Breaking the Creative Barrier

[Philosophadam]

Finding yourself stuck behind a creative barrier, as if the wheels of creativity have stopped spinning? Here are eleven tips that have helped me break out of my creative dry-spells. I hope you'll find them helpful and that they will get those creative juices flowing!

The tips:

(1) Listen to music from totally different genres than what you usually listen to.

(2) Shift art forms; do some drawing, write some poetry or a short prose piece; do a free-write. Sometimes getting your imagination working on very different things can spur your musical mind onward.

(3) Choose some random sounds, and start a free musical piece with them. Intend not to let anyone hear it, so that the mind doesn't get too bogged down in details or in making something "presentable." Make it free and keep it fun.

(4) Go back to those works of art that most inspired you review or relisten to them; try to take note of details you previously missed.

(5) Go to an art gallery; view an exhibit you've never seen before.

(5) Read a new book.

(6) Go to the forest; connect with nature, and listen for rhythms and melodies in the flowing sounds of the natural world.

(7) Dive into your memory bank; think of the moments when you felt most inspired, or the most emotionally intense moments in your life.

(8) Take a feeling or mood (e.g. energetic, happy, sad, depressed, optimistic, cynical, dark, tormented, blissful, mellow, etc.), perhaps one you never dealt with before in music, and give yourself the task of giving it a soundtrack.

(8) Do the same, but with an abstract idea; what would justice sound like? what would be the soundtrack of wisdom? compassion? freedom?

(9) Watch a scene from one of your favourite movies with the sound on mute; watch it in the dark and imagine what it's soundtrack would be, if it written by you.

(10) Write a sentence or message, or choose a favourite quote. What would the soundtrack of this quote be?

(11) Imagine a scene or setting; what sort of music would best flesh it out?

***

What sorts of things do you do to break out of those periods when creativity seems to wane and you feel like you're suffering from a musical writer's block?

[statueofdiveo]

Useful as hell, I may live by this.

[LightKeeper]

I write out some musical phrases until I find something I can use. Though I do like the ideas that you have. One thing you should list though is a pen and paper, so people can jot their ideas down.

[Psil0]

Personally I think this could easily be summarized. Basically its about finding inspiration.

I will definitely copy and paste those ideas and use them as a reminder for when I get stuck or for when I want to write a new song.

[Gorgorothx]

Awesome post here, I bookmarked it.
Another good tip for finding creativity: Collaborate with other musicians! Whether just free jamming in a band type setting, or doing online file swapping... the ideas of others can always inspire ideas in yourself (just as general listening of music can do)

[LightKeeper]

The only key to that is you have to find someone who wants to collab. D:

[Erkie]

I had deja-vue.

Fantastic post though, great points; Get off the computer and go do something else.

The best thing I've read about people who get writer's block is, they're too afraid to just write whatever comes to their mind. They expect too much so nothing comes out.

[EmperorCharlemagne]

Reading always helps me, and while listening to music is good, just make sure after listening to Stravinsky's The Firebird one does not write The Firebird 2.

The thing that helps me the most is sitting by the piano, sometimes with my head unnaturally close to the keys, and trying to mess around from there.

The piano is the foundation of most all my music, though that habit is slowly starting to shift and diversify.

[FairSquare]

Thanks for this post!
I'm having a bit of a songwritersblock (or whatever you want to call it :P) and i'm really going to try those things you said.

Also, someone said a pretty good thing about expecting too much when you start to make music. I don't know who said it, but that doesn't really matter, does it? :P

[J-qb]

Nice list!
What I usually do is go sit behind the piano, and do some atonal improv. Which is great to get creative juices flowing. after just banging on the piano for a while, I almost always eventually get a really funky rhytm/melody, which I then expand on.

For those who don't know what atonal improv is: act like you don't know anything about music, just make impressions, characters, moods, etc.. without using a tonal principle, i.e. no chords, no melodies. try it sometimes, It takes a while to get used to, and really be able to do it, but it is great fun, and really inspiring.

[Krank]

I made that whole writers block audio talk a while back about mainly how to keep driving forward with music production regardless of any "so called writers block"

anyways, I haven't seriously made a song in months now. months.

I probably could make a song if I sta down nd tried to make one but I haven't.

What I have noticed is I am starting to dis identify from all the mental loops and habits I had while I was in my 16 month music creation spree. I can step back and look at my songs objectively, what I did, why this sounded like that, why that sounded like that. I can step back and notice trends in my music production.

I simply was unable to notice any of this or step back very far while producing a lot of music.

I firmly believe its good to take a long vacation, to be able to step back and stop making music to refresh your perspective. From this state, you will be more receptive to musical inspiration. when you start making music a lot, you get into habits unknowingly. ever notice how someones songs start to sound all the same. its like that. they are starting to repeat what has worked, in a sense, and using this in multiple songs. the only thing is, there are millions of ways that work. this is why habits are so detrimental in many cases.

then, you must return to music on your first day not out of "it's been three months since I have made a song, I'm a failure", you must return because you get into that magical musical state where there is no thought. you sit down on your program for the first time in however long you took a break for, and several hours later, song.

however music is so subjective that even the above paragraph only touches upon the fundamental truth. music can be made from mind and heart(musical brain) alike, but when the mind starts getting you into habits and thought loops, your musical brain gets obscued.

therefore the true goal of a musicians is to drop all mental resistance, and thought loops, to be able to produce effortlessly, and therefore tap into the infinite creative possibility of the human musical brain

[moose3642]

Try listening to the likes of Beethoven or Debussy. Always increases my melodic cognition :)

[Philosophadam]

At 5/7/09 04:09 PM, Gorgorothx wrote: Awesome post here, I bookmarked it.
Another good tip for finding creativity: Collaborate with other musicians! Whether just free jamming in a band type setting, or doing online file swapping... the ideas of others can always inspire ideas in yourself (just as general listening of music can do)

Ah yes, collaboration is a great tip! I'm actually in the process of beginning a collaborative effort with another DJ here in Montreal. It's really fun to play off your ideas with someone else; often, they will take your music in directions you never would have thought of! Great idea, Gorgorothx.

At 5/7/09 04:14 PM, Erkie wrote: I had deja-vue.

Fantastic post though, great points; Get off the computer and go do something else.

The best thing I've read about people who get writer's block is, they're too afraid to just write whatever comes to their mind. They expect too much so nothing comes out.

Yes! It's like when we are trying to remember something that seems to be just as the tip of our tongue. The more we strain, the less it is likely to come. But when we drop it, let go of it, somehow it comes flooding into our mind. Writing and creating music can be like that too.

At 5/7/09 06:54 PM, EmperorCharlemagne wrote: Reading always helps me, and while listening to music is good, just make sure after listening to Stravinsky's The Firebird one does not write The Firebird 2.

Great point; we have to continually break with our influences to avoid recreating them (in inferior imitations!). I like to see my influences as springboards that I can appreciate, but leap off of as I try to create my own works.

At 5/8/09 08:39 AM, Bjra wrote: I firmly believe its good to take a long vacation, to be able to step back and stop making music to refresh your perspective. From this state, you will be more receptive to musical inspiration. when you start making music a lot, you get into habits unknowingly. ever notice how someones songs start to sound all the same. its like that. they are starting to repeat what has worked, in a sense, and using this in multiple songs. the only thing is, there are millions of ways that work. this is why habits are so detrimental in many cases.

Amazing advice, Bjra. I'm presently trying to break out of some of these loops myself. After just taking a break, I'm returning to music in the form of a collaboration. I hope that the dialectic process of collaborative writing will break me out of some of my musical ruts and open up some new horizons of possibility.

[Bad-Man-Incorporated]

Good God I've been blocked lately. I'm gonna put some pressure on this list, for sure. Thanks for the hope.

[Thomas]

One interesting thing that might help people explore a bit more is this:
Neil Peart, the famed drummer of Rush, developed his drum style from swing and jazz styles of music. Although he plays for a rock band, his style comes from something completely different.

This fact relates to the first tip provided - try listening to other genres of music, it can really create something great.

P

[Erkie]

... Rush?

[Thomas]

At 5/11/09 02:21 AM, Erkie wrote: ... Rush?

Rush. As in Tom Sawyer, if that helps.

Also Neil Peart drum solo.

[Erkie]

Oh, I know who they are.

[Pure-Metal-UTA]

I'm in a state of writer's block right now, but then again I just finished making a song a few days ago, so I can't expect much more to come out. I'm also very hooked on the song I made.
I really want to get out of the block and make more music, but the last time I tried making a song while blocked just came out horrible, it takes serious inspiration for me. It may also be the fact that it's really late and I can't screw around with anything.
I bookmarked the list, but I don't know when I'm going to get the time to try any of those things, my schedule seems so busy. That may be a reason why I'm in writer's block too. What I'm getting at is, if you're busy, don't try to write music, it'll get you nowhere. Wait until you have an open schedule to write your music or find inspiration.
When I do get the time to get my creative juices flowing, I screw around with scales on my piano, then I play with the chords both major and minor, and usually that's when an idea immediately pops into my head. I love it when that happens. That's usually when I'm making classical music. When I'm trying to make a metal song, I do the same thing, only on my guitar.

[Khuskan]

Getting paid helps.

...also drugs. My last song was mastered on ketamine and marijuana :)