Trouble with coming up with ideas in my own head.

I've been producing music for almost a year now and have made a decent amount of progress (I guess you could say). However, one problem I've had so far is coming up with Melodies, Chord progressions, and Drum Patterns. Basically, I can't seem to come up with ideas in my own mind and I don't think I'll be able to produce off of messing around with the keyboard for long. This is pretty frustrating since I'd like to unlock my own creativity. I'd appreciate some advice.
 
Well, according to the definition that most folks use for "producing" here at FP, which is really more like track composition, if you aren't creating drum beats, and you aren't writing chords, melodies, or baselines, you already know that you "aren't 'producing' much."

Some ideas:

1) If you're not already trying sample-based production, maybe delve into that a little. Pick out some samples, and see where they lead you. _Don't_ pull a Puffy and slap a simple drum groove on a wholesale tune rip-off; try to let the sample be a jump start for your own creativity.

2) Along those lines-- listen to a _lot_ of music, of many different genres (this should probably be number 1, not number 2). This will subliminally but strongly develop your musical vocabulary. Learn as much as you can about these different styles and their writing, performing, and production techniques.

3) Take some lessons! Need chords? Get a good piano teacher. Suck at drums? Take some drum lessons. Simple as that, really.

4) On the sample-based thing (#1 above)-- take baby steps. Try something like GarageBand, or find an old copy of Acid, and use the provided loops to get you started. Usually everything is already key and tempo matched, or easy to transpose.

5) Take some composition/song-writing lessons, or go to a workshop. If you can't find one in your area, look on-line or get some DVDs, etc.

6) Get together with other producers and composers in your area; trade ideas, collaborate.

7) Writing/Composing/Producing is like a muscle-- you have to exercise it or it will atrophy. Write or produce something everyday, even if you hate the finished product. Do it over and over, and you _will_ get better.

8) Try the "Scozzaro Method." Simple, brilliant composition tool if you have some basic music theory. Too much to type out right now though, so feel free to PM me if you want to know more.

Good Composing,

GJ
 
Rhythmgj: You know recommending people take music lessons is interpreted here as "stop asking questions, quit making music".
 
Hmm. Perhaps some people do, I suppose. It's not how I meant it, and it doesn't have to be "either/or," but the quickest way from point A to point B is a straight line. Everybody wants short cuts. I used to tell my son "short cuts are long cuts"...

GJ

PS-- You _did_ read #'s 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8, right???
 
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Sounds like you have a creative block problem. To be honest, the best thing you can do is just try some new things to kickstart the creative juices. I wrote an article on some tactics for how to overcome creative block if you want some inspiration for things to try.

Otherwise... good luck man. It happens to the best of us.
 
when you cant seem to come up with a melody or idea there's a few things that you can do. Get into tweaking efx and devices or experiment on your software that you use to make stuff. See how your equipment works and play with knobs sliders levels etc. Listen to polished producers. Listen to music you don't normally listen to (thats the biggest influence in my opinion). When I first started producing I only listened to rap and tried making beats like dre or swizz or timberland...needless to say it ultimately fails because thats their ideas and you just end up imitating them. But yah...EXPLORE YOUR EQUIPMENT and see what all the knobs buttons sliders do messing around with a single sound and out of nowhere melodies form.
 
My suggestion would be this....

Sit in front of a keyboard, play a bunch of chords until you find one that strikes you.

Then just keep building. What do you hear next? Is the chord progression moving up or down..

Songs can write themselves.

You are not at a creative block, you are at a challenge.

How you overcome this challenge is up to you only.

Hope that helped g!
---------

EyeAm.
The Masked Man.
EyeAm. The Masked Man. [Producer / Engineer] – Self Growth
 
I've been making music for decades and I don't think I have ever come up with an idea just in my head. The ideas I have a responses to things I hear. So I listen to the music and can hear what is missing, or randomly try something that works.

I don't think I have ever just had an idea of a melody or something specific out of the blue. For me music is too context sensitive for me to have ideas in of themselves. It's more a feeling that has to be there at the time, rather than schematic ideas. I might have an idea to try something but the music ideas come after trying it. Like trying a synth patch idea or thinking up a particular chord progression scheme.
 
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You've done this for 10 years and never came up with an idea in your head.... wtf

That's how I create my melody's and chords
 
I write my own music. What I mean is some people say "I was waking in the park and I came up with a melody"... I've never done that. Or if I have I have found that that melody was only interesting at that time and once I tried to turn it into something it had no relevance. I've only ever been creative while actually making music. I've never formed 'ideas'. My point is that being creative isn't necessarily about having ideas. It's about just doing stuff and letting it happen.
 
In other words, you can have the idea in an improvisational way-- composing while doing.

GJ
 
My main way of doing it is just messing with different sounds and synths and hitting different notes on a keyboard to see what sounds good. If you just mess around doing that for a while eventually something will pop into your head that sounds good. Keep at it bro!
 
I tend to get in creative slumps pretty often where I cant come up with anything and end up just blankly staring at my screen. Whenever this happens I think its best to take a step back from producing and do something else for a while. I like to listen to other music outside the genre Im producing, take a nap, or burn with some homies. Hope that helps. Best of luck man
 
My advice is to just chill. Once you are major chilled, go download a song you really like and put it into your DAW.

Next, cut it up into it's respective sections (intro, verse, chorus, verse, outro). This is called your arrangement. We are going to use this as our song structure.

Cool, now choose a key signature & a tempo. Let's use E Minor & 110 bpm. Go on google and search for the scale degrees in E min.

A natural minor scale works like this: i - iidim - III - iv - v (or V who gives a fuck) - VI - viidim

Now just find a chord progression that sounds good, we make a chord progression by moving these roman numerals around & generally making sure it's an 8 or 4 bar progression. Just use i - V - VI - iv. In E minor that is Emin - B - C - Amin. That's your chord progression. Use that for your chorus part in your arrangement.

Now, make a melody. Sing it, play it, whatever you want to do. Listen to how the melodies you like work. Listen to the repetition in the melody. Listen to the phrases. A phrase should be like a sentence. It's often cool to repeat the same phrase in the chorus. A good guide is to remain in the key of E min.

Now do this for every section of your song.


It's literally this simple and don't overcomplicate it if you can't even finish a song regularly. Don't work on getting things perfect. Just write a lot and often. as you progress on your journey you can implement more complicated modal structures and arrangements. But begin your journey by writing simple songs that you think are good and eventually you can do the nerdy shit.
 
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Im in the same boat,........for me when im running out of ideas, i try producing my music backwards....meaning instead of chord first, melody , then drums, I do the opposite........but, that's just me...
 
You'd be surprised where you'd find possible inspiration if you fuck with shit enough. . .. You ever hear that Cash Money song HoodRich? The melody is the Gilligans Island tv show theme song slowed down 50%
 
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