Dan, this is a seriously awful situation to be in. I’m so sorry you’re feeling this way. I’ll try my best to help you out the best I can because I (like a billion other musicians and artists) have gone through this. Before I give you ANY encouragement, I’d like to agree with Captain Ed – it DOES get better and it WILL pass. Everyone has their moments of this. Even the greatest artists of all time.
Take comfort in this, knowing you’re not alone and it doesn’t make you any ‘less’ of a musician.
When you say you don’t feel inspired when you listen to music, maybe you need to take a break from listening to OTHER artists for a while. I found out that the most I ever felt let down was when I was listening to music and naturally, comparing myself to them. Sometimes it’s best to shut every other influences out the door and just sit down with your guitar and bond with it.
I’d like to quote a line from BB King’s “Lucille”
“Well, now when I’m paying my dues, maybe you don’t
Know what I mean when I say paying dues, I mean when
Things are bad with me. I can always, I can always,
You know like, depend on Lucille.”
Your guitar is not meant to be a challenge. It’s meant to be there when you just need to have sometime to yourself and allow yourself to have fun and be creative. Inspiration comes when you just clear your mind and not place any type of expectations on yourself. And those people that you listen to with “great ideas”, keep in mind how long these “great ideas” took to come around. Sometimes it comes in a few hours. Sometimes it comes in a few years. You have songs like one of mine where I wrote one of my most prized possessions in a few hours and then you have things like Chinese Democracy from GNR that took over 10 years to do. Also, keep in mind that some people have other people like bandmates and producers they bounce ideas off of. I will never forget the time that I watched a backstage clip of making the Stage album and I said, “WTF? Shadows wrote that riff?!”
If you are finding yourself at a loss for inspiration, it may be best right now to take whatever recording device you have (be it a computer or a voice recorder on a cell phone) and just record yourself doing simple chord progression. Try to think of lyrics and melodies.
They WILL sound stupid and dumb at first. But you can’t shut yourself off before you even begin. NONE of my songs sound the same as when the riff first came around.
Don’t think about killer riffs. Don’t think about blazing solos. Don’t think about impressive key transitions and modulations. Don’t think about epic orchestration.
I will ALWAYS quote Willie Nelson: “Country is three chords and the truth.”
And look who Willie Nelson is. Write an amazing song. Who cares if your lyrics sound dumb to you. Someone else may love them.
As a matter of fact. If you are at a loss for inspiration, I’ve got a task for you.
Write a song about it. You’re obviously feeling some sort of emotion because of this. You may feel down, depressed, not worthy, lost. Write a song about it. Pick a chord progression of four chords. I don’t care what the hell they are.
Write lyrics. And I don’t care if the melody is “mundane”.
Let your soul out, dude. You’ve got something to say and express and I would love to hear it
