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Ah, I knew this would happen. Sit down to write a song for week 2, get a nice beat going, go to write a melody aaaaaaaaand nothing. How do you combat writers block?

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Manchester, England

What I usually do, is before I start work on LSDJ, I open up FamiTracker, get a nice lead and decide how and where I want it. Then, I start an intro using only WAV and PU1 (for effects) on LSDJ. When the two meet in conjunction with each other, or when I feed my MIDI through to my laptop, I have a little jam on the guitar to see if I can come up with anything and then when I get some rhythm going, I stop everything I'm doing and just get in the zone and fucking write dude. I usually write about 5 or 6 intros to songs, leave them on the memory bank, create something timeless, delete those intros and just concentrate on writing my new song, using the ideas from those previous deleted files. So, in essay format, give that a go. It might do you good.

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Liverpool, United Kingdom

No such thing as writer's block in my view. That's partly what this type of challenge is meant to show you.

Write anything, write everything you can, write when you can't.

Just write a song each week. Once you listen back to them I can guarantee that you will not dislike what you have written and instead you will probably find that what you thought was bad is, in hindsight, one of your better works.

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Saskatchewan, Canada

Same for me this week lol. Decided to forgo melody and do a super percussive tune.

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TBH, I can feel this getting easier as time goes by as I've not really completed many tracks inn the last few years and I had so much going on in my head for week 1 that it came out a bit confused and poopy. But this week I feel a bit more comfortable about and the ideas are flowing. I think the first couple of weeks will be like defragging my brain.

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Switzerland

I do have some blocks this week and indeed I think I'll get into something less melodic and more rhytmic. Or at least I'll play with effects to create an ambience.
Today I also visited Wikipedia about chord progressions, I'll try some when back from work and will try to derive some melody out of it.
If you can't find inspiration, stick to rational procedure until it comes to you (I hope it makes sense).

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CA, USA

Best way I've found to get past writers block (for lyrics), is to pick a vocalist you like and imagine them singing the song, in their style. Like imagine Simon Le Bon singing it or The Bee Gees or Sister Sledge. The differences in vocal styles will nudge you towards certain notes, phrasing and lyrics.

A way to break out musically is to hunt down a chart listing, it could be from the 70s 80s or any style your into. Find the one or two tracks that you actually dig and look into the group with discogs and wikipedia and find out who produced them, who mixed them, what gear they used, check out any videos on youtube. One group I discovered this way that's been a big influence on me is Lime.

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CK wrote:

Best way I've found to get past writers block (for lyrics), is to pick a vocalist you like and imagine them singing the song, in their style. Like imagine Simon Le Bon singing it or The Bee Gees or Sister Sledge. The differences in vocal styles will nudge you towards certain notes, phrasing and lyrics.

I actually tried to do that for my first track but none of the vocal styles I liked seemed to fit with the backing sad

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Cincinnati, Ohio

when i find i have writers block i usually figure out that i am somehow blocking myself and once i find and deal with whatever i am doing to stop myself, the music will come naturally.  sometimes its some weird emotional shit on my mind or something else that happened that day, but sometimes its just as easy as making a sandwich smile

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sacramento

I usually watch a movie or someone playing a video game and just mess around on a keyboard or whatever until something comes out

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Chicago

i was all blocked up on this weeks track, but the third time i tried something new, i found something that stuck. aw yeahhhhh

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I'm sequenced and good to go, trying to live record the damn thing is proving difficult though. hmm

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Adelaide, South Australia

I found this week easier, actually. I'm uploaded and ready to go.

I pretty much hold on to every musical idea I get on to some kind of recording medium, even if it's just a piece of paper, forever, so when I'm stuck I go over old ideas, to see if maybe I can come at an old concept from a new angle. That helps me a lot of the time. Alternately, a nice and quick shoddy cover of something helps, too. Not to publish, but to warm up with.

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Adelaide, Australia

I imagine I'll be posting in the next 50 of these topics

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You can't have a writer's block. There's a deadline to meet!

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Adelaide, South Australia

I've found this week a bit more challenging, especially since I'm trying to keep a sense of continuity going for the first few tracks and build upon last week's track.