Musicians out there - How do you overcome writer's block?

fopylo
By fopylo in Life Purpose, Career, Entrepreneurship, Finance,
I've been taking a long break from the book Music Habits: The Mental Game Of Electronic Music Production (if anyone heard about it) and it's quite insightful. One of the things he talks about is the fact that building the habit comes prior to building your skills, and that thinking that you need more "knowledge" and tutorials is just an illusion. Once you build the habit then everything becomes way easier and you actually do create music instead of just fantasizing. So basically he gave an exercise (or advice) to open your DAW and create everyday for 15 minutes (though he said you can do even up to 30 minutes, but I'll stick with 15). He says that it can be very trashy, but as long as you create something , it's good. So I've been doing this exercise in the past (not consistently, skipping some days), and let me tell you my experience and maybe you could help guide me. So here are some struggles I faced with it: I felt pressure to create something and be creative. Even tough he said it can be trashy I still felt the anxiety to create something, bring an idea onto the table and make it sound good. I also felt sometimes pressured by the time. 15 minutes never gave me enough time to start and finish something. This made shorter beats that are mostly on loop with nothing special. I don't want to go also overtime because I don't want my brain to think that like 20 minutes is what I should be aiming for next time, putting more pressure. The biggest reason why I skipped days (imo) is because this process feels so dumb. I have this notion that I'm capable of reaching very high levels with my music if I really put my effort into it. And doing this exercise really makes me feel trash and hurt. Some of the instruments are just too heavy for my FL Studio to render, which is frustrating and very limiting. About the last point, I'm really interested in creating orchestral music. I just think it's so damn beautiful. The problem is that my laptop can't fucking render the good quality violins while I'm creating. It is a real pain to play a few notes and then make a sample out of it because this is the only way to render it, and even then it's really a mess. I've been really inspired by the YouTuber Alex Moukala if anyone knows. But back to the writer's block. I just don't really know what to think about in this process. What are some good mindsets and ideas I should take while doing those 15 minutes. I get also really frustrated when my song is just a loop, or the sounds are not as I had in my head. I've decided that I want to get back into creating music. I wouldn't be surprised if it's somehow tied with my life purpose. All the time fucking delaying it with excuses that seem so valid, even such as "I'm taking a break to practice mindfulness and meditation so I can come back stronger" is a very genius get-away. Anyways, I would appreciate guidance and advice from fellow musicians here who also went through such a period. Thanks
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