Musicians are susceptible to writer
Writer's block is something which hits hard in the literary department, but producers and composers are not immune either. I'll start this article off with a quick throw-back to the past to try and analyze this epidemic which can hinder your creative genius. I know a lot of people on the site have gone through the same ordeal, so I thought I would try to lay out my thoughts in a concise manner and maybe help some merging talent overcome this disease. When I stared off on iDJ as a producer, nearly three years ago - with five years of "the game" under the belt - I was still just an amateur producer trying to leave my mark. I was dropping about a track a week. It was easy, I used loops and tons of samples, just trying to find my way. I stumbled upon FL Studio in 2000 (then Fruity Loops 3) by accident, but I always loved listening to music and trying my hand at producing it was a logical next step. I listened to mostly mainstream rock and mainstream hip-hop. I got tired of hearing music on the radio and purchasing tapes I only half-liked, so I set out to make music the way I wanted to hear it. Life was good, I was pumping out fresh material all the time and never looked back... Fast forward a few years later. I was getting some great feedback (not necessarily positive always) from iDJ ancients such as Mason, ZXX, Farace, Siberski, Phoakis, Whiz, and Robin, just to name a few. I worked on improving my style, which I never thought was so raw until I joined the site. Ideas were flowing and I was changing the way that I wanted to hear music, on my own! The more I worked on improving my style and the more I took in critique from iDJ members, friends, and others in the music community, the more I became obsessed with making every track 100% better than the last. The loops went, as did samples, I started trying to really learn about VSTs, and other useful software which was readily available at my fingertips. The more I focused on improving my sound, the more critical I became of my productions. In the beginning of my production "career" I found myself working on 3-5 loops a day, and producing/realizing about one of twenty projects I was working on. Eventually I came to a point where I found myself more in tune with how things should sound, and I was making loops which I enjoyed hearing more, but I also found myself lacking the adventurous creativity which I experienced before. It was a coming-of-age story for me. I was feeling better about the overall project templates which I was creating, but they just stopped seeming quite as good and catchy to me as the did before. I found myself in a place where I could recollect producing a full track or more per week, but I was now down to working on music less, and thinking a lot harder about what I was doing. None of the new music I listened to was inspiring me at this point, and I couldn't figure out why. Was it the fact that my life has majorly changed in the last five years? Maybe so. Was it the fact that I wasn't going out and being as active in the dance/electronic music community as before? Maybe so. It all came down to me feeling like I wasn't doing as good of a job producing up to my full 100%, feeling like my mixdowns were weak, or that my melodies weren't as catchy. Its a hard thing for an artist to go through. So, jumping the gun a bit, let's get to the meat of it, the real solutions... How did Stella get her groove back, in this case? If you are feeling like you need inspiration for your productions, just look around! I mean that in all seriousness. Most ideas seem to generate, for me - at least - from life experience... Go to a club, meet a hot chick, or guy, see if a little romance won't lift up your spirits and bring about adventure. Try to think back to when you were feeling creative. What did you do? What were you listening to? What did you eat? How much were you drinking? You can also break the cycle by branching out your music knowledge and experience. Hate Classical? Sit th…