Writers Block...Please Help!!!

[ThinksImNeat]

hey whats going on...well...i play guitar, ive been playing for a bout 7 years or so...anyway...Im just ok with theory but mostly, i just play untill i make some cool material up. I can say i have five songs i am very proud of. Anyway, recently, ive been in a severe writers block...and i cannot ever come up with anything as original as what ive written before in the past. I keep thinking its the music im listening to now is differeent...(but it isnt much)...I dont know many techniques...and if i did ive used them up...etc.

But it seems when i ever do ever come up with anything decent anymore...its always in the same key or the progression or riff always unintentionally ends up the same. Can anyone give me some pointers on how to get out of this writers block, and point me in the way i used to write music...is their anythign i can do myself to change this at all? I dont know if ive chagned at all or anything, but shouldnt i be writing the same? who knows i need someones help haha!!! These writers blocks ive also noticed, are more frequent then before...i used to never get them...or at least never noticed them...but now i cant seem to get out of them.

[Docktor Rocktor]

see here for similar

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102211

also, who cares if you write in the same keys with similar progressions? don't get caught up trying to be an innovative genius. the beatles, moby, the rolling stones, the wu-tang clan, metallica, n.w.a., elvis, ricky martin, the sex pistols, chuck berry, the misfits, led zeppelin, fatboy slim, and madonna are just a handful of examples of musicians that have all made hit records with a pretty consistent sound, signature key, backbeat, chord progression, whatever.

Two hundred years ago, composers wrote symphonies that included various melodies and themes that had an overarching unity. Nowadays, people tend to write albums consisting of a dozen or so songs that, very often, have a clear, consistent voice throughout.

IMHO, the best strategy is this: Learn your instrument(s), develop your voice, play the music you hear in your head, and DO NOT try to innovate. If you are an innovator, you will be innovative without trying. If you are not, you will only make an ass of yourself trying to be john coltrane, when you could be producing perfectly good material in the genre(s) and form(s) that naturally inspire you.

Your music, your lyrics, and your sound will change and evolve with your outlook on life whether you want them to or not. Whether you are a suburban mba with a trust fund, an inner-city drug dealer, or a transvestite acid casualty, you are a unique human being whose life is in some ways different from anybody else's. If you express things that are meaningful to you, they'll be meaningful to someone else. Play what you hear in your head. ACDC has been recording the same record for decades, now, and it still sounds good. If 12/17 time and f7sus4 chords express what you're trying to get across, then go with it. If A minor pentatonic is what runs through your brain, or if hyperfast dropped-D palm-muted riffs make your blood boil, then don't be embarassed of being genrefied. Be a musician, not a critic. Cheers.

[HOWDJA]

When I get blocked on music I try to listen to a bunch of things that I like which are different in style than the things that I've been writing. I also play along with whatever is on the radio until something prompts me into a song. It may be a chord progression or maybe a different rhythm or strumming style.

 

When I get stuck on lyrics I find that if I move around the house to different rooms or even hop in the car or the motorcycle that it sometimes frees things up.

 

Whatever you do, try to make it different in some way from what you've been doing, 'cos that's how you got stuck to begin with.

[willis5050]

Don't try so hard. I became most frusterated when I was overly concerned with coming up with something "new". I was paranoid about sounding like someone else, or ripping off another song. That will always happen to a certain extent. Your unique voice will come through and oftentimes the song will evolve and change later on down the road. If you are performing these songs, you will be amazed at how different they sound in a group/band situation from when you were visualizing it alone with an acoustic guitar or whatnot. Good luck.