What do you do when feeling uncreative?

[suspenlute]

I think that's why God gave us Shostakovitch, to get us acclimated to the blah blah... lol so... go write you 'blah blah' symphony, maybe a blah blah quartet or two...

That... was... awesome. Well, the whole thing but especially this part. I thought I was the only one who listened to Shostakovich that way. Thanks for posting!

-Chris

[Steve Johnson]

I swear it seems that when ever I sit down to try and start a composition, is when I always seem to be feeling completely uncreative. Needless to say, this is something that more or less drives me crazy after sitting fiddling around for 20min or so with various ideas, realizing they aren't going anywhere, and finally giving up. Go figure... I usually have a TON of ideas come to me right when I'm about to fall asleep/ in some other situation where I'm unable to write it down. lol

Anyone here have some suggestions for trying to come up with ideas when none are coming?

Sorry I'm late to the dance here, but I just saw your post. Anyway, I've certainly been there myself (I think almost every creative person goes through this). I define writer's block as "the 500 ton chunk of mental concrete that keeps you pinned to any horizontal surface away from your project." So here's an idea...

If you have any improvisational abilities, just noodle around on your MIDI keyboard and record your noodlings as MIDI files through your DAW. They could be melodies, chord progressions, or a combination of both. Don't worry about what sounds to use, could be piano, a generic string orchestra, just something to capture what you're coming up with. And your level of keyboard skills doesn't matter here. Mine are south of lousy, but I've been doing this for years, and I have easily 30+ MIDI file fragments that I have been or will be using either for current projects, or future ones. And I think you'd be rather amazed at how even rough little fragments can springboard into other ideas that begin forming an actual composition.

I know how massively frustrating writer's block can be, so I hope my suggestion might help you out.

Steve

[jeckyrayen]

When I am feeling uncreative, I always listen the different music. With that I can get some idea. So I think it is the great idea.