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How Do You Get Out of a Funk
What are some tips for getting out of a music funk? I’ve been in a bit of a rut this year with work stress and getting the new house set up. I’m hoping to start getting back into music but I’m not finding inspiration. I have some things started that are outside of my usual style but I’m having difficulties getting them beyond an 8 bar loop.
Comments
Maybe just take a break? I've never been one of those people who were able to consistantly struggle through low periods of creativity. Some people can just keep hammering at it until something clicks, but for me that just led to frustration and longer bouts of writer's block.
These days I just do my best to step back and get all the other BS in life taken care of while the muse is gone. Outstanding projects, house work, spouse stuff, long term planning, etc. Usually just keeping busy in other parts of my life triggers that sort of creative drive for me eventually. And then as an added bonus I just did all the boring shit I don't want to deal with when I'm on a roll wrting music, so I can fully focus on music. Nice.
Also, this:
https://tarekith.com/articles/ChasingInspiration.pdf
AUM always inspires
Do some work, maybe something you wanted to do since a long time and just sing something to enchant yourself while doing it. Or take a story that moves you and let a song tell it.
https://www.amazon.com/The-War-of-Art-Steven-Pressfield-audiobook/dp/B07PTBYH2G
Very good read.
I usually just jam with other songs on my guitar or the keyboard if I can’t find any inspiration. At best, I’ll get some ideas and at worst, I’m at least keeping up on my practice until a spark of inspiration hits me. That or I just get really stoned.
There’s a Parliament Funkadelic answer in there somewhere.
breaks, meditation, yoga, listening to old random shitty vinyls you find at a second hand store, sampling old random shitty vinyls you find at a second hand store, Psychedelic's (use common sense and safety), nature, collaboration,
I find the song exploder podcast good for this. Hearing other musicians talk about making a track that makes me really want to make a track 😁
I print stuff to audio (even if it’s just an eight bar loop) and listen when out of the studio context (on a walk usually). At that point I try make a decision to add/change/extend one particular thing, which I then make myself do next time I sit down back at home with the project on screen.
BlocsWave
Put stems from all the 8 bar loops into BlocsWave and start building your songs there, using loops from different loops together, letting BW adjust the key and tempo accordingly. Then forget about how you made the loops and don’t worry about tweaking things for hours on end.
After a while you’ll have lots of little projects on the go that load instantly and give you instant gratification when you have 5 minutes.
Just play/jam. Don’t worry about making songs. Just enjoy the loops you’ve made and one day something might just come together.
One of the best features of BW for me is it takes away all the little details. You just end up playing the big picture and not getting lost in the weeds. I’m sure I can shovel forest and trees into the mixed metaphors too.
That’s what I do anyway and it works for me.
How about a collab or a remix? Helped me to increase motivation!
I usually just sit at the piano and play with no real plan in mind. I’ll just play anything I know or make stuff up. Sometimes it leads sinewy and sometimes it doesn’t, but I don’t stress over it.
Get your funk out 😎
My wife and I spent three nights in the woods last weekend. It was a fantastic overall mood lifter!
Good replies here!
I’ve been in a creative funk my whole life so i don’t have answers LOL, but i do get the best stuff done when i just open a synth and start to do some sound sculpting from a preset i like. Not really with the intention to build a song at that time but rather just to play with the instruments and see what they can do. That sometimes leads to a good start.
I am not good at drawing but if i can’t make music sound good I’ll draw anyway on my iPad in pro create, just switching mediums helps get the brain moving a bit and thinking in ways you’re unfamiliar with, then back up aum and i feel more at home and ready to jam
I buy something expensive. Think I have been in three creative music funks in my life and it worked every time.
Thanks for the advice everybody. I am getting a bass in the next couple of days. I sold mine in 2019 and I’m hoping having one again will help both my mood and creativity.
I may also try using my Pocket Operators again. I did have fun when I created my weird lofi album just using the PO-33.
I was gonna say this but it seemed like dangerous advice. hehe As in, I have a room full of hardware now.
I got a bass last summer, having played mostly guitar my whole life, and it was quite inspiring. I was even able to write some songs with melodic bass chords as a focal point.
I feel you regarding the rut. With so much stuff going on it’s hard to even strap in to your set up let alone create anything. What helps me is revisiting a song or musical idea I had from my youth, like a song I wrote or started in high school or something, and polishing it up with today’s perspective. Another tactic is just pressing play and jamming and creating with whatever instrument you’re playing. Then after an hour or two you can listen back and find something you did that can inspire you to create a planned project around it. Often times I play something inspiring or get in the zone while jamming or messing around, then I don’t remember it because I didn’t record it. You could add bass parts or re-record bass parts for your existing compositions with your new bass.
It’s like exercise, the hardest part is just putting on the shoes and starting. Get yourself going with the simplest set up and no expectations, such as a bass, Blackice, or thu Bass Rigs Vol. 1, and just make stuff with no expectation of perfection. You might capture something that could later lead to your next great composition.
Another tactic that works for me but goes against mobile music making... designating a room or area in your house as your private “home studio” haven or workspace, and sticking to it. Optimizing your layout and keeping it clean and optimized for your workflow. In other words you look forward to strapping in and creating something in your “space”, rather than trying to do it on your couch or whatever and getting distracted.
Hope this is helpful in some way.
I'm doing a different approach in this sense. I focus on one of my ol' boxes and try do it everything in it. Last month was Korg EMX. Now i'm tweaking the workflow. Next will be my MC-303
Oooh thanks for this. I'm not used to podcasts, but gave this a try. Of course I started with the Nine Inch Nails one... Awesome... Gonna watch the episodes available on netflix later too. Really good stuff
I haven’t tried the Netflix series yet - keep meaning to give it a go!
There’s some great episodes. I must have listened to the Jon Hopkins one 4-5 times. He’s a genius!
I feel your pain! I recently heard a great analogy for this that I found helpful. Sometimes when we're near the end of the tube of toothpaste, we try to squeeze the tube even harder to get something out, when it's already quite empty.
But maybe this is the moment to stop squeezing, and refill the tube.
In other words, rather than trying to squeeze some music out when feeling empty, another approach is to put something in. Seek inspiration, maybe in nature, or a different musical genre, go do something you love doing, work on a different hobby or interest, do something manual, try meditation or some spiritual pursuit if that's your thing, to seek to fill up the inner tank again.
So recently have been exploring a few different things e.g. watching foreign langauge cinema to brush up on my language skills, enjoying artisting genres unrelated to my own, watching interesting documentaries etc.
Returning to music, when feeling like this, I might spend time on a musical app that surprises me, especially those which have randomisers built in, or whose workings I don't really understand, or where the smallest decision can produce surprising and often inspiring results. I'm thinking especially of apps like AddStation, Wotja, Soundscaper, Borderlands Granular, Samplr.
Finally, I've been having a lot of fun with fractal images, especially using the excellent Chaotica Fractals, which has a completely functional free version, and is able to generate random images, which are often quite dynamic and stimulating. https://www.chaoticafractals.com/
Hope you find something
At times diving into apps for inspiration can do the trick but if you’re not feeling it just step away. Do something completely different for a while. You might get ideas when you’re out and about, sing them into your phone.
In fact I have a huge repository of melodies on my phone’s voice recorder for a rainy day. Having said that; if nothing’s coming out make peace with it.
Lockdown has been hard because of the lack of social interactions which often inadvertently fuels inspiration. To me it’s like: there’s time to take stuff in, digest and then there’s time to spit stuff out. Nothing comes from nothing really and the pandering is kind of evidence of that.
I do not recommend this to everyone, but for a certain personality type, which includes me, this works like a charm. Retail therapy when used responsibly is a hell of a mood lifter.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/oblique-strategies-se/id1104927011
Here, I did two in a row for you:
also, tutorials!! learn new techniques and apply them
Just like @PartOfPayn said, collaboration.
Can't say it works for everyone but the mixture of joy and fear that sending your music, to a relative stranger, can bring is a powerful stimulus.
Buy a new guitar...