Curing Writers Block

I've been hearing a lot of writers block complaints going around. So I'd thought I'd give my opinion on it.

Everyone owns up to a specific composer in the back of their mind, when hearing their music it cures writers block. The truth behind it is a link in emotion. Sounds that deeply link to the unknown truth of how you and that composer relate ultimately will cure you. Simply, it feeds your mind what you want, so that within minutes after listening, you can play around with and shape it.

I call it musical inspiration. Its essentially the third thing you need to write great music all by yourself.

2. Food

1. Good Sleep

Although I love other composers more so, Rachmaninoff always cures me when I'm down.

-Ryan

PS. Any ideas on this?

Yeah.

I got fed up waiting for inspiration to come. If I'm to consider myself a composer, I can't justify sitting around for hours waiting for my pieces to magically complete themselves.

If your problem is that you write for a while and then run out of ideas the solution is simple. Running out of ideas just means you don't know what comes next, right? So logically if you plan your piece out as much as you can before writing a note you shouldn't get a serious case of writer's block. At the very least you can write lines and symbols to indicate various gestures and at the most you can write in some loose harmonies, a melodic fragment or two, and some specifics of how a certain passage should be orchestrated.

Not only will your music get DONE but it will get done FASTER because you spend less time agonizing over whether or not a certain chord/articulation/whatever is appropriate. Just get the loose bits on the page.

The second most important thing seems obvious but it wasn't to me: You can always change it later. For me, I used to agonize over getting it perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be because YOU CAN ALWAYS CHANGE IT LATER. If you don't know the specifics of something just scribble a line that looks like what you want it to sound like. It doesn't matter. Once I really got that in my head, the music just poured out.

Seriously, it works man. If you make a plan and follow it you should never get serious writer's block.

If you have no ideas on what to write, then that's a different problem. One I've never had so ask around.

Yea, and on that note I never worry too much about specifics. I usually assume the pieces I write are notable: until something really awesome clicks in my head to advance the piece further.

Also, I'm no Mozart. I'm more like Beethoven. I make correction after correction and I never really get it perfect. I still love what I can come up with when the mood is right. Mainly not planning ahead, I'll sit down at my keyboard and something awesome will spill out my fingers. I really love to expiriment. I could go hours expirimenting without writing down a single thing.

I do think I'm starting to get a little weakness in what you described. I will write a piece and think it's great. Although It can completely be formed into something greater if I only expiriment. I think I need a lot more experience. Because my friend is about 6 years older than me, and he always makes corrections to my music. Most of the stuff I agree inevitably sounds better when he adds a bit of dynamic flair and changes the chords around. Yet, that's definitely his strong spot.

What I mean by up top when I say I don't worry too much about specifics, to clarify: I really only worry about melody and chord pattern. And of course dynamics, but not complete orchestral arrangement. I don't have very good instrument part ideas, though I used to when I was younger. Funny how things change.

I think it's simply a turn in my succession of grasping new styles. I need to expiriment more to find what suits me best. My friend told me to be selfless when composing. Vertually, I must find what "they" like best, not what you like best. And I agree with him. I always love writing music for an audience. Especially if its a big eppreciative audience. Though the best way to witness internal reactions with music is within yourself I know of course. That's essentially the most important.

I'm glad you could respond. Any more thoughts?

Now that I'm such an opera fanatic, I never have musical writer's block. I'm always trying to describe something - even if I write 'absolute' music, it's still about something - so just by picturing what I want to describe I get the music for it; it's that simple.

Hmmm... so you're having trouble with orchestration? I've got an idea for you.

Get ahold of a score like Stravinsky's Firebird/Rite Of Spring or Ravel's Pavanne. Listen to a recording as you follow the score. It will be hard to follow the harmony and melody as it jumps around but the orchestration is MUCH easier. It doesn't take much effort on your part at all.

Good luck.

I think writer's block is a myth. The reason I believe this is, well...I feel it too, just like everyone else. Every month or two, I FEEL as though I'm in a lull. However, I don't let that stop me from creating. In those times, I feel like my music sucks, and that I'm getting worse, not better, etc. etc. But I keep on creating music. And sometimes...I listen to the music I created during that lull and think it is some of the most interesting stuff I ever made.

I think writer's block is just a mood. Don't let it stop you...Just keep writing. Creating music is more of a skill than it is something which requires inspiration, I believe. Not that I don't believe in inspiration, I do. It feels great when I have inspiration and the music seems to have a mind of its own. But the funny thing is, when I have "writer's block" it is almost as though I'm not "paying attention" and sometimes inspiration is hitting me and fueling my music and I DONT EVEN KNOW IT til after I listen to it when I'm in a better mood. Does that make sense?

Hmmm... good thought.

It's better to write something that sucks than to write nothing at all.

I should add that the opposite happens often, too. When you create some music, you might think in the moment you're creating it: "wow, that's some of my finest work." Then later find it rather boring. So I'm saying that the act of creating music is somehow separate from our moods or even our sense of aesthetics, which sounds very paradoxical I know, since it must be intimately tied up with our sense of aesthetics, otherwise how would we discern whether our compositions have gotten better over time, according to what we think is good?

Yes. And sometimes the simplest of melodies will inspire you. Sometimes it is easier to latch onto a basic method when you're feeling down or frustrated.

But usually when you're along the lines of confusion or boredom, possibly a very technical piece will inspire you. The relativity between confusion and boredom is actually much greater than the relativity between confusion and frustration.

I find my best stuff comes form simple concepts.