Writer’s block certainly sucks, but it’s something that happens to everyone and it will, or has happened, to you as well. The important is to be prepared and know what to do when the time comes…
4 THOUGHTS FROM ME
1. Go study Sound Design or mix and master a song. Writer’s Block means that you’re unable to compose a melody that you love, but it doesn’t mean your mixing skills or your sound design skills are in a rut as well. Pick an old song and go mix it, or just mess around with the arrangement; Go to our channel on Youtube and find some sound design tutorials to develop your skills; Organize your sample library. Inability to create does not mean you can’t work on other stuff as well;
2. Hustle through the pain! It hurts to create something that you hate, but sometimes you gotta keep pushing and don’t let the ‘creativity dragon’ defeat you. If it sucks today, try another melody the next one. Don’t force too much as well, or you can burn out, but try something every day until you’re out of your rut. If you’ve already given your try for the day, sound design, as said above, can often spark your creativity (and you can start with this tutorial from Tinlicker Hide U Lead, so go do something else. The important part is that you’re trying to push it every day and, when you least expect it, it will come back to you;
3. Pick a preset pack you love, and make a 4 bar loop for each preset there. One of the best exercises that I give to my students is picking a preset pack, hopefully with more than 100 presets, and trying to create a loop for each of them. Different sounds will require you to create different rhythms, moods, ideas, and this big quantity of sounds could spark your creativity back. Not only this, but it will enhance your ‘midi loop library’, so when creative ruts spark again, you have tons of ideas to start from;
4. To avoid this in the long term, try to compose ONE new melody per week, every week. Writer’s block hits us because we stay so long producing a song (song development skill) and then we magically want our ‘composition skill’ to be sharp as well. It is like going to the gym every day, but being mad that you can’t run a marathon… they require different skills. Therefore, practice your composition skill every week. You only need to create one melody per week and move to the next one… That is, as soon as you create that melody and you say ‘YES’, move to the next. Remember your goal with this practice? So don’t develop it!
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
Now, it’s your turn! Even if you’re not in a rut, how can you further expand your ‘composition skill’?
1. Instead of creating new melodies, start with a midi loop and tweak the midi until something you like;
2. Watch some walkthrough tutorials. When watching Disclosure’s walkthrough of ‘Latch’, they instantly inspired me to create a song;
3. Try to start your track in a different way. Always start with the Break? Start with the drop! Start with only percussions! Or maybe just reach out to a friend and try to start a collab.
