Guitar playing/songwriting rut

[jff]

I've followed that idea much in my recent songwriting. If I get stuck on a song -- so what? I know my greatest work might be on the next blank page.

 

Great advice. Leave the rut behind...it's not like the song your stuck on vanishes forever. You can come back to it later with a fresh perspective and probably wind up with a better song in the end. Neil young has talked about songs that have taken him years to complete, so we shouldn't feel bad or uninspired when we hit a roadblock.

 

I agree that this is a great thread. I've never written a complete song in my life (I've come close, but there's always one or two parts that someone else throws in to make it whole), but as a result of this thread I feel like I have some tools that I can use to finally write something whole.

[GtrPlyr]

I'm a firm believer in not letting supposed songwriting "rules" get in your way. My songs don't always follow conventional patterns of songwriting such as the: verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus type. That's not to say I don't like that way, or don't use it, because I often do, but I really try to let the song dictate its path. Some songs may start with a chorus, or may only have one chorus in the whole song, or have 2 bridges and an interlude... The hard part is fighting the urge to turn everything into a standard pop song. I've had that battle where I think, damn this needs another chorus or needs a bridge, but in the end I find that forcing a song into a box often makes it less than what it could be. I think once I realized there were no "right ways" to do a song, the floodgates of creativity opened up wider, and my songs became more interesting to me. Instead of forcing things in a certain direction I could just let the song take a natural shape, even if it didn't sound like something I'd hear on the radio (considering what's on the radio these days that's not necessarily a bad thing.)

 

One of the reasons the Beatles were so great was their ability to break from songwriting convention which they started doing around the Rubber Soul/Revolver era. Some of their best songs don't follow standard rock/pop song structures in the least which is probably why they still hold up so well.

 

 

Like others have mentioned, I find using other instruments I normally don't play can inspire songwriting too. I remember years ago when I bought a mandolin. I didn't know the first thing about it, but within the first day of having it I'd written a song on it. Just picking up a different guitar, or changing the sounds on your electric can spark something new too.

[markosis]

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron is a godsend. Buy it and live it. It will change you. If you feel like your in a rut, that book will make a difference.

[Golden Smoghead]

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron is a godsend. Buy it and live it. It will change you. If you feel like your in a rut, that book will make a difference.

If you like that one, I am almost positive you will like the Natalie Goldberg books on writing, I'd start with Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life... Would also recommend that series to anybody in a rut, too.

 

I really, really, really buy into Natalie's idea that writing / creating is a craft you work at diligently, and a path to something bigger than just having a novel or a poem or a song, or accumulating a set of skills... She puts everything in Zen terms, but for me it's like saving your own soul through working hard at your art.

 

Wikipedia sums up her position toward being an artist this way, which I dig:

 

- Continue under all circumstances.

- Don't be tossed away.

- Make positive effort for the good.

 

I love, love, love the idea of writing as craft. We have all had it happen: after we play someone a song we wrote, they go, "wow, you're really talented! I wish I had that kind of talent!" I sometimes want to tell them, "no, I have some talent, but really not more than anybody else, and I have busted my ass for the last 14 years trying to work with that small spark of talent and turn it into a skill. You should be jealous of my determination, not my talent."

 

I have been told at least a dozen times that I am a really horrible singer, or guitar player, or songwriter (especially when I was starting out). On at least three occasions, I have had someone sit me down and tell me sincerely that I am no good at all and should just find something else to do with my time.

 

But I am not writing all these songs to have great songs, RIGHT NOW. I am writing them as practice, because I suspect I have something great inside me that needs me to go through all these songs before it can come out... I am writing them because I love filling up that page / room / cd with things that I brought out from inside of me, that didn't exist before. I am making things that are real, real as alligators and pie -- out of nothing but my time and effort. That is fucking cool, even if nobody else can understand why I "waste all my time" writing these songs.

[lost highway]

I think one of the most creatively damaging mythologies in American culture is that Poems and Songs are cloud like wisps that drift in from unknown places. Like a table they have architecture. Whether you understand it in terms, or in an intuitive sense these things have nuts and bolts. When you work with them you can feel them, rearrange them, construct them. Their logic is not at odds with their emotion. People who pedal that crap are just anti-intellectual.

[MattZ]

But I am not writing all these songs to have great songs, RIGHT NOW. I am writing them as practice, because I suspect I have something great inside me that needs me to go through all these songs before it can come out... I am writing them because I love filling up that page / room / cd with things that I brought out from inside of me, that didn't exist before. I am making things that are real, real as alligators and pie -- out of nothing but my time and effort. That is fucking cool, even if nobody else can understand why I "waste all my time" writing these songs.

 

A-fucking-men. Awesome stuff.

[a.miller]

A-fucking-men. Awesome stuff.

I second that.

[cooperissup3r]

I really wish I could free flow or rap. I can't even remember my own lyrics. I'm that dude who brings his notebook to open mics. Still better than a teleprompter!

 

this is the only way i ever get lyrics is just to free flow into a notebook. sad thing is...i can't figure out a meaning, therefore i don't latch onto them and have no want to sing/play/improve them. such a conundrum.

[anthony]

But I am not writing all these songs to have great songs, RIGHT NOW. I am writing them as practice, because I suspect I have something great inside me that needs me to go through all these songs before it can come out... I am writing them because I love filling up that page / room / cd with things that I brought out from inside of me, that didn't exist before. I am making things that are real, real as alligators and pie -- out of nothing but my time and effort. That is fucking cool, even if nobody else can understand why I "waste all my time" writing these songs.

 

This is one of the wisest things ever written on the internet.

[stickman]

So after starting this thread back in April, I eventually got out of the rut...not too sure exactly when or how/why but it happened. I think that the stoppage started and because I recognized that that was what was going on, it perpetuated itself if that makes any sense. I think that by worrying over the fact that I was in a rut only made things worse and so after some time of not thinking about it, or not really trying to write "songs" and just play, I was able to get out of it.

 

Also, I'm wondering if this has ever happened to anybody else: I found this one place where there are cliffs and an old decommissioned bridge over looking the Pacific where for whatever reason, I can always write lyrics. It's really strange, I've been there probably four or five times and each one I can write about three different songs worth of lyrics. It's kind of like a muse I guess, but I was just wondering if anyone has had a similar situation.

[ZeroCharlie]

Definitely. Some locations just clear your head, kind of like your mind's home. You can take yourself out of the world for a moment, and connect before you come back down. Glad you found a spot.

Many artists have a location as a muse, I am reminded of "Some Days I see the Point" -Billy Bragg