What do you do when you have no inspiration?

I'm sure everyone has days where the music just doesn't come naturally, what do you all do in those types of situations?

Most of the time I'll just sit around and maybe cut up some samples that I previously recorded, or maybe put the new ones from my minidisc recorder onto the computer... Also, I look for new VSTs or explore the various VSTs I have and make new patches for them... Also, when I'm at home (not right now) I would play around on the Korg MS2000B.

Recently I tried something different, I took a song I liked, and tried to reproduce it as closely as possible. While I realized an hour or so into it that it'd be nearly impossible to do (I think the song used analog equipment, and the tuning would have been really complicated to match), but it was definitely nice practice for when I didn't feel that I had inspiration to work on music.

Oh, and on a similiar note, do you even need any sort of inspiration? I know some people who make songs that don't really have any meaning, and they seem pretty successful and happy doing so, but to me, I just never enjoy the songs that I make that have no meaning whatsoever, what's your take on that?

lately i've been drawing when i cant come up with anything musically. it's actually quite nice,, i like how it's so direct. it's like you think of something then draw it, and that's that. no fiddling around with knobs and shit like that

I sit down, roll a spliff or two and just start doing shit... I kind of fall into subconscience I don't know whats really happening I just create create create...

Yeah right. When I don't have inspiration I work on beats and songs I already made to perfect them.

when i have no inspiration i just pick up a guitar, tune it to CGCGCC and then rock some drone stuff. or i play along to tortoise or genesis or pink floyd or something! sometimes a nice chord progression pops into my head after playing along to other people's music.

i idly finger my privates until the most incredible music floods my brain which i then try to recreate but before you can say "808 kick.wav" i forget all about it and start to make something completely different which turns into a halfarsed 1 minute that gets rendered to mp3 at 192kbps and left to gather dust in a folder containing 1 billion unfinished tracks and never played again.

when i have no inspiration i either leave it and come back later or have a little smoke and rethink the idea or work on previous pieces

the second one usually works, but sometimes i end up just wanting to listen to good music. ha!

just read this:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bob_Ross

lol

i find that if i force myself to compose i come up with good results usually

or i might write a list of ideas i'd like to hear realized and then try to frankenstein them together

i read the rules

it's flipping frustrating when you go to your music software and literally fuck all comes out for days and days. but yeah when that happens i take a week or two sabbatical from the ol' music and just listen to other peoples tunes for a while. i think the trick is not to force yourself to make music if all that comes out is shite....

i remember Fripp's aphorisms:"Address the process, rather than the outcome";

"When stuck, increase complexity."

would aphex twin have that one bookmarked?

whenever inspiration is scarce, i turn off the computer, go outside and live life. i usually have 5 new ideas before i even get to the end of the street.

  forlon said:

would aphex twin have that one bookmarked?

wouldn't know; never been able to corner him for an interview

  firefunker4 said:

whenever inspiration is scarce, i turn off the computer, go outside and live life. i usually have 5 new ideas before i even get to the end of the street.

...by the time you hit center of town, ideas are raining down like shells at versailles, and you have a panic attack.

It's like taking a shit, it's a lot better not to force it out, just let it come naturally!

I like riding my bike, I'm usually thinking when I'm skating but biking I can just ZONE.

When I lack musical inspiration I personally like to take my penis and balls out and start playing the keyboard, it helps.

i've found that it helps to just churn out shit for the sake of it. make bootleg/soundclash tunes or just loops etc

when i listen back to the stuff that i make like that sometimes it is a lot better than i thought

i never run out of inspiration, its whether or not im in the mood to pursue it that holds me back. there is always something new to try or experiment...

Ya I usually make new patches. Or look for new samples...

  slightlydrybeans said:

Ya I usually make new patches.

yea, I was going to post the same thing. When I can't seem to make a track, I usually make a couple patches or aimlessly jam on my gear.

If nothing inspires me, I don't write anything. It's never fun, and the tracks I come up with sound like shit.

Actually, they sound like shit regardless.

ive spent time in the past setting up reaktor patches and my machines to have Jamm instruments.

So when im feeling in the lurch, i can literally just plug in press play and improvise whatever i like. Alot of it is sloppy, but you can build some real nice stuff like this just record a long jamm and see if any ideas scream out at you. its not easy to set up as this can take days of making it more ergonomic, and the likes but with effort you can make something which is really immediate and allows you to just improvise an ything you like.