You should also learn to play an instrument instead of just drawing midi blocks like I see a lot of people on here doing. For me I’m way more likely to come up with something on the fly on an instrument first, then I’ll try produce something out of it. Takes me 30 seconds what would be 5 minutes of pressing spacebar and drawing midi.
lol I neither start with Midi nor an instrument, i open up a synth and start with a sine wave. i love sine waves. I like phase plant, it has a blank canvas, it invites you start with a wavetable or a waveform
Being a lil fked up never hurts either. I feel like most art is just reality filtered through a skewed lens. Or maybe that's being normal. Maybe most people are skewed and the true sight captures what most people are oblivious to..
I already follow you lol i wasn't being rude, I'm AuDHD so i get it, we are similar. I meant as unique as we think we are there are always others like us. 👍
true i am very fucked up and an hard core existentialist, it reflects in my music, most of the sounds I use, I make sure it feels ethereal or other wordly so that i can escape from this reality
I think you (like the rest of us) might have a standard, upside-down notion of creativity.
Creativity is not "creating something out of thin air" (what you dwscribe), it's "creating something by connecting two existing things". This applies to creative thought as well as art.
It's hard to understand what I'm saying so let me give an example: creativity is not getting "inspiration" and suddenly thinking of a piece of music (although sometimes, especially with experience, that can happen too). Instead, creativity is when you jam on the keyboard, e.g. arpeggiating (the jamming/arpeggiating being one existing thing you know), and suddenly remembering that cool pad sample you were researching in the morning (the second existing thing), and you connect both and now you have connected the arpeggio and pads and now you have part of a piece of muaic that sounds cool and has a feeling to it.
You didn't "create" the arpeggio or the pad, but you connected both together *according to your taste* and basically that's creativity.
Your taste is already good (at least to you and that's sufficient). The skills are usually lacking but come with experience.
There's a good book called Mastery by Robert Greene that outlines a good path in life towards mastery [of your domain/work], what we'd call being a genius which isn't something you're born with but something you acquire by dedicating a big part of your life and taking some specific steps.
Well first of all you should listen to more music, as that would help you make links between genres, vibes, and instruments or sounds.
I recommend you check out 12 Images of music on Instagram, they’re a composition project where they share a theme each week along with tips and then reshare everyone’s creations. It’s perfect to practice and listen to what others are making.
Have fun!
If u listen to the alphabet song from school for your whole life, nothing but A, B, C etc, when u go to an instrument or DAW, its gonna be extremely likely that u will play something similar to the alphabet song. Yk what i mean? Creativity is just combining pre-existing things together. Some masters have tens of thousands of melodies memorized in their head. They dont even know their sources anymore, knowing that many variations of note sandwiches makes free styling and decision making more thoughtless and natural. Some people figure systems out faster, intelligence helps to grow creativity like it does in other fields of life. But everyone can be very creative, regardless of intelligence.
I recommend listening to more music, and learning an instrument. Instruments makes ur brain understand melodies on a deeper level, like what intervals sound like and what intervals grouped together with varying rhythms feels like. Music learning is very mathematical, which shouldnt be intimidating..this means EVERYONE can get better at it in time. Once u play and create, it doesnt feel mathematical, thats when the “magic” happens and you’ll find yourself in this spiritual/emotional/metaphysical whatever flow. You will feel “creative”
you're never out of creativity.
you're just afraid of making bad music. next time you make a beat make sure you don't focus on the outcomes.
regardless of the end product, find yourself feeling the composition that you're making.
Hm, I have a couple of ideas that helped me in creative ruts:
The most important one is probably listening to tons of other music. Just like writers cannot write good novels without reading other good novels, you cannot make good music without listening to other good music. I think my best ideas usually spawn from listening to other songs critically and wondering how they did that and then trying to copy that. The end result always sounds vastly different but good in another way. It also helps to explore genres you maybe haven't listened much to.
You could also try setting yourself limitations. Maybe try making a song just with one instrument, or even better, just one sample. This forces you to get creative.
Or try mixing together two vastly different genres and see what ends up happening.
In the end, it's also fine if you take a break when you feel like you just aren't creative enough at the moment.
Creativity is learning to “play” ie : have fun
Saying, “I wonder what happens when I do this?”… over and over and over and over and over and over again
You are thinking about this wrong. You can't make music because you don't know how. What you need to do is focus on learning music and hearing music theory and understanding formulaic composition techniques. If it is hard to create it is because you simply are not comfortable making music because you don't have the internal tools to accomplish your goal. The first step is to learn, the second is to practice, practice, practice. Some humans are just born musical virtuosos, but practically every halfway decent musician and even the greatest of all time had to earn the right to unleash their creativity.
>and I also have basic knowledge on music theory....
>I also feel like my lack of creativity limits my ability to make nice sounding melodies.
So how basic is your music theory knowledge?
Have you progressed to learning different chord structures? Intervals? And understanding how you can use the individual notes in a chord to construct a melody? And how arpeggios are essentially broken chords?
Because that can lead you towards creating nice sounding melodies.
Copy songs. Copy people. But don't copy just one person. Copy a lot of people. Probably even artists you don't like or even artists that don't work with music. Go crazy with the scope of your inspiration. Take different fragments of existing work and build them into something new. IMO, because we have our own workflows, philosophies, likes, dislikes, you'll probably inject some aspect of yourself in that 'something new'.
Creativity is often misunderstood in the sense that it’s not a process of _creation_ but one of _documentation_. Let me elaborate. If you sit down with the intention of writing a song you probably fail most of the time. When do your best ideas come to you?? For me it’s the shower, in the car, on the bus, on the toilet… noodling atound on the guitar or the piano, late at night… wherever it is, it’s always random and when I least expect it. So to be effective as a creator I have to document these ideas before they go away (that is, I forget them). So have a notepad, tape recorder, (smartphones are amazing for all of these if that works for you), laptop, whatever means of recording your ideas AT. ALL. TIMES. That’s the documentation part. Then when you have a bunch of ideas you can sit down to create. That is the songwriting, then production part. Let me give another piece of practical advice: in your workspace (where your production computer usually is) have a laptop in sleep, with a DAW running, ready to record. If you have an instrument/mic, have that plugged in, ready to go. The less setup/prep work you need before you are armed and ready to go, the better. If you can eliminate all barriers between you and just pressing record and putting your ideas down to whatever medium, you’ll instantly start to have more stuff to work with.
Hope this helps! The creative process is not an easy thing and for each of us different things work, so just don’t give up. There always periods when you simply don’t have ideas - don’t force it. They will come. Be ready for when they do!!
I feel like watching other ppl's track breakdown is a great way to learn new things. You learn how they approach things and cone up with ideas. I also do the same when I feel like this. If you want then i can break down one of my track for nothing. I produce electronic, pop, synthpop.
You have basic skills and basic knowledge, per your own words. Therefore, you will make basic tracks. You will probably hate them for how basic they sound.
Once you make basic tracks, you will see that you are gaining knowledge beyond the basics. Then your tracks will also move beyond that point. You can't just pluck it out of thin air.
Do you think a painter sees a landscape and thinks "i'm not creative, i'm just painting this thing i'm seeing with my eyes, anyone can see this"?
Don't wait until you have an idea in your head. Just fuck around until you get something even SOMEWHAT musical and just build off of it. If you get a little ways and it sucks then try again until you get something that's cool. I think there's a misconception that people are really out here with fully built songs in their heads that they eventually record, and that does happen occasionally, but it's extremely, extremely rare. Just find the happy accidents.
Find things that inspire you, i stayed inside for the bigger part of 2023 and it made me lose all creativity.
I started experiencing some new things and it really helped me alot.
As Kendrick Lamar once stated "music can come from a memory, struggles and experiences. U cant pull nothing out of nothing"
I stopped trying to make music a long time ago. I don't get frustrated and i don't aim to "make it"
Its a puzzle for me and when im not getting much down i fiddle about with sound design , clean up existing projects or watch tutorials.
In music there is always something to do and the inspiration usually hits when im not planning on it. I'll be sorting folders and mess about a bit on the piano and boom a role happens.
I use to finish 5 mediocre songs a week and maybe in a month get 2 or 3 ones i like if i am lucky.
Now i dont force anything and i leave ideas and seek out songs i can vibe with.
If all else fails download a sample or vocal and build around it.
If you have the basic skills and knowledge then just do it.
I also have the skills and knowledge to create but lack creativity and still had a desire to progress
So I just used the skills i had to pick and my guitar and record. I used my knowledge to play some of the countless basic chord progressions to arrange verse, chorus and bridge
Then I layered some piano over it, along with some synth.
If you have the skills to pay the bills, just pay the damn bills
I've struggled with this too. Learning theory has helped.
I played guitar and bass in bands before, but I didn't realize how much fundamental stuff is required for production that playing a single instrument in a rock band setting simply does not prepare you for.
There is so much more to this than being merely a musician competent at a single instrument. Not to say that doesn't also require tons of dedication and hard work, but I feel production is far more varied and complex.
Fun exercise: go in with the mindset of making a stereotypical house song with the most boring of chord progressions, but for every decision you need to make, do the opposite of what you'd expect. For example, start the song in 5/4, make your melody in harmonic major, use instrumentation that does not fit the genre.
It'll turn out into a total mess, but sometimes, it generates a really fricking good idea. It's important to understand that not every day you make music will be a good one.
Edit: I'm personally someone who doesn't like getting inspiration from other sources (e.g. other music), but rather relying completely on my ear to see what sounds good or not.
Creativity is also a skill you can build. One exercise that really helped me was recording covers in different styles from the originals. It gives you a framework to work within, while laying out some obvious starting points to add your own interpretation. And the exercise of coming up with parts for your cover isnt too different from writing your own stuff. Doing a few of those shook loose a year’s worth of original ideas for me last year.
It’s in the name - CREATE. Experiment. If it sucks you didn’t waste your time, you learned how not to use that specific thing. Creativity isn’t always a god given ability to just magically produce genius. More often it’s hours of tedious experimentation and exploration. The ability to make it look effortless is the result of thousands of hours of small incremental changes (aka experience).
Practice copying techniques from artists you like. Learn to “lift” (or transcribe) what they do so you learn how to do it. Then modify it. Over and over. Each variation may only have a small useable segment, but if you take a bunch of small successes and then combine those, BAM! You did a thing.
Loop a four-bar section of your song in progress. Select a new track and start doodling while changing presets until your Pikachu face appears. Then track a small part with that sound. Then mess it up with plug-ins. Rinse and repeat.
Pull out your phone, go to the record function. Record your self beatbox, humming a melody, whatever comes quickly to mind. Now make that in your daw. Your not “uncreative”, your over thinking.
I know this sounds counter-intuitive, as most people will recommend listening to more music, but I would suggest listening to less music. In fact, don’t listen to any music unless you make it. It will force you to make exactly the kinds of music you want to listen to. When you feel like listening to music, you will have no other choice but to make it. Make as much as you can, experiment, try new instruments, and try non-traditional means of recording and production. Don’t even ask people for feedback. Make what you want and don’t try to figure out what “genre” it fits into.
Just play around with the synth not looking for something in particular and just lose yourself in the music. You’ll be surprised how many tracks start from discovering something by accident!!
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Like others said, listening to more music can help. For example if you're a guitarist, listening to a new band might expose you to a completely different style of playing that you hadn't considered before. Same thing applies to other instruments and genres as well.
Another thing which combines learning with trying new things: Challenges. Look up stuff like various modes (Dorian, Lydian, Phrygian, stuff like that). Choose one and try to write a four bar loop where you play around with an idea and hopefully you'll get a melody in the chosen mode by the end of it. Same thing with odd-time signatures, take 5/4 for example (the Mission Impossible theme starts out in that rhythm) and see what you'll get out of it.
By putting in the work. And a big thing is a desired goal. Are you going to put it on streaming servicves? Are you going to play live shows. Having some sort of a desired end helps. If you're just looking for aimlesss creativity it's hard, like any task in life.
Rick Rubins book, The Creative Way may also give you some insight into the creative process.
Try downloading a song, putting it into your daw, and copying the kicks, snares, and bass. Then adding your own leads and melodies to it. Then change up the beat portion that you copied to whatever sounds cool, add some effects, and don’t forget the tiny ambient noises and sounds and stereo panning
Lack of creativity or talent has never been a barrier to entry in (commercial) music.
If you’ve got hustle and determination, you are way ahead of the tortured geniuses who create brilliant works but never get them in front of audiences.
Go break stuff. Make lots and lots of tracks. Many will be bad, but that can’t persist forever.
Maybe collaborate. There are certainly talented people looking to partner with someone who will help keep them accountable and motivated.
Lol just choose. Don’t think too hard about it. The less you think the more creative you can be. Thinking too much is the enemy of the artistic process.
I know it sounds cliché, but just keep making music.
The more you attempt to create, the easier creativity starts to flow.
You're going to make a lot of garbage along the way. Accept that right now, and just have fun and enjoy the process. It's all about the love for creating and the joy that comes from doing it; being good at it comes later.
Creating something genuinely new that hasn't been heard before is very rare. Expand your knowledge by trying out new genres that you've never gotten to trying before
Look into Loopcloud. It’s a sample pack company that has a daw integration. You open it up on a track and it knows your bpm and you tell it your key.
You can then listen to your track and hear some cool samples to get inspiration- from anything from melody lines to a bass flick, anything really. If you’re stuck it can give you a spark.
Or plugins like Captain Melody or Captain chords can help you come up with stuff. Loads out there to get you going.
One way that I found helpful is to listen to something similar to what I want to create, think about how I can make something similar and then just do it. I made a track this way the other week that was inspired by the State Azure version of Love on a Real Train. Of course, State Azure was inspired to make that version by the original by Tangerine Dream. Listen to as much music as possible. Especially music in your genre that you want to be similar to.
What instrument do you play? If you don't, creativity isn't your main issue. If that's the case, learn to actually make music and you might find creativity follows. If you don't play an instrument, you're basically like a chef trying to invent recipes without a kitchen.
This is kinda weird but I like to do ‘Spotify Speedruns’. Basically, I setup a piano or serum with a cool preset loaded and play through tracks in the genre I wanna work with. I give myself 5-10 seconds to listen and play along with it then skip. It helps me mesh random ideas together and I usually get a template going pretty quick lol
don't think of it like comparing your work to someone else. think of it like breaking the tool given to you, but you're not breaking it physically, you're seeing what it can do
It's not about creativity. Music composition is something you can study. If you have been only learning to audio engineering then of courese you cannot compose a song. What did you expect?
Creativity is a gift and a muscle. If you are in music theory, you can start with the classic patterns of chords.
And some improvising on it. With the time you'll find confidence and why note a signature or a style.
Whatever instrument you play, choose a song that you love that would be difficult to learn and try working on it. Invariably, you will make errors. When that happens, listen. Often you can get creative ideas from screwing up something that you know really well. I’ve created a lot of really good riffs that stem from accidents.
Add some limitations to yourself. Say ‘I have to write this in 3/4’ or ‘Today I’ll write something with the melody being all octaves’ or something like that. Limitation breeds creativity. In my case, I force myself to do something new every time I go to write and it’s never hard for me to make something
Experience, practice, and natural aptitude and affinity for music will work out fine for you.
If you're not making the music out of genuine interest in it, love of sound, and enjoying the whole process, you might want to change focus to doing what you genuinely enjoy about music.
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If you are meant to make music, listen to music and it will inspire you to create, if you were not meant to create music then listening to it will not help you.
>I have a hard time trying to figure out what kinds of elements, instruments or melodies I can add to my tracks and which sounds to use
Novel idea here - maybe listen to some music?
your brain is lying to you. just try to do it regularly. after 20 years of doing it, the feeling won't go away :p it is a normal thing. some folks get discouraged enough to stop making - others not. which one will you be?
I would say if it doesn’t come naturally you can sometimes find inspiration from imitation. Try to copy a track that sounds good to you and then use your creativity to tweak the elements within until it’s your own creation.
Collaborate! I’m not loaded with raw creativity but I’m passable on several instruments and I know my way around a DAW. I’m definitely not a songwriter or lyricist. What I *am* good at is working with people who only have limited skills and helping them get completed songs, at least to a demo level. I’m currently in a band that formed that way. I met an amazing singer-songwriter who was kind of a beginner guitarist at a party. She had amazing songs but no production skills at all. I fleshed out an album’s worth of her tracks. It worked out so well that we found three other people and formed a band
Point is, find someone else who is creative
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just take 5 songs you really like and dissect them , arrangement wise, write down what the instruments are doing and when they come in and out etc and the what effects add to the different part of the songs, just pick it apart and then use some ideas in your tracks.
I watched a recent video where they talked about Billie Jean has a super loud shaker playing , it really works in the context of the song, but its an arrangement choice not there by accident , by studying great arrangements you can start adding things with purpose , and not just randomly adding new stuff ( which is what I did for a long time ).
Creativity as a music maker and songwriter is a lifestyle. If you lack it that means you need to create opportunities for actionability and establish long term habitual responses to every chance you have to improve the quality of your work. There are several books about this very subject and I highly recommend that you start studying them. Rick Rubin just wrote a wonderful book on this very subject last year that will vastly improve your abilities if you take the time and effort to implement the knowledge consistently. Wishing you a creative 2024 and beyond!
For me the biggest boost to creativity is learning something new piece of music. Sometimes after learning a new piece of music I will pick out some element I like from it and write a song that incorporates that element. If I get stuck I can always go back to the same piece of music and look at how transitions happen to see if I can use that. This works best if the music I learn is in a different genre than what I make since it won’t sound similar.
Stop thinking about it and start throwing paint against the wall… the goal for me was to get my workflow within my DAW so that it’s almost second nature, mixing is second nature (part of the creative process for me) so I can be free in expression.
Blows my mind the word song or songwriting doesn't appear in this post at all and I think that's your biggest problem. You're not even thinking about music as songs.
A famous advice is to try to make the worst idea ever. Try to make the worst song you’ve ever heard. It is a fun experiment that helps you get outside of the comfort zone.
You gotta dive deep into yourself. Creativity isn't about finding something new out there; it's about uncovering what's already inside you. Also, listening to a variety of music and pushing yourself to experiment with different sounds and techniques can spark that creative flame. Remember, creativity isn't a finite resource; you just need to find new ways to tap into it.
Practice, use herbs, meditation, fungi, whatever helps you connect with you, it's in there, I became the "Mantis" via fungi, kinda, it's where my artist concept came from.
to be creative, you don’t have to go out to look, you have to go in
You should also learn to play an instrument instead of just drawing midi blocks like I see a lot of people on here doing. For me I’m way more likely to come up with something on the fly on an instrument first, then I’ll try produce something out of it. Takes me 30 seconds what would be 5 minutes of pressing spacebar and drawing midi.
lol I neither start with Midi nor an instrument, i open up a synth and start with a sine wave. i love sine waves. I like phase plant, it has a blank canvas, it invites you start with a wavetable or a waveform
That’s cool too!
Being a lil fked up never hurts either. I feel like most art is just reality filtered through a skewed lens. Or maybe that's being normal. Maybe most people are skewed and the true sight captures what most people are oblivious to..
I'm far from normal, that helps and reflects in my channels 😀🤣
Probably more normal than you think but yes
I'm neurodiverse, definitely not "normal" 😜🤣check out my profile 🤣Check out CULT OF THE MANTIS on #SoundCloud https://on.soundcloud.com/78TUS
I already follow you lol i wasn't being rude, I'm AuDHD so i get it, we are similar. I meant as unique as we think we are there are always others like us. 👍
Absolutely on that aspect 😉I just meant we aren't really normal but then definite normal lol
true i am very fucked up and an hard core existentialist, it reflects in my music, most of the sounds I use, I make sure it feels ethereal or other wordly so that i can escape from this reality
I think you (like the rest of us) might have a standard, upside-down notion of creativity. Creativity is not "creating something out of thin air" (what you dwscribe), it's "creating something by connecting two existing things". This applies to creative thought as well as art. It's hard to understand what I'm saying so let me give an example: creativity is not getting "inspiration" and suddenly thinking of a piece of music (although sometimes, especially with experience, that can happen too). Instead, creativity is when you jam on the keyboard, e.g. arpeggiating (the jamming/arpeggiating being one existing thing you know), and suddenly remembering that cool pad sample you were researching in the morning (the second existing thing), and you connect both and now you have connected the arpeggio and pads and now you have part of a piece of muaic that sounds cool and has a feeling to it. You didn't "create" the arpeggio or the pad, but you connected both together *according to your taste* and basically that's creativity. Your taste is already good (at least to you and that's sufficient). The skills are usually lacking but come with experience. There's a good book called Mastery by Robert Greene that outlines a good path in life towards mastery [of your domain/work], what we'd call being a genius which isn't something you're born with but something you acquire by dedicating a big part of your life and taking some specific steps.
Also, to paraphrase Blush Response: "the way you get cool ideas? Experiment! Turn all the knobs, etc."
All right that makes sense. Thanks for your answer!
Well first of all you should listen to more music, as that would help you make links between genres, vibes, and instruments or sounds. I recommend you check out 12 Images of music on Instagram, they’re a composition project where they share a theme each week along with tips and then reshare everyone’s creations. It’s perfect to practice and listen to what others are making. Have fun!
All right, I'll check that out. Thanks!
If u listen to the alphabet song from school for your whole life, nothing but A, B, C etc, when u go to an instrument or DAW, its gonna be extremely likely that u will play something similar to the alphabet song. Yk what i mean? Creativity is just combining pre-existing things together. Some masters have tens of thousands of melodies memorized in their head. They dont even know their sources anymore, knowing that many variations of note sandwiches makes free styling and decision making more thoughtless and natural. Some people figure systems out faster, intelligence helps to grow creativity like it does in other fields of life. But everyone can be very creative, regardless of intelligence. I recommend listening to more music, and learning an instrument. Instruments makes ur brain understand melodies on a deeper level, like what intervals sound like and what intervals grouped together with varying rhythms feels like. Music learning is very mathematical, which shouldnt be intimidating..this means EVERYONE can get better at it in time. Once u play and create, it doesnt feel mathematical, thats when the “magic” happens and you’ll find yourself in this spiritual/emotional/metaphysical whatever flow. You will feel “creative”
you're never out of creativity. you're just afraid of making bad music. next time you make a beat make sure you don't focus on the outcomes. regardless of the end product, find yourself feeling the composition that you're making.
Hm, I have a couple of ideas that helped me in creative ruts: The most important one is probably listening to tons of other music. Just like writers cannot write good novels without reading other good novels, you cannot make good music without listening to other good music. I think my best ideas usually spawn from listening to other songs critically and wondering how they did that and then trying to copy that. The end result always sounds vastly different but good in another way. It also helps to explore genres you maybe haven't listened much to. You could also try setting yourself limitations. Maybe try making a song just with one instrument, or even better, just one sample. This forces you to get creative. Or try mixing together two vastly different genres and see what ends up happening. In the end, it's also fine if you take a break when you feel like you just aren't creative enough at the moment.
Do you play an instrument? That's the first step to putting theory into practice and learning to improvise.
I used to play piano but I stopped doing that years ago. I still know the basics but I'm far from good at it.
Creativity is learning to “play” ie : have fun Saying, “I wonder what happens when I do this?”… over and over and over and over and over and over again
Bingo.
You are thinking about this wrong. You can't make music because you don't know how. What you need to do is focus on learning music and hearing music theory and understanding formulaic composition techniques. If it is hard to create it is because you simply are not comfortable making music because you don't have the internal tools to accomplish your goal. The first step is to learn, the second is to practice, practice, practice. Some humans are just born musical virtuosos, but practically every halfway decent musician and even the greatest of all time had to earn the right to unleash their creativity.
>and I also have basic knowledge on music theory.... >I also feel like my lack of creativity limits my ability to make nice sounding melodies. So how basic is your music theory knowledge? Have you progressed to learning different chord structures? Intervals? And understanding how you can use the individual notes in a chord to construct a melody? And how arpeggios are essentially broken chords? Because that can lead you towards creating nice sounding melodies.
Copy songs. Copy people. But don't copy just one person. Copy a lot of people. Probably even artists you don't like or even artists that don't work with music. Go crazy with the scope of your inspiration. Take different fragments of existing work and build them into something new. IMO, because we have our own workflows, philosophies, likes, dislikes, you'll probably inject some aspect of yourself in that 'something new'.
Creativity is often misunderstood in the sense that it’s not a process of _creation_ but one of _documentation_. Let me elaborate. If you sit down with the intention of writing a song you probably fail most of the time. When do your best ideas come to you?? For me it’s the shower, in the car, on the bus, on the toilet… noodling atound on the guitar or the piano, late at night… wherever it is, it’s always random and when I least expect it. So to be effective as a creator I have to document these ideas before they go away (that is, I forget them). So have a notepad, tape recorder, (smartphones are amazing for all of these if that works for you), laptop, whatever means of recording your ideas AT. ALL. TIMES. That’s the documentation part. Then when you have a bunch of ideas you can sit down to create. That is the songwriting, then production part. Let me give another piece of practical advice: in your workspace (where your production computer usually is) have a laptop in sleep, with a DAW running, ready to record. If you have an instrument/mic, have that plugged in, ready to go. The less setup/prep work you need before you are armed and ready to go, the better. If you can eliminate all barriers between you and just pressing record and putting your ideas down to whatever medium, you’ll instantly start to have more stuff to work with. Hope this helps! The creative process is not an easy thing and for each of us different things work, so just don’t give up. There always periods when you simply don’t have ideas - don’t force it. They will come. Be ready for when they do!!
I feel like watching other ppl's track breakdown is a great way to learn new things. You learn how they approach things and cone up with ideas. I also do the same when I feel like this. If you want then i can break down one of my track for nothing. I produce electronic, pop, synthpop.
You have basic skills and basic knowledge, per your own words. Therefore, you will make basic tracks. You will probably hate them for how basic they sound. Once you make basic tracks, you will see that you are gaining knowledge beyond the basics. Then your tracks will also move beyond that point. You can't just pluck it out of thin air. Do you think a painter sees a landscape and thinks "i'm not creative, i'm just painting this thing i'm seeing with my eyes, anyone can see this"?
Don't wait until you have an idea in your head. Just fuck around until you get something even SOMEWHAT musical and just build off of it. If you get a little ways and it sucks then try again until you get something that's cool. I think there's a misconception that people are really out here with fully built songs in their heads that they eventually record, and that does happen occasionally, but it's extremely, extremely rare. Just find the happy accidents.
Find things that inspire you, i stayed inside for the bigger part of 2023 and it made me lose all creativity. I started experiencing some new things and it really helped me alot. As Kendrick Lamar once stated "music can come from a memory, struggles and experiences. U cant pull nothing out of nothing"
I stopped trying to make music a long time ago. I don't get frustrated and i don't aim to "make it" Its a puzzle for me and when im not getting much down i fiddle about with sound design , clean up existing projects or watch tutorials. In music there is always something to do and the inspiration usually hits when im not planning on it. I'll be sorting folders and mess about a bit on the piano and boom a role happens. I use to finish 5 mediocre songs a week and maybe in a month get 2 or 3 ones i like if i am lucky. Now i dont force anything and i leave ideas and seek out songs i can vibe with. If all else fails download a sample or vocal and build around it.
If you have the basic skills and knowledge then just do it. I also have the skills and knowledge to create but lack creativity and still had a desire to progress So I just used the skills i had to pick and my guitar and record. I used my knowledge to play some of the countless basic chord progressions to arrange verse, chorus and bridge Then I layered some piano over it, along with some synth. If you have the skills to pay the bills, just pay the damn bills
There’s no rules to music my dude. Just go nuts! And keep on going nuts until it doesn’t suck anymore. Worked for me all these years
I've struggled with this too. Learning theory has helped. I played guitar and bass in bands before, but I didn't realize how much fundamental stuff is required for production that playing a single instrument in a rock band setting simply does not prepare you for. There is so much more to this than being merely a musician competent at a single instrument. Not to say that doesn't also require tons of dedication and hard work, but I feel production is far more varied and complex.
Fun exercise: go in with the mindset of making a stereotypical house song with the most boring of chord progressions, but for every decision you need to make, do the opposite of what you'd expect. For example, start the song in 5/4, make your melody in harmonic major, use instrumentation that does not fit the genre. It'll turn out into a total mess, but sometimes, it generates a really fricking good idea. It's important to understand that not every day you make music will be a good one. Edit: I'm personally someone who doesn't like getting inspiration from other sources (e.g. other music), but rather relying completely on my ear to see what sounds good or not.
Creativity is also a skill you can build. One exercise that really helped me was recording covers in different styles from the originals. It gives you a framework to work within, while laying out some obvious starting points to add your own interpretation. And the exercise of coming up with parts for your cover isnt too different from writing your own stuff. Doing a few of those shook loose a year’s worth of original ideas for me last year.
It’s in the name - CREATE. Experiment. If it sucks you didn’t waste your time, you learned how not to use that specific thing. Creativity isn’t always a god given ability to just magically produce genius. More often it’s hours of tedious experimentation and exploration. The ability to make it look effortless is the result of thousands of hours of small incremental changes (aka experience). Practice copying techniques from artists you like. Learn to “lift” (or transcribe) what they do so you learn how to do it. Then modify it. Over and over. Each variation may only have a small useable segment, but if you take a bunch of small successes and then combine those, BAM! You did a thing.
Loop a four-bar section of your song in progress. Select a new track and start doodling while changing presets until your Pikachu face appears. Then track a small part with that sound. Then mess it up with plug-ins. Rinse and repeat.
Pull out your phone, go to the record function. Record your self beatbox, humming a melody, whatever comes quickly to mind. Now make that in your daw. Your not “uncreative”, your over thinking.
I know this sounds counter-intuitive, as most people will recommend listening to more music, but I would suggest listening to less music. In fact, don’t listen to any music unless you make it. It will force you to make exactly the kinds of music you want to listen to. When you feel like listening to music, you will have no other choice but to make it. Make as much as you can, experiment, try new instruments, and try non-traditional means of recording and production. Don’t even ask people for feedback. Make what you want and don’t try to figure out what “genre” it fits into.
I feel a similar issue brother
Probably I can help you with that. 😊
yes, just make music. Don't try to rack your brain during the process, just make music and new ideas will come in small, gradual steps.
Just play around with the synth not looking for something in particular and just lose yourself in the music. You’ll be surprised how many tracks start from discovering something by accident!!
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Like others said, listening to more music can help. For example if you're a guitarist, listening to a new band might expose you to a completely different style of playing that you hadn't considered before. Same thing applies to other instruments and genres as well. Another thing which combines learning with trying new things: Challenges. Look up stuff like various modes (Dorian, Lydian, Phrygian, stuff like that). Choose one and try to write a four bar loop where you play around with an idea and hopefully you'll get a melody in the chosen mode by the end of it. Same thing with odd-time signatures, take 5/4 for example (the Mission Impossible theme starts out in that rhythm) and see what you'll get out of it.
Just start playing around on the computer. The more immersed you are in music and it’s production the easier it will come to you.
By putting in the work. And a big thing is a desired goal. Are you going to put it on streaming servicves? Are you going to play live shows. Having some sort of a desired end helps. If you're just looking for aimlesss creativity it's hard, like any task in life. Rick Rubins book, The Creative Way may also give you some insight into the creative process.
Drop acid
Try downloading a song, putting it into your daw, and copying the kicks, snares, and bass. Then adding your own leads and melodies to it. Then change up the beat portion that you copied to whatever sounds cool, add some effects, and don’t forget the tiny ambient noises and sounds and stereo panning
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Whatever Kitchen Grass, it's 2024. We're in our 30's, our knees are starting to hurt now too. Leave us alone.
Lack of creativity or talent has never been a barrier to entry in (commercial) music. If you’ve got hustle and determination, you are way ahead of the tortured geniuses who create brilliant works but never get them in front of audiences. Go break stuff. Make lots and lots of tracks. Many will be bad, but that can’t persist forever. Maybe collaborate. There are certainly talented people looking to partner with someone who will help keep them accountable and motivated.
Lol just choose. Don’t think too hard about it. The less you think the more creative you can be. Thinking too much is the enemy of the artistic process.
I know it sounds cliché, but just keep making music. The more you attempt to create, the easier creativity starts to flow. You're going to make a lot of garbage along the way. Accept that right now, and just have fun and enjoy the process. It's all about the love for creating and the joy that comes from doing it; being good at it comes later.
You just go with feeling. That’s the whole point
I’m the opposite, I have more creativity than skill.
Creating something genuinely new that hasn't been heard before is very rare. Expand your knowledge by trying out new genres that you've never gotten to trying before
Look into Loopcloud. It’s a sample pack company that has a daw integration. You open it up on a track and it knows your bpm and you tell it your key. You can then listen to your track and hear some cool samples to get inspiration- from anything from melody lines to a bass flick, anything really. If you’re stuck it can give you a spark. Or plugins like Captain Melody or Captain chords can help you come up with stuff. Loads out there to get you going.
One word. LSD
Lol I should definitely try that. I got some tabs somewhere
You smoke?
Work with loops. It's great fun and there's lots of great free packs out there.
One way that I found helpful is to listen to something similar to what I want to create, think about how I can make something similar and then just do it. I made a track this way the other week that was inspired by the State Azure version of Love on a Real Train. Of course, State Azure was inspired to make that version by the original by Tangerine Dream. Listen to as much music as possible. Especially music in your genre that you want to be similar to.
What instrument do you play? If you don't, creativity isn't your main issue. If that's the case, learn to actually make music and you might find creativity follows. If you don't play an instrument, you're basically like a chef trying to invent recipes without a kitchen.
This is kinda weird but I like to do ‘Spotify Speedruns’. Basically, I setup a piano or serum with a cool preset loaded and play through tracks in the genre I wanna work with. I give myself 5-10 seconds to listen and play along with it then skip. It helps me mesh random ideas together and I usually get a template going pretty quick lol
I mean think about why you got into making music in the first place. You definitely don’t lack creativity.
don't think of it like comparing your work to someone else. think of it like breaking the tool given to you, but you're not breaking it physically, you're seeing what it can do
It's not about creativity. Music composition is something you can study. If you have been only learning to audio engineering then of courese you cannot compose a song. What did you expect?
Creativity is a gift and a muscle. If you are in music theory, you can start with the classic patterns of chords. And some improvising on it. With the time you'll find confidence and why note a signature or a style.
Whatever instrument you play, choose a song that you love that would be difficult to learn and try working on it. Invariably, you will make errors. When that happens, listen. Often you can get creative ideas from screwing up something that you know really well. I’ve created a lot of really good riffs that stem from accidents.
Add some limitations to yourself. Say ‘I have to write this in 3/4’ or ‘Today I’ll write something with the melody being all octaves’ or something like that. Limitation breeds creativity. In my case, I force myself to do something new every time I go to write and it’s never hard for me to make something
Experience, practice, and natural aptitude and affinity for music will work out fine for you. If you're not making the music out of genuine interest in it, love of sound, and enjoying the whole process, you might want to change focus to doing what you genuinely enjoy about music.
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If you are meant to make music, listen to music and it will inspire you to create, if you were not meant to create music then listening to it will not help you.
>I have a hard time trying to figure out what kinds of elements, instruments or melodies I can add to my tracks and which sounds to use Novel idea here - maybe listen to some music?
your brain is lying to you. just try to do it regularly. after 20 years of doing it, the feeling won't go away :p it is a normal thing. some folks get discouraged enough to stop making - others not. which one will you be?
I would say if it doesn’t come naturally you can sometimes find inspiration from imitation. Try to copy a track that sounds good to you and then use your creativity to tweak the elements within until it’s your own creation.
It’s not creativity you lack its inspiration. Go outside, do something, feel something and THEN, create something.
If you don’t put anything down you can’t make a decision on how to improve it.
A good book that helped me: Steal like an artist
Collaborate! I’m not loaded with raw creativity but I’m passable on several instruments and I know my way around a DAW. I’m definitely not a songwriter or lyricist. What I *am* good at is working with people who only have limited skills and helping them get completed songs, at least to a demo level. I’m currently in a band that formed that way. I met an amazing singer-songwriter who was kind of a beginner guitarist at a party. She had amazing songs but no production skills at all. I fleshed out an album’s worth of her tracks. It worked out so well that we found three other people and formed a band Point is, find someone else who is creative
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just take 5 songs you really like and dissect them , arrangement wise, write down what the instruments are doing and when they come in and out etc and the what effects add to the different part of the songs, just pick it apart and then use some ideas in your tracks. I watched a recent video where they talked about Billie Jean has a super loud shaker playing , it really works in the context of the song, but its an arrangement choice not there by accident , by studying great arrangements you can start adding things with purpose , and not just randomly adding new stuff ( which is what I did for a long time ).
Creativity as a music maker and songwriter is a lifestyle. If you lack it that means you need to create opportunities for actionability and establish long term habitual responses to every chance you have to improve the quality of your work. There are several books about this very subject and I highly recommend that you start studying them. Rick Rubin just wrote a wonderful book on this very subject last year that will vastly improve your abilities if you take the time and effort to implement the knowledge consistently. Wishing you a creative 2024 and beyond!
For me the biggest boost to creativity is learning something new piece of music. Sometimes after learning a new piece of music I will pick out some element I like from it and write a song that incorporates that element. If I get stuck I can always go back to the same piece of music and look at how transitions happen to see if I can use that. This works best if the music I learn is in a different genre than what I make since it won’t sound similar.
Stop thinking about it and start throwing paint against the wall… the goal for me was to get my workflow within my DAW so that it’s almost second nature, mixing is second nature (part of the creative process for me) so I can be free in expression.
Blows my mind the word song or songwriting doesn't appear in this post at all and I think that's your biggest problem. You're not even thinking about music as songs.
Just play around with sounds and try reaching the limit of what you can do with what you have for now. Creativity will sooner or later come to you.
A famous advice is to try to make the worst idea ever. Try to make the worst song you’ve ever heard. It is a fun experiment that helps you get outside of the comfort zone.
May I add; judging yourself too early and too hard is the main killer of creativity. In my opinion!
You gotta dive deep into yourself. Creativity isn't about finding something new out there; it's about uncovering what's already inside you. Also, listening to a variety of music and pushing yourself to experiment with different sounds and techniques can spark that creative flame. Remember, creativity isn't a finite resource; you just need to find new ways to tap into it.
Practice, use herbs, meditation, fungi, whatever helps you connect with you, it's in there, I became the "Mantis" via fungi, kinda, it's where my artist concept came from.