When stuck in a creative rut or in need of new ideas...

Hi Everybody, hope you're all well.

With this post I wanted get people's feedback on what you do when either stuck in a creative rut or when your music is in need of some new sounds or a new approach.

As a bedroom producer I have on occasion found myself a little stuck for ideas or I find I can get too settled into a music making routine. This was the primary reason that over the last few months I have created a music platform called SoundShoots, which seeks to provide fresh inspiration to producers in a very simple way; by setting a new 'theme' every two weeks and challenging the SoundShoots community to respond to the theme however they like and with no creative constraints. For example the current theme is 'The Beach', which you can check out here.

By no means is SoundShoots a magic solution for all creative ruts, but I hope you find it an interesting approach for when either stuck for ideas or for when you want to venture out of your normal track making themes.

So I'm looking for feedback on what you do/what you have done in the past when looking for fresh ideas and to also hopefully drum up some SoundShoots interest too-having spent ages getting the thing built & tweaked I'm now looking to build up the community organically and thought this could be a good place to start!

Let me know your thoughts on both things...
Oliver
 
interesting concept...I'll definitely check it out.

when I hit a wall I normally handle admin issues (copyrights, finding new samples, cleaning up songs/tracks, etc..). If that doesn't help I'll think of an artist and create a song for them...in the same vein of your SoundShoots concept...
 
interesting concept...I'll definitely check it out.

when I hit a wall I normally handle admin issues (copyrights, finding new samples, cleaning up songs/tracks, etc..). If that doesn't help I'll think of an artist and create a song for them...in the same vein of your SoundShoots concept...

Thanks for giving your thoughts on this, I wasn't expecting to hear handling admin as a way of getting over creative barriers! I guess if the concious thoughts of our brain are distracted by something menial then the subconscious is free to think without force or pressure. I sometimes have the same kind of thing happening after a good deep sleep, during the sleep the subconscious is free to think and then I wake up full of ideas.

It would be sweet if you were to able check out SoundShoots soon, keen to get any feedback on it.
 
I keep a folder of rainy day ideas where I sharpen my production/arranging/orchestration skills - these may be ideas that just didn't run well, were abandoned due to outside pressures or might just be a few notes that need some serious attention to turn into something special.

At an early point in my career, I set myself a project to create a ten track album, with a track each for 10 singing students at my college. It worked me hard and worked out as a project. So, instead of the writing for a known artist approach, I took the path of creating something for someone who might end up known one day.....
 
I keep a folder of rainy day ideas where I sharpen my production/arranging/orchestration skills - these may be ideas that just didn't run well, were abandoned due to outside pressures or might just be a few notes that need some serious attention to turn into something special.

At an early point in my career, I set myself a project to create a ten track album, with a track each for 10 singing students at my college. It worked me hard and worked out as a project. So, instead of the writing for a known artist approach, I took the path of creating something for someone who might end up known one day.....

I love the description of a "Rainy day ideas" folder, that's very emotive. I agree that good motivation can come from setting yourself projects and working with people that have different experiences and musical approaches, no matter if they are established or not. for example I've gained some interesting musical insights from a couple of 8 year olds that live next door to me! Energy and rhythm, energy and rhythm...

Chuffed to get a response from you bandcoach, I've followed a lot of your posts on this forum!
 
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