Since quarantine began, I’ve been writing arrangements and composing music, and yet I never finish them. One day I’m totally motivated, and the entire next day I’m lying in bed playing animal crossing haha! How do you stay motivated to finish your music projects?
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I'm not a writer myself but recently I seen some good advice for visual art that might help writers as well.
Like someone else I view lack of motivation as an art block When you're going through an art block, that's just your brain telling you you have to go back to the basics. Sharpen your skills on the fundamentals. I suggest doing stream of conscious writing or doing blurbs instead. Keep your brain active and the have the juices flowing (lol). Hopefully that was good advice for writing! But it's advice that works for me when I can't seem to fill my sketchbook
Just for me personally, I never try and force myself to write music when I don't want to. There's really no point to it, cause I'm almost never happy with what I write. And when I force myself to write, it makes me like music less in general, which makes me less motivated overall. I think it's best to write as much as you can only while you're motivated. It'll make you like making music more, and you'll perpetually become more and more motivated. At least, that's been my experience.
I personally think that discipline is more effective than working off of creative "eureka" moments. It's helpful to create a weekly schedule for yourself and stick to it as best you can. If you force yourself to write a couple times on days you're feeling uninspired, you'll most likely get better at writing at any given time. Obviously this is just what works for me, but I think it's worth a try. send some stuff to me too! my @ is @eliasirvingmusic.
of course, just like art blocks (i’m a visual artist too), there’s music blocks that can be tough to get through. but i feel like finding and listening music that has a similar vibe to what the original composition has is a great way of making a strong goal for yourself. i made this chord progression on guitar that i call the sun song. and it took a few weeks to find different parts of it, but by listening to music that makes me feel the way that my own song does, it helped me add to it. i hope this was helpful in any way haha, good luck with those compositions! and you should send some to me, you know my @.