A mentor arrived home from France and promptly sat down at the piano while his wife prepaired dinner.
He started out slowly going through scales and modes and then chords. Eventually he started riffing.

Later when I was playing one of my ideas, he told me to just let my fingers wonder, not to force the
idea. He then reminded me of how he warmed up and why. It doe not matter when, but at some point in
the you need to go through fundamentals to ground yourself.

As guitar is my main instrument, this made perfect sense to approach piano the same way as I did
for warming up on the guitar.

 

Last edited: Feb 6, 2016

Wow! Thanks for this, I wasn't expecting so much great advice! Each of you nailed part of the problem, and I will surely act on what you said. Part of it is due to inexperience, I'm still learning a lot after having watched a gazillion courses, I just have to take the plunge and act on those skills, cause that's the only way to truly learn. It's also due to my ADHD and obsessive personality, I can't sit in one place for more than 20 minutes. When I do assignments for uni I put them off until a super intense night before the due date... somehow I still manage to get good marks, but it's unsustainable and working on that problematic tendency will most likely have positive effects on my music as well. I'm going to go "back to basics", create ideas with the guitar/piano, and dynamically go back and forth from DAW to instrument until I find a that happy medium. That's a big one. I'll also try thinking about composition "horizontally", as kouros said... that's a really interesting concept. And at the end of the day, I just have to stop obsessing over every minor detail at every step. They say a writer should not edit their work while they're writing it, they have to be separate stages, otherwise they'll have a few polished paragraphs but no substance to the text. The same applies to composing.

Thanks again for your support! It's good to know what other people think.

 

Last edited: Feb 4, 2016

Hey! If you are diagnosed with ADHD it really helps with medication. It really does wonders for your motivation. I mean litterally wonders. Consider it, if you do not already take it. If not diagnosed, consider going through with it, with all the tests and stuff. It's worth it...because when on medication, you will start doing the boring shit in life without even thinking about how boring it is... You just do it with ease... No more being paralyzed by restlesness and lack of motivation....

Edit: To expand further on the difference. On medication, you start to see possibilities (and get excited about them) rahter than seeing problems that brings you down and makes you give up (because those problems means work, and there is nothing worse than work, right?).

 

Last edited: Feb 5, 2016

You're definitely not alone sometimes when I'm in that rut I have been trying out different combinations of DAW's and rewiring them to try to learn how to try to do the same things using different interfaces and such. Try to push yourself further no matter what also try to steer away from perfection no matter what, that's pretty much where I always get stuck. Also if you have the funds try out different controllers and such meant to speed up the process from brain to actuality it can help. That being said, also try to keep things as simple as possible and definitely try to bounce to audio as much as you can. It will force you to move forward and focus more on arrangement instead of tweaking parameters and midi and such.

Good Luck!

ps. It also helps to keep things sort of free of clutter around your work space.

 

when it happens to me, the writer block I mean, I listen to a lot of new music
bands that inspire me
that s the ideas input to me

 

Last edited: Feb 6, 2016

The whole ADHD analysis is a fricken' excuse... it's a way for doctor's to prescribe and subscribe you to subsidize the pharmaceutical industry.
And the gullible mind, looking for an excuse to lean on just accepts it as gospel.

Because the reality of ADHD is, every single person that walks this earth "suffers" from this. If you have "thoughts" then you have ADHD, if you're creative and struggle with "should I play the IV chord to the iii chord?", then you have ADHD... if you get angry with the way something turned out then you have ADHD...it's an effin' excuse to label humans with a condition then handcuff them to a prescribed drug... I'm sorry, the entire world functioned just fine until 1980... and tell me this, has the world improved since then? I'd argue that the world has become worse since the pharmaceutical companies began dealing drugs and creating legal "drug addicts"...

I apologize in advance (maybe) for those who may take offense to my opinion...

 

Right before his death, the man who "invented" ADHD admited it was fabricated as an excuse to sell pharmaceuticals like methylphenidate to the masses. I don't think ADHD is complete BS, as there are people who are constantly restless and can't focus. However I think the best approach is to change your habits (stop eating crap, make a greater effort to focus, sleep regularly), rather than relying on a drug to allieviate your symptoms. Undoubtedly there are some severe cases that benefit from such powerful drugs, but for most people, they are a crutch and most likely do more harm than good. In my mind pharmaceuticals are always a last resort.

 

I apologize in advance, but I find your opinion to be quite reactionary and ignorant. If someone is to take offense, I guess it is the neuroscientific community, and the doctors who help people with these problems everyday.

This video could be very informative, if you are interested:

 

Last edited: Feb 7, 2016

I don't get that anymore. Maybe because I purpose built instruments in reaktor I use and processes I follow. I used too, I used to get it often a couple of years back.

Work out when exactly you get, then why exactly you get stuck and then do all you can to remove that barrier.

 

First thing, try to not think about making mega hit
I watched great video month ago
http://www.lynda.com/Ableton-Live-t...ucers-Workflow-Finishing-Tracks/437174-2.html