09 Aug 5 Ways to Stay Musically Creative
Original Article Found On: Reverb (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
Author: Jake Zelinger (Twitter, Instagram)
The faucet of your fresh ideas is clogged shut, and inspiration strikes at inconvenient times: when you’re in the shower, in bed — or worse — on your way to work. Writer’s block totally sucks. Whether it’s words, music, songwriting or just jammin’ with your friends, hitting a creative wall is beyond annoying.
When it strikes, as it inevitably will, here are five quick ways to jumpstart your brain, kick your creativity into gear and maintain it consistently.
1. Click Refresh
Have you ever walked into a room and instantly forgotten why you went in there? Despite being a legitimate cause of dismay and confusion, as well as the subject of in-depth studies at the University of Notre Dame, walking through a doorway can cause you to forget, which can be an extremely handy tool in jumpstarting your creativity. Think of it like hitting the refresh button on your mind.
Take a 20-minute walk outside. Turn your phone to silent, airplane mode, do not disturb or off. The less connection, the better. Once you’re outside of the creative workspace, your brain will naturally move away from the creative mind-space. Your conscious mind will move on to things around you, like the trees, people and other buildings, thus moving all creative thoughts into your subconscious. This allows your brain to work out the problem while you remain unaware. When you return to your creative space, your mind will come at the project refreshed and full of new ideas.
2. A Dose of Inspiration
A great way to make sure you get inspired is to look for inspiration outside of your current medium or genre.”
All that stands in your way could be a lack of inspiration. A great way to make sure you get inspired is to look for inspiration outside of your current medium or genre. If you’re a producer working in hip hop, you may find great revelations from 1920s big band or Motown. If you’re a rock musician, listen to some rap! I suggest that all musicians, songwriters or producers use this tool, as it will open up worlds of new ideas.
Also, look around you for inspiration. Breaking free of the sound medium, one can begin to explore fascinating new concepts and ideas from visual inspiration, including photography, paintings and films.
3. Take a Memo
Most of us, at one time or another, have been slaves to our inspiration, waiting indefinitely for a burst of creativity only to find it while showering, driving or trying to sleep. Most of the time, this is horribly inconvenient, but there’s a way we can utilize this to our advantage.
These activities are generally known as right brain activities. This means that you’ve performed these acts so often that they’ve become routine. When you move into a routine, your mind switches to autopilot and the creative side becomes highly active. This is why we’re flooded with ideas during these activities, and it behooves an artist to make good use of this.
It’s good to write your ideas down. This may be hard while driving to work, but luckily, most smartphones come with a voice recorder. Use this to capture ideas that come to you. If you’re about to go to bed but your creative mind is bustling, write it down or speak it into your recorder. The sooner it’s “on the page,” the sooner you can sleep and rest easy knowing that you will not forget the idea. The shower is a tricky spot, so you may want to engineer a waterproof voice recorder, or hone your memory skills.
4. Noise Gate
A lot of the time it’s not a lack of creative energy, but merely that your creative ideas are lost in the noise of your head.”
A lot of the time it’s not a lack of creative energy, but merely that your creative ideas are lost in the noise of your head. Thoughts of money, job duties and family obligations can drown out the sound of creation. Unfortunately, we cannot simply forget about finances, our jobs or family at the flick of a switch, but we can quiet the noise.
Think of journaling as a noise gate; the noise is still there, just not interfering with your signal. When you wake up in the morning, pick up a notebook and start writing. Do this for three consecutive pages without pausing to correct spelling or punctuation. Write about whatever is on your mind, like the laundry or how rent is due or how you hate your neighbor’s dog. This will clear your mind so you can focus on creating.
5. Creative Overdrive
Earlier we talked about filling your head with inspiration that lives outside your current genre or medium. However, as artists we often find ourselves with too much inspiration and not enough creation. We’re overdriving our creative input. This throws us into a frantic and hastened artistic process where we feel we must create as fast as possible, thus rolling out sloppy or distorted products that don’t reflect our true artistic potential.
The best way to let out some of your creative signal is to engage in projects outside of your medium. In other words: if you’re a guitarist, paint. If you’re a songwriter, sculpt. This may frighten and alarm a lot of you, but trust me, it’s integral to the process. One of the most simple ways to let off creative steam is to make cookies. Make little shapes and designs out of the dough — it can even be stick figures — and just bake them. You’ll find no stress or creative pressure to make a masterpiece, because after all, it’s just a cookie.