Just like the A train in New York City, musical inspiration can be a fickle thing. Sometimes it's there; sometimes it's not, and you don't know when it'll roll up.

It's frustrating to fire up your DAW, or open your songwriting notebook, only to feel completely uninspired to do anything. Or worse, start something new and lose inspiration before you're finished.

Everyone experiences this lack of inspiration from time to time (or more frequently), so don't despair!

In this article we're going to explore ways you can get the creative juices flowing, as well as strategies to help the creative process be more fluid.

What is Inspiration?

When we think about inspiration we typically think of something coming out of the blue, or being struck by the muse.

Inspiration is actually the excitement you feel when you discover something new, whether it's a sample pack that excites you, or a new way of looking at the world.

We're creatures of habit, and it's easy to get caught up in old patterns and routines that don't encourage new ideas.

So if you're feeling uninspired you need to break the mold, go on a voyage of discovery, and make your own inspiration.

Ways To Find Music Inspiration

In no particular order, here's some ideas to help you feel inspired...

Listen to Music

Inspiration can often be found in other music.

Other Genres of Music

A great way to encourage music inspiration is to seek out new musical horizons. Many producers are at their most innovative when they blend aspects of different musical styles.

Get proactive with this idea. Create a Spotify playlist of new music for the days you need some musical inspiration. Seek out recommendations from friends, and see what genres music bloggers are writing about.

Other Artists

Listen closely to artists within your genre and pay attention to the music production techniques they use for inspiration.

Go to Live Performances and Festivals

Sometimes it's refreshing to watch another artist perform live. In addition to potentially finding inspiration, you get the added benefit of seeing what the crowd reacts to, and hearing some new music.

Revisit Unfinished Tracks

You might surprise yourself by finding inspiration in your own music. Go back and listen to any unfinished songs you have scattered around your hard drive to see if anything stirs up inspiration.

For this reason, it's good to have what Deadmau5 calls a Big Mr. Potato Head Bin; a folder where  snippets of ideas live, ready to save the day when inspiration is low.

Take A Break

Sometimes the best way to feel inspired is to give your brain a rest from making music.

Read

Reading is important. Period. But reading a book can also be fantastic way for a music producer to find inspiration.

Not sure what to read? Check out your local library for their recommendations, both fiction and non-fiction.

If you want something that's specific to music production try some biographies of famous music producers to see how others go about their creative work, or be on the nose and read a book on music production techniques.

Watch a Film

The same goes for watching great cinema. Seek out classic movies to discover new-to-you stories and characters. The AFI list of 100 greatest American movies and Rolling Stone Top 100 movies are both great places to start.

Go Out in Nature

Whether it's the birds chirping or the peaceful feeling of being surrounded by trees, a walk in the park might be just the thing to kickstart your creative process.

Take a Trip

Step outside your routine and visit somewhere you've never been before.

This could be a coffee shop close to where you live, a neighboring city, or an entirely different country.

Remember, inspiration is about discovering new things, so it's not the distance that counts; it's the new personal experiences.

Explore Other Art Forms

In addition to reading books and watching movies, seek out inspiration through art. Visit museums and art galleries, check out experimental theatre, watch a ballet.

On a budget? Street entertainers can be a source of new inspiration too.

Talk to Friends

A fresh perspective can often be a source of great ideas, so don't be afraid to hop on the phone and have a chinwag.

Musician and music producer friends are great if you need to talk over something specific like a melody that isn't working.

But don't forget your non-musician friends! They can often shine a spotlight to make you see your own life in a new way.

Take a Shower

Some folks swear by the power of shower. They get their best inspiration when they're getting cleaned up.

While much of this involves allowing your subconscious to do the legwork while you focus on simple, almost automatic tasks, there's also value about washing away the grime of the day/morning/afternoon and starting again.

Fresh and clean, and clean and fresh, and spotless. Then the inspiration will flow.

Meditate

Meditation doesn't mean you have to sit in a field and make 'ohm' noises. It's really about being still and observing your thoughts, letting them pass with no judgement.

The calming and relaxing nature of meditation might be what you need to make great music again.

Change Your Creative Process

As a music producer it's all too easy to fall into a routine when creating. Sometimes all you need to do to find inspiration is mix things up a little.

Record Yourself Without an Agenda

Noodling around without an end goal in mind is one of the best ways to kickstart a dead project. Open up your DAW, hit record, and play. Don't edit yourself while playing, just keep going.

Once you're all noodled out, save the session and leave it be for a while. Maybe you'll come back and listen to it one day to fish out one or two ideas, maybe you won't.

Either way you'll have shaken the dust off your creativity.

Allow Yourself to Suck

As a songwriter, you want to make great music. But that doesn't mean you have to create masterpieces every day.

If a track isn't turning out so great, finish it anyway. Make it the absolute worst thing you've ever created. Writing bad songs paves the way for you to create great music.

Collaborate

Two heads are better than one, and working with a collaborator can lead to some great musical inspiration.

Whether you write songs together, or they work as an instrumentalist on a track, the addition of a different musical perspective will undoubtedly lead to new things.

Write in a Different Genre

Another way of finding musical inspiration is to switch up your genres. If your studio time is primarily spent making dance music, try your hands at a rock track.

If you're an acoustic kind of person, dare yourself to dabble in electronic music production.

It's all about getting out of your comfort zone in order to experience new things.

Go Through Your Presets

It's a rare thing for music producers to know all of their plugins inside and out. Instruments often come with hundreds, or thousands, of presets, so even if you like to make your own sounds spend some time going through the factory library. You might hear something that works perfectly for your next track.

Grab Some New Sounds

Whether it's a new sample pack or instrument plugin, a new tool can often help you feel inspired in the studio.

If you're on a budget don't worry - there's plenty of free options out there!  

Record the World Around You

Have you ever really paid attention to the sounds of every day life? Like, really paid attention to them?

There's music in everything, so next time you get out of the studio, open up the voice recorder on your phone and hit record.

You never know when you'll hear an interesting rhythm from a shopping cart, or get inspired lyrics from a snippet of conversation you overhear.

Having a solid voice recorder app on your phone and a physical notebook are two important tools for creativity and finding inspiration.

Utilize Found Sounds

Following on from the last idea, grab some random sounds on your phone, or better yet a hand held recorder like the Zoom H2-N.

Don't limit yourself to 'musical' sounds either; that rattly exhaust pipe could potentially be an awesome pad for a new project with the right tools .

Once you're back in the studio, drop the files into your sampler and unleash your creativity.

Take this idea a step further and try to recreate an existing song using only found sounds. If nothing else, your music production chops will be pushed to the limit, and beyond.

Learn a New Skill

Music production requires us to wear many hats, and there's always a new skill to learn.

Not so hot on designing your own synth sounds? Brush up on your synth programming skills.

Always been afraid of music theory? Dive in and learn how to create a new chord progression.

Set a Timer

There's nothing like a deadline, so set a limit for how long you'll work on a track.

This works equally well for a whole song, or its individual components. Spend 15 minutes figuring out the chord progression, then move on to the drums, then the bass, and so on until you have a whole track.

Commit to starting and finishing a song within a few hours. Write and produce an album in a month. Put out 12 records in a year. Go nuts!

By forcing yourself to make decisions quickly, you'll spend less time second guessing your choices and more time creating.

Spruce Up Your Studio

Music inspiration can also be found in your surroundings. Try giving your studio a lick of paint, or hunt around charity shops for some cool furniture or artwork to give the space a new look.

Even just tidying up your workspace can leave you feeling inspired. Go on, give it a try; your mother would be proud of you.

Write on an Instrument You Don't Normally Use

I'm a pianist, and 99% of the music I write is done on the piano (OK, well, a keyboard ).

But if I'm feeling stuck, I'll pick up one of the stunt guitars lying around my studio and fudge around on it. This nearly always leads to some form of music inspiration (even if it doesn't make it into the final mix).

So go ahead and experience the liberation of picking up an instrument you know barely anything about. Don't try and be good; just play.

Ask for Feedback

When you're making music it's easy to lose your perspective and think that everything you do is either a) gold dust; or b) a total waste.

So if you're uninspired with a song you're working on, seek feedback from folks you trust to give their honest opinion. You could get one or two ideas to get the music back on the right track.

Tips for Staying Motivated

A lot of non-musicians make the mistake of thinking music producers and songwriters get their song ideas or write music only when they feel inspired.

Getting inspired is all well and good, but you have to show up in the first place in order for inspiration to strike, or be cajoled into existence. If we only wrote when we felt inspired there'd be a lot less music in the world.

What you need is motivation - internal or external drivers that propel you towards your goals.

Motivation and inspiration are partners, complementing each other on your musical journey. Motivation provides the drive, inspiration delivers the emotional fuel for the journey.

So how do you stay motivated to show up day in, day out? Here's some ideas.

Set Goals

It's helpful to know where you're headed in order to work out how to get there. Think of it like a road trip; you see the final destination on the map, then you work out the route you're going to take to reach it.

Want to release an EP? Great. That's a goal. Fancy learning music theory? Also a goal. How are you going to do it? That's the next step.

Make a Career Plan

Now that you have a clear idea of where you're headed, you can plot out the steps you need to take in order to get there.

If you want to release an EP, the first step would be to write material for it. Then record it, master it , create some album artwork , find a distributor , etc. Obviously there's many more steps to take , but you get the idea.

Plot out what you want to do, and how you're going to do it. Then....

Show Up

Commit to doing something, no matter how small, every day to work towards your goals. Speaking of which..

Dedicate Time Each Day to Create

Make a point to write something every day. It doesn't matter if you end up with a usable idea or not. The point is to exercise your creativity. Just like physical muscles, the more you use it the stronger it will become.

It can be helpful to see this time as separate from writing music for a specific project, like writing an album. Let yourself loose in your DAW for 30 minutes to just be creative, and then focus on specific material.

Keep creating on daily basis for a few months and you'll be amazed at how prolific you become.

Be Prepared to Shift Course

Sometimes in life, you discover where you really belong while you're en route to somewhere else. Changing directions can lead you to a more fulfilling career, so if you feel like you're being tugged in a new direction don't fight it; go with the flow.

Take Breaks

Finally, look after your physical and mental health. There's no joy in getting to the top of the mountain only to be too burned out to enjoy the view.

Conclusion

Next time you feel uninspired to write anything, try out some of the tips above. There's no one-size-fits-all solution, so mix and match strategies to see which work best for you.

The most important thing to remember about inspiration is that it's the excitement of discovering something unfamiliar or new. Seek out new experiences, new music, new points of view, and you'll have a constant source of inspiration.

Then go forth and maketh the music.