I do is that when my songwriting is exhausted, I'll see it as just a good workout and instead I'll start painting, writing short stories, coming up with screenplays, whatever as long as it involves creativity but isn't music. It's always refreshing and easy to get started. But before you know it, you're fed up with doing that, and you'll be dying to write a song again. It's like you survived leg day, hooray, now you can do chest again like you always wanted!

 

[Explorer]

I have been trying to write a song for nearly a month now, but nothing seems to stick.
I'm stuck in a rut and its bumming me out.

I've listened to my favorite artists, found new artists, experimented with other genres but still nothing is working.

I need advice or tips, something that'll put my pip back into my step!

Please and thank you!

So I know that just by existing, Israel is an act of provocation.

I usually get stuck trying to transition every riff and make them sound like it flows.

First off, please don't be discouraged by what I'm about to say.

What is your song about? Could you knock out a quick version of it with just an acoustic guitar and voice, so someone could get an idea of the skeleton under what you're doing?

I suspect that you're not yet at the point where you're adding color to a song which has chords and a clear melodic idea. Even if it's an instrumental, an interesting song has a clear structure before getting into the needlies.

I'd say, get a clear idea of where you're starting, where you're going, and how it ends, even if only with playing an acoustic and humming the melody. Humming and singing help keep phrases from just being punishing, lacking room to breathe, because you can't keep that up when you *have* to breathe.

Just my two cents.

 

[Randy D]

I like to go back and listen to my old riffs and songs when I get in a rut. I find it reminds me of areas I'm am good at and those I need to improve and tends to help bring back the creative juices.



Cheers

-Randy D

 

[Explorer]

OMG, part of another post from the political section got stuck between the quotes in my response, and I can't edit it out at this point.

Just ignore that. Sorry!

 

[MetalHeartGR]

Watch Randy Rhoads or Syu playing. Everytime I watch them, I get so many ideas!

 

[Overtone]

Sometimes when I'm working on something and it's really ingrained in my head I'll go make food in the kitchen or go for a walk, and I find that it naturally is looping in my head, but then after a while a natural transition comes to me (or a melody, or a bass line, or the next bar of a solo, or whatever). I'll try my best to keep that new thing going in my head until I make it back to my studio and then I'll start working it out. TBH that worked best when I used to have the whole day uninterrupted and dedicated only to writing, but I'm trying to get that feeling of "the music being ingrained in my head" back in a way that works with things like a full time job, social life, etc.. I probably need to have more "quiet time" and wake up super early spend a few hours before work just getting ideas together.

 

[Drew]

I have been trying to write a song for nearly a month now, but nothing seems to stick.
I'm stuck in a rut and its bumming me out.

I've listened to my favorite artists, found new artists, experimented with other genres but still nothing is working.

I need advice or tips, something that'll put my pip back into my step!

Please and thank you!

Is it the music or the lyrics you're struggling with?

I was going to say if it was the lyrics I can't help you, but maybe this approach will work for both.

I went through a LONG period of writer's block while trying to wrap up my album - I figured I needed three of four more songs and just hit this wall, where I didn't write anything for like a year.

Finally what I did to get over it was challenge myself to write a song a day for a month. They didn't have to be good, they could be absolute crap, but I told myself that every night I was going to sit down, mic up my amp, and have a verse, chorus, and maybe bridge written for a song, as just a short 1-1:30 proof of concept recording that I could then arrange and flesh out into a full song. I was going to do this every night for a month, and most of them would be absolute crap, but inside that month I figured I was bound to have one or two ideas worth running with a bit.

What happened was I only lasted a week and a half, because in that time I had three or four ideas that I was excited enough about that I wanted to revisit and turn into longer songs. Looking back, where I had run into problems wasn't my creativity - it was still just as good (or bad!) as ever. Rather, my problem was I was self-filtering and taking ideas that could have had potential and deciding they weren't "good enough" to do anything with, and just letting them die. By forcing myself to write something every night, I couldnt' afford to do that, so the ideas just started to flow.

I'm just wrapping up that album now, and I think for the next one I'll go through the same exercise, trying to write something every day for a month and then whittle those 30 songs down to a dozen that I want to extend.

 

[sunung1188]

Watch this documentary: Sound City