 Musicians regularly talk about having writer's block or creative blocks. The confusion in this state is very real But in my experience, there's never been a musician I couldn't coach out of it as long as they followed through on what we figured out Let's first talk about the root of these blocks. Being that the artist isn't happy with what they're trying to create The creation isn't living up to their standards of what's worthy of further development. In this video I want to talk about how you get past writer's block in the songwriting process Hi, I'm Jesse Cannon. This is Muse Formation. Since you always need to trust your gut while writing a song You need to take blocks seriously and while pushing through a block can often work Many people have already tried to push through it and are getting nowhere So let's talk about some thoughts on how you get through writer's block that you may have not heard before The first is emotional evolution. It can often be confusing since a creative block can come from being a different person Emotionally than the last time you were writing songs that you really enjoyed. I along with many other record producer friends Tell every musician that they should never stop writing since this is the most common cause of writer's block Is that you just don't feel the same as you used to when you hear a song when you go too long between batches of writing songs Skipping ahead can leave you confused about the emotions you're having in present time You felt one way in the past and now you feel an entirely different way So songs don't have the same resonance that they used to needing to express an emotion That's different than those you've expressed before can lead to your gut being unsure if the emotion is as Resonant as songs used to be to you Especially if you recently went through heartbreak or you wrote your best songs during a heartbreak and you're now happy But if you don't follow the advice to never stop writing or are now in a block This advice is of little help at this moment What you now need to do is acknowledge you're a different person emotionally and figure out that if you're less fragile Than you used to be during your last album you may not want to rip your heart out when the right riff comes You need to figure out what's currently inspiring you and perspire what you currently feel Trusting that whatever comes out of you may be a different emotion than you used to express and that's okay For example, if you were listening to stoner rock while smoking a ton of the pot on your last record And are now listening to folk music those won't resonate in the same way Acknowledge that and then figure out who you are today based upon what's emotionally resonating with you by Continuing to explore what you now feel don't try to be the person you used to be Instead pay attention to who you are now the next issue is standards a common cause for a block can be the standards We develop after hearing our ideas fully realized after hearing how awesome your last record sounded once was produced mixed and mastered Hearing your ideas on GarageBand can be pretty damn disappointing You can be used to the emotion you got from hearing fully realized ideas for so long Subsequently bare bones ideas don't resonate as strongly It takes time to develop your ideas to be the level of emotional resonance You're looking towards if you're experiencing an extended block It can be helpful to bring a few songs to near completion to remember what that sounds like Even if you're not confident that they're your best work yet Even if you have to throw them out by then you'll have relearned What songs should sound like at certain points of the process allowing you to make good decisions again? The next trick is to change perspective for less serious create blocks where you're stumped on a small detail It could be as easy as shaking things up in a small way Simple changes in environment or interface Blindfolding yourself playing your part on another instrument that you don't usually play Standing up instead of sitting down or using a different hand or changing the octave you play in can all shape up The process enough to give you a breakthrough in a new perspective Anytime you feel stumped the best practice is to change small variables that give you enough perspective until you break through The next is finding new inspiration force yourself to find new inspiration It isn't discussed enough that inspiration is nutrition and perspiration is writing a song with many artists as they age It gets harder and harder to be inspired music just doesn't hit them the same way it used to I like to see this a little different That and when we are younger, it's easy to get inspired But as we get older we need to search for it even more I had to spend a lot of time finding new music that made me feel the way I did when I was younger But I'm not one of those people who only listens to music I found in recent months and barely ever revisit the past I'm always so inspired by new finds even if they are older records that I don't need to revisit things I used to like I make it a point to pay a lot of attention to who the artist I love enjoy and really put effort into listening attentively to their music seeing what I can take from them This has never been easier now that artists are constantly making playlists and interviews can be found easily talking about their influences So I visit those influences and I get inspired from there. Thanks so much for watching That's it. Am I missing anything? Is there any way you would have done this? I need to know your questions and what no one else is telling you since I want to answer them so leave them in the comments I hope you liked this video and if you did please like and subscribe and get notified for my future videos Since I'm going to be breaking down the concepts in this video along with tons of others on promoting your music And how to make music you're more happy with As well, I have a Facebook group that's linked below that has only helpful information No one tried to sell you anything playlist or con artists only helpful information for musicians looking to be better themselves If you want to learn more about me make a record with me or check out any of my books podcasts or anything else I do head to jessecanon.com or at Jesse cannon on any of the socials. Thanks for watching One last thing if you liked this video There's two playlists here with tons more videos that you'll probably enjoy One's about how you promote your music and the others about how you make songs you're happy with Otherwise you can hit the subscribe button here to see you the rest of my videos. Thanks so much for watching