Creative block - Any musicians have any help?

[TheGangstaSheep]

I'm not bothered what type of music you compose because music is music and any advice in terms of composition can be universally applicable to me or someone else here who might need answers too.

Anyway, I've been struggling to compose any songs from any genre recently. I play guitar and I just feel like whatever I write isn't good enough or I can't structure into a proper arrangement like I used to be able to. I'm not sure why but I just feel like I can't write any songs and it's pretty depressing so I was wondering if anyone here has any techniques or ideas of how to get past this.
May I add that I haven't been able to write a song for about 5-6 months...

[Sugaree]

A few questions.

1. What genres do you mostly play?

2. What is the on average length of your compositions?

[bigfoot]

what i do is... look at people musicians play live. i watch them play and warp it into something else that is completely different. not ripping them off but kinda using the dynamics of the song in my own and ending up wityh something completely different.

[TheGangstaSheep]

A few questions.

1. What genres do you mostly play?

2. What is the on average length of your compositions?

I can play Metal some days and nice easy listening music others. It really depends on my mood

I guess around 3-6 minutes usually.

[TheGangstaSheep]

what i do is... look at people musicians play live. i watch them play and warp it into something else that is completely different. not ripping them off but kinda using the dynamics of the song in my own and ending up wityh something completely different.

That's certainly a good idea. I do listen to/watch a lot of performances and get inspired but when I pick up the guitar I just can't do anything.

[LuciferSam]

What works for me is to just start playing. It may sound shitty at first, but after a while, I pick up on a certain sound and beat, and just follow it to something that sounds good.

[TheGangstaSheep]

What works for me is to just start playing. It may sound shitty at first, but after a while, I pick up on a certain sound and beat, and just follow it to something that sounds good.

That would seem to be the most natural and organic way. I'll be sure to try it out, thanks!

[bigfoot]

today i just turned every knob on amp to ten, turned of the lights, and made feedback noises for like twenty minutes.i made a song that consists of nothing but feed back squeaks and scraping sounds. when i get blocked up really bad i come up with some wierd music sludge shit. 8)

[xXJust Jump ItXx]

Just a wild idea... But look up how your favourite musicians wrote their music or how other famous ones did too. They all have different techniques but it may help

[TheGangstaSheep]

today i just turned every knob on amp to ten, turned of the lights, and made feedback noises for like twenty minutes.i made a song that consists of nothing but feed back squeaks and scraping sounds. when i get blocked up really bad i come up with some wierd music sludge shit. 8)

That's actually a very interesting and reminds me of some of the stuff I used to do. The last "instrument" I got creativity out of was some free keyboard software and I managed to write some old Nordic style music. But I still long to write stuff with guitar. I'll have to try that out sometime.

[TheGangstaSheep]

Just a wild idea... But look up how your favourite musicians wrote their music or how other famous ones did too. They all have different techniques but it may help

The problem is when it comes to writing music and listening to music I'm kind of different about it. I enjoy lots of different music but try not to write music like the people I listen to though it may slip i from time to time ;P

Most of the musicians I like are far greater skilled than me anyway but in terms of song-writing techniques it could be useful to search up on it. Thanks for the help man!

[Sugaree]

I can play Metal some days and nice easy listening music others. It really depends on my mood

I guess around 3-6 minutes usually.

First thing is first: get out of your comfort zone. Start exploring other genres and immerse yourself in them. Get into jazz, progressive rock/metal, post-rock, industrial, or anything you don't listen to on a continual basis. Get yourself into a habit of not playing the same thing every day, i.e. play jazz one day and post-rock the next.

Second, start experimenting. Like me, I'm sure you have some pedals to fuck around with, right? Start giving them a good work out. It doesn't have to be anything highly sophisticated, you can just do a continual series of drone notes or chords, but get pedals and other effects involved. Start going into uncharted (for you) territories of play style.

Third, allow yourself plenty of time for a song. Many progressive bands make songs that span over the 10 or 20 minute marks. I'm not saying you should immediately strive to make something THAT long, but look at their creative process. Emerson, Lake and Palmer made a song called "Karn Evil 9", which is just under 30 minutes long. The process behind making it cohesive was by whittling the long jam sessions that you hear in the song. As I said, give yourself room to breathe. Don't feel restricted by any time limits and you can include a lot of things in your compositions.

[JDubs]

Well, i make dubstep, which is much more difficult than people think, because you have to come up with some catchy lead to keep intrest and momentum. What I do is listen to an inspiring song, and just work off of that, but do almost the complete opposite. Change the key first of all, break the beat and put some notes on different beats, and If a riff goes up then down, i go down then up

[deadpie]

Diversity is the key. Experiment. Grab your guitar and just improvise with your eyes closed for as long as you can mentally drugging yourself into whatever your playing without caring how good or bad it might be. When you can really clear you mind, blast the distortion well, clear everything out in your head, then go to complete silence, ideas come.

Maybe what you need to do in order to really come through with musicians block is have therapy with your own instrument. Instrumental tracks, long, slow, getting in touch with the guitar. Learning to be more abstract with the instrument.

IMO some of the heaviest metal music out there is played very slow. Doom, funeral, sludge, "drone doom"... I'm sure you can search the genre's and learn more.

sorry if this makes no sense. excuse my heavy usage of marijuana and alcohol. do not try that at home children.

[TheGangstaSheep]

First thing is first: get out of your comfort zone. Start exploring other genres and immerse yourself in them. Get into jazz, progressive rock/metal, post-rock, industrial, or anything you don't listen to on a continual basis. Get yourself into a habit of not playing the same thing every day, i.e. play jazz one day and post-rock the next.

Second, start experimenting. Like me, I'm sure you have some pedals to fuck around with, right? Start giving them a good work out. It doesn't have to be anything highly sophisticated, you can just do a continual series of drone notes or chords, but get pedals and other effects involved. Start going into uncharted (for you) territories of play style.

Third, allow yourself plenty of time for a song. Many progressive bands make songs that span over the 10 or 20 minute marks. I'm not saying you should immediately strive to make something THAT long, but look at their creative process. Emerson, Lake and Palmer made a song called "Karn Evil 9", which is just under 30 minutes long. The process behind making it cohesive was by whittling the long jam sessions that you hear in the song. As I said, give yourself room to breathe. Don't feel restricted by any time limits and you can include a lot of things in your compositions.

Oh don't worry, I may have worded it wrong, but I do listen to other genres as well. For example I love Allan Holdsworth style Jazz-Fusion but I'm clearly not at that level of skill haha. Oh yeah I do mess around with effects but I just feel like everything I do is a pile of crap so I scrap it. The problem is not giving myself enough time, it's being able to find something to put into the song in the first place unfortunately.. Thanks again for the advice

[TheGangstaSheep]

Well, i make dubstep, which is much more difficult than people think, because you have to come up with some catchy lead to keep intrest and momentum. What I do is listen to an inspiring song, and just work off of that, but do almost the complete opposite. Change the key first of all, break the beat and put some notes on different beats, and If a riff goes up then down, i go down then up

Oh these are some pretty good ideas, especially the turn it upside down one. I'm gonna try that one out, thanks.

[West Coast Sheriff]

What I do is just play random notes until I find some catchy tunes I like then use those to make a chorus. Just find a rhythm.

[TheGangstaSheep]

Diversity is the key. Experiment. Grab your guitar and just improvise with your eyes closed for as long as you can mentally drugging yourself into whatever your playing without caring how good or bad it might be. When you can really clear you mind, blast the distortion well, clear everything out in your head, then go to complete silence, ideas come.

Maybe what you need to do in order to really come through with musicians block is have therapy with your own instrument. Instrumental tracks, long, slow, getting in touch with the guitar. Learning to be more abstract with the instrument.

IMO some of the heaviest metal music out there is played very slow. Doom, funeral, sludge, "drone doom"... I'm sure you can search the genre's and learn more.

sorry if this makes no sense. excuse my heavy usage of marijuana and alcohol. do not try that at home children.

Yeah I think the just playing with my eyes closed and ignoring everything is a very good idea. That way I'll just let it go with the flow and slowly get back into my instrument. Oh yeah I know that, it has a more powerful effect and just hits you. Triptykon are a very good Doom Metal kind of band. Hahahaha don't worry it does make sense :P

[Mitchel.]

I play drums, but whenever I get an itch to write, I make a catchy synth ruff and play different grooves along to it. If I find one I like, I keep on with the synth riff, making it progress. I'm the same wy, though. I can watch loads of performances and be inspired, but a lot of times, I just can't sit down and write. It's a process.

Something else I do to keep the creativity flowing, is modifying my drum and cymbal sounds. I put a shitload of tape on one of my rides one day, and I got a really synthetic, dead ping like you would hear in a hip-hop track (even though I dislike that genre).

[Human]

Maybe you should upload some of your music to youtube/something else and we can judge?:D

[TheGangstaSheep]

Maybe you should upload some of your music to youtube/something else and we can judge?:D

No way am I doing that :P On a good note, the tips have helped and I composed half of a song, which isn't much but at least I'm getting there.

Thanks for the help everyone!