We’ve all been there. Sometimes the music just flows… More often you spend days chasing a four bar loop round and round… Waiting for inspiration to strike… And it never does.
We’re here to help.
You’re suffering from writer’s block – an affliction that prevents your mind from escaping preset paths and keeps your creativity locked down until you can finally shake it off. And the good news is that freeing your mind from writer’s block and releasing that creativity could just be a simple matter of getting a fresh perspective and undertaking one or two creative exercises.
1. Get a fresh perspective
Often, subtle shifts in your mental state can get you past a block and, better still, potentially open up pathways of creativity hitherto unexplored.
Writer’s block often stems from an expectation that something should be possible (or even easy) and a frustration grows when that’s proving harder (or even impossible) for reasons beyond your control.
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Thus, your first mental shift should be to remove any sense of expectation. That is to say, just because you’ve made tracks before, why should it be the case that it will be easier or just as straightforward this time? After all, circumstances change.
Just because you’ve switched on your same computer and loaded the same DAW doesn’t mean that today will yield the same musical result as yesterday, so removing that expectation can remove a lot of unnecessary pressure.
2. Change your pattern
Repetition is the enemy of creativity, so it should come as no surprise that, at some point, your brain will rebel if you fire up the same sounds, work at the same tempo, program the same beat patterns or reach for the same chords. Changing things up can be as simple as changing the order of the musical parts you bring to your tracks. Do you always start by programming beats? Then don’t - make that the last thing you do.
Do you usually plonk down some chords and a guide melody before getting to work on sound design and production?
Do you usually plonk down some chords and a guide melody before getting to work on sound design and production? Turn off your keyboard and draw notes into your DAW instead, so that you’re forced to think about every note you add to a chord - if you’re going to the trouble of adding notes manually, it may well prove to be the case that you’ll pick different chords or voicings to the ones your muscle memory selects when you’re playing to a click track.
3. Get a production partner
Collaboration is another way to eliminate writer’s block. Having someone else’s idea to kick-start the creative process takes the pressure off having to come up with all of the ideas for a track on your own.
Similarly, asking others for feedback on your work in progress will throw up some ideas you won’t have had on your own. Even if you don’t agree with the advice you’re given, you’ll be forced to think about your tracks in a different way, which can get you over a hump.
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Arrangement 101: How to escape the 4-bar loop
Better still, there may be a good reason why you disagree with any constructive criticism, which will make you defend your work. The more you talk and try ideas the more forward momentum you're injecting.
There’s nothing better than this for finding your self-confidence and realising that, just maybe, you’re not as bad at this music stuff as you’d been allowing yourself to believe.
4. Outside contact detox
Try to have a music production day without any other distractions. Set aside a day on the calendar, be prepared to set an alarm and have an early start and – just like a professional musician who’s attending a paid-for session at a studio – have a day of exclusively making music.
Leave your phone off. Turn off the WiFi and unplug that ethernet. Go 100% internet free for a day and exclusively use your computer to make music with none of your usual distractions.
Have fun with your studio. Perhaps start with something simple like tweaking a synth sound. Or creating some kick drums. Ditch that one-man-band, jack-of-all-trades, writer/engineer/producer role and knuckle down to one simple job at a time.
With nothing else on your mind you’ll soon be inspired to add notes and beats and begin building something fresh from scratch. Most of us find we work quicker and more efficiently if working towards a daily deadline. With your studio day drawing to a close you’re forcing yourself to deliver the goods before you have to finish.
5. Give it a rest
If you reach an impasse with a project and can’t get it over the finish line, don’t simply delete your work. Make sure to save your in-progress projects – and label them clearly – so you can return to them later.
It’s amazing how returning to something a few days, weeks or even months later can allow you to see it from a fresh angle. Often, within a few seconds of hearing a ‘familiar’ old, unfinished loop, your brain will imagine that hidden ingredient to take it to the next level.
6. Remix yourself
Starting from an existing finished project and rearranging it is often a lot easier than creating something new. Try starting with a track you’ve previously finished and using it as a basis for your next track.
The rule you need to set here is that your new track must be completely different from your starting project, thereby forcing you to up-end your previous sounds and track elements.
Try changing tempo. Swapping out synth sounds for acoustic sounds. Deliberately go in unfamiliar directions by imagining you’re on a remix project with a brief to completely change the track.
7. Give yourself a goal
Staring at a blank DAW screen will get you nowhere. Instead have a ‘mission’ to accomplish and stay focused on delivering that.
For example, you could decide that this afternoon is all about ‘130bpm percussive techno tool’. Or your mission could be to create a ‘beatless synth jam’. Or set aside a day to make some ‘peak time DnB’.
Stick to this original aim, and file any ideas that arise along the way to one side for a later date.
8. Start arranging early
Instead of endlessly listening to that loop, start turning it into a track early.
As soon as you have a few fundamental building blocks – for example, a chord progression and basic beat – duplicate these across your timeline to create the foundations of a full track. Delete elements as necessary to designate an intro, outro and breakdowns. Break your arrangement up into 8-bar sections and colour code or label these for easy delineation.
Now change the energy of your track in some way each time you reach a new section. As a rule of thumb, there are three ways to do this: add an element, remove an element or change an existing sound – for example, changing the instrument used to play your lead melody, or moving part of your bassline up or down an octave.
Knowing when to add and when to take something away is a matter of personal preference but by letting your arrangement force you into making changes you’re always inching towards a finished track.
A couple of quick tools to help your arrangement along include creating a set of Auxiliary effects (on sends from your tracks) that you can quickly lean on for spot effects or enhancing the sound of a track. Have a template with your favourite reverb, delay, and chorus ready to go and then simply add (or automate) them to your tracks as you go.
The sooner you have something sounding ‘great’ the more likely you are to stick with it and finish the job.
9. Find your hook
One important step when it comes to developing a track lies in establishing what element provides the focal point, aka the hook, of your track.
This should be the most distinctive element of your composition. In a pop or rock song this would usually be the lead vocal, but when it comes to electronic or instrument music, the hook could be a lead synth riff or a bassline or rhythmic pattern.
Whatever genre you’re working in you should be able to identify a specific focal point for your track which will inform a lot of your decisions when it comes to arranging. For instance, your hook will likely be something you want to build up to, meaning you may choose to remove it from your track’s intro and breakdowns.
It will also provide the basis from which to create elements like counter melodies. For example, if you have a descending synth riff as your lead hook, try creating a counter melody that ascends through the same scale, with a rhythm that works around, rather than on top of, your lead line.
Introducing this in the background after two or four repetitions of your lead will help add depth and keep your lead hook fresh.
10. Use transitions and automation
The key to keeping your track ‘happening’ lies in creating dynamic movement both within and between sections.
The easiest way to do this is by using transition FX. These are things like white noise sweeps, pitched risers, crashes or reversed cymbals – elements that can be placed at the start or end of a loop in order to create a pull-in or release to signify the change in your track.
Even if you’re just using placeholder FX that you plan to replace when it comes to applying finishing touches, having some sort of transition in place will go a long way towards giving your arrangement the correct ‘feel’, and could help inspire what elements need to be added or removed for the next section.
An equally essential technique for introducing movement to an arrangement is through automation of sound parameters and effects. The most obvious example of this is by automating the cutoff point of a low-pass filter to make a lead, bassline or chord progression brighter as a track builds.
And finally… One more…
11. Commit early
Bounce plugins or external instruments down as audio as soon as you’re happy, to remove temptation and avoid endless tinkering and reworking.
If you need to make changes later you can get creative with effects or editing.
The modern DAW has given us unlimited power and potential, often to the detriment of creativity and getting the job done. Don’t let the possibilities of your DAW get your track stuck in a rut!
