Musicians "Writers Block"

Alright, I've been at this point for like.. 2-3 months now. I'll start a project, come up with a alright melody to start and work with, get some drums in there, and then completely lose my train of thought and any ideas with it. I know taking a break helps.. but it doesn't seam to be helping for me. I'm throwing out songs that I know aren't "complete" to my standards.

Any ideas AP/AF?

At 2/9/09 12:37 PM, Tzunami wrote: I'm throwing out songs that I know aren't "complete" to my standards... Any ideas AP/AF?

Yup.

Stop doing that. :)

It sounds like there are two problems. The first one being a creative block which results in the second which is releasing an incomplete or less than complete track.

Fix the creative block and the second should resolve itself. Then again it may be less about creative inspiration and more about impatience. Only you would know.

Getting inspired isn't always easy and there's no perfect "works every time" solution but there are plenty of places to look that may help.

I'd recommend reading a few trade mags like "Computer Music". Flip through those and work through a tutorial or two. Watch a few producer vids (always included) and see how others do it.

Critical listening can help. Start out by listening to other peoples music. Listen to stuff that you like, then switch over to someone that you're not as familiar with. There are plenty of authors in the portal. Play mister music critic for a while and decide what you would do differently to improve their work. You might even offer a few reviews. A lot of people will hit you back with reviews and suggestions that might help spark something. After listening to a few peoples tracks and allowing yourself to get into that hyper-critical mode, load up a few of your own tracks and try to be as objective as possible. It's not easy but if you give yourself permission to beat yourself up a bit then maybe you'll be able to get past that block.

Switch up your genres. For the next month or so, pick a new genre every week or two - preferably one that you are not extremely familiar with. Start from scratch and try to develop a few tracks in that style. By choosing something that's unfamiliar, you may find yourself doing a little research on the subject which, again, may help jump start things a bit.

Cover a tune. Perfectly. You probably won't be able to do this - it's damn hard. Pick a favorite track by whoever... and attempt to perfectly re-create the music. Every beat, every timbre - as perfectly as possible. This is quite tedious and it can be a lot more work than you might think but you also may have to force yourself to learn a new trick or two in order to obtain your goal. That trick or two may help fill in a gap that's missing that could be the cause of greater problems.

I hope you find something that works, good luck!

SCREAMING YOUR HEAD OFF

I PLAY DRUMS IN MY BAND AND I FIND IT IMPOSSIBLE TO EVEN TRY BACKING VOCALS if the beat i am playing isnt simple as hell.. and since this b and is awesome i realy cant just play a simple beat.. we are working on a hip hop song where i am basically doing the same thing the entire song with a few fills a flams and what not ehre and there.

maybe when we record ill do some backing vocals.. i do have perfect pitch and i have a gremlin from hell scream...
the funny thing is i always wanted to sing in a band but every time i tried to sing in a band the drummer ofr the guitarist sucked so i took their place and its hard for me to do both... i would love to sing for the band im in now along with the singer but seriuously good drummers are hard to find and the drummer that would replace me would have to put me to shame on my abilitys for me to even consider him/her.

so ill just bang on muh drums and play my keys.

Wow LJCoffee, great suggestions!

I'll probably keep these things in mind the next time it happens to me.

Cheers

-SFaPiL

At 2/9/09 01:04 PM, LJCoffee wrote:

I hope you find something that works, good luck!

this why he is mod and we are mortals..

BTW LJ
you sent us a file a lil while ago it was an orchestra piece.. had some baritone and clarinet it in.. i found it very helpfull on dynamics use in reason 4.0 .. never thank ya, so thank you

At 2/9/09 01:04 PM, LJCoffee wrote:

At 2/9/09 12:37 PM, Tzunami wrote: I'm throwing out songs that I know aren't "complete" to my standards... Any ideas AP/AF?

Words of Wisdom

I'll keep that in mind. I'm thrown all over the place with different styles, but maybe I just need to sit down and listen to some songs in the AP. Probably go through and clean sweep the recently added songs and such.

At 2/9/09 02:11 PM, SymbolCymbal wrote: this why he is mod...

Naaah - actually, it's cuz i give good head. ):O
Rucklo said he'd recommend me if I posed for a furries calendar with him. He's the best!

BTW LJ you sent us a file a lil while ago...so thank you

Sure. I remember that - I ended up remixing it a little with some err... sort of drum and bass kinda nonsense. Either way - np. So when is this great american NE NG meetup? I probably shouldn't even say much because I really doubt that I can commit to anything but if a meeting should take place I'd love to at least pop-in via webcam to say hi.

At 2/9/09 02:50 PM, Tzunami wrote: I'm thrown all over the place with different styles, but maybe I just need to sit down and listen to some songs in the AP.

Well, if you're all over as far as genres, then try limiting it a bit. Basically, all of the above was just a long way of suggesting that you do something different that whatever you're currently doing.

There's another neat idea that I think I've posted a while back. It actually can help break a creative block and I've used it a few times:

For a period of at least 24 hours, do everything with the opposite hand that you would normally use. If you're right handed, use your left for everything - you get the picture. For EVERYTHING... using your mouse, making coffee, going to the bathroom, shaving, etc... Doing this will force you to slow down and think about what you are actually doing and it will also get the two hemispheres working together a bit more. Often, this forces you to take a slightly different approach to solving common problems. Somewhere along the way you might get hit with that bolt of inspiration that's so elusive.

NGs NE Meet

I is want in on this. Let's do it in Baltimore/DC as that's where I live O.o. In all honesty where's the most center-ish place we could agree upon? Buffalo, NY? If so, let's wait til next December...

But seriously, are we thinking of including Canadiadians in this? Then the center becomes skewed towards Canada.

Oooooo - We could always do it in PA and crash the NGs HQ lol. "Tom! I sent you a resume, where's my job?!"

Help Loogie!

Thread link.

it's just something to keep my parents happy.

At 2/9/09 02:11 PM, SymbolCymbal wrote:

At 2/9/09 01:04 PM, LJCoffee wrote:

I hope you find something that works, good luck!

this why he is mod and we are mortals..

BTW LJ
you sent us a file a lil while ago it was an orchestra piece.. had some baritone and clarinet it in.. i found it very helpfull on dynamics use in reason 4.0 .. never thank ya, so thank you

LJ's suggestions were amazing... these are going to help me out many times. I always block on big projects... and I think that's one of my flaws... I tend to always make my projects too big and never focus on one aspect of music... Anyway that's another story.

Btw, I'd really like to hear that orchestra piece you're talking about, can anyone link me to it?
Thx guys you're a great bunch!
Neko

Bothersome.
this bothers me.

fix it.

Valentine

Hmm. Just wondering what you guys think. I asked a girl to be my valentine for saturday, and we are good friends already, and she said "im allready sort of some one's valentine, some one sort of asked". Doesn't that just make you think that she probably just does not want to say yes because she's probably gonna ask some one else some time later? I'm confused..

At 2/9/09 10:10 PM, Sungazer wrote: Valentine

Don't be a douche

Or it could just mean that someone else has already asked her.

At 2/9/09 09:54 PM, loogiesquared wrote: Bothersome.

All is right with the world.

At 2/9/09 09:20 PM, Nekoprism wrote: Btw, I'd really like to hear that orchestra piece you're talking about, can anyone link me to it?

NOT AN ADVERTISEMENT:

Take a look at my audio page (clicky the siggy)
Look for "-=LJC=- untitled sub 0708" and the remix is titled "-=LJC=- untitled 0708 REMIX 1"

The RNS file can be downloaded by clicking this link

It's really nothing special though - don't expect too much from it.

Must post.

FYI

Just so you guys know... this is RenoakRhythm AND SinJim's joint account. We started a collab thingy majiggy. We has awesome musics, can't wait to showcase them soon, for now has just the one (The Heist)

Now to avoid the ban hammer and spank machine i refrain from any more talk of songs.

So, hello.

At 2/10/09 12:32 AM, ApproachingNirvana wrote: FYI

Just so you guys know... this is RenoakRhythm AND SinJim's joint account. We started a collab thingy majiggy. We has awesome musics, can't wait to showcase them soon, for now has just the one (The Heist)

You guys should work on an album! I just listened to it, and it was amazingly well done! It had a lot of action, and I might consider using it in a flash project I'm currently working on for a break-out scene (involving thugs). The title suits it. Good job you guys, I'll be watching this account :p

FYI

You guys should work on an album! I just listened to it, and it was amazingly well done! It had a lot of action, and I might consider using it in a flash project I'm currently working on for a break-out scene (involving thugs). The title suits it. Good job you guys, I'll be watching this account :p

Dude, coming from you... thats awesome thanks. We're pretty excited, the styles seem to gel well. We finished another song that we'll be uploading in a day or two. We managed to outdo ourselves, i must give most of the props to SinJim though, incredible composer, knows his stuff and can play the piano like a mad man.

between the lions
probably my favorite pbs show , every second i get to be between the lions

Blink 182

Anybody else excited that they're back?
I am. I've always loved their stuff.

At 2/10/09 09:27 AM, TMM43 wrote: Blink 182

Anybody else excited that they're back?
I am. I've always loved their stuff.

RE: Blink-182

Hell yeah. I was a huge fan when I was younger and I still enjoy a lot of their music now. I eagerly await whatever they've got planned for the future.

Blink 182
I can't really say I've ever been that much of a fan, but I have to say I've always respected them for their sense of humor. Some of their songs (and some of their videos) are really examples of a really good funny-factor. Or something.

blink182

As long as Tom Delonge doesnt try too hard to sound like himself then ill be excited.
sing nazally
"Dont waze your tiime onme yourrrrrr alreddy ,the voize ensiii my yed"

btw check out the vid in my news post its fucking hilarious

Re: Valentine

Maybe someone has already asked her, from what you typed it sounds like you're reading way too much into it. I'm not sure what the whole "be my valentine" thing is though. But yeah.

Speaking of valentines day though, I met this rather nice girl a couple of weeks ago, and we've hung out a bit, and we're doing our first real date on valentine's day. Apparently she's been asking around to see if she should get me a card. I'm just proper happy that she seems to dig me. I'm not that guy that girls usually like. But this feels sooo awesome :D

Re: Blink-182

Overrated.

btw yay first post in new lounge ;)

Ambimetric
It's alive! IT'S ALIVEEEEE!!!

Or is it "He's alive"? Ummm... "She..."?

Anyway, where the hell have you been all this time, dude?

Valentine's
This is like the second time I have a gf on Valentine's, and this time I decided to do something special, so I booked us a table in a nice restaurant, and we're going to have ourselves a nice evening together.

I know, I'm awesome. Mention it in my fan-mail. DO IT.

Re: Ambimetric ;)
Haha, old lounge got closed, I decided you guys had a shitty conversation topic in the new one, so I haven't been around. To put it simply.
And I've been having a life. I've had a lot more fun since I stopped coming here, if I'm honest. You'll see less of me.
Which means msn me! (alexfooks@live.co.uk) <3 lol

Re: Valentine's
No special fancy resteraunt for me. Just a movie, probably a bite out to eat but no where special. I can't afford fancy places, nor am I a fan of. :D
I'm really excited though man, this'll be the first valentine's day I'm doing something. And it feels nice :)

15 fans!

To the most of you it doesn't seem like much, but for me it's an accomplishment.
I've been on NG for 4 months or something and i really like it here, because of the people i ''met'' and the helpful reviews that they write.
I'm getting a better artist and my list of fans is also growing slowly.

And now i just want to say...
I HAVE 15 FANS! W00T!!!

MH16

Song Titles

How do you come up with them? No I mean how do you personally come up with them, is there a method? I'm utterly terrible at this and it usually takes me hours :P I know what theme my songs have and I want the title to reflect that but it's hard to do with words. I find trying to describe music with words nearly impossible. All classifications aside, how is is possible to describe the pure essence of a song? The song's voice? I'm getting a little bit to obscure with this srry art school has turned me into a hippie.