The Engine Has Restarted!

[nebulae]

One of my biggest fears, as I imagine may be the case for many of you, is the day that my ideas dry up completely. I dread that day. I hope it never comes. And every time I get a musical block, I feel like that day has come. It freaks me out...

My last block started about 6 month sgo. Although I have a backlog of about 100 ideas that may turn into songs, the generation of ideas is what gets the whole process going. And when I have a bunch of time, I develop an idea, so I'm never really starting from scratch. For me, the idea engine is the most important. It's the thing that gives me all the unpolished gems in turn form...stuff that takes meybe 15 minutes to throw together whenever I'm farting around. I then polish those gems into full songs, with each song taking maybe 100+ hours or so on average.

So I had no ideas for six months. As you can imagine, I was very worried. Well, I'm glad to announce that the engine has restarted. Over the past three days, I've come up with three separate ideas. The joy of just playing and having fun with music is back. The musical outlook is bright.

Just thought I'd share

[otnooishphoo]

hurray!

my block started in 2007, and it hasn't stopped.

not that i am not trying
it just wont turn over

[bodhi71]

I am leaving this post before I contract this horrible state.

[Tone Deft]

for me it helps if I make a short list of features I haven't tried before or don't know much about. then I start farting around, next thing you know I'm saving the set off as worth keeping. still nowhere near your ouput, damn...

anyone who says they don't get blocks is a cocky liar.

[nebulae]

woohoo, on a roll - just put away another one! a groovin' house track with a PWM bassline from a very old synth! Luv it!

[bodhi71]

I have had my share.
Those were the worst 3 minutes of my life.

[Obineg]

Try to methologically sort and arrange your library , that always gets me going . . .

[Angstrom]

I've found that remix competitions are the perfect pointless musical doodling for times like these. I always find myself making up new parts and then saying "this idea is too fucking good for these cheap bastards - I'm having it"

Voila - you have yourself one fresh new idea.

[nuxnamon]

i find morning pages help minimize the engine light from going on
..

[Jekblad]

whenever i have a block i just stop sucking at life and then it gets better.

i'll def go w/tone def on this one, most of my best tunes have come about from learning and exploiting ONE feature and it turning out really cool.

[nebulae]

^ those of you offering suggestion, those are all very good ones. My cure for a block is to just keep going...creativity is like any other muscle - use it or lose it...the last 6 months of atrophy were quite horrid. I'm glad I'm coming out of it.

[continuous]

Start Me Up

p.s. very best to your wife!

[thefinger]

Try to methologically sort and arrange your library , that always gets me going . . .

meth logic is the worst.

[thefinger]

^ those of you offering suggestion, those are all very good ones. My cure for a block is to just keep going...creativity is like any other muscle - use it or lose it...the last 6 months of atrophy were quite horrid. I'm glad I'm coming out of it.

... truest words ever. never stop writing. even your "crap" will have value to somebody eventually, even if that somebody is only you.

[nebulae]

one other cool trick - give yourself any excuse to hit the record button...don't make it a chore, just any reason whatsoever.

So once every couple of weeks, I trim my finger nails. And on those nights, I can really nail my guitars because my fingers fit on the strings just right. That's a good excuse. I start jamming, use a quicky Guitar Rig patch, and I hit record. Is it the best thing to happen? NFW. But could it end up as a great song weeks or months down the road? Hells yeah.

Record often. Find any excuse to do so.