photo by fhashemi
You Might not have an Idea Every Day.
There will be times during your songwriting career when you don’t seem to have anything visionary to share.
Such times can be unnerving. Many of us just don’t feel like ourselves unless we’re writing something. I used to be that way: pressuring myself to create something amazing every hour, out-do myself every day.
My ambitions remain high, but I’ve learned to recognize downtime. If I wake up in the morning feeling pessimistic or frustrated, it’s usually best if I adjust my expectations to the day. And if I really, really don’t feel like sitting down with a notebook, I don’t.
There’s no shortage of ideas in the world. Remember that you always have the choice to write something. When you feel blocked, I recommend changing your internal dialogue from “I can’t write anything!” to a much calmer “What will I write about next?” Allow that question to linger for as long as it needs to. In the meantime, continue to search your own memories, your own feelings, and your surroundings for ideas.
Low-Impact Exercises for the Mind
Writing is not primarily done on paper anyway—it happens in the mind. Writing is just the act of recording a stream of thought that you’d like to replicate—either in your own brain or in the brain of a friend.
Here are some enjoyable, low-impact exercises that will strengthen and stimulate all the various muscles that writing requires.
Remember: you will write again. You’re just taking a break. Embrace it.
1. Just sit, observe, and enjoy. Go to a quiet public place, like a cafe or a park, and settle in with a hot drink. Hopefully, if there’s any music at all, they’ll have some instrumental music playing. Just sit, enjoy the beverage, and watch the world go by.
I find it helps, for psychological reasons, to keep any writing materials out of my immediate field of vision—certainly not on the table in front of me. Songwriters often develop a hyper-sensitive Song Idea Radar. Turn down the volume on that. It’s okay to experience the world without constantly raking it for song scraps.
2. Read for pleasure. As above, but bring along a novel, some poetry, or some nonfiction. You write because you enjoy good writing, remember? If you’ve been working hard, you may have almost forgotten that. Take a little time to drink in some words.
3. Listen to Music. I recommend jazz or classical, but that’s just my preference—listening to songs with lyrics can be stressful for me when I’m trying to relax. I can rarely listen to lyrics without revising and improving the text in my mind.
With or without words, there are lots of exciting genres and approaches to hear out there, with or without words. Try some ambient music, some surf guitar, Afghani rubab ragas, violin concertos, free jazz, or solo piano compositions, for starters. For bonus points, go find something to hear live.
4. Learn your instrument. Learn some new chords, progressions, or scales. Sit down with a favorite artist’s recordings and figure out the melodies that appeal to you. Learn to play in a whole new style. Play some technical exercises. Whatever you do, you’ll be better for it.
5. Study theory. What better time to work on your skills with reading and writing sheet music, or to get under the hood and take a look at the math underlying the music?
6. Sharpen your technical skills. On days when you don’t feel like writing a song, you may feel more inclined to settle in with a good songwriting book and learn your craft. Musicians often take it for granted that they need to practice, study, and work hard to improve. Such technical work ethic is much rarer among songwriters, but it’s even more important. Read everything you can about metaphor, simile, storytelling, and poetry. Poetry is a distinct art in its own right, but lots of the technical aspects apply equally to lyric writing.
7. Go for a walk or meditate. Anything that quiets your mind makes it that much more likely that you’ll hear the quiet artistic voice within yourself. There’s a lot of self-knowledge and world knowledge that you and I bury daily under the flurry of mundane activity that is a typical day. Don’t bury it today—spend time alone with one ear turned inward.
7. Write. I know this seems ridiculous—isn’t this what we’ve been trying to escape from all this time?
Well, you don’t have to write a song, and you don’t have to write anything of great consequence. The important thing is just to do an exercise or two for fun, and to keep your writing muscles strong. That’s all.
What’d I Miss?
What do you do on days when you don’t feel like working on any new or existing songs?
Related Articles
- Getting the Most out of Your Practice and Writing Time
- Bust out of a Rut with Creative Self-Sabotage
- Case Study: How I Quit my Day Job
—
Nicholas Tozier is an independent singer, songwriter, private music instructor, blogger, and instructor at Ampersand Academy of Dance & the Performing arts centered in Gardiner, Maine. His first album, A Game with Shifting Mirrors, is slated for self-release in Fall 2010.