HOW TO BREAK A WRITER’S BLOCK

We’ve all been there: those seemingly interminable periods of time when the ability to compose music inexplicably eludes us, and every note and chord we come up with just seems… meh. Here are eight tips and techniques you can turn to the next time you find your writing path blocked.

1. TAKE A BREAK!

Our first suggestion is the easiest to implement: remove yourself from the situation entirely by simply getting out of the studio. Go for a walk, read a book, grab a coffee, meet a friend, listen to some music… indulge in the general stuff of day-to-day life and thereby clear your head, ready to return to your opus replenished and refreshed. You might even find that the act of escape itself gives rise to a good idea or two, in which case, wherever you are at the time, pull out your phone and hum or sing said musical nugget into an audio recording app for working up when you get back to base.

2. MAKE SURE YOUR OBJECTIVE IS CLEAR

Defining a specific goal for each writing session can really help to stave off writer’s block, as it means you’re breaking the process down into cognitively manageable stages, rather than going at it as a potentially daunting whole. Spend a day (or as many days as it takes!) focusing on establishing a memorable chord progression, then move on to the main melody and theme, then the backing elements, the percussive parts, and so on, until you have the framework of the whole piece in place. However, if an awesome top line does happen to pop into your head while working on the chords, say, don’t hesitate to write it down or record it, of course.

3. GET SOMEONE ELSE INVOLVED

The benefit of collaboration with fellow musicians when it comes to defeating writer’s block is obvious: when one of you is flagging creatively, the other(s) can pick up the slack. But even if you are composing alone, just canvassing the opinions of other members of the human race on your stalled work in progress can give you enough of a shift in perspective to get you over the hump. Whether it’s musicians, friends, family members or randoms on Reddit, collating second- and third-party thoughts on the emotional appeal of a particular chord progression, the appropriateness of a percussion line, the effectiveness of a trumpet solo or any other aspect of production can be remarkably helpful – you never know what sort of insights you might get.

4. STUDY ESTABLISHED SCORES

Drawing inspiration from your musical heroes is a surefire way to not only shake off writer’s block but also generally improve your compositional skills, so pull up the notation for a score that you particularly enjoy/admire/love and study it closely. Observe the harmonic and melodic nuances, the dynamic movement and contouring, the arrangement, the instrumental techniques and articulations employed, etc, and let them influence your writing as directly or subtly as they will. There’s no such thing as ‘stealing’ here: it’s perfectly fine to lift an idea or technique wholesale, whether you make a feature of it as a knowing reference or conceal its origins by adapting it to the context of your project.

5. HAVE A JAM!

Take a leaf out of the jazz musicians’ playbook and spend an hour or two improvising on your instrument of choice, recording the whole session from start to finish, with no compositional objective or goal in mind, and absolutely no pressure at all to capture anything concrete or specifically usable. Once done, plunder the resulting recording (which will be MIDI, ideally) for tasty progressions, rhythmic motifs, melodies, or anything else that grabs your ear, to be used as springboards for the creation of fully developed themes and parts.

6. TAKE SOME TIME OUT TO DO OTHER THINGS

When the writing side of music production just isn’t happening, there’s plenty of other related stuff you can turn your attention to. Depending on your workflow and how far into the process you are, perhaps the arrangement or mix could do with some love. Or if nothing immediately pressing comes to mind, you could launch a synth or sampler and design a few patches, work up an interesting effects chain for that central string or vocal part, get to know a new plugin, or just take care of those outstanding housekeeping jobs you’ve been avoiding for months – organise your sample library, archive old projects, etc…

7. LET THE SCORE GUIDE YOUR CREATIVITY

THE SCORE is packed with inspiring features to help you effortlessly sidestep even the heftiest writer’s block. Its 130 aesthetically diverse Stories provide a rich and colourful palette of flexible starting points on which to build your own tracks (either in the onboard MIDI editor, or in real time using the Chord Studio), while the Melody Studio literally generates melodic parts for you via a highly customisable Markov chain-based algorithm. Even if you don’t intend to commit to the actual sounds you end up making with our flagship scoring library, the compositional ideas it comes up with under your broad guidance can be exported as MIDI for use with any instrument or library you like.

7. DON’T BE TOO HARD ON YOURSELF

Finally, perhaps the most important thing to acknowledge with writer’s block is that it will inevitably pass… and, eventually, come back again… then pass again… and return again… It’s a loosely cyclical ailment that happens to everyone eventually, and is just as disheartening for the seasoned pro as it is the novice composer, so try not to get stressed by it. Use the solutions suggested above to get through it, and trust in the fact that it won’t be long before you’re back on top of your compositional game.

Ronan Macdonald

Writer & Editor • Music Producer • Drummer

ABOUT THE WRITER: RONAN MACDONALD

A music and technology journalist of over 30 years’ professional experience, Ronan Macdonald began his career on UK drummer’s bible Rhythm, before moving to the world’s leading music software magazine, Computer Music, of which he was the editor for more than a decade. He’s also written for many other titles, including Guitarist, The Mix, Hip-Hop Connection and Mac Format, and edited several books, most notably the first edition of Billboard’s Home Recording Handbook. Today, Ronan contributes to Production Expert, Computer Music and MusicRadar.com and works as an editorial consultant and media producer for a broad range of music technology companies. Away from the day job, Ronan is a keen producer and drummer, with a particular passion for 90s hip-hop, jungle, breakbeat and jazz, a hard drive full of unfinished projects and a plugins folder that one day he honestly will get round to tidying up. He’s also the dep percussionist for seminal 80s/90s Italo-house outfit Black Box.

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