This month last year, Lisa and I attended the New Music Seminar in New York City. The conference’s keynote address was presented by prolific songwriter, Desmond Child. After his presentation (which included a fascinating piano and vocal performance of his composition and Bon Jovi hit, Livin’ on a Prayer), he fielded questions from the audience. One aspiring songwriter got up and asked Child how he deals with writer’s block. He paused, looked at the person, and replied emphatically, “I don’t. I don’t get writer’s block. There’s no such thing.” Child’s point is that things like writer’s block are things that we make up to block us from getting the creative work done – external forces that have nothing to do with actually coming up with creative ideas.
I left the presentation and conference feeling energized and motivated – I even wrote a blog post about it right after that conference. And since then, like Mr. Child, I have been writing up a storm. From film and TV cues, to a clarinet concerto, a musical called SKI Club and many other projects too many to list, I have been a bit busy;)! So it goes without saying, I never get writer’s block. That was until yesterday…
I regularly write for film/TV music pitches. A call-out or listing is posted by one of the online communities I belong to and I write a short bit of music (or cue) that would go as background of a scene. If I did well, it’s forwarded on to the TV/film people for their consideration. I write for MANY of these types of listings…sometimes 2-3 cues/day.
One such listing came across my desk yesterday where an ad agency was looking for music to go in a TV ad for a real estate company. They wanted the music to be acoustic, warm, sentimental and inspiring as the ad was portraying a family and the wealth of memories that their home has given them.
This type of listing is very much in my wheelhouse. Being a solo pianist, I find it easy to improvise something, record it, edit a bit on my computer and “boom”, I’m done the piece in an hour. But every time I tried something, it kept coming out sad, not the feel-good feeling that the listing was asking for. I must have done up to 10 versions, all not the right feel, all way too melancholic.
I was demoralized, angry and frustrated. I was suffering from something that I said I would never ever have again – I had writer’s block! An extra shot to my pride is that I couldn’t even write in what is supposedly my area of expertise – solo piano. I felt like I just got hit by a truck. After 5 hours of trying to come up with an idea for a 60 second cue, I finally gave up. I had been defeated.
Now the old Frank would have sulked about it and threatened to give up writing anything else ever again, but I decided to say “screw you, happy real estate ad music” and wrote something else instead. Good timing for my next listing, I needed to come up with some melancholic music for a TV show. Not surprisingly, I finished that cue in 90 minutes. And then after that, I even wrote some cheery latin music for another listing before the day was done.
So I went 2 for 3 yesterday in the productivity department. Even though I am a professional and great’s like Desmond Child don’t ever get writer’s block, sometimes I will not be perfect and that’s okay.