To all my songwriter’s this is for you, and because of that, it’s a little abstract. We have all been at a point where we are either needing or really wanting to get a song out of our heads and onto the page. These are some of the ways that help me get past my songwriters block when I’m trying to write songs. The ways explained here are for every type of song, lyrics or none.
1. Get A Voice Recorder – Songwriters Block
Most of us have these on our phones. But this is the first and only preemptive tool that will help us conquer our writers block. The key here is to say, whistle, sing, click or beatbox whatever idea comes into your head, good, bad or just plain weird. It doesn’t matter. If your voice recorder isn’t literally at full capacity of random material, then you aren’t using it enough. Fill this thing up with as much ammunition as you’ve got, cause you’ll need it later. Trust me.
2. Get Out Into Your Inner Nature
I don’t mean to go and take a walk in the park, but if that helps you, go for it. What I mean is to get out of your house, or the place where you’re supposed to be writing music. That place is stressing you out, adding the pressure and not letting the gates of your mind relax enough to let ideas flow. You need to quite your conscience mind enough to let the beauty of your inner sing through. So, take a drive, play basketball, ride your bike, do something that you don’t have to think about what you’re doing. This encourages your active thoughts to let your inactive thoughts do more work, so they take a back seat and go on auto pilot.
3. Stop Working And Start Listening
When you’re out of ideas, go listen to ideas. Take out your voice recorder and listen to stuff you were excited about when your brain came up with all that creative goodness. If none of that is getting you going, listen to songs that inspire you. Songs that made you excited. Ask yourself, what did they do? What instruments did they use? What song structure did they use? You don’t want to copy, but you may want to emulate the sounds and feelings that were being conveyed as processed by your brain. How did it make you feel? Experiment with sounds, chords and instrumentation to convey that feeling. Put on headphones or turn your speaker up loud to surround yourself in the music you are making that recreates that emotion.
