New Year = New Inspirations

Happy New Year!

I sincerely hope that you have been fortunate enough to not to lose your motivation and inspiration to write and play music during these quarantine days and the general Covid crisis that surrounds us. Changes in our lifestyle affect us in different ways, but I think we all have one thing in common: we won’t let this period of time get in the way of our creativity! So, we’ve compiled a small list of things you can try to renew your inspiration and find different ways to create the works you have in mind!

Don’t stop writing!

As we’ve all heard, to improve at songwriting, you have to write daily. And this is a very hard fact. The most important way to improve your songwriting skills is … well, to compose. Okay, but what if a song doesn’t magically appear to you? No problem! There are tips you can use to get the most out of your writing time. For example, each creation must be accompanied at all times by a notebook. In Pat Pattison’s “Writing Better Lyrics” book, he states that if you get into the habit of writing a daily journal, you will develop songs, or at least song ideas, each day.

A great way to use your notebook is to write precise and descriptive details of the world around you, as if you were painting a picture. This will help you use intricate details when writing lyrics or creating a universe for your song. Oh, and never use an eraser – it’s vital that everything you write stays on the paper. As Yngwie Malmsteen said: The more the better.

Another great way to get inspiration in your songwriting, especially if you’re experiencing a blockage or “blank page syndrome”, is to rewrite the lyrics to a song you know. After you’ve written the lyrics or just ideas or lines for the old song, try creating a new melody for the lyrics you just wrote. It will give you a new approach, maybe spice up your old creative ways. There is always room for improvement, and with these simple tips, you’ll be creating new things in no time!

Try some new approaches

It’s not always about getting better at something we already know, sometimes it’s just as important to find new ways to create. Creatives often resort to buying new equipment to find more sounds to work with, and we can’t blame them. Sometimes the approach is to write a song with a different instrument than the one you normally use. If you are a guitarist, try writing a song with a keyboard, or vice versa! If you are the producer type who likes to create a track in advance, try writing a base of the song first, then move forward on the track. Or if you’re a pen and paper type person, try starting directly in a DAW or any machine you can get your hands on. Music isn’t always what’s been done before – sometimes we get stuck in a loop of our old ways and the best way to escape that limbo is to tweak the process a little! Like this guy ?

Collaborate!

This situation is familiar to many musicians: you’ve been on a song for a while, too long, but you just can’t seem to finish it! The melody is there and the lyrics are almost done, but something is missing. Or maybe the song hasn’t even taken shape yet, but even if you feel like there’s ‘something in there’ you just can’t put your finger on it.

We are all surrounded by people who also have ears and can really help us in our process! When you listen to the same bars of the same song over and over again, your mind tends to get desensitised to their nuances. This is where a new pair of ears comes in handy. Send your demo, or play your song to your musician friend, coworker or better yet: someone with no musical affiliations who can really give the opinion of an “average” music listener and ask them what they think. . You can be specific and identify which part of the song you need a helping hand with (or in this case ears) or ask for feedback on the overall experience they got from it. Your “hearing aids” are guaranteed to notice things you haven’t even thought of and guide you to new ideas!

Co-writing and working with other musicians is also a great way to get things done! You get twice as many ideas as you would get on your own. Sometimes the more people you have working on a song, the more likely you are to get the song right!

DAWs, plugins & samples

The best part about creating sound is that you don’t necessarily need a physical instrument to do it anymore. The internet is full of software synths, drum machines, and samples that you can use on your musical journey. A DAW like Logic, Ableton or Cubase already includes a lot of them, but there are also free DAWs that are fully functional, even used by professionals. Reaper or GarageBand (for Apple users) are a great place to start (and free), if you don’t want to risk a bigger investment. Synthesizer software is also always cheaper than the hardware version and provides all the buttons and settings of the physical version. Just listening to all the presets on a synth will give you countless ideas, and maybe even exactly the sound you were looking for!

Samples are also a great way to create something you’ve never heard before. You can use your phone’s microphone to record passing cars, your cat or whatever, and convert it to music. For example, you can make a pad sound with a hum, a bell sound with a wine glass and the bass drum from the barking of the dog next door. Many DAWs like Reaper or Garage Band offer the possibility of launching the samples in the desired way, so that it is very easy to create chords or melodies from everyday objects. And the uniqueness of your sound is 100% guaranteed. If you’re not a big fan of theory, or aren’t quite familiar with an instrument, you can also search for MIDI chord packs online. Simply dragging and dropping MIDI chords onto an empty palette will likely result in a musical idea!

And finally, finish your projects!

In a nutshell: if you have a recording of a riff on your phone, or a melody looping in your head all night long, make it a song. If you are having a great time on the beach with your friends, or if you come across a strange bird on a utility pole, write it down or record it. The most important thing to remember when writing your songs is that you alone decide what the song is about and when the song is over. Your song could be a single melody, a 3-minute pop song, or a symphony – the decision is yours! Try not to compare yourself to others or think about your art too much: creating art is always something you can be proud of.

I hope that this list gives you some new ideas for creating things you’re proud of! Do you have other ideas to share with the community? Tell us with a comment below! 

Joe has been singing since he can remember and started playing guitar when he was 10. He's been using it as a songwriting tool ever since. He is passionate about melody and harmony and admires musicians who create these in unique ways. Check out his alternative / indie projects Best of Feelings and Zef Raček.

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