Finding motivation and inspiration

[Jakub Valerian]

Hello everyone, I would like to ask you two questions (maybe they have been already posted, then sorry for duplicate) to get some inspiration for me and others here.
For me it’s quite common that I come up with some riff or melody, but there is no other idea how to expand this idea into something bigger – nothing suits there, nothing sounds good, even when I leave some time to let it relax and then I return to it. To share my tip which sometimes work – I show the riff or send the video of me playing to some of my friends and they from time to time come up with some small piece which shows me the direction. How do you get out of this problem when no idea is coming to your head and/or hands?
And the second one, how do you deal with lack of motivation to play? Sure thing, I love to play, but sometimes there is just no motivation to grab the guitar and plug it in – sometimes even for the reason above, because there is no progress in composing or techniques practicing. Unfortunately I cannot share my experience with solving this as I can’t really come up with anything.
Hopefully your answers and experience will help more people having the same issues

 

[idssdi]

An answer to your first question: I kinda consider stuff that a deadend is actually a deadend. I hate forcefully writing things so I kinda just leave it and throw it in the bin and start o er with a different idea. Theory also helps a lot so I consider stuff a deadend when looking at cadences and stuff like that doesn’t give me something I like.
Answer to your second question: I try to pick up my guitar as much as I possibly can(nowadays without neglecting my social live), it can be noodling or actual practicing or just jamming along to songs. The key to keep doing this is kind of try new things every once in a while so you keep things you play fresh and won’t get bored. It can be a new song, new technique, new guitar(this genuinely works wonders because different guitars tend to make you play differently), new lick whatever you can find that’s actually new and not part of your routine.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

If you cant take the riff somewhere.. it’s probably not a bad riff..you may just not have learned a technique that you want to use there.. sometimes I set aside songs cause I cant figure out the solo. So I just go off and jam out new lessons.. sometimes through those lessons you hear new melodies. When youre practice they come to life.
Then you might get a new idea you’ve never had before. I think you just gotta expand your creativity a little. Even when you’re doing a lesson.. you’re still technically jamming and working on that song.
Sometimes I’ll jam the solo.. and absolutely hate it. I usually scrap it right away. And start again. On the same note. And try to make the same connections but with a different path.
This also helps when you find yourself writing similar riffs. I was finding my triplets all sounded the same. Now I’ve learned some gminor arpeggios that I’ve sneaked into those riffs that take it to an all new sound. Opens the book up to new possibilities.