How I Find Musical Inspiration

I remember the first time I tried composing a full, soundtrack-like piece. With musical ideas collected from my classical piano background, I downloaded a trial version of Ableton, a music making software, ready to flood the program with all my ideas. However, as I sat before this powerful tool with unlimited possibility, my mind went blank. So many features and so many parts to compose, it was all too overwhelming for me.

It’s common to experience this type of writer’s block, not knowing how to start or what to do next. Over the years, I’ve found a couple of methods that help me work through these blocks and expand my creative output. This article presents some of these unique tips and tricks.

Adapt the environment around you.

What is the feeling you are going for? Lighting, temperature, and other things can dramatically change the way you discover new sounds and melodies. If I want a darker sounding melody and progression, for example, I might wait until night time and dim the lights to create the ideal atmosphere. If I instead wanted something more lively, cracking a window open during a sunny day can get you in the right mindset. Ultimately, it’s up to you and what environment inspires you. There’s no set rules here, and it’s important to just try different things to see what clicks.

Draw inspiration from other sources.

Internally, we remember themes that we’ve seen or experienced in the past. We often associate things with others due to media we’ve previously consumed. This is actually used a lot in scary movie scenes, where what you’re seeing is terrifying, but the music plays light music in a major key, which we internally associate with happy scenes. This discrepancy makes the audience feel uneasy, which producers bank on.

Building off of the environment, I sometimes like to look at artworks, scenic images, etc. and try making a song that relates to it. Even elements of nostalgia, including liminal spaces (If you don’t know, look up images of them, you’ll know what I mean), can evoke different feelings that inspire new sounds. I remember putting pictures of nature on my screen and imagining what a representative song would sound like.

On the topic of nostalgia, you can try tying your inspiration from a certain mood or feeling you had in the past. Maybe it was a good time you had at a party, or maybe a breakup. These deep feelings will fuel your inspiration and can even take your song to the next level.

Make a story meaningful to you.

Music is an art form, just like storytelling is. Being able to tie the two together helps give you music a sense of direction and feeling, similar to looking at images. Remember, this is your piece, and it should be a reflection of yourself, someone with unique experiences and a unique personality to make a unique song. I like imagining that I’m in a movie. What would a fitting soundtrack for this movie sound like?

Try to put yourself back in a situation that strongly resonates with you, or imagine you’re the main character of some movie and come up with a story. Having this guidance, while not direct, allows you to compose freely but still have a sense of direction. Picking one scene can help you create a song, and creating a whole story line can help you create an album.

Play around with 1 instrument to get ideas. Record everything.

There have been so many times where I played something cool, didn’t record it, and couldn’t figure out what I played again. Just try playing anything and improvising, not focusing on specific chord progressions. Many happy accidents happen, and even 10 seconds of something great you played makes it all worth it. Just make sure you try hard not to think about the recording and free your mind.

Skip details in the beginning.

I like to take a chord progression and just start layering instruments on top of it, worrying about specific notes later on. I just want to get a feel for what the song could generally sound like.

This means not only skipping details on song structure and notes, but also the sounds themselves. If you are trying to find the perfect sound or trying to design the perfect sound, you can get stuck for hours without even getting to the song itself. Sometimes it’s nice to have separate sessions where sounds are curated later on.

Be careful about starting with an existing song and adjusting it.

Unless you are making a remix, it becomes harder to make it your own song. You tend to stick to the original format, thinking “they did this part well already, I can’t think of any way to make it better”. I’ve been in this trap before, and it ends up wasting time rather than saving it. Stretch yourself by trying to make everything yourself, as playing around with different things helps exercise your creative muscle.

Putting it all together.

Putting everything together, this is how I used all of these tips to create this song (skip to 1:15 for the main part):

• To get the main strings section, I adjusted the lighting, closed my eyes, and played different things on my keyboard.
• I was a big fan of Minecraft at the time, and looked at grand builds that replicated historical structures to gain more inspiration.
• Additionally, I imagined walking through a grand, medieval kingdom. I’m pretty sure it came up in a dream once.
• With this scene in my head, I made up a quick story of why I was in this kingdom, creating sort of a “we did it!” feeling that builds throughout the song.
• Once I had the basic structure, I started layering instruments, knowing that I would adjust the notes later on.
• As I went along, I formed a more concrete structure. This is why it's important to just start and see where it goes. Overplanning can lead to a lack of creativity and cause you to get stuck.
• Overall, this project took 1 month to produce.

While these are tips that have helped me, it’s up to you and your creative workflow! As they say, if it works, it works. Have fun and go create some music!