Musician's Block

I've felt I've lost my mojo. Recently I've been working on a few prog songs simultaneously and I cannot further them. Thinking about it now, each one of these songs could fit into a different genre of prog (Canterbury Scene, heavy prog, experimental, etc..). I've also been listening to less prog rock and more acoustic, celtic influenced works by Led Zeppelin and Sandy Denny. A week ago I was absolutely obsessed with Soft Machine. Could these contrasts spike a creative block? I wish I could simply merge all of my influences into one giant fusion. I'm sure if I find a band our ideas will work together.

How do you deal with your musician's block?

The easy thing is to say I don't suffer from musician's block.  If it doesn't progress on it's own, why try to force it?  A good pop song is much better than a bad prog one. 

clarke2001 wrote: Epignosis wrote: The easy thing is to say I don't suffer from musician's block.  If it doesn't progress on it's own, why try to force it?  A good pop song is much better than a bad prog one.  /best possible answer.

+1

Unless you're a professional musician, you don't need to rush yourself into something you won't be able to continue well.

This may sound ignorant, but watching television helps me sometimes, as far as writing guitar parts goes. It puts you in a hypnotic state after a period of time (I forget how it works) and if you go with it unconscious ideas can spring from nowhere. Just put on something and start noodling. I like "The Joy of Painting" for instance because there's no background music to distract me and watching a painting come together is better than say watching some stupid celebrity newsflash. Pot helps too. (just kidding for all intents and purposes)

Of course, this is for individual parts. Composition demands more focus. That is where I take the individual parts I've created and put those that go together well together, but some don't fit tonally so transposing one part to another part's key can give you some momentum and sometimes new ideas, melodies, etc. spring from the composition process. This can be tedious, however. Especially if you're a perfectionist like me and nothing ever comes out the way you want, no, need it to. Like Pekka above I take a pretty long time writing music. I've taken finished songs (that I put a lot of work into) and cannibalized them for their individual parts just because I felt they sounded better elsewhere. That gets frustrating.

Whatever happens, keep writing, even if what your writing sucks because eventually you'll be back out of your rut and you can use your not so good stuff as a reference point for your masterpiece. Make mistakes so you can learn from them.

Oh, and the way I deal with it is to simply take a break. As for fusing all genres, have a long think about it. It will always work if you've got a definite formula, and it WILL come to you, you've just gotta wait it out.

Maybe this would help:

Then again, maybe not.

I don't know if I've ever suffered writer's/musician's block as such, so I don't know if this helps, but I've switched disciplines a fair bit over the years ... painting, music, writing, crafts. As long as my creative energies are channelled somewhere I'm generally content, so when I grow a little stale in one I can pick up one of  the other's with renewed interest. Therefore I'm not overly concerned that I've only written one piece of music in the past 4 years - I've written a novel and taught myself airbrushing in that time. Still, I hope I do return to painting with sound sometime, it's enormous fun.

Edited by Dean - December 24 2009 at 12:10

I don't really get blocks, I'm just a perfectionist. In the actual composition of the song, I often begin to doubt myself and start again. Or I'm not playing the instrumental parts perfectly. It's slow, and out of many ideas I've never finished one. Things often get in the way.

Tengent wrote: I've felt I've lost my mojo. Recently I've been working on a few prog songs simultaneously and I cannot further them. Thinking about it now, each one of these songs could fit into a different genre of prog (Canterbury Scene, heavy prog, experimental, etc..). I've also been listening to less prog rock and more acoustic, celtic influenced works by Led Zeppelin and Sandy Denny. A week ago I was absolutely obsessed with Soft Machine. Could these contrasts spike a creative block? I wish I could simply merge all of my influences into one giant fusion. I'm sure if I find a band our ideas will work together. How do you deal with your musician's block?

It's true that working with a band will help your situation. On a personal note, I find it interesting that you mention the acoustic work of Jimmy Page. His acoustic playing is impeccable. To be honest, his electric playing sounds horrible. There should not in fact be a contrast contributing to a creative block. Keep listening as you are. It's good for the soul. If you ever decide to write a jazz/fusion record, it is perfectly fine to reveal some of your influences in your composition. Just as long as it's not too much of a walk down the Soft Machine memory lane. Try to remember that excerpts of prog-folk songs include jazz progressions and solos. Everything can be a mixed bag regarding texture and style of composition. For example, there is folk and fusion in the writing style of Conventum. A blend of both but with Conventum's own original approach. Another good piece of advice is not to be intimidated by prog writers and players. Wipe your mind completely of all outside influences and concentrate on what you specifically want in a song or piece. One frustrating reality is to get pegged. I was pigeon holed as sounding like Anthony Phillips and Steve Hackett back in 2004 when I networked my cd about lighthouses. Where my cd "China" sounds more like jazz/fusion or my "Arrival of Nightmares" is placed in the Tangerine Dream/Fripp mode. Which ever one of your cd's gets the most attention will bring people to a conclusion as to what type of a player you are. Sometimes it's depressing when people peg you as a great acoustic player but can't seem to identify you in the jazz/fusion realm. How can you defend or explain yourself without looking bad? You are the musician. What are you suppose to do? Say something stupied and pathetic like.....Oh, I play jazz too? Keep listening to your wide spectrum of musical tastes. It's very good education for you and keep an open mind about the things in which you may not be a hundred percent in performing. When I was 17 years old, I wrote an instrumental piece that was placed on the shelf for about 30 years because I simply could not find a place or time for it. In recent years I re-recorded it and it turned out quite nicely. This could happen to you as well. Expectations can sometimes be a twisted nightmare of events. Hang in there and take your sweet time when confronting issues such as these. Good Luck to you and all you do!