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-- Writer's Block Hugs a Nut
Writer's Block Hugs a Nut
This sucks. Not being able to think of crap and frustrating the living hell out of myself. AAARRRGGGHHH!
take a break?
but i know what you mean. definately sucks.
I've had one for 6 months. Lovely.
Man, the only time my mind creates nice songs is when I'm busy at work...when I don't have time to pull out my notepad and start writing. I get to my apartment and my mind is empty. And sometimes I'm having a dream and a beautiful song is playing in the background...I wake up and don't remember it. That frustrates me because the songs are usually otherworldly. 
i know the feeling
I usually will do 16 summersaults and a handstand for no less than 24 seconds.
then I drink 3 molsen canadians and drive to a bar where I wil drink another 4 beers and converse with people.
After approximately 4 total hours at the bar I drive home and fall asleep. after waking and drinking water I continue on my creative project, this time with no blockag3.
if blockag3 does occur, repeat previous steps.
haha boomer
I've been all blocked up for a long time...but I think that a remedy would have to be to download a DJ set of your favorite producer or dj and really listen to it. Its a start at least.
I've been away from my gear for 2 months now.... I was actually thinking if I made a track, I'd call it "Two months off" but that seems to be taken by Underworld 
. Don't sweat it - we are all prone to it. Even the guy from Prodigy (Liam Howlett) said that he was blocked up for more than 2 years! Imagine being a top recording artist and not being able to come up with worthy stuff. Sometimes you get to the point where you begin to scrutinize yourself - and hence enter a so-called "downward spiral" (oops... another name taken by a certain Trent Reznor's production) 
.
Don't sweat it... It's like surfing - sometimes waves are shit, sometimes they are too much and sometimes you catch the perfect wave. Since music is a wave, you just have to wait for your right peak. Is that a good analogy?
Main thing - keep having fun, don't stress it. It too, shall pass
So when one hears a tune in their head that they really wanna remember, what should they write down to remember it? Are you guys walking around with notebooks full of hand-drawn sheet music? What would you do to remember the details of the waveform you thought of? Are you all so familiar with the terms and things that you can write down the specs of whatever sound you think of in yer head so that you can produce it later?
I also think of things but forget them when its time to get on the computer and am not nearly skilled enough to be able to preserve those memories by writing things down and am looking for info on the systems you all use to remember yer ideas for tunes. I have this portable mp3 player that has voice recording and sometimes I'll record myself "acting out" the tune with it. Also I'll write down little notes about ideas for what the song might be about, and try to describe what it sounds like in my head, but I find that if I forget the thing then come back to the notes later I have no idea what nonsense I was on about when I wrote it.
I find that I can think of tunes whenever I get in a certain mood, unfortunately I rarely ever get in that mood when I'm in front of my screen trying to click on things to make a good sound come out. I find its kinda a "dance when nobody is watching" mentality, that I can come up with some great stuff when im alone but when its time to key it in nothing works.
When I am trying to get myself to think of a tune there is usualy some subtle background noise that sparks my imagination into some odd tangent, then I can build on that one idea until I have an awesome tune that I have no way of preserving . I also find inspiration sometimes when I do things that aren't normally routine for me, it seems to spark my creative thoughts when something unusual happens. Being in quite places helps alot, as does looking at pictures or reading about something, there are alot of things that can act as a seed idea for making a tune, you just have to be insane enough to have your thoughts tangent off in interesting directions.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Zombie0915 So when one hears a tune in their head that they really wanna remember, what should they write down to remember it? Are you guys walking around with notebooks full of hand-drawn sheet music? What would you do to remember the details of the waveform you thought of? Are you all so familiar with the terms and things that you can write down the specs of whatever sound you think of in yer head so that you can produce it later? |
Funny thing is I think we all have these master producers in our heads that are trying to tell us what to do...but we don;t have the skills yet to process the information....thats why we hear serious tracks in our heads. Weird but true. Learn the skills and the tracks will come.
i used to draw a stave roughly on a scrap of paper and pencil some of the basic notes of a tune but i dont do that anymore. most of the tunes i ended up writing with those melodies are on the backburner and all of them i have no desire to continue.
i try not to think about getting a block too much. if i do get song writers block i spend a few weeks just doing synth tests, creating new instruments and generally brushing up my production (not focusing on writing whole songs). the funny thing is every time i think im making progress i figure out something that im not doing right and its like someone set the finish line another 10 meters back.
most of the compositions ive got that im most happy with are the ones that ive come up with pretty much spontaneously or as a reaction to a feeling or something i saw or heard.
i tend to analogise writing music to water colour painting. if you ever do water colours you'll know you have to work quickly and once you've laid out some colour you dont want to keep painting over it. if you overwork a watercolour it becomes muddy and flat. you may even ruin the surface of the paper by constantly going over the same area. good watercolours have vibrant colours and washes that are done quickly and confidently (though to get this confident takes many many failed watercolours and lots of time and patience).
same thing if you write a riff and keep changing some of the notes around, fiddling with EQ settings, fiddling with backing tracks, swapping effects around, the whole mix starts to sound a bit flat and tired and muddy. just like in watercolour i have overfiddled with too many of my compositions that it just loses that energy. those ones dont survive the two week test. i have over 60 unfinished pieces where i just lost momentum. instead of overworking those compositions i felt it was more productive to take a step back and try something different from scratch (often ill brush up on my breaks by doing a dnb tune or work on my ensembles by writing some orchestral pieces entirely using strings and pads). always from a completely new file and just build up everything from the ground up again. also it helps to get out and club once in a while, or do something that makes you realise why you started listening to the music in the first place. thats always a good source of spontaneity and energy.
Take a break and listento other tracks for inspiration.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Zombie0915 So when one hears a tune in their head that they really wanna remember, what should they write down to remember it? Are you guys walking around with notebooks full of hand-drawn sheet music? What would you do to remember the details of the waveform you thought of? Are you all so familiar with the terms and things that you can write down the specs of whatever sound you think of in yer head so that you can produce it later? |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by CynepMeH I've been away from my gear for 2 months now.... I was actually thinking if I made a track, I'd call it "Two months off" but that seems to be taken by Underworld . Don't sweat it - we are all prone to it. Even the guy from Prodigy (Liam Howlett) said that he was blocked up for more than 2 years! Imagine being a top recording artist and not being able to come up with worthy stuff. Sometimes you get to the point where you begin to scrutinize yourself - and hence enter a so-called "downward spiral" (oops... another name taken by a certain Trent Reznor's production) . Don't sweat it... It's like surfing - sometimes waves are shit, sometimes they are too much and sometimes you catch the perfect wave. Since music is a wave, you just have to wait for your right peak. Is that a good analogy? Main thing - keep having fun, don't stress it. It too, shall pass |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Timothy Take a break and listento other tracks for inspiration. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by DjDefected I saw somewhere, I think in eq magazine, that there is now a sequencer for a pocket PC. That'd be much better than writing your ideas down or recording yourself 're-enacting' your idea, if you will. Here's a link I found on Yahoo really quickly, http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/May...es/pocketpc.asp |
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