The dreaded wall

[fenderbender]

How often or at all do you hit the "Wall"??
switch everything on pick up your instrument
and nothing  happens -
blank -no ideas -just blank--
scratch your butt -another coffee and cig and still no ideas
kfc-it go and watch the game on TV or stick with it??

just curious 

Tommy

[Hook]

It will come brother!

[Oldrottenhead]

when it happens to me, i try doing things differently, use an alternative tuning, get a new bit of gear (if finances allow it), do other things, i read lots of books, listen to tons of music, and try to experience as much of life as i can in my short time here, it's all grist to the mill.

i know i write lots of crap but i rarely hit the wall, when i do it's cos i have been having a quiet life and not had much to inspire me.

[IanR]

You just need a change of Government.  That has helped me write a couple of songs lately.

[Oldrottenhead]

You just need a change of Government.  That has helped me write a couple of songs lately.

ah! governments are a constant inspiration to me too. especially the feckless lot we have just now.

[IanR]

yep, we joined the club you were already in!  Sorry, but I don't want my membership 

[Hilary]

You can't force it Tommy - do something else and come back to it when you are in the right mood . . .

[AndyR]

I hit a different kind of wall, but I hit one all the same...

No problem with ideas, got loads of those, shoe-boxes full.

My problem is hitting a wall on a recording where I can't get it past "well, umm, ok... I spose, I guess... "

What I want to do is get it over/through the wall to "Yee Ha! YESSIREE, now that's what I meant when I wrote it, now we're cooking... "

Unless I'm really lucky, I always hit that wall in some shape or form (Big time in the current one, the recording of which actually started in July 2012).

My solution is usually to go "oh f*** it" and try another song... Except I've already done that three times on this one, quite successfully (I've managed to get 15 other songs through the wall and posted since I recorded the acoustic guitars on this one), and I just want the bugger done and off the machine....

But when I do get stuck with song-writing itself (usually a pen/paper/guitar operation for me, no recording involved) - and I'm talking about already having a promising idea, here - I tend to worry away at its edges for a few hours, give up, go away, do something else, come back, give up, go away, come back, etc, etc... if this doesn't result in a finished song after a few days, the piece of paper gathers dust in one of the many piles until I tidy up... then it goes in the "unfinished ideas" shoe-box...

If I do try to sit down and "write a song", and nothing comes at all... then it's obviously not a song-writing day, so I do something else (lying on the sofa is good) and not worry about it at all.

But, I realise that I'm quite lucky now, I've been writing songs for years and years - I don't have to write any new songs to find something to record, I've already got too many for me to do. So, the pressure I used to feel, that "create or die" frustration, just isn't there for me anymore. I know that next time I try to work on a recording of xyz I'll probably end up writing something else instead... that's how the new "new ones" arrive for me nowadays, getting in the way of the old ones that have been waiting patiently in their shoe-boxes...

[SteveB]

...getting in the way of the old ones that have been waiting patiently in their shoe-boxes...

Ah, Shoe-Boxes. With me it's supermarket carrier bags. An endless mocking array, and now the Tesco et al b*st*rds have introduced biodegradable ones that crumble before one's eyes. There's gotta be a Kafka-type novella here somewhere??

[Mike_S]

yes has happens to me sometimes. lately i try not to let it get me down. i think it might be a little bit like a footballer not scoring goals, if you let it get into your head then you don't play properly. i think maybe if you forget you are trying to write a song and just pick up your guitar or instrument of choice and just play around and enjoy yourself. if something good happens then record it and then later try and add to it or turn it into a song.

i also do the thing that someone else mentioned - i try different angles and sounds, that seems to inspire me. i tried slide guitar for the first time in the last month and that inspired me to do a couple of things. Open tuning as well is a different idea to try.