AKARSH SHEKHAR
How to Reignite Your Musical
Motivation and Creativity
Sometimes we forgive ourselves for having a complex schedule making it okay to stop playing music,
singing, or composing. But how can you revive your motivation to keep your projects moving?
Yes, creative people often face this issue so let’s look at how they snap out of a funk.
They clean their instruments
A great way to take the stress of restarting
is to get reacquainted with your instrument-
whether it’s a guitar, a DJ mixer and decks,
or even the desk you sit at while writing
lyrics or composing. Spend just 5 mins in
quiet contemplation while changing strings,
removing dust and grime from hardware,
and organizing. This incubation period offers
thinkers the mental space you needed to feel
creative, and a clean station definitely looks so
inviting to perform.
They ask a friend for a musical goal
When it comes to your own personal music
projects, the lack of outside pressure to create
can be as much a challenge as being under too
much pressure. So friends challenging each
other is a great idea. Record an impromptu
musical performance once a week and play
anything that comes to mind, whether it is a
song played often, or something completely
new. Share the first take, no editing — mistakes
and all, at the end of the week.
After a few months, you grow and more
importantly become great at creating on
demand — the process of sitting down, hitting
record, and playing something enjoyably
musical becomes easier every time.
They revisit ideas
Everyone has a folder of short audio recordings,
a board on the wall, or a notepad with snippets
of lyrics and poetry. Unfinished projects can be
a gold mine of inspiration.
They check their current skill set
If you want to be creative but aren’t feeling
particularly inspired, now is a good time to
polish it or take something you’re proficient
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with and give yourself some time to simply
play with that skill and have some fun with it.
Then you remind yourself why you even played
music or created art in the first place.
But if you find some weaknesses, don’t be
hard on yourself. For example, very successful
musicians, even the ones who live and breathe
music day in and day out, write dozens of “bad”
songs for every good one. The same can be said
about playing dozens of bad scales practice
sessions to one good practice.
They don’t give up on their process no matter what
Most professional musicians write more songs
that are discarded and will never be heard by
anyone than amateurs will write in their lives.
But their process of finishing a song is so well
exercised that when an inspiring riff or chord
progression comes along, they’re able to turn it
into a finished song out of habit.
So, if you struggle with getting songs started,
challenge yourself to write or sing something
for just 10 minutes. Now do it five more times.
Now you have six new song intros written in
an hour — they may not be “good,” but that’s
not the point. The point is to sharpen your
capacity to make music and finish a song.
You’re exercising the optimizing of the process
of creation itself without getting caught up in
the contents of the actual music.
They take action
There’s no such thing as “writer’s block,”
only a lack of action. The thing that is holding
you back isn’t an inability to write music —
it’s something in your subconscious mind
that makes you hesitate. So today, don’t ask
questions, and don’t doubt yourself — simply
start playing notes, or putting words on the
page and keep doing it every single day.