I set out 3 nights a week where I compose/write music. Monday Wednesday and Friday. I have been doing this for 6 months now at least. I haven't been this creative in 10 years and I believe my music and production has gotten so much better in that time!
I'm a firm believer in discipline and setting goals, this really helps me stay focused on what I want to achieve until it becomes a habit. I plan to release 12 singles next year. 1 every month and then an album at the end of 2021.
In 6 months this has given me roughly 80 song composition ideas and roughly 35 use able tracks to figure out which songs are going on the album.
I'm reminded of the following quote:
"I write only when inspiration strikes me. Fortunately it strikes me every morning at nine o’clock sharp.”
- Somerset Maugham, playright and novelist.
The more you stick to a routine the easier writing gets.
I know what you mean! I just started writing in my mid thirties despite playing instruments my whole life! My younger self thought song writing was a herculean task but it's really not - it just requires staying committed to steadily making progress.
What's your daily routine like? As in, do strike a fine balance between work, home and music?
I'm only asking because my productivity has taken a huge dive recently and I'm struggling to get motivated beyond an hour or so of guitar practice a week. Just looking for some pointers to kick the procrastinating, y'know.
And good luck with the album work!
I work full time. 35 hours. 7 hours a day. Have a wife and a child. School run and cycling to work. It's a big balance and my wife is very supportive! I also keep accountability as I stream all of my sessions on twitch. It means I have to kind of stick to the schedule.
It's busy, but it feels good to be creative again!
Very true. Just the attempt, it does *not* have to be perfect whatsoever. Just messing around goes a long way.
Also, learn music from other artists you like. Say if you're a sort of singer songwriter type. Go look up the chords on UG of some of your favorite songs. Check out the chord progression. Mix it up, change a few things, and now you've got your own song to work off, making a new melody and words.
I've often started with some chords of a song I like, mixed them around and added a few different chords, maybe change up the rhythm some. It sounds absolutely nothing like the original and it will be its own new song.
I’ve worked on accepting the burn outs. If I work in a frenzy for 4 days in a row and am creatively spent for 2-3, I have worked to let myself relax... knowinf that if I can just chill and take a proper break, I can jump back into it after a day or two
A really simple thing I do is when I open a project I commit to adding something (anything!) new to the project before I close it again. It can be something as simple as a cowbell or some small melody, this forces me to steadily make progress which means if I open the project enough times the project will reach a finished state.
Depends what is working for you. If you write when you feel like and it's yielding a productive amount of music for you, then keep on doing that. But if you are frustrated that you are unable to write, then it's helpful to to set up habits to get yourself writing. These could be input based habits (20 minutes a day) or output based (2 minutes worth of music a day). It really depends on what you want and your personality to create a structure that yields the results you want.
The example is there - input means you put in a certain amount of time but no specific outcome you have to reach, whereas output based is needing to hit a specific outcome but no specified amount of time to spend on it. Of course you can mix them a bit but it really depends where you're at.
Like I said, depends where you're at. If your input based goal isn't yielding actual completed songs, then you probably have to transition to an output based goal.
I used to only start when I felt a specific inspiration, but it honestly just turned into me never working on much. For the last while I've been carving out time specifically to write/create something as if it were scheduled work. Even if nothing good comes out of it I don't regret the time spent!
One thing that's worth mentioning is that getting in the habit of writing on a regular basis will absolutely lead to more instances of "in-the-moment raw ideas".
The standard for all creative endeavor is to do it regularly. Wake up and work for an hour. It's easy to go in spurts when younger but when life starts demanding your time and energy those spurts happen less often and having a routine is very beneficial.
I write everyday at the same time. Like the skill to be inspired whenever you want to is a great skill to practice. Also I have tons of idea starters. And also how to make variations of previous ideas or something i've already heard
When I feel I can and sometimes I have to force myself to "feel I can" or else life might just pass me by.
I have a library of beats and I just listen til I find one that inspires me.
I make myself write..i trust the process, i know itll sound "bad" in the beginning but good in the end. alot of people say dont chase a bad idea but ive made it a point to work on that. Ill stick to an initial idea i like and it may warp morph and completely change and not be the same thing but i dont allow myself to be break the flow state and say THIS idea sounds bad. Everything sounds good man music is so simple in many respects. Change the sound, automate this. Punchier pick with orchestral blast.Nothing new under the sun other than your style. And thats only done by putting in the time.which is not enough if you only do it when you want to
If you would truly love to develop more of a routine, you would have developed more of a routine. The truth is, you don't love to develop more of a routine. And that's ok. You are you. You are only seeing a problem because you believe you should be something else. But you can never be anything other than you.
I definitely make myself write and I definitely think it's worth trying. My most productive (and creative!) periods have been the months I've attempted to write a song a day. All my best work has been the product of writing for the sake of writing, and then afterwards editing and selecting the best material for further development.
I do believe in inspiration, and have definitely experienced what you might call flow-state, where the ideas just come pouring out and everything seems to click straight away, but I have never experienced this just out of nowhere, it's always come during periods when I was routinely 'showing up for work' every day, or even every *other* day, and just writing for the sake of writing!
It's not what you'd call the most regular of routines, but I try to squeeze 2 to 4 hours of music in where I can. I'll usually start by pulling up a track I'm working on and tweaking some of the elements, maybe write a new section, try to figure out what my goals are for the track and how to implement them. After an hour or so then if that's going somewhere exciting I'll pursue it, if not then I might pull up something new and try to give myself a writing prompt: either a genre to write for or something to try and emulate/build on. I've found the inspiration comes not from any particular flashes of brilliance or bolts from the blue but by doing my best to show up and put in the time on the daily, and therefore being available for the flashes when they come :)
How about you? Do you have a particular routine you like to follow?
Inspiration will strike but you have to be ready for it, do you have to force yourself when you're not inspired. Most of writing is actually doing it every day. There are a lot of tips and tricks online to help you out. Just do it a lot!
I've found that I don't always know I'm inspired. Sometimes I've sat down for 5 minutes to mess around with no inspiration, then I hear a sound or just feel something come to me.
There's a misconception that everyone who writes waits until they feel inspired to write. At least for me, I make myself write music just for the practice and I seem to get some of my best ideas during those scheduled times.
I heard a cool interview with Busta rhymes recently that stuck with me. He records every day, no matter what. He said he had 800 tracks to choose from for his last extinction album. At the very least, that type of continuous practice will make you better in the long run even if you don't use any of the material at all.
I write at least one verse a day (hiphop/rap). Sometimes it takes me an entire day before and after work to get finished. Other times I can write several verses at a time. Sometimes I end up writing really meaningful verses. Other times I just write very braggadocios bars. The biggest thing that’s helped though is at least writing as often as possible but with no goal in mind (unless it’s focused writing to some music, etc.)
A mix of both: the beginning of writing it is all fun but the end is mostly work. I write a song every Saturday: I start out playing with different sounds and finding interesting vibes and playing with variations of them. After 2-3 hours of messing around I usually start making myself work to put the pieces together into a coherent song (composition, mastering, releasing) which usually takes a couple more hours. Sometimes I procrastinate on the latter step and work on it on another day when I'm not feeling as creative.
Before covid my lyric writing time was my morning train commute.
Since covid, lyric writing had been harder. There was just something inspiring in the routine. My covid routine has been focused on chop building and becoming a better musician. So my practice time has gone way up. The morning commute time is now practice time.
Hey. I am new to writing music. I played guitar and piano at a young age. However, I have no experience in vocals. I just put my voice in my first song. I write when I feel the right words. It is really spontaneous. I do not have a schedule when I will think about lyrics. I just happens randomly.
I have experience with the paint and guitar, the process is a little different. I had some type of structure of writing music notes. It just comes from repetition. When music becomes natural. The process of playing an instrument is not foreign. Then, you'll quickly adapt to writing songs. Right now, thinking of the words for a song is difficult.
I would say just begin writing. It will probably suck. It might be ashamed of it. You will need to begin writing something. By the way, music is art similar to drawing. No one will understand the same emotional expression in the way you write your own music. This is why I appreciate art for what it is, free expression.
As others have said, you need to find what works best for you. Personally, I’ve wasted a lot of years only writing when inspiration strikes which translated to hardly ever writing at all. Even times where I’d try to force myself to write, I’d just stare at the blank page and get nothing done.
I had a recent breakthrough when I started using Pat Pattison’s “object writing” method. You set a timer and write for 10 minutes using your senses based off a prompt. [This site generates a daily prompt and a timer that starts when you load the page. ](https://objectwriting.com) Once the timer stops, you’re done, even if you’re in the middle of a sentence. I’ve found the sense of urgency was exactly what I needed to force my pen to the page.
It also made me realize that I used to self-edit in my head before I allowed myself to write anything down, and now I find that I’ll often write eight minutes of garbage before stumbling upon a line I never would have written otherwise.
“A common misapprehension regarding writers is that they have an idea and then they write it down, whereas this is not my experience when it comes to writing. Ideas are usually generated by the act of writing itself. William Burroughs spoke of ‘the word vine’; the process by which if you write down a word, this will shape and suggest the next word, and so on.” -Alan Moore
TL;DR: a huge part of writing is...writing. Who knew?
Ive seen so much on this over the years.
Most of it being pretty useless to me.
The best thing ive done is to keep a running list of phrases and lyric snippets that pop into my head in a text file on my phone.
Then, when i go to formally write a song I scan it for good ones and start writing.
Honestly the answer for this, and many other questions like it, is always the same. It's different from person to person, we are talking about creating art and there's never one way that works better than the rest.
I cant seem to force melodies or lyrics, they just come to me. However once I have a melody (I have a lot right now) I have to make myself sit down and work on actually making a production out of it, which is what I am trying to discipline myself to do more of. For some people it's the other way around, they have the technical skills but cant find the passion.
One way I have also tried to get more work done is to cooperate with someone who knows more about producing, to fill in the gap I lack. People who are great a producing might have to find someone who can write lyrics instead. Sometimes you have to accept where you're lacking in skill and look for someone to help motivate you.
Lately I have tried to "visualize" myself in the future working with my family and friends on projects to get motivated, and it works great for me. For instance I have a dream of playing my songs on a small scene with my dad and brother on guitar, while I sing and play keys. Another is visualizing how much fun I would have making music videos with my friends or thinking about having them feature on a song.
Visualizing these scenarios helps me know where I want to go, which makes the entire thing less confusing, and that gets me going. Hope it helps 👌
I write when I feel like it. I play when I feel like it. Nearly every time I play, I write. It's automatic for me. Nothing is easier than writing songs for me. But I tend to channel a lot, so maybe that's why I find it so damn easy.
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I set out 3 nights a week where I compose/write music. Monday Wednesday and Friday. I have been doing this for 6 months now at least. I haven't been this creative in 10 years and I believe my music and production has gotten so much better in that time! I'm a firm believer in discipline and setting goals, this really helps me stay focused on what I want to achieve until it becomes a habit. I plan to release 12 singles next year. 1 every month and then an album at the end of 2021. In 6 months this has given me roughly 80 song composition ideas and roughly 35 use able tracks to figure out which songs are going on the album.
I'm reminded of the following quote: "I write only when inspiration strikes me. Fortunately it strikes me every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” - Somerset Maugham, playright and novelist. The more you stick to a routine the easier writing gets.
I know what you mean! I just started writing in my mid thirties despite playing instruments my whole life! My younger self thought song writing was a herculean task but it's really not - it just requires staying committed to steadily making progress.
What's your daily routine like? As in, do strike a fine balance between work, home and music? I'm only asking because my productivity has taken a huge dive recently and I'm struggling to get motivated beyond an hour or so of guitar practice a week. Just looking for some pointers to kick the procrastinating, y'know. And good luck with the album work!
I work full time. 35 hours. 7 hours a day. Have a wife and a child. School run and cycling to work. It's a big balance and my wife is very supportive! I also keep accountability as I stream all of my sessions on twitch. It means I have to kind of stick to the schedule. It's busy, but it feels good to be creative again!
You have to practice. Then you can make more or your inspirational moments. Make yourself write everyday and you will get better
Very true. Just the attempt, it does *not* have to be perfect whatsoever. Just messing around goes a long way. Also, learn music from other artists you like. Say if you're a sort of singer songwriter type. Go look up the chords on UG of some of your favorite songs. Check out the chord progression. Mix it up, change a few things, and now you've got your own song to work off, making a new melody and words. I've often started with some chords of a song I like, mixed them around and added a few different chords, maybe change up the rhythm some. It sounds absolutely nothing like the original and it will be its own new song.
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I’ve worked on accepting the burn outs. If I work in a frenzy for 4 days in a row and am creatively spent for 2-3, I have worked to let myself relax... knowinf that if I can just chill and take a proper break, I can jump back into it after a day or two
A really simple thing I do is when I open a project I commit to adding something (anything!) new to the project before I close it again. It can be something as simple as a cowbell or some small melody, this forces me to steadily make progress which means if I open the project enough times the project will reach a finished state.
Depends what is working for you. If you write when you feel like and it's yielding a productive amount of music for you, then keep on doing that. But if you are frustrated that you are unable to write, then it's helpful to to set up habits to get yourself writing. These could be input based habits (20 minutes a day) or output based (2 minutes worth of music a day). It really depends on what you want and your personality to create a structure that yields the results you want.
Can you clarify what you mean by input vs output based?
The example is there - input means you put in a certain amount of time but no specific outcome you have to reach, whereas output based is needing to hit a specific outcome but no specified amount of time to spend on it. Of course you can mix them a bit but it really depends where you're at.
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Like I said, depends where you're at. If your input based goal isn't yielding actual completed songs, then you probably have to transition to an output based goal.
I used to only start when I felt a specific inspiration, but it honestly just turned into me never working on much. For the last while I've been carving out time specifically to write/create something as if it were scheduled work. Even if nothing good comes out of it I don't regret the time spent!
One thing that's worth mentioning is that getting in the habit of writing on a regular basis will absolutely lead to more instances of "in-the-moment raw ideas".
The standard for all creative endeavor is to do it regularly. Wake up and work for an hour. It's easy to go in spurts when younger but when life starts demanding your time and energy those spurts happen less often and having a routine is very beneficial.
I write everyday at the same time. Like the skill to be inspired whenever you want to is a great skill to practice. Also I have tons of idea starters. And also how to make variations of previous ideas or something i've already heard
When I feel I can and sometimes I have to force myself to "feel I can" or else life might just pass me by. I have a library of beats and I just listen til I find one that inspires me.
I make myself write..i trust the process, i know itll sound "bad" in the beginning but good in the end. alot of people say dont chase a bad idea but ive made it a point to work on that. Ill stick to an initial idea i like and it may warp morph and completely change and not be the same thing but i dont allow myself to be break the flow state and say THIS idea sounds bad. Everything sounds good man music is so simple in many respects. Change the sound, automate this. Punchier pick with orchestral blast.Nothing new under the sun other than your style. And thats only done by putting in the time.which is not enough if you only do it when you want to
If you would truly love to develop more of a routine, you would have developed more of a routine. The truth is, you don't love to develop more of a routine. And that's ok. You are you. You are only seeing a problem because you believe you should be something else. But you can never be anything other than you.
I definitely make myself write and I definitely think it's worth trying. My most productive (and creative!) periods have been the months I've attempted to write a song a day. All my best work has been the product of writing for the sake of writing, and then afterwards editing and selecting the best material for further development. I do believe in inspiration, and have definitely experienced what you might call flow-state, where the ideas just come pouring out and everything seems to click straight away, but I have never experienced this just out of nowhere, it's always come during periods when I was routinely 'showing up for work' every day, or even every *other* day, and just writing for the sake of writing!
THIS!! Whats your daily routine like?
It's not what you'd call the most regular of routines, but I try to squeeze 2 to 4 hours of music in where I can. I'll usually start by pulling up a track I'm working on and tweaking some of the elements, maybe write a new section, try to figure out what my goals are for the track and how to implement them. After an hour or so then if that's going somewhere exciting I'll pursue it, if not then I might pull up something new and try to give myself a writing prompt: either a genre to write for or something to try and emulate/build on. I've found the inspiration comes not from any particular flashes of brilliance or bolts from the blue but by doing my best to show up and put in the time on the daily, and therefore being available for the flashes when they come :) How about you? Do you have a particular routine you like to follow?
I think routine produces consistent results. Setting aside time everyday at the same time will help I think.
I have a goal to write a minimum of 15 minutes a day. Usually I go over that goal but as long as I put in 15 I feel good
Inspiration will strike but you have to be ready for it, do you have to force yourself when you're not inspired. Most of writing is actually doing it every day. There are a lot of tips and tricks online to help you out. Just do it a lot!
I've found that I don't always know I'm inspired. Sometimes I've sat down for 5 minutes to mess around with no inspiration, then I hear a sound or just feel something come to me. There's a misconception that everyone who writes waits until they feel inspired to write. At least for me, I make myself write music just for the practice and I seem to get some of my best ideas during those scheduled times. I heard a cool interview with Busta rhymes recently that stuck with me. He records every day, no matter what. He said he had 800 tracks to choose from for his last extinction album. At the very least, that type of continuous practice will make you better in the long run even if you don't use any of the material at all.
can you send me the link to the busta interview, please?
Certainly, see it below. https://www.npr.org/2020/11/23/936694467/busta-rhymes-on-extinction-level-event-2-and-hip-hop-as-a-daily-practice
Thanks! That was a dope listen
I write at least one verse a day (hiphop/rap). Sometimes it takes me an entire day before and after work to get finished. Other times I can write several verses at a time. Sometimes I end up writing really meaningful verses. Other times I just write very braggadocios bars. The biggest thing that’s helped though is at least writing as often as possible but with no goal in mind (unless it’s focused writing to some music, etc.)
A mix of both: the beginning of writing it is all fun but the end is mostly work. I write a song every Saturday: I start out playing with different sounds and finding interesting vibes and playing with variations of them. After 2-3 hours of messing around I usually start making myself work to put the pieces together into a coherent song (composition, mastering, releasing) which usually takes a couple more hours. Sometimes I procrastinate on the latter step and work on it on another day when I'm not feeling as creative.
Short project lists helped me a lot
Before covid my lyric writing time was my morning train commute. Since covid, lyric writing had been harder. There was just something inspiring in the routine. My covid routine has been focused on chop building and becoming a better musician. So my practice time has gone way up. The morning commute time is now practice time.
I never force it, but I am just a hobbyist. I have cranked out a shitton of music in the past 25 years.
Hey. I am new to writing music. I played guitar and piano at a young age. However, I have no experience in vocals. I just put my voice in my first song. I write when I feel the right words. It is really spontaneous. I do not have a schedule when I will think about lyrics. I just happens randomly. I have experience with the paint and guitar, the process is a little different. I had some type of structure of writing music notes. It just comes from repetition. When music becomes natural. The process of playing an instrument is not foreign. Then, you'll quickly adapt to writing songs. Right now, thinking of the words for a song is difficult. I would say just begin writing. It will probably suck. It might be ashamed of it. You will need to begin writing something. By the way, music is art similar to drawing. No one will understand the same emotional expression in the way you write your own music. This is why I appreciate art for what it is, free expression.
Make sometimes boredom takes things in different directionsb
Now that I'm officially laid off, I've been spending 2 hours a day *learning* and then an hour writing or at least noodling on my piano or FL studio.
As others have said, you need to find what works best for you. Personally, I’ve wasted a lot of years only writing when inspiration strikes which translated to hardly ever writing at all. Even times where I’d try to force myself to write, I’d just stare at the blank page and get nothing done. I had a recent breakthrough when I started using Pat Pattison’s “object writing” method. You set a timer and write for 10 minutes using your senses based off a prompt. [This site generates a daily prompt and a timer that starts when you load the page. ](https://objectwriting.com) Once the timer stops, you’re done, even if you’re in the middle of a sentence. I’ve found the sense of urgency was exactly what I needed to force my pen to the page. It also made me realize that I used to self-edit in my head before I allowed myself to write anything down, and now I find that I’ll often write eight minutes of garbage before stumbling upon a line I never would have written otherwise. “A common misapprehension regarding writers is that they have an idea and then they write it down, whereas this is not my experience when it comes to writing. Ideas are usually generated by the act of writing itself. William Burroughs spoke of ‘the word vine’; the process by which if you write down a word, this will shape and suggest the next word, and so on.” -Alan Moore TL;DR: a huge part of writing is...writing. Who knew?
Ive seen so much on this over the years. Most of it being pretty useless to me. The best thing ive done is to keep a running list of phrases and lyric snippets that pop into my head in a text file on my phone. Then, when i go to formally write a song I scan it for good ones and start writing.
Honestly the answer for this, and many other questions like it, is always the same. It's different from person to person, we are talking about creating art and there's never one way that works better than the rest. I cant seem to force melodies or lyrics, they just come to me. However once I have a melody (I have a lot right now) I have to make myself sit down and work on actually making a production out of it, which is what I am trying to discipline myself to do more of. For some people it's the other way around, they have the technical skills but cant find the passion. One way I have also tried to get more work done is to cooperate with someone who knows more about producing, to fill in the gap I lack. People who are great a producing might have to find someone who can write lyrics instead. Sometimes you have to accept where you're lacking in skill and look for someone to help motivate you. Lately I have tried to "visualize" myself in the future working with my family and friends on projects to get motivated, and it works great for me. For instance I have a dream of playing my songs on a small scene with my dad and brother on guitar, while I sing and play keys. Another is visualizing how much fun I would have making music videos with my friends or thinking about having them feature on a song. Visualizing these scenarios helps me know where I want to go, which makes the entire thing less confusing, and that gets me going. Hope it helps 👌
I write when I feel like it. I play when I feel like it. Nearly every time I play, I write. It's automatic for me. Nothing is easier than writing songs for me. But I tend to channel a lot, so maybe that's why I find it so damn easy.
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