As composers, we all know that ideas, technique, and process are inseparable:
- Ideas are the specific musical gestures we imagine.
- Technique is what we have internalized—physically, aurally, and theoretically—about music in general.
- Process is how we use that technique to bring our ideas to life.
When these three align, composing is a joy.
When they’re not, it sucks. And, stuck, you struggle to string one note after the last.
That “what comes next?” frustration is the worst.
It makes you feel stupid and stressed.
You begin to think that you’ve forgotten how to compose—and, sometimes, wonder if you ever knew how to compose to begin with.
There are many ways out of this writer’s block, but which exit strategy to choose depends on which creative ditch—or, in other words, which maladaptive creative process—you’ve fallen into.
One such maladaptive strategy is the “right note” syndrome.
It happens whenever there’s a gap between what you hear in your head and what you comprehend about it.
Because of that gap, you can begin to obsess over a particular note, chord, or rhythm. You will play or listen to it over and over again, trying but never able to get it “right.”
This process is maladaptive because it doubles down on the idea/technique/process imbalance rather than relieving it.
The basic cause of “right note syndrome” is that you are applying your technique too narrowly.
The most important unit of music is the phrase, not any note-level event. When you fixate on details, you lose sight of both the technical and artistic contexts that could validate your choices.
The cure is, first, to refocus your attention on the phrase itself—not its details:
- What is this phrase doing?
- What is its mood?
- How does the detail in question fit into the bigger picture of this phrase? Of the larger phrase group?
These questions will naturally inspire others about your artistic inspiration, too:
- What is this phrase expressing?
- What about that feeling, image, or idea must the music capture in this phrase? What can be given to a different phrase?
- How does this phrase fit into the bigger picture of your influences and ideas?
Often, these questions are sufficient to get you unstuck.
