Writer's block is the dreaded scourge of every songwriter's life. Being unable to come up with a song happens to all writers, and shouldn't be alarming when it occurs. But when it lasts for an extended period of time, it is the most frustrating thing that can happen to a composer. The typical symptom of writer's block is the feeling that once a basic musical idea is created, one can't seem to progress beyond that beginning stage. Everything feels like aimless wandering. It can turn what used to be the enjoyable activity of musical creation into a torturous journey, searching for the right notes, the right chords, or the right lyrics. The good news is that there are things that you can do to reduce or even eliminate writer's block.

Professional athletes often go through the equivalent of writer's block. Baseball players who used to hit .400 suddenly find themselves unable to hit anything. These athletes will tell you that the main cause of a scoring drought is not physical; it is psychological. The pressure that they put themselves under to score creates within themselves a mental roadblock that is based on the fear of not succeeding. The more they try, the more difficult it seems to get. Usually things normalize once they've mastered the ability to relax and reduce the self-inflicted pressure. For baseball players, even just getting to first base by bunting can be enough to open the floodgates of success again.

For songwriters, we can do even more: break songwriting down into very small, manageable tasks. Instead of always attempting to "hit a homerun", why not simply try "bunting" your way to first base. Writing a song requires us to come up with melodies, chord progressions and lyrics, and then manipulate them into a successful song. It's a lot to manage. On days when writing a song causes frustration to build, try this important piece of advice: Stop trying to write the song! Not forever – just today. You need to lessen the pressure you're putting on yourself. And in place of trying to write that song, give yourself some much smaller tasks. Here's a list of three smaller songwriting tasks that you can do in place of writing a song:

1) Create random phrases of text and write them down in a notepad. This may seem like a weird exercise, but try creating groupings of words that might not otherwise think of putting together. For example, "through the moon," "a breath of sunset", "the clock cried", "tomorrow's sigh," and so on. These are random thoughts, and may never make their way into a song. But they can cause you to feel creative, without the pressure of putting dozens of thoughts and words together to form a coherent lyric. And you will eventually stumble across a couple of words that will be useful in some future song. Keep every phrase you create.

2) Imagine that you've been told to create a five-second piece of music for the end of a TV show. Just a little tag to end a scene. You'll probably only need one or two chords, and a little four or five note melody, without lyrics. This allows you to be creative without the pressure of creating a three or four-minute song. Play the chords over and over, and improvise a very short melody. Keep changing the melody and/or chords until you come up with something you like.

3) Invent a four-note melody. Hum the melody several times; then start harmonizing the melody with your guitar, or at the piano. See what chords sound good with that melody. Some will sound horrible, but some will sound very interesting. Don't change your melody once you've decided what it will be. Write down the chord progressions that sound good. Find four or five progressions that work well, and see if you can string them together somehow to create a short piece of music.

These activities are useful because they require you to be creative. At the same time, they can help you eliminate writer's block because they are easy to fulfill, and you will feel successful. And feeling successful is one of the biggest weapons you'll have for defeating writer's block.

Gary Ewer
www.secretsofsongwriting.com