Now that your artificial box has been removed, it may be time to create an intentional box. Sometimes, setting limits on your creative process can actually help the process. It gives you a framework to start from.

Lyrical Limits

One aspect of a song you may set limits for is the lyrics. For instance, you may be writing a song about your favorite place to be. Let’s say that place is a lake. You can limit yourself so that the last word in each line of the verses has to start with the letter L. Or you can make a four line acrostic chorus so each line starts with the letters L-A-K-E. You can use the name of the lake in a similar way. You can limit yourself to one literary device, only simile or metaphor, every verse ends ironically, or only the verse endings rhyme.

Musical Limits

If you’re writing the music for a song, you will set natural limits based on the key, time signature, tempo, or even genre, that you pick. You can also limit the number of notes you use in the key you selected or how often you play certain notes.

Instrumental Limits

Every instrument has built-in limits, but there are other types of instrumental limits you can set. You can limit the number of instruments, the type of instruments, even what the instruments are made of. For ideas on that, look for Andrew Huang on YouTube. Here’s one example:

Creating a Path For Your Song

Without setting any limits, a song can go in any direction. That may sound like a good idea but it could leave you constantly stuck wondering where it should go. Setting limits on your creative process is like giving it a path, it may have turns and hills but it also has boundaries and a starting point. If you’re stuck on a specific song, this may be the thing to get things moving again.