ok ive had writers block for like 6-7 months now... im into alot of dm and so on, anyway im really out of ideas for overcoming this curse.. ive sat down and learned a few suffo songs in hopes that it will help.. but it hasnt, I can sit down with my tar for hours and "freestyle" shit all day long but nothing sticks.

what are some pointers to rid me of this? maybe things that have worked for you?

change your writing environment. try writing with drummers, other guitarists, bassists, etc.

change your tuning. even a half step difference can effect how you look at the guitar and may inspire you.

reverse the way in which you write riffs. if you write by thinking of a melody and then transposing it to guitar, do it vice versa. same goes if you write by simply noodling.

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Just like tranny said. Change Key. Usually you can fuck around and get writers block all day long on the same key. Change the key even by just one note and it can just completely revamp your mind when you hear how it sounds.

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alright thinks, ive tryed the first 2 numerous times.. but im just now starting to experiment with the whole "humming" thinking of a tune in the head and incorporating it to guitar, so ill focus on that.. anyone else?

Listen to lots of different music, not just the kind you are into. Inspiration can and does strike anywhere.

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Yeah don't just listen to the same 3 DM bands all the time, or get away from listening to music altogether for a while and just sit down and play what you wanna hear, that helps me to a certain extent in coming up with original shit.

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I compare writers block to a block of cheese.

I don't know about changing the tunning. I've never really done that.
But listen to different music. Jazz, Blues and Punk help me a lot. Also change your writting enviroment. Sit down and watch a movie you like and perhaps you can write a song based on the feel the movie gives you. Or look at various paintings or pictures and be inspired by the feel they give you.

Sometimes inspiration can strike in odd places. Recently for some fucked reason Lindsay Lohan has be a huge inspiration for me. Not her god awful music or films but just looking at pictures of her I am banging out riffs left and right. Really odd.

But if all else fails don't be afraid to borrow riffs. Learn riffs of some of your favourite bands and then play them backwards, slow them down, speed them up, add things, take things away. Tons of famous bands borrow riffs from their inspirations.

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Try some theory. Every time I get in a rut, I just look up a theory concept and try to apply it in an unorthodox metal manner. Never fails... (for me anyways)

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Listen to some other kinds of music. Don't just listen to Death or thrash metal.

Go listen to some Indie, or Classical or Trance or something. Maybe a little emo, so you get so angry you pick up your guitar and churn out something killer.

Your brain needs new stimulation. Do something out of the ordinary.

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This is one thing I've never had. However, my music is very diverse. I can listen to all kinds of metal/rock(except for a select few of its sub genres) and enjoy it.

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don't just listen to different kinds of music, write some different styled shit too!
even if it's not your main focus, remember that only one style of music can only go so far.

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Thought I'd quote it so you'd be filled with joy when you see someone has wasted more time reading it than the time you wasted typing it

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Do you have any drum machines? I'd be up for swapping drum loops etc, but I'm in need of a new drum machine as fruity loops is a bit crud. I'm not too good at making the loops, but more often than not new drum loops expand your thinking, especially if you have a range of say eight loops, accross three tempo ranges. An example of how I've been using this is having some loops at 154, 180 and 220 and cycling between them etc.... But as you say, this does fall more into the class of "freestyling all day" hah

Maybe a few tokes of inspiration can help... It oftens frees my mind and helps you to focus through the simplification of life hah

One thing that helped me a few years ago was to start writing songs (or the building of the melody) from a cool rhythmic pattern. Sometimes you can go all the way and start building a riff or melody or song just from the drum pattern alone. Messing around with a drum machines/programmed drums or ideally a real drummer, is probably my #1 suggestion as it has worked out for me.

Another thing I found that helped me alot is to revist old music you have not listened to or played in a long ass time.

Sometimes though you just have to take a break and let life take its course... new experiences/events in your life will undoubtedly have some kind of subconcious effect on your playing and writing.

When I was starting out playing, I really was a hardcore Steve Vai fan, and I read some articles similar to these kinds of issues and more that he did for a guitar mag a long time ago... now I was young and even now it's abstract as hell, but not only do they make more sense but they have really helped me through times I felt uninspired and 'musicless', like I was just mucking around on the guitar without anything musical coming out. Check them out!

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I don't agree with the whole, "Listen to different music"
YEAH.. of course its not BAD to listen to all music but I don't think that will help with the writers block.
I'm just like you. DISGORGE, SUFFOCATION. Pure brutal death metal. I get writers block all the time.

Listen to your music and tap your foot to the beat. Its not as fast as it may seem. You'll begin to hear the riffs and not just the long phrases of the song. You hear the feeling of the song. Try it with Disgorge. TAP YOUR FOOT

I used to play at, say, 160 bpm on the metronome and play 16th notes on the tremolo picking. Now, I've gone down to 80 bpm and played 32nd notes for the tremolo picking. You'll see how the slow temp but fast playing changes your riffage.

See how fast you can play in a slow tempo. Thats death metal. Not because they play fast tempo, but because they play fast within slow tempos. hehe. Sorry if thats confusing.

Really try it.

Try my dodecaphonics thread in the Theory Forum for some inspiration.

I normally have ideas that I write down then flesh out. Just don't create filler riffs to glue your ideas together though, not only will it end up sounding filled in, but you'll feel disappointed. Every bit has to work. Having ideas that you create in your head is better than fucking about on guitar, because you'll just land up limiting the sound of your works. Transfer your ideas TO guitar. You may end up extending your technical ability like that and pushing yourself to greater heights.

Worry not, I sat around for months wondring what the hell my sound was, made doubly hell because I'm an experimentalist, but I found it in the end. I had to realise what sounds I liked, and tried to fuse them into something coherent.

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I should carry around a recorder with me. Ideas slip away every day.

(pardon my spelling)
dude you are right about listening to the riffs in a song if you sit their and focus on what song u are listening to it works or I heard trivium talk about this in their collum in guitar world they said try to listen to something that u realy like and play it and make it your own it went something like that and i use that alot when writting riffs

There are times when I'm listening to music and I just focus so hard on the drums, I'll be playing a song and eventually I'll be playing my own riffs over the drums. Its tight when you get in that zone.

Trivium? That's a bad example man. Their new album is bassically just a tottal rip off of Ride The Lightning.

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is it possible i have no ideas because i never learn other peoples riffs.. the only thing ive learned in about 2 or 3 years is like 2 mins of suffo - demise the clone.. i tend to get bored learning stuff that other people wrote, the satisfaction of creating your own song/riff is far greater then reading a tab of someone else's shit... do you think it would be worth it to just focus on learning complete songs by other bands rather then trying to create my own stuff? for a while that is...

im thinking this is why im stuck using the same techniques...

I'm the same way.

DOn't read tabs anymore. Try to figure out songs that don't have tabs. It'll work your ear out and then you'll figure out better how to translate your mind onto the fretboard.

Pick an easy phrase at first.

I mean I don't even know a whole song to be honest just parts. But It sure helped me with my playing and writing.

ya my playing by ear skills are awful, its pretty hard for me.. ill try that though

cool.

that is indeed someting of which I would consider to be catergorized under the genre "cool and thing of which are related to or atleast related to what is related to that of being cool"
Your statement was completely reasoble. Please continue your posting as it is vital to the very fabric of what one would consider to be a prominent forum.

I enjoy this fact quite a bit.

any tricks to playing 220bmp.... damn suffo

See, thats what i'm talking about. Don't play at 220. Play at half of that.

What is it... 110. Try playing at 110 bpm.

What song is that anyway?

demise the clone... im not sure if i quite understand what your talking about.... if i need to play 6666 5555 etc how do i play 4's at 110bmp and still stay in rhythm with the song?

Look... the song says its at 220 and its in time with the song right?
Well if you play at 110 your still going to play the same tempo as the song but there will be more notes in the measure.

hey man only example I could find it does work

say wha?

ic what your saying thanks will try

i'm ike you guys, i usually don't read tabs, just listen to it. hey, listen to stuff and find what you like, not just melodically and rhythmically, but the sound you want. You can play the same note on a guitar like 6 times, each one of those notes sound different. take advantage of that

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