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TIP alert::: Getting Past Writers Block! Excellent Idea
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| Airyck Sterrett |
So plenty of us get stuck with not being able to write tracks. We'll make a loop and play with it tweak it and never go anywhere with it. I ran into an Idea while browsing around that a guy used for Jazz when he had problems with writers block, it works fine for any kind of music.
Now this is simplest if you are using something like Ableton Live, or something with the ability to load a song and find the beats, so that you can line it up in your sequencer.
Find a track or song that is somewhat similar to what you want to make, or it can be completely different it doesn't matter. Load the track in your sequencer and line it up.
Then find a nice melody section or nice rhythm section and loop a few bars of it. Then what you do is start writing a new part to that melody or rhythm in key, tempo, and rhythm as if it were your own song and you are just adding a new part. Maybe write a pad to go along with the lead, or a dualing melody whatever.
When you get something you like you can eq the bottom end off the song that you are using and start writing some drums and a bassline maybe.
If you have problems with the layout, just mimick the layout of the song you are using. Just lay out the song by putting your drums where ever there are drums in the track, leaving spaces where the break downs are. Then you eventually get rid of the original track you were using and start writing off what you wrote.
Since you didn't copy the melodies or basslines you just added to it, it wont sound like a copy of the original track, so don't feel like you are copying or stealing someone elses music. You are just borrowing it to give you some ideas. It works great. Even John Lennon from the Beatles would do this for songs.
| quote: | | In radio interviews, some of which have not been heard for decades, Lennon admits: 'Especially in the early years I would often write a melody, a lyric in my head to some other song because I can't write music. So I would carry it around as somebody else's song and then change it when I got down to putting it on paper or tape - consciously change because I knew somebody's going to sue me or everybody's going to say "what a rip-off".' |
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news...1164013,00.html
and someone made a good point in the Ableton Live forums, that most people consider the Beatles to be excellent song writers.
So anyway this helped me alot, so I thought I would share it with you, bash it if you want, or use it and find out it works great.
~Airyck~ |
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| gr8ape |
| I dont do exactly that but i use other songs to try out new stuff, like copying sound and effects to give me new ideas |
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| sm44 |
| You can do the opposite of that to. Someone told me that the guy from NIN writes down everything everyone else does in their music and tries to make a song without any of it. Eg. snare on 2nd and 4th, and just tries to fill in the gaps using different techniques. However you have to be alot more creative this way, and it would be alot harder. |
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| Jinyun |
| thankyou for sharing, its a really good idea :) |
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| emc^2 |
I also hear this technique works: when you have a writer's block, you realize how trully suck you are, sell all your gear - buy an expensive car with all the money you got for your gear and get some pu55y, coz' that's the real reason you're in it, ain'it? :tongue3
BTW, the car part is optional - you can just go for the pu55y for hire, now that you are flush with cash.
Oh, before you start flaming -lighten up. I'm only kidding, as I am currently undergoing - one of the most major writer's blocks ever. I hate myself for being born 10 - 15 years too soon. I should have been born in mid eighties. I would have been rockin' now! All the computers, all the "free" (ahem) software - who needs hardware anymore? I could have used all of my ADD energy not on videogames but on music. Oh well....
thanks for letting me vent.
P.s. good ideas. btw, computer music magazine had similar ideas - use Ableton or ReCycle to chop up your loops, play them backwards, etc - to use them for your track ideas and continuation.
I'd also like to add:
set a deadline and finish the tack, no matter what. This way you'll get the reward of knowing the track is done. Even if it is not perfect. Lingering on a single track could drive you to insanity and you'll never finish anything. And let's be honest - IT WILL NEVER BE PERFECT. SO ACCEPT THOSE IMPERFECTIONS... MUSIC IS ART... NOT AN EXACT SCIENCE.
Cheers mateys!
:cool: |
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| messytechie |
| quote: | Originally posted by emc^2
IT WILL NEVER BE PERFECT. SO ACCEPT THOSE IMPERFECTIONS...
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I personally think that is terrible, terrible advice. |
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| DigiNut |
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| Biatchzxz |
| quote: | Originally posted by messytechie
I personally think that is terrible, terrible advice. |
ITs not that bad of an idea. Out of everything he said. i found that to be the best advice. I personally am a perfectionast. I love to have everything perfect, but what he is saying is that sometimes you just have to accept the fact that you are done and nothing else to do. It can be perfect in many ways and in many other peoples eyes as well. Let your friends listen to it and tell you what they think and what they think you should try to add in as well. Thats what really helps me the most. is playing the track for other people even unfinished just to see the reaction it gets. Also i keep like 3 or for tracks in a playlist in winamp and switch back to the songs every once and again to get more ideas and mimic some of the stuff with my own little love to it. Anyway i think this is a great thread and IT KILLS ME WHEN I CANT FINISH A TRACK. i start and go to the breakdown and then BLANK.. It sucks.. So i just left it blank and just put the drop in anyway with all the rest of the percussion and then went back to it another time... Hope i wont get smashed for this thread, but i dont care... |
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| skycrush |
| www.atomictraveller.com has a couple of free random song generator things which are sometimes cool for background listening and bits of inspiration when I've got no new ideas.. not sure about the electronic vocals though, I usually keep them muted |
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| groundzero74 |
emc^2 ,
Same here dude - i spend little less than 18.000€ on synths, monitors, mixers, cables in the past 10 years i've been "producing" ... But there was just no other way to get a decent sound back then ...
now i only use VSTi's and recently the my Ti (bought hardware again - old habits die hard)
Now it seems like a waste of money ... wish i was born 10 years later ... because my productions actually improved, not having to bother with all the external equipment and being able to concentrate on one interface... |
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