I´ve been trying this: as soon as you wake up in the morning don´t look at your phone, don´t get breakfast, don´t talk to anyone, don´t even leave the room, just grab your instrument and play something in that state of mind between your sleep and awakeness. It works for me!
As a lifelong writer and now retired writing instructor, I'm glad you talked about bringing a sense of play to your writing/composing. As you note in your example, you still have a purpose (pretending to be the X-Men) but you aren't holding yourself to any restrictions on how that works out. The blank paper or tape can be intimidating, but it won't be blank long if you just start. I'd tell students that it's OK if you even just put down "I can't think of anything" over and over, because your mind will soon get bored with that and you can just continue with whatever train of thought that emerges, no matter how silly or angry or whatever. The biggest hurdle often is the desire that what comes at the start of the process should somehow be perfect. But the "polish" comes much later -- the first stage, the creating, is the fun part and needs to be fun (though others may not see the fun in it). Your own delight in playing with words or notes is what will sustain you and get you past the blocks.
What I like to do when I get stuck is is keep at it with extreme frustration, advance at an unimaginably slow speed, work on things till some very late hours until I'm finally satisfied, wake up the next morning and say wtf is this crap, erase everything and start over again, rinse and repeat, and that's how I write one song in one year (sometimes six).
1. Use a mode (ionian, harmonic..., locrian,etc) you're not used to. bring new open chords voicing and open new harmonies. 2. Brian Eno Oblique strategies. Cards created to change you ideas and approach to a composition, a recording session, etc. You can also make your own. 3. Insert a key change, add an odd chord. 4. try different effects ( chorus delay, pitch, fuzz) 5. Try a new musical style ( country, 80's metal, funk,...). You'll learn new patterns, chords prog. and ambiences that you can then incorporate into new music. ( Country death metal is never gonna work!) 6. quit making music for a couple of days. do something else. A good clean break always makes me feel more focused and creative.
This was great, thanks for the ideas. Sometimes the biggest road block for me is finding a topic or subject matter to write about. Years ago this was exactly my problem. I remembered a video I saw on NPR’s channel, a show called Project Song. They invited songwriters into a studio and gave them a list of words and a few photographs. The artist then picked one of each and then had a day to create a song based around that one word and one photo. I got a songwriting friend to send me a selection of words and pictures and I tried the experiment myself. The end result was one of my favorite creations. Limitations and/or guidelines can sometimes bring us into focus and put needed pressure on the creative part of our brain. Thanks again!
Dude! This video contains some of the most freeing wisdom I’ve ever heard. “Some of my creations are inch-worms” that completely freed my creativity. To be free to create the micro and the macro. Thank you!
I first met my wife when we were in college in a studio recording class and the professor brought up Brian Eno's Oblique strategies. Over winter break, she found a list of them and made flash cards for every one of them using pictures she cut out of magazines and some old thank you cards she found at a thrift store. We found them in a box when we moved a few years back and now have them on display above our records and record player. I should put them up in my little office/makeshift music room as a reminder of how awesome young love is, and how nurturing and amazing she is.
Two things that have helped me is playing a classical guitar (different feel, different writing) and since I set up an arcade room where I record I put in black lights. The different lighting helps create a different writing environment
Super useful stuff - and building a nice community too 😁, thanks Nick. It's good to be reminded that there are tools and methods to get out of any hole that we end up in!
Start a side-project. Something dumb and just for fun. Allow yourself to be almost another character, writing what you'd never allow yourself to write under your own name. My own band has now got a second band on the side because I've become obsessed with fuzz tones and other retro-effects and I'm now writing a bunch of tunes that I don't need to obsess over lyrics for. It's like a circuit-breaker for the brain.
I seem to go through 3 phases. Each phase can last weeks or even 2-3 months. The phases are: 1. Working on guitar or singing technique. 2. Working on tone and recording. 3. Working on writing and creating. I don't love the process but for whatever reason 1 pushes me into 2 and 2 pushes me into 3. Really wish I could live in the creative zone.
I've been stuck on my first song ever, getting discouraged that I don't really know what I'm doing, and this vid made me wanna just try stuff. So thanks.
One of my long time favorite go to albums for helping when feeling stuck or even completely sad and in a funk: STS9 Artifact. I think it's a perfect album. Created by a band from the south over a few years in a very unconventional way. But sounds amazingly vintage and polished at the same time. It was recorded while the band toured non stop and built up an ever evolving repertoire. But this album comes out as a perfect musical artifact. I think everyone should hear this album at least once..as some albums should be heard..from start to finish. It's beautiful. I've been listening to them for nearly 20 years. Still find myself completely taken over by emotions while hearing it play. I thought you might enjoy! Thanks for your videos.. I'm really enjoying!
Cleaning and rearranging the space I write/record in helps a ton. Not only does it make things more aesthetically pleasing, it helps to clear out all the clutter. Both in your workspace as well as your headspace. Another thing that helps me, is any sort of repetitive or mindless task. Anything from washing dishes to grabbing a shovel and just digging a hole. I found out later that has a name, and it's a form of active meditation. Pretty neat stuff, but it's always difficult to make yourself do those things when you're already in that rut.
Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies are good for lifting yourself out of a hole, or just trying to freshen up some ideas if they’re feeling a bit standard or tired.
Thanks Nick. Total relate. I've had a total creative drought over lockdown. Here are a couple of tips that have helped my writing #1) Use a drum/music looper and try out unusual time signatures. Can really help to pull out riffs and ideas. #2) Embrace noodling. Don't think, just become absorbed. Something almost always appears. #3) Embrace the happy accident. Related to #2, I can't count the amount of times unconscious noodling has produced an "odd" chord or "duff" note that ends up in one of my songs #4) Be kind to yourself. Accept your blocks. Accepts your "sub-standard" ideas. Just embrace the journey and work to become the most honest version of you musically (easier said than done I know!) Good luck Nick and thanks again. Best wishes.
My dude, you’re an inspiration to me. Every time I see/hear your stuff, you make me want to put my own stuff out into the void. I love the phrase “give your ideas the dignity of existing.” So meta, yet so true. Thanks.
Hi! Great tips! I really embrace the ‘let the idea exist’ mindset. Especially in the very beginning of noodling brainfarts. Then, after that, for creating full songs, the opposite also works: - being critical about the brainfarts that come along the way. If a brainfart (most of the times just a simple chord progression) works good enough to make it a three-part-brainfart (verse chorus bridge) that you can visualize, and it kinda get’s stuck in the head, then I keep it, work it out. The brainfart also needs to work for a melodie (guitar, voice). If it does not, I keep it for back up idea’s. But most of the times, these are not workable. This means, dare to kill your darlings :p.. - if you have something in your head, try to produce exactly that. The more detailed the song is visualized (before producing) the easier it is to make it. So give yourself time to let a song grow in the head. - if it does not work, it does not work.
Thank you for sharing this aspect of making music. Really useful and informative. Kind of tired of « this is how you make music », but focus on gear, software...kind of videos. I find today the ego is much bigger and louder. When I was 18-19, I could write and record 5 songs in a weekend without much self-criticism. Some of it was bad, but it was fun - the main reason as you say. Great stuff! Keep it up!
Great topic. Figuring it out myself right now too. I need to check out that book. Have considered stream of consciousness writing in a journal. Writing from other instruments is cool. For me, bass or drums are interesting places to write from, to escape my usual guitar-centric focus...
Once again a fantastic episode. Your music is awesome and the production quality so high. Always a pleasure to watch. For me, having an instrument at hand whenever, is what creates songs. I usually very quickly have a song done in raw sketch form. To me, the biggest inhibitor is the production process. Recording tracks and mixing. Especially the latter. I'd love for you to do some shows on that. I have a ton of songs that just exist. I usually record them on the mobile and upload them to Soundcloud... some gets the production treatment later, some never will. One tip I will share is to have a song writing buddy to pingpong stuff off. I have that and between the two of us we have taken more ideas and made songs than I ever would have by myself.
Hi Nick, great episode! Very very relatable... I have been following you on the JHS show...really appreciate how you and Josh are very generous with your insight into getting great sounds. Was very excited to find your solo channel. So question: I really like the drum sound you get and was wondering; when your trying to get levels and tones... do you do that through headphones or do you use monitors? I’m don’t have a lot of recording experience but I’m inspired to see what I can capture with more proper recording techniques and stop just recording things on my phone voice memo app. Thanks!!! -Corbin
What I miss the most is that for the past few years we have our own rehearsal studio... it's our own and we're alone in it.... cool thing is we keep the place clean and it stays clean... Downside is back in the days of sharing a space we would often swap band members and just jam when we happened to have both bands in the studio at the same time. We would also sit in during eachother's rehearsals and the friendly competition that resulted was a great driving force for both bands!!
I have a record that usually pullls me out of a funk. It’s from Moving Mountains and it’s their self titled record. The music inspires me. The vocals are perfect and the production is a perfect marriage to these songs. Couldn’t recommend it enough
You just keep knocking these vids out of the park, Nick! Awesome stuff dude. I haven't been doing much writing recently; not because I was necessarily stuck per se, but life has just been overcome by events as of late. However, I've got the itch and the desire to re-prioritize getting some writing underway once again, so when I head into the studio next I'm going to be thinking about these four items. Lyric writing is my weakest point in music production for me right now, so I'm looking forward to improving that over time. I've, like you, just started to let things get out there; even if I feel like the lyrics are forced or trite, getting them out there versus keeping them in my head and judging them as "not good enough", there's something awesome about just having what once didn't exist now exist because I made it. Thanks Nick!
What a great channel! I love Daniel Johnston, he's one of my favourites since few years now. I think he's music really capture that inner child with tons of creativity. I strongly recommend for you movie "Devil and the Daniel Johnston". It's great movie even if you doesn't care about his music. If you do it's 10/10 must watch
On the alternate tuning bit: A producer in a masterclass I went to recommend even just downtuning one or two strings at random can make a huge difference. It just slightly shifts your mindset & forces you to think and play differently. I do it all the time now. Hell, I tuned my low E to a C, used it as a drone & built one of the songs I'm most proud of around it. It's really interesting how doing something so simple can change so much about your approach.
Oh shit, it's You! You're my favorite part of the JHS show. SUBSCRIBED. *Edit: This is a great video by the way. I'm so often getting in my own way when it comes to creating
Just break all the rules especially musically and be creative, forget what everyone else in the world expects and thinks how it should sound, or how you’re pedals & effects should be set or organised, experiment, do as you feel and if it sounds good to you then just don’t bother what other people think, just because one musician say they do it a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the gospel or we have to do the same, it’d be a fucking very boring world if we did, and if you push and explore the boundaries then I’m pretty certain good things can only come of it. Lastly I hate when guitarists say I don’t like that pedal it doesn’t give me that Hendrix sound or whoever they want their tone to sound exactly like somebody else’s, why would I want to sound exactly like somebody else from the past or present, I am me! An individual with my own ideas and approach and if others don’t like it then I’m not gonna be sad or upset by it, as long as it makes me happy then to me that’s the most important thing. Thank you Nick loving your tapes, thoughts and ideas, keep it up, all the best Steve ‘The Dead Xtra’s’ Manchester, England, UK.
Hey man, this was great, and I really really dinged that last song! That is such a great idea, something I like doing is giving myself limitations, maybe it’s only a certain number of tracks like 8 or 16.. maybe limiting what instruments you use, only use a 4 track cassette deck for a fully fleshed out demo, and also combining limits too!
Really great episode about the writing process. I have been looking for more info about this, and this was just what I was looking for. I also use the method of just singing and playing random stuff into one microphone and I pick ideas from that, that sounds cool. I really liked your playing and singing👍 I'm a new follower cheers from Norway Steinar Ytrehus 🇳🇴
I'm just starting to watch this Nick, but I'm going to chime in -- I always, ALWAYS, come up with something new (a riff, melody, or some type of song seed) when I set out to learn five new songs. Doesn't matter how challenging or complicated. I let myself run down the rabbit hole for a little bit and make sure to record (like you, voice memo is great for capturing), but I always go back to learning the five songs before I plant the seed and try to complete the song. BTW....I've written hundreds of horrible songs with only a few good ones popping out.
Great approach to a difficult topic. Teaching visual art I talk about this a lot with my students, and I’ll definitely share this video with my classes (congrats Nick, you’re homework now). Some artists who are really great with regards to not waiting on inspiration/getting unstuck that I like to share are Lynda Barry and Corita Kent. “The Triggering Town” by Richard Hugo is also a good read.
The animation at 8:00 was great. I'm a fan of your music, but your graphic art/editing chops both here and on the JHS Show are pretty impressive. "He has the box" is burned into my brain, and it's your fault. Just wanted to add: being a sideman and serving someone else's vision has really helped me keep things new.
I have a different problem. I record roughly some ideas, riffs, guitar parts. And have more than 50 of these recordings but i don’t develop any of these. So since i can spend months without playing those parts I can’t play that. Sometimes i listen to something and think: hey! That is cool! I just did not remember that. So i guess time to rest this idea can give us the opportunity to watch it from another perspective also. So i guess I should listen to those ideas and pick one randomly and set a time to finish this song somehow. I like the “fail faster” concept used by the writers of pixar and many others. So you set a time to finish a structure and after that you go back and redesign it many times you think is necessary. I guess sharing with other people can also give those fragments of inspiration a new path.
Hmmm that’s a tough one. I struggle with that as well. I’ve got lots of snippets of ideas here and there. I’m gonna think on this problem a bit. Thanks for sharing.
A double-album worth of riffs, ideas and snippets! Same here. I think that inner critic gets silenced enough for an idea but then comes back and prevents us from going further. « This idea is cool, but nothing to go with it is as cool ».
@@richardleveille3254 i loved the "double album" haha. in the opposite direction when i say, ok mr inner critic, sit down. i will just record anything here to learn to use the daw... then when i see i got plus than 10 tracks but it don't reach a minute and get stuck in this messy wall of noise.
This is great and I was reading the Tweedy book at the same time. I think the "showing up" bit is the most important. Really I love the sweet sincerity of your videos Nick, it's like hanging with a good friend who's super into the same stuff as you. Those new tracks sound fab also. Stay unstuck!
Really appreciate you sharing your perspectives. I found the stream of consciousness bit to be super helpful advice. Love what you did with it. Really appreciate all your creativity here and at JHS .
Man! I didnt plan this. I guess the universe wanted to speak to me through u. Im stuck at the moment, and im not even self helping via youtube to get algorithmed here. Duuude! Wisdomous u are. Thanks a lot!
Hey, I just discovered your channel after being a long time fan of the JHS channel. You have a wonderful style and I’m glad your exploring your own direction so honestly here. I would encourage you to keep going, dive in further and have fun.
Alternate tunings and moving shapes can be great. As for lyrics I have a rule that whenever I get an idea I write it down. Every now and then I compare, sort, discard, compile and save.
Great video Nick! I had this exact problem too, and I think many do. I highly recommend February Album Writing Month (fawm.org) which is a global online challenge to write 14 songs in the 28 days of February. There is so much support and friendship in that community. I've done it for 10 years and the thing it does is push you to move forward and move on quickly, since you need to get a song every two days to get to 14. It sounds insane but it really isn't. If you don't get to 14? No worries - it you get only one, you've finished a new song! People write 'songs' that are complete, just lyrics, full production, raw recordings in front of the laptop. You can collaborate with people all over the world. 10 years of FAWM has truly changed my musical life. Highly recommended - it just pushes you to finish things and move on. You can always come back to tweak things. :)
@@nixtapes7867 - It is just an amazing experience and so much fun. I think you'd really enjoy it. (just make sure to go to fawm.org and NOT dot com - ahem). I put all the stuff I write on FAWM on zecoop.bandcamp.com.
my trick is that if I have no ideas, no inspiration, I change my guitar (LP, tele, jazzmaster, sg... acoustic-nylon guitar), switch pedals (od1, fuzz, dist ...), switch guitar amp (plexi, vox, fener , digital opinions), switch string thickness 9-10-11 ....
Thank You dude, this was really helpful, even if someone knows most of this things, they are really easy to forget and it makes us go down the stuck spiral again and again.. we have to be reminded that there are flints for our creative sparks :) Subbing :)
Brain Vomit is the name of my band! Crazy! We're like a rock/funk/metal/prog/ska/skiffle/jazz/motown/polka fusion band. You will never want to listen to us! Who would?
wow, thanks nick, this was legitimately really cool and helpful. I love the idea of the dignity of just letting the things you make exist-that's a nice balm for the part of me that gets frustrated with a bad idea and just wants to delete everything. It also got me to order that Jeff Tweedy book and pull out my Daniel Johnston tapes, so i'm gonna have a fun afternoon.
I have found that the way I come up with new stuff is radically different depending on what instrument I'm playing. So a lot of times if I'm struggling to come up with something interesting to play on piano I switch over to guitar and then transfer what I got out of the guitar back to piano. That trick works in reverse as well. I'm even now trying to expand into all kinds of instruments because you can hear things in the different timber and tones of various instruments that can be very inspiring.
