Dealing with Writer’s Block Pt II

I am feeling grateful that so many wonderful composers throughout my life have openly talked about their struggles with writer's block. I fortunately do not get writer's block super often, but I was starting to get some while finishing up "The Golem" (which will be premiered by the Collective on April 25th at UofSC).

It doesn't help that I am a week behind schedule and need to start my piece for the Neave Trio (as part of the MMF Festival) within the next week to finish it by my April 15th deadline. I was stuck on how to treat a groove section of the piece needing to be the culminating section of the piece. I have of course used groove-oriented technique in my pieces before, but it has always been go big and use groove throughout the entire piece or go small. Anyways, I had been stuck on this one section of the music for two weeks. It gave me time to revisit my earlier material and tighten it up, but I was stuck.

Anyways, I remembered that Belmont University's Wind Ensemble performed David Biedenbender's Schism during the pandemic and remembered it being a groove-based piece. Revisiting the piece gave me insight on how to approach my issue and create a sense of direction within my groove. That and accidentally hearing only part of a measure played back have inspired me and allowed me to make forward linear progress in my piece for the first time in two weeks .

I share this because I think that it is important to not just talk about the psychological struggles of writing music, but also the formal struggles. Like I said, I have been blessed to hear other composer's talk about writer's block, so I am returning the favor