How to overcome beat block ft/ Mari Tang

Beat block is usually misdiagnosed. It rarely means the ideas are gone. It means the session has too many open decisions in it, and the mind stalls in front of an open field the way it never stalls in front of a narrow one.

Four constraints that work

Which is why the reliable fixes are all constraints rather than inspiration.

• Start from something you did not choose. A melody you did not write removes the first and largest decision from the session, and it does not have to be the one you finish with.
• Set a hard stop. Forty-five minutes to a rough arrangement forces commitment, because there is no time left to audition alternatives.
• Change one variable, not all of them. New tempo, or new drums, or new key, but not all three at once, which is just starting over.
• Finish something bad on purpose. The block is often perfectionism wearing a costume, and a deliberately disposable beat gives it nothing to defend.

What they have in common

The pattern underneath all four is the same. You are not waiting for an idea to arrive. You are reducing the number of things you have to decide before you can begin.

Mari Tang takes the question in the video above. If the first constraint is the one you want to try, the catalog is here.