What do you guys do when...

[ForceTheTriggerSucks]

You've absolutely hit a wall with writing? Wether it's just you or with your band or whatever the case may be, what do you guys do?

If its just me, I walk away from it until I desperately want to play my guitar. But when it comes to my band it's much harder cause there is 4 other guys.

So what do you guys do?

 

[JeffTD]

Listen to either no music at all or stuff that's polar opposite of what you write. That, or force yourself through it. To a certain extent, the ability to write songs is very much a learned trait.

 

[Brandon E.]

Forcing yourself through it works...If you just sit down with your guitar and are like "I AM GONNA WRITE SOMETHING BITCHING RAD RIGHT NOW" and don't put it down until you do, it works more than you'd think hahahah

 

[DullElysium]

Write something in guitar pro. Or daw or then try a different instrument for a change.
I've noticed that my ideas are drastically different when i'm writing them in guitar pro rather than playing my guitar. Might get you going

 

[ForceTheTriggerSucks]

Really? Hmm all this time people have told me that walking away from it for a while is the best solution. I've believed that to the point where I've never attempted to just power through it. Well tomorrow's a new day. Some cool ideas fellers

 

[Jind]

If I'm struggling writing on guitar (my primary instrument), I tend to switch instruments. Sometimes I'll load up a piano softsynth and write on that, other times I'll grab the bass and something will come to me. Often even just loading up a drum library and playing different versions of a basic beat (say the one I'm writing over) will get my mind thinking differently about what I was trying to accomplish on guitar when writers block hit me. When I struggle writing on guitar, I can get over it by writing on something else in most cases.

When all else fails, I go for a drive and bring my phone. I sing/hum ideas into it's recorder all the time while driving and have gotten past writers block many a time when no instrument is present.

Just some other options.

 

[AllanD]

Try writing a song every day for a week, regardless of how simple the songs are is. As you write the songs, you naturally start to vary up sections, make more/less intricate intro's, add/remove more breaks, play with tempo's, instruments solo sections, whatever you can do to differentiate it from the song before. The more you do this, the easier songwriting will come to you. It is very much so a skill.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

+1 for forcing it (in the sense of "sit down and pick up that fucker, you're not getting up until you've got at least one tasty riff down") it's pretty much all that works for me these days! (too busy/tired most of the time for random moments of inspiration )

 

[drew_drummer]

Change up the situation. If it's the band, try writing alone. If it's usually alone, write with someone else. If it's usually with a DAW and some plugins, go into a room with a tape recorder and an amp. Just be someone else for a few hours, and something will come through.

And remember, technology should serve the music - part of the brilliance of having things like tempo matching and audio warping is that you can actually turn off the computer, and record something, and then edit it together later. I do this all the time - just fuck the metronome... go solo. Fit it to a musical grid later on.

 

[colonel kurtz]

smoke a bowl

can't believe no one said this yet...

 

[Pman]

I've been going through this for the last couple months or so and it's only just started to pick up a bit. I just kept on playing different variations of the same shit again and again.
I tried not playing for a long time so i just got out of my playing patterns and my usual go-to scales/styles.
Listening/learning one of your favourite or most inspiring albums helps you get out of a rut and puts your head into a new framework (assuming you haven't learned it already obviously).
But the last thing i'd suggest is forcing yourself through it. You'll end up with an album of what you consider complete uninspired crap.
If you hear some new music you like, try learning it/figuring it out before you listen to it to death just out of enjoyment. Try to understand why you liked it before you stop liking it, and how that idea could apply to your current work.
Recently i picked up the guitar after a few month period of avoiding it, then playing like crazy, then avoiding it, and played some stuff I was pretty into, so just quickly set it to record and just played for about 20 mins until i'd run out of stuff.
Good luck!

 

[outbreak525]

smoke a bowl

can't believe no one said this yet...

Precisely.