Creative Block, Frustrated.

Brightboy

Brightboy

Bright Boy
I'm having a creative block, it's been going on for a year now. Whenever I try to start a new project I can never come up with anything and I when I do I end up deleting it and starting over. Nothing sounds good to me anymore, this has been going on ever since I have been getting opportunities for placements. Any suggestions or advice from personal experiences would help out a lot. Thanks.
 
Sounds like you need to engage in some discipline and some study.

Discipline is the act of sticking to a process or program of work, regardless of the immediate outcomes. When we learn to do anything it is this aspect more than anything else that determines how well we learn something. Some folks call it stick-at-it-ness, others call it grind, it all comes back to work ethic and consistent application.

If the immediate outcomes are poor use that as part of a self-correcting feedback loop (this is called homeostasis) - explore why the result is poor rather than just rejecting it.

This exploration can take many forms, but a good process to follow is to dissect each part and make minor corrections to one part and observe the results.

Because you are dealing with project files, make sure that you save each new correction with its own unique filename within the project sequence, something along the line of project-name-date-vsn-999

If you are stuck for inspiration start by simply picking a chord progression and then explore the use of just chord tones to create a melody (many composers have used this approach and Aaron Schoenberg recommends it as a first step in creating melody). Remember that rhythmic similarity and variety are both part of making a good melody.

Once you have created your melody using the above process, explore options where you decorate the melody or otherwise transform it. Simple ideas such as playing the note, playing the note above (or below) then playing the note again are common in creating this expanded melodic idea - see 14 tricks to improve your melodies for more ideas.

Creating a melodic line and then repeating it a step below (or above) either in the same scale or as an exact copy is another device that can be used to expand your melodic ideas. Your harmonic progression may shift by the same interval (up or down a step) or by a 4th/5th - the choice provides new depth to your compositional field and provides contrast and interest whilst at the same time the melodic transformation maintains cohesiveness and similarity/familiarity.

Explore ideas such as different scales and maybe even different modes of those scales - they bring new harmonic possibilities as well as new melodic opportunities.

Above all, be prepared to experiment, investigate your failures to understand how to avoid them in the future and document your successes as you progress.
 
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Appreciate the advice bandcoach, I think that this will definitely help me out a lot and You're right about being disciplined as well, I just need to stick with it and not give up so fast. Thanks.
 
Take your time and see it through. Look at Dr. Dre. He makes like one track a year and look at his success. I read somewhere that he never deletes anything. He just remakes it. For example. If you make a beat and the drums dont sound right but you like the bass. Just redo the drums. just keep changing what you don't like and keep what you do. Eventually you will have a great track that will inspire you to make another one.
 
Marination and seasoning...

That's how i build my best pieces.

Think of your music as a piece of steak. When you pull a steak out of the freezer, what you essentially have is a frozen piece of a dead cows a$$. It's a blank slate, if you will. It could end up becoming anything from a filet mignon with the bacon wrapped around it (like you might see at a fancy restaurant) or it could become the musical equivalent of a Mcdouble.

The difference is in the preparation and the process.

Now this next part of the analogy is where my infinite wisdom will ultimately shine through:

If you take that steak, throw it in the microwave to defrost it, pummel it with a meat tenderizing mallet, throw it on a grill set on "High", flip the steak 6 or 7 times while it cooks, throw it on a plate and immediately cut into and take a bite... What you will taste is cooked cows a$$.

On the other hand, if you let the steak thaw in the fridge for a day, then sprinkle it with a pinch of salt and pepper, let it marinate in a mixture of lemon juice, olive oil and worcestershire sauce for another 48 hours, place it on a grill set at medium low, only flip it once during cooking and let it sit for at least 5 minutes so the juices can redistribute before you eat it... What you have my friend, is a delicious steak.

See, you thought that you were learning how to cook a steak. Much like Daniel-san thought he was waxing cars and painting fences but what i've actually done, in a long winded and round about way, taught you that if you slow down and take your time. If you gradually add to your tracks over a longer period and if you let the track marinate (just sit for days or even weeks) before you come back to it, and season your track (make a few minor adjustments at a time/ here and there, you will have a much more satisfying end result.

It's not a race. You don't have to make music every second of every day. You don't have to finish a set amount of track in a set amount of time. You don't have to finish every track. Just make the time count and try to enjoy it.
 
im a big fan of brian eno's Oblique Strategies when it comes to getting stuck working on a track, try checking that out
 
Do they still sell those Oblique Strategies cards? Where?

Here is a song-starting method that I used to teach when I was doing song-writer's workshops. I did not create it; it was invented by a musician named Tony Scozzaro, and I call it (interestingly enough) the Scozzaro Method. It can be used to create melodies, bass-lines, or chord sequences, and is a great way of integrating language/text with actual musical sounds.

OK, take a piece of paper and make a simple chart. Start by writing the "musical alphabet" (A->G): A B C D E F G. Underneath those letters, continue with the rest of the English alphabet, so your chart would look something like this:

A B C D E F G
H I J K L M N
O P Q R S T U
V W X Y Z

Formatting is a bit off there, but you get the idea, everything lined-up with three lines of seven letters, and a last line of five.

Next, take any word, name, phrase, or sentence (in English, or at least using the same script), and code it into music using the chart. For example, try turning a specific phrase like "FP Rocks" into useable letters of the Musical Alphabet. The only letters in the musical alphabet in the phrase "FP Rocks" would be "F" and "C," so they would stay the same. The rest would change into the letters at the top of their respective column, so that we get these musical note-names from our chosen phrase-- F B D A C D E. You can leave the notes like that, or "reduce" by removing redundancies (for example, the D appears twice in coded musical text, so if you take one out, you are left with F B D A C E). Those musical alphabet coded letters can be left as is, some or all can be changed into accidentals (sharps or flats), they can be used as a scale, a melody or the beginning of one, a bass-line or the beginning of one, or a chord sequence. From there (hopefully by now you see the potential and your writer's block is broken), you begin to create the rest of the pieces that you need to create a song and make an arrangement. It's a cool way to work that adds "randomness" to your writing process, without being truly random.

Try it, it's fun, and even the greats (Bach, Brahms, etc.) coded their own names into music in one way or another. This is a method that anybody can use.

GJ
 
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Wow, it has gone from Beat Blocked, to Producers Blocked now to Creative Blocked haha --

But I suggest just trying to produce something out of nowhere, don't try to get it by a specific style.

http://www.dfunkdafiedbeats.com
 
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