lost inspiration

[runningwithit]

i lost some inspiration in my music. How do you get ideas into your music? my music tends to become flat-lined fast.

[re:dream]

Happens to me frequently. Just keep at it.

Make music every day. Even when your ideas suck. Make music.

As Roseanne Cas says, you gotta show the Muse you are serious.

Eventually the inspiration will return.

I think.

[dewaldo]

my philosophy: don't force it. if you aren't feeling inspired or the ideas just aren't coming to you, don't sit at your computer banging out crap. that will just frustrate you. of course, some frustration is required in order to learn, but if the only emotion you are feeling is frustration, just step away from ableton for awhile, for a few days, a week, whatever. in the meantime, do whatever you can to avoid stressing too much about making music, as this sort of thought process will halt your creative energy. and come back when you feel that itch. personally I am interested in sampling, so when I am not feeling so inspired, either i'm not even thinking of using ableton at all, or i'm digging for new sounds, wherever I can find them. sometimes a particular sample will strike a chord within me and provide that spark for me to turn it into something new.

[ImNotDedYet]

Try to come up with new ways to do things. I often find inspiration in returning to something I hadn't done in a while. I broke out the Push last night for the first time in a long time and had a blast sequencing some drums just for the hell of it. I didn't keep it, but boy did I have a blast playing around with a pattern, then session view and switching up the different things. Sometimes I'll bust out a synth I haven't used in a while and just go with it - looking for the thing that inspires me again.

But I agree with a previous post...if you're just sitting at your computer pounding on your mouse to find inspiration, just take a break and listen to someone else's music for a change. (and switch up genres - listen to everything and enjoy music again)

[runningwithit]

I just started listening to old music, that at the time I thought was no good and didn't really make sense to my ear. Now I go back to it and there is a real identity in the sound that reminds me, "oh that was a month ago". At the time it was new and I thought less of it, like new music might be genre pushing in form.

This helps for inspiration too. Listening to others music is always a plus, in fact live music is what is most inspiring. I just listen to a performance at the San Franciscio Conservatory of Music which was about a composition by Elliot Carter performed by a quartet.

I don't write/perform music like this, though it is good for the ear.

Sometimes it does help to just step away from music and say look, that was then this is now.

Maybe music does have this life to it where it disappears. Have you ever thought about looking at music not through the notes, but the absence of notes (like the rests I guess in a classical sense)? This is like a zen thought to a Westerner like myself.

Anyway, I'm willing to put everything else outside of music - that's always where I turn back to, though it is sad when it isn't there.

[slatepipe]

Get high and listen to some records
Go back to some old sessions and play around with them
Collaborate with someone, improvise and jam with them, listen to them and get tips from the techniques they use
Go record some stuff outside on your phone or something
Go to a gig or an art gallery
Go to the pub and listen to conversations

[tedlogan]

Happens to me frequently. Just keep at it.

Make music every day. Even when your ideas suck. Make music.

As Roseanne Cas says, you gotta show the Muse you are serious.

Eventually the inspiration will return.

I think.

Above is the answer.

I am going to disagree with those who say that you should stop when frustrated. You should NOT stop. Countless times the last year I've gone from "i hate what I'm making and I hate myself" to "how the fuck did this happen? It's sounding not bad at all and I only mildly dislike myself" within an hour of the same session. Occasionally, it will still sound good a week later, but most often not, but that's besides the point.

The point is to practice practice practice, and that includes the very practice of making/producing music. Basically - hard work and effort. What goes in comes out. Eventually, once you've found your own sound and groove, it gets easier and one day, if you kept all this up, you could be a master. Really. But there is no shortcut.

This, at least, is how I now know it works for me.

[TomViolenz]

I tend to have good success with looking for inspirations in other artforms. Go to a museum, galery, read books.... anything.

Usually when I get back from these excursions I can't wait to get back to music because I'm so full of ideas

[ebowla]

i step away and do other things if I'm in a super dry rut
i love when i get that excited inspiration feeling ,can't wait to plug in my axe or fire up ableton

[Angstrom]

I'm a bit of a utilitarian when it comes to music.
There has to be a requirement for it.

hypothetical example. Perhaps I am at a modern Discoteque and all the music is fucking awful 1980s mashup shit played at double speed. I say to myself "I am going to stab a motherfucker in the eye if I have to listen to another second of this shite. Do the youth of today event know what a decent pervert groove sounds like?? " And when I have finished screaming bile into the ear of everyone in the damn club, I go home and make 3 rage filled minimal techno funk songs. Because it is required.

People have always made music to fill a requirement. Sure they are often frivolous reasons, to provide some liveliness to a party, attracting the opposite sex, making you look "clever" to your peers. But it's always "for" something.
When there's nobody saying "yeah, I really needed a song just like that to give voice to my alienation/lust/relaxation/whatever. Thank you kind musician, I will reward you with kudos!" . when that reward is not there, then music is a bit pointless.

[kb420]

i lost some inspiration in my music. How do you get ideas into your music? my music tends to become flat-lined fast.

That usually does it for me.

[JoshG567]

I need to have a concept to ground my songs in, I can't really make music out of nothing. Even when I'm fucking around it doesn't take long for me to assign some symbolism or feelings to a sound and the seed starts growing from there. The way I see it the concept is the real content, or currency of expression, whereas the music itself is just like the observable surface of it - the method of expression. I've been working on a record where each song is like a link in a chain that ultimately connects back to itself - the ideas support and define one another, boosting the coherency overall. Wouldn't have found the inspiration considering them in isolation.

[runningwithit]

the conception of utilitarianism in music i am fond of. Though i can't help act like Beethoven sometimes and vent my anger into the keys.

[TomViolenz]

I need to have a concept to ground my songs in, I can't really make music out of nothing. Even when I'm fucking around it doesn't take long for me to assign some symbolism or feelings to a sound and the seed starts growing from there. The way I see it the concept is the real content, or currency of expression, whereas the music itself is just like the observable surface of it - the method of expression. I've been working on a record where each song is like a link in a chain that ultimately connects back to itself - the ideas support and define one another, boosting the coherency overall. Wouldn't have found the inspiration considering them in isolation.

nice!

[Tarekith]

I'm the same way with the concept idea. I sit and noodle in the studio all the damn time, lots of interesting ideas come about eventually. But if I dont have something in mind to use them for, a project I'm focused on, I'm just not into it.

I have a weird situation where I almost always WANT to be working on music, sometimes I just don't have an oulet for that energy that excites me though. The urge to create is wasted if I don't have a plan on how to focus it.

Anyway, in the end the result is the same, you feel meh about writing music. Some people can work through it, they advocate just hammering away until it figures itself out. Awesome if that works for you, but there are those of us out there who know that just makes things worse for us too. Don't be afraid to just step back and take a break, stop stressing about it for awhile and focus on other areas of your life.

This has happened to me countless times since I started 20+ years ago. I've learned to just give my mind a rest and take care of the other parts of my life that I slack on when I'm on a roll in the studio usually. Amazing how that gives you a new fresh perspective on things and you come back stronger than ever when the ideas do start to roll.

And they always come back eventually