Composer's Block

I've recently been suffering from severe composer's block. I have plenty of bits and pieces of material, but absolutely nowhere to go with them. I seem to have sever problems with development as well. Any advice on overcoming these obstacles?

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Try... the "Brute Force" approach - get through it - blockage lasts only as long as the measure remains unfilled. Write something in it, and move on... Keep plugging away, bust through it - finish a piece at all costs; whether it's any good or not doesn't matter... Otherwise, abandon the troublesome piece and move on, returning to it later.

I find that whenever I get composer's block leaving the piece along and working on another helps. Sometimes when I'm writing a piece months after I left another piece due to block, I find that it fits perfectly with the previous one and I can continue work once again.

If that fails, studying scores and listening to a wide variety of music (you may not like death metal, but it has very good parts I 'derive' melodies from ;)) will help get the juices flowing again. Another way is to revert your mind back to the why and feeling of the piece. Why did you start it? What made you feel a certain way to begin writing? Etc. etc.

If all else fails, get as drunk as possible and start hammering at the piano. You're bound to get a good melody eventually :D

Go for a long walk.

i had a composer's block a few months ago , and what i did , is that i stopped composing at all , for around a month i didnt compose anything , i just played my instruments , and learned more about music , and by time whenever i learn something i felt like i want to do something like it , and i fought that urge to compose anything because i knew that the moment i start composing im not going to complete it , and after a few weeks i just had this feeling that im now ready , and i composed a piece that im really proud of it :D . good luck , and btw if you are stressed or you have exams or anything , its hard to compose in that state. good luck:D

@Robin: Thanks! That's probably a good discipline to learn.

@Shpena: I'm not a metal fan anymore, but I was a big one for a long time. But I agree, there's alot to be learned from heavy metal, especially if you're a classical style composer. It's so similar to classical music.

I've left pieces alone and later incorporated them into others, but for serious, I wanna be able to just finish something for once. And I'm too young to legally drink. :P

@John: That's actually something that helps me ALOT. I just don't do it enough, I don't have the time to.

@Abd Zibdeh: I am pretty stressed about classes and exams at the moment. That may be one reason why I haven't finished anything. Your technique sounds interesting, and if all else fails, I'll try it next time. Thanks for your help guys!

yes i have advice mate, you just need to find a way to relax yourself, the funny thing is that music has a way with this-when you're feeling down, pour out that through music, or the opposite fight against it with playing emotionally happy things!

p.s.

i heard that some really great jazz pianist woman was having the same problems(writes block, bad improvisation etc), so she just played scales all octaves with both hands, up and down, different rythems-but specifically NO variation in the scales themselves. only that for two weeks. when the gig came and the show opened, she had ideas pouring in like crazy, since they were waiting there to burst out.

maybe sometimes we spill our guts too much instead of saving it when its needed.

I have similar problems with developing pieces. I have tons of ideas but I often mentally block myself from putting them into a cohesive frame for whatever reason. What I do to break out of this is just force myself to finish a piece in a fixed time period (like a weekend). These weekend pieces end up generally being shorter and simpler than what I really want to be doing, but they do a lot to restore my confidence in my ability to actually finish something. Plus, once you have a completed piece, you may really like parts of it and start tweaking the parts that you may have rushed through. Your "weekend piece" might develop into something you really enjoy and want to share with others. If not, you at least have gone through the process one more time and will hopefully have more confidence and inspiration to move forward with some of your other works.

Go for a long walk.

Im gonna take your advice right now!

I love your avatar. Actually when ever I am having a hard time in anything I always go and read my calvin and hobbes books. They help remind me have fun, and stay imaginative. Usually when I have a hard time composing I go for the brute for method as well. I try to get something down, could be a few measures or even as little as one note. Then I come back the next day or later and check to see if it is anything worth keeping.

This is an old topic, but I'm interested, so...

I do several things, some of which really aren't useful at all.

The first thing I tend to do is stop writing for a while. This does not help me write more music.

The second thing I tend to do is write shorter pieces. This is definitely very useful for me, as even if the short pieces suck, they get my compositional brain working, and I start to have ideas (which can be good sometimes). Often I just start writing something (Brute Force Method), and just go with anything that comes to mind, even if doesn't make any sense.

The third thing I tend to do is write process-based pieces. This might not be for everybody, but for people who have problems expanding their ideas, this might be pretty useful. Said people could try writing music entirely derived from one little melody, or motive, and just see all they crazy different things they can get from that motive, as well as some things that are not so crazy different. It's totally possible to develop any given them and generate hours of music (most of it would be crap, of course), and I think the exercise of production helps build the skill set needed to produce the "right" amount for a piece.

I also like to improvise, especially at the piano, but this doesn't always help me notate out ideas. Often I'm satisfied enough with the act of playing, that I don't want to write actually. Improvising with other people, is something I do all the time, and I find it helps constantly refresh my pool of influences. I offer to play music with nearly everybody who mentions music to me, even complete amateurs can sometimes be very inspiring (in fact, I often find their musical naivete to be VERY refreshing, much better than stale over-practiced musicians who are stuck in some musical corner).

Walks are nice. So is listening to a lot of music, especially stuff I haven't heard before. I listen to music ALL THE TIME, it's probably unhealthy how much time I spend just listening and doing nothing else. I just listened to Structures I and II, by Boulez, in their entirety, and I know that kind of music is not for many people, but boy am I inspired!

I think that if I'm not going to do something musical, it's best to do something very active. Socializing with friends or painting/other arts, or sports/athletic activities (there's nothing like endorphins to make the brain work well) are all things that can take up my attention fully. If I'm stuck in a rut, it can be nice to get away completely from any thoughts related to that rut.

This is probably way too much advice to be helpful.

I used to have a lot of trouble with composer's block.

After a lot of despair, I ended up just making a habit of writing something - ANYTHING - every day...or as often as I possibly can during busy periods. Even if it's crap, at least I keep the creative juices flowing.

Newton's First Law of Motion definitely applies: an object at rest tends to stay at rest and that an object in uniform motion tends to stay in uniform motion unless acted upon by a net external force - which is as much as to say that if you keep writing - anything - as often as you can, habitually, you'll make creative thought a regular occurence and relatively effortless; if you stop writing for a while, then it's more difficult to get going again, and he quality of your work will suffer.

Also, I make sure I always have access to pen and paper to jot down musical ideas. Anything even vaguely interesting gets jotted down. Even if I never use it, again, I'm keeping the creative juices flowing. I also personally believe that inspirations are gifts, and jotting down even the least of them is my way giving that credence and being grateful.

My main difficulty now is focusing my energies on the projects I already have going, but I'm working on that, too.

To expand briefly upon the gratitude theme: no less a master than Haydn was known for his humility. As part of his daily routine, first thing in the morning while still in his nightshirt, he would kneel beside his bed and pray to God: "Please, Lord, give me a theme today. I can do anything with a theme."

Now this kind of thing might not be your wont. Not everybody is in the habit of prayer for such a thing, if at all.

But what I'm saying is that none of us is too good to be grateful for every idea that comes to us - no matter what you happen to believe its origin to be. Gratitude and humility keep good things coming our way. It's a law of the universe.