Losing your inspiration

[Idonotlikebroccoli]

Music does not come from inspiration.

Inspiration comes from making music.

Exactly what I was going to say! Just make a ton of music, quantity over quality, and you'll stumble upon a good idea eventually, inevitably. You'll also have fun making tons of nonsensical 2 bar ideas.

Additionally, it helps for me to make soundtracks to the things I see in my mind. Most important though is re:dream's quote above.

[re:dream]

I found this sentence in a review of Philip Glass's autobiography here

At the Juilliard conservatoire, living in unheated lofts in Lower Manhattan, Glass ... established the work routine that would sustain him for the next 40 years. Every day, unfailingly, from 10am to 1pm, he sat at his piano, whether he wrote a note or not.

[onshiftingsands]

There are times when you do need to treat music creation seriously, and set aside time for it. I too have toyed with giving up music on a number of occasions.

Recently I took off a week from the full-time work grind and went and stayed with my best mate and musical collaborator at a friends vacant house in a country town here in Australia. It took 3 days to get into the relaxed mode where we could create, and from there it was exponentially successful creatively. We wrote one song over the next two days, one the day after, and two on the second last day.

Now I'm back home, and back full time in the office, but when I get home at night and start working on refining the songs, it takes me back to the positive mental state I was in when we wrote them.

My big take-away from this has been to do a deal with my employer where I 'buy' an extra 4 weeks of time off every year. Sure, that's going to cost me close to $4k of income a year, but its worth it.

On a side-note, for guitarists moving to the electronic / MIDI world it can definitely be daunting. Maybe investigate getting a quality MIDI pickup installed and using the instrument you know and love to control synths or rhythmic instruments? A few friends of mine have found that a good way to get started.