Inspiration...

Black neon bob

Black neon bob

Member
Jun 2, 2005
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Yeah, where do you guys get your inspiration from?

Right now, im in a drought once again, and when i try to write something i just end up with something that makes me go meh..

What do you guys do when you have this writers block? what inspires you to get behind the drawing board and sit there for days to create a song?
 
Talking to a successful musician helped me. I was getting pretty despondent about writing music recently, but my bandmates and I had a long, entertaining discussion with the vocalist of a certain band and he came up with what will probably be the title of our album. That kind of thing always seems to put music back in the right frame of reference.
 
Live shows a bit, but mostly simply playing the guitar :) I record almost everything I do, so it's easy to simply throw out the bad stuff and keep the good stuff. After a while you have some very nice material once again :)
 
A new style of music. Long drives through the hills. Rain. Staring out my balcony window while plucking my acoustic. The pigeon that uses my window air conditioner as a nest. A walk by the lake with my girlfriend. A jog. A good beer and a laugh with friends.

I guess it's when I'm doing random things in my day to day life that inspiration strikes. I just have to try to remember it till I get to my instruments, lol.
 
Most of my inspiration comes when I'm not playing....it's usually while at work when thinking about something entirely non-musical. Certain phrases, or sounds will just trigger ideas and then I'm frantically writing notes so I don't forget whatever it was that popped into my head. I once wrote 80% of the lyrics for an entire album in a single afternoon at work when a certain mood took me over. Quite an unproductive afternoon at my paying gig, but it paid off in my "other life" :D

If I'm stuck for ideas musically, the first thing I do is put down whatever instrument is in my hands and walk away from it. The confines of whatever instrument your playing (and the ability to play it) are usually more restrictive than your imagination.
 
When the metal riffage don't come out, i'll write rock riffs.:kickass:
When the rock riffs don't come out, I'll write melodies.o_O

when nothing comes out usually a quicky with my girl does it for me:oops:

now seriously... When I'm blocked I just start with some drum loop and the rest comes along easy. Listening to kick ass bands also helps.

take care
 
I used to break out all my old cassettes filled with riffs that I've come up with over the years, weed out the weak stuff and put together riffs that would go well together, occasionally changing the key or even the riff, whatever I think could work. I found it so fun and convenient to write this way that it became the basis of how I wrote and everytime I thought of or came up with a new cool riff I'd record it onto my cassette collection of riffs.

Learning to play a hand full of someone else's songs usually works also. I'd kinda adapt to that style and it would have an influence on my writing.

My latest experiment is to not write anything for 3 years and hope the ideas come flooding back. :lol: :rolleyes: It might happen. :erk:

Edit - It's the lyrics that I have the hardest time with as I've got nothing to say.
 
I know most of you are talking about writing music, and I see some great ideas that I've used myself, but I thought lyrics are worth mentioning. About half of my lyrics are inspired by books I've read. The writers who inspire me to write lyrics the most are guys like Nabokov and Dostoevsky.
 
Jazz (hard bop or fusion) makes me think of stuff I should try when soloing, soloing makes me think of motifs for riffs or interesting progressions to play with, interesting progressions make interesting chordwork, interesting chordwork results in riffs I like. Apart from that, finding new stuff that does something I haven't heard before (Impious and Mnemic are doing that for me right now) or trying something different on the guitar (I've tried tuning my seven down further than normal on the low strings so that the bottom three strings are in fifths, from bottom to top GDADGBE, which gives me two dropped fifths and really easy chording - two finger major and minor chords for the win!) gets some interesting stuff coming out.

Apart from that, come up with a fantasy world in your head with bunnies that sing operas and toasters going on killing sprees... and think about what the theme music for its sitcoms would be... just a thought.

Jeff
 
Just playing with some ideas in mind, playing some old stuff, new stuff trying to twist some rhythms, listen to music. and yeah listen to kick ass bands help
 
Yeah, taking a break from playing for a couple days, as obscene as that sounds, works for me. I just have a big problem with shelving a riff, then I come back to it, and the fire is gone. It was cool in that moment, but not again. :erk:
 
DSS3 said:
Shows, not playing for a week, finding a new band that kicks ass or re-finding an old one I haven't listened to in forever
Click to expand...

+1. It's great to come back to your instrument after a few days off and play something that's been building up inside. Not so much a riff or specific idea, but a feeling or vibe that you've wanted to get out musically.
 
I second taking a break.....do something else in the meanwhile, then go back to it .........it´s like riding a bycicle,once u get it u never forget it:)
 
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