Not feeling inspired. my ideas are all trash. Nothing sounds good.... Its a perfect day to cook up (produce music)

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Just as the title says. Im not feeling it today. None of what i am making sounds any good. No ideas come to mind, and I cant think of anything i want to play.

But it feels like a great day to make music!

Im just going to drag out some gear and play around. Add some samples together.

Is it music? Who knows. But this is what making art is all about. This is how you get prepared for when the muse whispers in your ear…

Sometimes you have to slog through the mud to get to where you need to go.

EDIT:

After some great discussions, this is the track that I came up with today… Just to show that sometimes, there is something past all the muck.

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#2

those are days where it’s great to have a modular. go to it with no direction in mind. see what comes out of it.

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#3

If your not feeling it today then maybe its not the best day.

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#4

I think that’s the right mindset for making music: show up even if you’re not feeling super inspired. Not saying it should feel like a chore tho, or that you shouldn’t take breaks - more like, it’s the same if your hobby is running, sometimes you have to give yourself a little kick to put on your running shoes and step out of the door. But you’ll usually feel good afterwards!

I once spent nearly a decade waiting for the muses to start whispering in my ear again without really sitting down and play my instruments (guitar and piano back then). Lots of grandiose plans, ideas and ”concepts”. Zero finished music. Never again.

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#5

Precisely! I’ve breathed new life into some of my instruments that I thought had gotten stale simply by pulling them out of the setup and using them on their own. It started out as simply a series of experiments to see what I still liked and what I didn’t, and now it’s inspiring me in a way that the room full of gear does not.

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#6

Good to always have a fallback so you don’t lose music making chops.

I’m just graduating off these stupid anti anxiety pills that made me a loopy tired zombie, but through it all I kept at different things even if it’s all technical.

I kept recording absolutely everything and now get to back and revisit the good ones.

The shitty ones will meet the delete button.

Good luck with the off day. I’m gonna see how all this goes, but I’m starting coffee too and I’m feeling like I can challenge my brother’s ADHD. Let’s go.

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#7

Curious as to the reason

#8

When this happens I just practice piano jazz chords & standards. It helps to focus and find cool melodies

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#9

It’s been taking me longer and longer to get going and then I try to make up for it by working faster than I should need to, followed by exhaustion.

It was an endless cycle. The anxiety pills added on, as they made me sleepy.

Prior to this, I drank coffee for less than a year in 2017.

The love of my life is stereotypical South American Latina, raised on Coffee.

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#10

Usually those non-inspiring days are when I organize samples, backup projects to hard drives, or go through old beats and identify the jams, things that need to get worked on more and the things that are legit garbage.

And take pictures of things to post on Craigslist :wink:

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#11

Have you spent any time outside in the sun recently?

It’s been cold, cloudy, windy or some combination for the last few weeks. I’m in much better spirits if I’ve been outdoors in the last few days. :sun_with_face: :cold_face:

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#12

I wasn’t raised on coffee; my parents thought it inappropriate for young children, but they also learned early in my life how to make it reasonably well (as opposed to the percolators and instant of my infancy). I have pretty much maintained a policy of one excellent cup every morning, and nothing more, for my entire life. My partner was a tea drinker when we got together, but without my urging, she has drifted over into a morning flat white that I make for her.

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#13

What’s a flat white? Edit: What Is a Flat White?

She’d love that

I drink a black cup with a little bit of raw sugar and love trying different roasts. She grew up on Cafe Bustelo but loves to try new things.

And this time around, just the one cup in the morning. No more than that.

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#14

A flat white comes from Aus/NZ. Think cappuccino, but without as much foam on top (as opposed to incorporated into the coffee layer).

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#15

Just shared with the missus and now we have to find a good place to try one

Thank you for posting this!

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#16

Can I recommend tea instead of coffee?

I suffer from combat PTSD, and it cycles between anxiety and depression. It’s gotten to the point of predictably since I’ve had it so long since coming home from Iraq.

Coffee is like cocaine as such as that it has diminishing returns. And it lingers in the body, not making you more awake after the crash, but just giving you anxiety and insomnia.

I drink black tea no sugar. Lots of cream. PG Tipps.

It seems to give me a mellower caffeine intake and less anxiety. Still gives me the jolt I need to wake up though.

I save coffee for when I have a bad night of restlessness or nightmares, and I just HAVE to wake up to go to school.

Since your probe to anxiety as it is, just be careful. Coffee is very powerful.

Or not. Ride the bean.

I love coffee so much.

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#17

Maybe I’m a freak, but I’m always organizing samples. And previewing them.

I love it.

As of date, I am resting at 244 gbs of samples. And I love going over them. More so than actually making music with them sometimes because they are so special.

But my Professor just told me. “Use them now. Why wait. “. So I started throwing a bunch into Maschine and I’m gonna make a quick DnB tune.

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#18

Green tea is worth a try. The freshest sencha or longjing are a good place to start. If you want to invest in a whisk and a bowl, matcha is great too. Joong Boo sometimes has good deals on tea equipment.

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#19

Disregard my word of caution! This sounds lovely!

And it sounds like you got a plan! I just commented before reading down the whole thread.

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#20

Indeed it does. Enjoy!

I think I found the solution to infinite inspiration, by the way. It’s simple: I have such limited time for music, that it’s all I think about all day. I’ve been slammed with work and whenever I get a few minutes to make music the ideas are just pouring out of me! Or maybe this is just some sort of Murphy’s law situation, where I either have no ideas and plenty of time to work on them, or no time for music and plenty of ideas :laughing:

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