creative/writers block help me guys

benmurray85

so i recently decided to just write my own stuff and do it all at home on a laptop (decent/commited musicians are hard to come by round my way) I've been in bands and written my own music for years and never really struggled but i think the "isolation factor" is effecting me somewhat.

I'm finding that not having people to bounce ideas off is stifling. anything i do come up with tends to be pretty formulaic and not very interesting in all honesty. I'm not looking to reinvent the wheel its purely something for me to fill my evenings with. no intention of gigging or hawking the music around at all!

i could do with advice on how to use sampled drums/drum loops if anyone can chirp in on that it'd be great? I'm finding that in particular a real struggle not having even a beat to go at, i can play drums as well which i think is why I'm struggling without them. 

my setup is a few mics, reaper, focus rite 2i2 and a macbook. as I've mentioned before I'm extremely IT illiterate so anyone wanting help needs to be patient with me! haha ;-) 

John_P

I prefer writing with someone to bounce ideas off as well... 

A couple of thoughts - google should bring up plenty of sites with free drums loops - a lot of sites selling loops have freebies, I'll use these to find a groove to jam over and see what ideas pop up using a beat I might not have thought it.

The other thing I try it using a different instrument - if you've got a half formed idea switching to keys or acoustic etc can trigger some more ideas or ways to rework something into a different form.

DulcetJones

John_P's advice to try using a different instrument is good, I do that sometimes too.  I have some fun playing around with GuitarPro software(I have GP5, not sure what's current), it has the option of scoring percussion tracks as well as almost any other instrument, and because it's MIDI it allows you to listen back immediately.   I use it to write parts for piano, guitar/bass, synth and whatever else.  Sometimes I take a pair of headphones and my laptop to a coffee shop and work on writing music there, a different atmosphere can be inspiring at times.  You don't have to know theory to use it but it helps.

benmurray85

thanks for the above advice. i think its just gonna be a bit of a double learning curve of coming to terms with working in isolation and also using a DAW as a creative tool. suppose I'm just a bit overwhelmed by it all at the mo. these tips are great any more would be muchly appreciated