How To Find Inspiration For Songwriting

How To Find Inspiration For Songwriting

Inspiration for songwriting

Inspiration

 

So you sit there in front of your laptop trying to make a song. You make a drum pattern, put some pad chords on it, but it just doesn’t sound right to you. So you delete the drum pattern and try to make new, which again sounds bad. Yes, I know you had this once or twice before and I know that it drives you crazy. That moment when nothing creative, nothing groovy, nothing fat, nothing [enter any adjective that would describe your song] comes out. Yes. That’s the moment of lack of inspiration. We all have those moments from time to time. Even those big names in the music industry have that sometimes (I hope so!). Alright so we all sometimes don’t have the inspiration and some people say that it’s a bullshit about “lacking inspiration”, that it’s just an excuse for not making a tune. They say “Yo, Joonique, stop moaning and just start making those beats man”. I say: “I’m trying! I’m trying!” and all the producers and beatmakers in this world start to whip me. But guess what? Sometimes sitting in front of your computer for hours without any result… well doesn’t give any results! So when I “lack inspiration” I try to get away from the computer for a while and do these 5 things…

1. Play On A Real Instrument

“But Joonique, I don’t have a proper microphone, my room is not ready for recording, my neighbors are making love and I can hear them! I can’t record in this environment!” Calm down there… I said about playing on an instrument, not recording it. Just think about it. When was the last time you actually “played” on a real instrument? Aren’t you one of those who play the whole orchestra on the MIDI keyboard? Yes we all use midi keyboard (or some just use a keyboard on the laptop) for our production. But my point is that when you grab a real instrument, when you actually “feel” your instrument, everything seems new and you start to see a new path. Take your guitar getting dusty in the corner, tune it right and strum some chords on it. Take your violin, put some resin on the bow and play something on it. Playing a real violin and playing a violin sample in your midi keyboard is totally different (duh). Thus you also get different ideas while playing a real violin. What is more, you are in more control of the articulations in real instrument than in audio sample. Apply this to all instruments. Make use of your instruments!

2. Do Something Different

Every morning you wake up at 8 am, eat breakfast, take a shower, take a bus, go to school/work, sit there till 3-4 pm, take a bus, come back home, eat dinner, make music, go to sleep. And you wake up and things are going round and round… This is called a ROUTINE and it’s very dangerous thing to get into. Once you get inside the routine, it is hard to get out of it. You think about changing it, but actually don’t feel like changing it, because you are either too comfortable in there or you are just scared of making changes. Guess what? It can affect your craft. “But how?” you ask. Well, think about it, every single day you do the same thing, every single day you see the same thing, and you know what? Every single day you hear the same thing. Every damn single day you hear that same sound of alarm clock ringing exactly at 8, same sound of microwave warming up your breakfast, same sound of bus coming and leaving, same sound of crowd, same sound of traffic. How many times?! How many times can you listen to that same thing in a daily basis? So what you want to do is, when you are going to school/work, for example ride a bike instead of taking a bus. I’m not telling you to do it every time you go to school. Just try it tomorrow. You will hear different things, you will hear the rotation of your bike, you will feel the touch of a wind on your face, and who knows, maybe you will come up with a great idea just by riding a bike! You can also try taking different route to your school or home. Go to different places. Do different things. Meet different people. Find yourself in various situations. When I was reading about blogging yesterday someone wrote a great thing: “You need to write epic shit to gain thousands of subscribers”. Yes and that also applies to music. Do something epic, something you wouldn’t normally do, and get an epic inspiration while doing it.

3. Get Inspired By People Around You

Be grateful for people that are around you, start realizing how awesome they are and how much they matter to you. That feeling of gratitude will lead you to the happiness boosting your creativity. Of course you can be inspired by people that make you sad or angry, so be grateful for them too! Can you remember the times when you spent a pleasant time with your love? That can inspire you to write a romantic music. Do you have a little brother or sister who can be really happy with a small thing? Write an uplifting music. Look around. Inspiration is with people you talk to. Inspiration is in the person you love or even hate.

4. Finish That Unfinished Track

“Joonique, your advice sucks. What if I’m anti-social and I actually don’t have people around me and know absolutely no one?” Well, that’s sad my friend maybe this point will satisfy you. I know that you have that unfinished track in the project folder… Well, it’s a great time to finish it! If you can’t make a new piece, then go back to the work you started and never finished. When you have finished the track you will feel the “wholeness”, that makes you feel that your duty is done. Now put the track to the forum/SoundCloud/whatever, lean back and look at those feedbacks coming from producers from all around the world. Now you will feel that you can do something new because you finished your track, and whole world heard your masterpiece.

5. Listen To Various Music

This point seems obvious, but many people actually don’t do it. I used to be a heavy hip hop head and make only hip hop beats, but now it has changed and also listen to other genres. You must listen to other genres, seriously. If you are listening only hip hop, then you have a very narrow horizon. Make that horizon wide. There’s an ocean full of music genres and you need to really jump into it. Listening to other types of music will get you some innovative ideas. So I just gave you a list of 5 things that can be done when there’s no inspiration. I hope that they work well for you. And I’ll see you in the next post!

Joonique
 Find my tracks on SoundCloud
Licence my songs on AudioJungle
 

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