Writers Block?

[mojobone]

Actually, Jimi said that about a lot of guitarists, just about anyone a journalist would bring up, in fact; he may even have been genuinely that humble.

[jwebbinspired]

Mojo, I definitely believe that Jimi was genuinely that humble. It's such a shame he's not with us anymore. Andy

[Mark Kaufman]

Feb 28, 2009, 11:32am, jwebbinspired wrote:So what do you guys do when you get writers block? I write about it.

[billg]

I record cover songs.

[southpaw]

I cant say i really get much writers block because i hate 'just' sitting there and not writing.... If i get an idea i try to jot it down, i.e. an idea for a song, or a line or two within a song idea, etc. I usually focus on the development of the song once i have the full idea as a whole, conceived and am inspired to grow its wings. Personally, id say i get more of an "overwhelmed with ideas block".. I have to slow my roll down a bit to keep my head from spinning out of control sometimes... I get a million ideas that spawn other ideas and my mind gets racing too fast for me to get the main idea down properly. Its a pain. Might be more of an ADHD thing..

[charlie2]

So what do you guys do when you get writers block? (if you do) I usually have to just stop trying to write and go do something. (Kind of like right now, I'm going to go on a hike) I'm curious how others deal with it. I found that I can't force myself to write well. (music, not lyrics). When it doesn't come I just understand that it's not the time yet and relax and play. With lyrics; I base them on a melody I have and ask myself honestly, what the melody reminds me of. Then I base the lyrics on that theme When I want to write I usually use guitar or piano and play around with either theory based ideas, or a melody/harmony of another piece that I like. I would try to find out what's in that piece that makes it sound so good; then I'll try to write another just like it. I like what John Williams said one time. He said it's just a matter of FINDING that great sounding music. That's what we're doing.....just searching and searching. It's very rare to write something great every time....But I'm still gonna find out the secret on how to do it

[charlie2]

P.S. Finding melodies is the basis of my writing. Just simple melodies. From this I have the harmony (which you hear in your head and is many times grown from the melody). From this same melody I also have the lyrics, since I ask myself what the melody reminds me of...and base the lyrics on that. Any orchestration follows very easily because all the information I need is already there

[Mark Kaufman]

I have a whole different thing going on these days. Years ago, my role in music consisted of A) writing music, and B) playing music.These days, I do both those things, as well as all the stuff a studio staff would do (engineer, produce, master) and what a label would do (market, press recordings) and a manager would do (book gigs, keep financial records, network).So...when writers block strikes, there's still plenty to do....Okay, so I don't press records or book gigs anymore...but these days I would if it needed to be done. But there always seems to be some production work to attend to...editing, remixing, etc.

[feaker]

Gone

[mfowler]

I walk away and do anything but music, something that requires some form of exercise.. I cannot force it and end up wasting time. When the inspiration comes, it flows and I go until it stops.