One of the best things to do to get unstuck...

  • Thread starter Thread starter nate_dennis
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nate_dennis

nate_dennis

Well-known member
Are you stuck and feel like you aren't writing as much or as well as you want to? Here's an idea . . .

Play an istrument that's not your primary. I'm a pretty poor pianist/key player, but i was helping my sister with some songs for her husband and I set up a synth and just started working with it . . . and you know what? I think I wrote one of the better hooks of my life with it. When you push yourself into uncharted/unfamiliar territory, you learn and experiment and get new/cool results. Sometimes you fail, but that's cool too. Just try it. What's the worst that happens? You write a song that's not great?
 
I totally agree here. It's fun to dip into other genres for inspiration as well.
 
nate_dennis said:
... What's the worst that happens? You write a song that's not great?
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Obviously you've never heard of spontaneous human combustion. :mad:

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Completely agreed. Actually I used to do much the same, switch over to keys to get my mind thinking outside of a "strumming chords on the guitar" writing mindset. But now I'm just as good, if not better, on a piano than I am with a guitar (which isn't saying much but hey)

Even doing something as simple as switching something around in your workflow can work some magic into your songwriting. If you usually come up with the guitar riff first, try working on a funky drumbeat with no guitar riff in mind and then write around the drumtrack. Try writing a song with just a bass guitar. Change to an open tuning on your guitar.

Music is fun :D
 
FunkDaddy said:
Completely agreed. Actually I used to do much the same, switch over to keys to get my mind thinking outside of a "strumming chords on the guitar" writing mindset. But now I'm just as good, if not better, on a piano than I am with a guitar (which isn't saying much but hey)

Even doing something as simple as switching something around in your workflow can work some magic into your songwriting. If you usually come up with the guitar riff first, try working on a funky drumbeat with no guitar riff in mind and then write around the drumtrack. Try writing a song with just a bass guitar. Change to an open tuning on your guitar.

Music is fun :D
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Yeah, that's the point. Music is fun. Just relax. Forcing yourself to work in a way you dont normally can breathe new life into your music.
 
I think that if you get stuck, you're trying too hard. I really doubt anyone here is on a deadline. If good stuff that you're happy with doesn't just fall out of your head, step away and re-charge. Don't force it. It'll happen.
 
I think grabbing a different instrument is a good idea. I'm primarily a guitarist, if I'm sitting around 'writing' with a guitar, I tend to gravitate towards the same old chord progressions. Kinda stuck in a rut a lot of times. Stick me in front of a keyboard and I don't have those familiar habits to go to.
 
Almost all the stuff I've written that I think is my best was not written at a musical instrument. I sing songs in my head when I'm working around my house, working on my car, working in the yard...

I'll sing something and then the next day keep singing it and after awhile it evolves. Most people are of the "quick! record it before you forget it!" but I am of the mind that if you can forget it, it was probably no good anyways.

I have some songs I've been singing in my head for several years (even decades) that I've never played at a musical instrument.

Usually when I do end up recording the song I know pretty much exactly how it goes - it's like a song I've heard on the radio for a long time, it doesn't even really feel like it's mine.

When I write at a musical instrument, there's a thing called "muscular memory" where my fingers tend to go into the same ol' chord progressions and predictable patterns that I've done forever and that's crap.
 
dintymoore said:
Most people are of the "quick! record it before you forget it!" but I am of the mind that if you can forget it, it was probably no good anyways.
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Not for me, not at all!! I can think of tons of times where I have a great idea in my head, but I'm nowhere near my house, so I can't run in my basement quick and put down a scratch track.. I've had many dozens of workable ideas in my head that are gone. If I'm home, I can get what I need in 5-10 minutes and it's there forever.

I've tried writing the chords/notes, but then I read it later and don't understand - the rhythm is off, it just doesn't click. I've tried little handheld voice recorders, and it's too fuzzy to make out later. Pisses me off, I WISH I could have all those back.... I've been looking for a good solution to that problem for years..
 
If you learn how to transcribe music you can see it written out in your head then you can't forget it. It's really a matter of really knowing exactly what you are hearing. With practice you can hear the keys because everyone was born with perfect pitch, it just was never turned on.

I have a friend who is a very successful, famous (in Hawaii) musician and he can't believe that I do this and he forgets things like you do, so it probably is an individual thing. When I told him that I can remember songs in my head (I have one I've been singing since 1977 that I've never recorded) he said "you know that that isn't normal".

Fuck normal! :)
 
suprstar said:
Not for me, not at all!! I can think of tons of times where I have a great idea in my head, but I'm nowhere near my house, so I can't run in my basement quick and put down a scratch track.. I've had many dozens of workable ideas in my head that are gone. If I'm home, I can get what I need in 5-10 minutes and it's there forever.

I've tried writing the chords/notes, but then I read it later and don't understand - the rhythm is off, it just doesn't click. I've tried little handheld voice recorders, and it's too fuzzy to make out later. Pisses me off, I WISH I could have all those back.... I've been looking for a good solution to that problem for years..
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Leave yourself a voice message and sing it into the phone. Or some phones have quick and dirty recording capabilities. I'm singing into my phone all the time.
 
Greg_L said:
Leave yourself a voice message and sing it into the phone. Or some phones have quick and dirty recording capabilities. I'm singing into my phone all the time.
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It's true. He calls me and sings tender love songs all the time.
 
Quit yo jibba jabba !

My problem is the opposite. I can't stop writing. I keep saying, right, I'm not writing anything else until I've got these 200 or whatever songs recorded and mixed. But they just tumble out. Silly little ditties as I call them. Sometimes I find certain melodic lines have a familiar ring but I write in so many different ways. Trafic warden threatens to give me a ticket ? There's a song. Kid I used to work with wanted for murder ? Whoops, there's another one. Amorous images of my wife ? It's got to come out. Hailstones whacking on a bald head ? I'll find a way......Interestingly, of late I've written very little on an instrument. Like Dinty, I write alot in my head, as I'm driving about or in the shower or playing with the kids or watching telly. Unlike Dinty, I always have a dictaphone close to hand or get to the phone and leave ideas on the answering machine because I'll forget them if I don't. The other day, I was delivering paper and I had a great melody in my head. My dictaphone was in my van so I kept humming the piece to myself so I'd have it lodged in my brain. Then I spoke to someone for 2 minutes and Ka~pow ! Gone ! And as far as I'm concerned, it was a good piece. So I don't agree that
dintymoore said:
but I am of the mind that if you can forget it, it was probably no good anyways.
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.
I think that songwriting isn't difficult. And it sounds "cool" to someone to say 'I've written all these songs'. But it doesn't mean much, not really. It's whether the songs are any good and whether or not the actual recording/performance/mix is something that bears repeated listening. I'm working on that bit ! If I dig a song, I couldn't care less who wrote it





other than the fact that I'm interested in these things as a secondary issue.
 
dintymoore said:
If you learn how to transcribe music you can see it written out in your head then you can't forget it. It's really a matter of really knowing exactly what you are hearing. With practice you can hear the keys because everyone was born with perfect pitch, it just was never turned on.
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I'm horrible at transcribing music and need to get better. Any tips? Also, do you have any ideas on how to "turn on" perfect pitch?

grimtraveller said:
My problem is the opposite. I can't stop writing. I keep saying, right, I'm not writing anything else until I've got these 200 or whatever songs recorded and mixed. But they just tumble out.
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Must be tough!!! ;)
 
nate_dennis said:
Must be tough!!!
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It's frustrating. As a working man with a couple of young kids, time is the thing. What I find is that when I go through a sustained burst of writing and recording, I can't bear to think music for a while. But these songs just appear within me, I can't leave them alone. I hope this doesn't sound odious, but it's like farting for me. They just have to come out. It's a good thing that it's fun !
 
grimtraveller said:
It's frustrating. As a working man with a couple of young kids, time is the thing. What I find is that when I go through a sustained burst of writing and recording, I can't bear to think music for a while. But these songs just appear within me, I can't leave them alone. I hope this doesn't sound odious, but it's like farting for me. They just have to come out. It's a good thing that it's fun !
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You're right farting IS fun! :laughings:
 
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