The Problem Every Musician Faces

10 out of 10 Musicians know this feeling.

You sit down with the goal of writing music, but nothing comes to mind.

I used to sit down, open my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), plug in my guitar and I got no idea what I wanted to write about. I tried to start writing a guitar riff, but nothing seemed to work. It feels like my intuition/my inspiration has failed me.

It's frustrating! This was the only time that week I got to write music. Now I feel like I wasted my time.

I’m sure you felt like this recently. It is quite common in our creative field.

But what if there's a way we can avoid this? How can we sit down and write music without any barriers in front of us?

There might be an easy way to deal with this!

The thing is, professionals don’t need inspiration. Nor can they wait for it. As a professional, you need to do your job. If you got a deadline to write a song, you have to deliver.

But how do professionals deals with this problem?

The answer is simple.

The Solution

Professionals can approach songwriting in a lot of different ways.

Like a mechanic that has a wide collection of tools to solve every problem they encounter. So, too, do musician own a large toolbox they can draw from.

This can be:

• Their knowledge of music theory

• Different ways to approach a song

• Playing more than 1 instrument

The list can go on endlessly.

They have the ability to notice if the tool they use doesn’t work.

They can put it away and take out a new one out of their tool box.

Steps You Can Take Right Now!

The difference between armature and professional musicians are the ways they can approach writing a song.

Some examples you can use right now:

Starting a song:

• Start with an Instrument you don’t usually play (if you can play it - program it with the piano roll of your DAW)

• Start with writing the lyrics first if you are an instrumentalist or vice versa if you’re a lyricist

• pick a new tone for your instrument (plugin/virtual instruments are your best friend here)

Continuing a song:

• Look at what you’ve written already and change some chords or melody notes. This creates get a different but fitting part. (This technique is called motive development - a great tool to learn)

• start a new section with a different instrument

• give yourself an outline of chords that limits you

The possibilities are endless.

Some approaches won’t work for you, and that’s fine. Try different ones, test them out for certain amount of songs and see what works.

These different approaches improve your musical intuition and inspiration. Your intuition is an expanding circle that incorporates the tools you’ve internalized. [Graphic)

Shift your mindset to gathering and using as many different starting points as you can. You will 10x your creative output!

Starting every song the same way will eventually get you stuck. Or lead to songs that don't differentiate from another.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein

If you want help with this topic or a clear roadmap, then stay tuned. I'm working on a comprehensive collection of tools and approaches. This will boost your songwriting skills.

- Max of Current Mindset