Discouraged From Recording

[squibble94]

Sigh. Lately I've had a nasty case of writers block and discouragement. I feel like no matter how hard I try, I can't get the sounds I want. The thought of this makes me want to throw my guitars out the window and start over. Is there any cure to getting over this feeling? I've tried writing stuff but I can't find my sound yet. I play a lot of different genres and I'm not sure what suits me best for original stuff. I sound a bit whiny, but I need some advice. Anyone want to collab?

I understand the whole "garbage in, garbage out" thing. I haven't found the right garbage yet.

 

[JimmyS1969]

Find out your girl is cheating on you with your father. That might inspire some emotion.

Try listening to some other kinds of music other than your typical. See if you can pull some inspiration from there.

 

[squibble94]

Find out your girl is cheating on you with your father. That might inspire some emotion.

Try listening to some other kinds of music other than your typical. See if you can pull some inspiration from there.

Hahaha that would definitely inspire me to break my dad's nose. xD

That's not a bad idea though. Thanks!

 

[grimtraveller]

I want to say something super encouraging to the man that came up with the exceptional "Making plans for Nigel". But I don't think these are things that someone else can deal with. I do believe however, that it will pass, because you want to write and record.
I know it's not the same thing, but I can remember a few times down the years when I've thought that I'd shot my load as a bass player and as a guitarist. As I've commented before, I may not be the shittiest guitarist the world has known ~ but I'm one of them ! And as a bassist, I used to be a free flowing improvisational player. In both cases, I noticed that regularity of playing seemed to be killing my creativity. With the guitar, I'm somewhat limited anyway and because I was playing alot of songs not my own, I guess I got bored. It was probably the dictator in me ! With the bass, I had alot of freedom but for some inexplicable reason, I just hit a wall. I began to think I'd gone as far as I could. I never thought 'oh, I have to break through this wall'.
But on those occasions when it's happened, time passes and so does the blockage. And as I've gotten back to recording my own stuff, the parts start freely flowing. I can't explain it. However, I'm at the point now where if it happens again, I'm confident it'll pass.
Whether that helps is anyone's guess and nobody's guarantee. But I hope it does.

 

[mjbphotos]

How about a songwriters workshop? Just found one in my area with Robin Lane in 2 weeks - for $25!

 

[squibble94]

I want to say something super encouraging to the man that came up with the exceptional "Making plans for Nigel". But I don't think these are things that someone else can deal with. I do believe however, that it will pass, because you want to write and record.
I know it's not the same thing, but I can remember a few times down the years when I've thought that I'd shot my load as a bass player and as a guitarist. As I've commented before, I may not be the shittiest guitarist the world has known ~ but I'm one of them ! And as a bassist, I used to be a free flowing improvisational player. In both cases, I noticed that regularity of playing seemed to be killing my creativity. With the guitar, I'm somewhat limited anyway and because I was playing alot of songs not my own, I guess I got bored. It was probably the dictator in me ! With the bass, I had alot of freedom but for some inexplicable reason, I just hit a wall. I began to think I'd gone as far as I could. I never thought 'oh, I have to break through this wall'.
But on those occasions when it's happened, time passes and so does the blockage. And as I've gotten back to recording my own stuff, the parts start freely flowing. I can't explain it. However, I'm at the point now where if it happens again, I'm confident it'll pass.
Whether that helps is anyone's guess and nobody's guarantee. But I hope it does.

I was really hoping you would post here. I find your novella-length posts very motivating and uplifting. It's always a pleasure to read what you have to say. I have gone through periods of writers block and breaking through that "wall." The problem is that was years back and I've developed a lot since then. Therefore I don't really have a mature sound.

I sort of found a method that may help me overcome this. A big part of why I'm having trouble is that everything I write seems to sound like another song. I was thinking about just writing a song with complete feeling from my gut while disregarding if it is a song or not. This way I will have something to write, record, and mix. I figured it's still better than doing a cover. It may sound similar to something, but everything would still be original in a sense.

I guess I'll just keep pushing on and see how this goes. Thanks for the input!

 

[c7sus]

I would start with some drum grooves and just jam over those.

 

[squibble94]

How about a songwriters workshop? Just found one in my area with Robin Lane in 2 weeks - for $25!

That sounds cool, but quite frankly I don't care that much. I would rather write from pure inspiration. Plus, I don't believe there is anything around where I live that I can do. Thanks for the suggestion though.

I would start with some drum grooves and just jam over those.

I do that all the time and it's just not doing it for me now. Thanks for the suggestion. Maybe I need a different drum groove.

 

[miroslav]

It happens.

Last couple of months I'll go into my studio, review all the songs I have in the works at various stages, and I want to get going on them, and also start tracking on some new ones I have lined up...
...but at most, I just play some guitar and then that's it.
I just haven't been able to get my wheels turning, but it's not the first time. I just keep at it, and usually I find the spark again and get back into a groove.

For me it's always come in phases...lots of writing and recording...then dry spells, sometimes short and a couple of times I had dry spells that lasted for a year or two! I almost walked away from recording completely the last time I had a long dry spell (back in the late '90s)...but then I thought about it and came to the conclusion that I wouldn't have anything better to do with my time, and that music has been with me for so long, it would be silly to walk away from it.

Sometimes you just have to wait for it come back to you...but don't stop.

 

[squibble94]

It happens.

Last couple of months I'll go into my studio, review all the songs I have in the works at various stages, and I want to get going on them, and also start tracking on some new ones I have lined up...
...but at most, I just play some guitar and then that's it.
I just haven't been able to get my wheels turning, but it's not the first time. I just keep at it, and usually I find the spark again and get back into a groove.

For me it's always come in phases...lots of writing and recording...then dry spells, sometimes short and a couple of times I had dry spells that lasted for a year or two! I almost walked away from recording completely the last time I had a long dry spell (back in the late '90s)...but then I thought about it and came to the conclusion that I wouldn't have anything better to do with my time, and that music has been with me for so long, it would be silly to walk away from it.

Sometimes you just have to wait for it come back to you...but don't stop.

Yep. I'm thinking about starting a collab around here. That way I can still play and mix, but I don't have to worry about writing anything just yet. I also get inspiration from the people I'm playing with.

 

[grimtraveller]

A big part of why I'm having trouble is that everything I write seems to sound like another song. I was thinking about just writing a song with complete feeling from my gut while disregarding if it is a song or not.

When I used to work with kids, I used to do a music 'workshop' with them and the first year, I found undisciplined and boring, it was a bit too free for all. The second year, I took it over on my own and decided that we'd compose a piece and then record it. One of the kids I used to call Tallie McInally (her name was Natalie) so the piece was called "MacInallyland" and though I'd come up with most of it, they added some great bits which was no mean feat considering they were 9, 10 and 11 at the time. I always liked the piece but I was really new to recording and didn't do a good job of it. Anyway, fast forward 10 or so years and I decided to re~do it and a friend of mine that played violin on the remake said it reminded her of "Starsky and Hutch" ! I was rather miffed at that. I never liked that Tom Scott/LA Express sound and I don't think anything I've written sounds anything like that.
But she did !
I wouldn't be surprized if most people that write songs go through points where they worry that their songs sound like something already existing. Sometimes it takes someone else to point it out. But because someone sees something derivative in your song doesn't mean that it is or was consciously so. Sometimes, I'll deliberately take a bit from someone's song and make it a bassline and come up with a melody around it and change the form and possibly time signature so that it bears no relation to the bit I 'acquired'.
I think that writing from the gut without thinking of form and the like is a good way to go. It's my preferred method and makes for bizarre but satisfying pieces. Because this is a hobby and not my living, I'm not under any commercial constraint and I have no audience expectation to be aware of which is quite liberating.

 

[Chili]

Do a couple of covers. Join Greg's challenge and cover a song from someone here. Something to keep you engaged until a new song pops into your head. As for writing from inspiration, I say that's great when you're inspired, but you don't have to wait for that. Assign yourself a topic to write a song about and do it. A lot people claim they can write a song only when it 'comes' to them, but I think people should be able to write on demand. It takes practice, like learning to play to a click track, but it's an acquireable skill. There are songwriters who have to write for specific situations, like kids' shows or jingles for commercials. Yeah, it isn't quite the same thing, but it's on demand writing and people are doing it. If you try it, you might find you can produce one good song out of every few bad songs. Still, more than not writing at all.

Whatever you do, don't quit.

 

[Bristol Posse]

You could write a song about having writers block and how terrible it is.

I've only been at this singer songwriter thing for a couple of years and only ran into a dry spell once (so far). when it hit I thought "well I guess that's it, the well is dry" and was going to give up but in the end I got around it by coming up with a total throw away song (or at least even more throw away than my normal stuff). Stupid subject matter, cheesy rhymes and so on.
The simple act of writing rehearsing and recording that got me going again

 

[mcmetal]

I havn't written anything for at least two years.I've been busy with recording all my tunes i wrote a few years back.When i was looking to get an original band together i was writing stuff so i had material to work with.I just threw some beats together with my old drum machine but never set out to record any of it properly.The past few years i stepped up to the DAW world and wanted to do a better job on those tunes so i got some loops and went to work creating drum tracks,recording bass,and laying down my guitar tracks.

I'm looking forward to finishing up this project and moving forward with some new material.I havn't picked up my axe for awhile and i miss it.I'm spending my time just mixing what i've done but havn't progressed much guitar playing wise.I'm not much of a bass player but this project had me putting down some bass lines.I grew a little more musically on a different instrument and learned a lot more from the recording standpoint.For me getting a little creative on the bass was a challenge in it's own right and i had to think as a bass player and not a guitar player.

I still progressed as a musician,just not on my main instrument.

 

[kcearl]

get some mags, like future music, with free loops and see if they force you to try something different

they had one with mutated drum beats last month and it got me thinking of some ideas...

 

[Farno]

If you take a break for a while, you'll come back anxious as ever to get playing and recording again. I haven't played guitar for a week or 2 because of my wrist but I just started playing and recording again and I'm popping out songs left and right!

 

[Greg_L]

I say quit forever and give me whatever gear you have. I'll make use of it.

 

[Alicetc]

These writers blocks... I've had one that lasted more than 10 years. As an adolescent, I started to write my melodies, lyrics and chords in the guitar, until my best friend told me my songs weren't good - which by the time I read as "they suck". I was convinced that I sucked at composing and that I wasn't able to do it.

10 years later, I'm sitting at home with my husband making music-related plans and this subject came out. I then explained how I always started songs but never finished them, because they never reached the point I wanted, that amazing point that would make it an amazing song. I then explained that I could write crappy songs, but I wouldn't want to...

... and that was the breaking point! He dared me to write a couple of bad songs per week! haha It seemed stupid, but I got his message. Making short a long story, I'm back to writing songs and it feels great. I mean, the songs are not great yet, but I guess even this is a matter of practice, right? I don't think all our songs have to be master pieces. But if we write 100, I bet that at least one may turn out to be very very good.

As some guys said, I guess the trick is not to stop

 

[mcmetal]

These writers blocks... I've had one that lasted more than 10 years. As an adolescent, I started to write my melodies, lyrics and chords in the guitar, until my best friend told me my songs weren't good - which by the time I read as "they suck". I was convinced that I sucked at composing and that I wasn't able to do it.

10 years later, I'm sitting at home with my husband making music-related plans and this subject came out. I then explained how I always started songs but never finished them, because they never reached the point I wanted, that amazing point that would make it an amazing song. I then explained that I could write crappy songs, but I wouldn't want to...

... and that was the breaking point! He dared me to write a couple of bad songs per week! haha It seemed stupid, but I got his message. Making short a long story, I'm back to writing songs and it feels great. I mean, the songs are not great yet, but I guess even this is a matter of practice, right? I don't think all our songs have to be master pieces. But if we write 100, I bet that at least one may turn out to be very very good.

As some guys said, I guess the trick is not to stop

Your best friend was a douchebag...Everyone has an opinion on what they like or don't like but that doesn't mean it completely sucks.Some look for simplicity in music while others look for complicated and technical riffs.It's one thing to have a badly recorded or performed song but we all have to start somewhere.I'm a metalhead and write mostly metal of course but i've written a handful of mellow tunes over the years.I actually think that some of my mellow songs are my best stuff.

 

[musiczombie]

keep i up no matter how hard it gets!The more you know the better you will be