The Psychology of Creative Blocks: Why They Happen and How to Beat Them

Creative blocks are frustrating, and they're also common. Even Beethoven went through a difficult period in 1813, and his compositional output dropped. Understanding what research does (and doesn't) say about getting stuck is a good first step to getting unstuck.

The neuroscience of creative blocks

Research on creative insight by cognitive neuroscientists John Kounios and Mark Beeman has found that "aha" moments follow a recognizable pattern: just before the solution arrives, the brain briefly dampens incoming visual information, a bit like closing your eyes, and attention switches from the obvious associations to weaker, less obvious ones.

When we're blocked, it's often because our brains are stuck in what researchers call "fixation," a focus on familiar patterns so strong that we can't see new possibilities. This explains why that chord progression you've used a hundred times keeps coming back, even when you're trying to write something fresh.

The default mode network

Your brain has a "default mode network" that is most active when you are not focused on the outside world, such as during daydreaming and mind-wandering. It matters for creativity, but it does not work alone. A 2016 review led by Roger Beaty found that this network and the brain's executive control network, which often work against each other, tend to cooperate during creative thinking and artistic performance.

Common types of musical creative blocks

1. The perfectionist's paralysis

You have high standards, which is great, until those standards prevent you from starting. A 2022 study in the British Journal of Psychology compared people striving for excellence with people striving for perfection, and the perfectionists came up with fewer original ideas.

2. The comfort zone trap

Our brains love patterns and familiarity. Musicians often get stuck using the same scales, chord progressions, or song structures because they've become habits our hands and ears fall back on.

3. Analysis paralysis

Sometimes we overthink the creative process, engaging our analytical mind when we should be letting our intuitive mind lead. In our experience, many good ideas come from moments of play or experimentation.

Strategies to beat creative blocks

1. Embrace constraints

It sounds backwards, but limitations can boost creativity. In a 2017 study, psychologist Catrinel Haught-Tromp asked people to write short greeting-card rhymes; independent judges rated the rhymes as more creative when the writers had to include a given word. A 2019 review of constraint research across disciplines adds a nuance. In its account, the effect looks like an inverted U, where some constraints help and too many hurt. With ComposerDeck, we're betting that a few random constraints push you out of familiar patterns.

2. The power of play

Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp identified PLAY as one of seven basic emotional systems in the mammalian brain, and found that rats make laughter-like sounds when tickled. In our experience, approaching music with a playful mindset rather than a critical one makes unexpected discoveries more likely and quiets your inner critic.

3. Strategic mind-wandering

Take breaks seriously. In a 2012 study, people who did an easy, mind-wandering task during a break improved more on a creativity problem they had already seen than people who rested, did a demanding task or took no break. And a 2014 Stanford study found that walking boosted creative thinking compared with sitting. Schedule regular breaks away from your instrument, ideally doing something easy like walking.

Two habits worth trying

The role of random challenges

Our bet is that random musical challenges help because they:

• Break fixation: They pull you away from familiar patterns
• Cut down choices: Fewer open decisions before you start
• Encourage divergent thinking: You have to find new routes to a fixed goal
• Lower the stakes: It's just a challenge, not your magnum opus

Building your anti-block toolkit

Our toolkit draws partly on the research above and partly on habits we like.

Breaking through

Creative blocks aren't a personal failing, just a normal part of how our brains work. Creativity is less about waiting for inspiration to strike than about creating conditions where it is more likely to occur.

Every time you push through a block, you practice working anyway. Our experience is that the more you practice breaking out of familiar patterns, the easier it gets.