Kick starting creativity

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English Guy
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Kick starting creativity

Post by English Guy »

I have played, written and recorded for years (my first 'studio' was a cassette based Fostex X15) but in the past few years hit a brick wall with producing/recording new material, in spite of all the shiny modern toys I now have.

Any bright ideas about how you kick start your creativity?
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aprzekaz
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Re: Kick starting creativity

Post by aprzekaz »

ganja :D jk

Yeah having all kinds of tools can sometimes be overwhelming. I was feeling uninspired in music for a while there myself. For me what helped was stepping back from it for a bit. I went through this mental process where I told myself I don't have to do music at all if its frusterating. I can just quit. So I felt sad for a few days then finally realized that It's something I will always do. But it helped me take a new approach. I decided to practice the bass again. I've been a drummer for years. Picking up the bass kind of refreshed me because there is a lot to learn and I don't feel pressure to be good at it. I guess the learning process sort of inspires me.

Also a friend of mine told me something about just spending time with your medium or tools and not using them necessarily. Some weird art or self help thing I guess. So for me it was spending time with my drums without playing them. Just looking at and touching the drums for however long. It sounds kind of weird but I tried it and it seemed to do something. I just layed on the floor and looked at the drums and after a while it reminded me of when I was a kid and I would want to play the drums just because they looked cool.

anyway..... Just my experience. Don't know if this helps
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Re: Kick starting creativity

Post by ssj71 »

for me, the best thing is to just PLAY. Don't fiddle, tweak, perfect, just play. It works best with just an instrument. Play what you know, what you've done in the past, then just start messing around. I always end up pretty soon playing something new I like and can eventually extend into a song. Good luck!
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Re: Kick starting creativity

Post by English Guy »

thanks for the the thoughts :)
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GMaq
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Re: Kick starting creativity

Post by GMaq »

English Guy wrote:I have played, written and recorded for years (my first 'studio' was a cassette based Fostex X15) but in the past few years hit a brick wall with producing/recording new material, in spite of all the shiny modern toys I now have.

Any bright ideas about how you kick start your creativity?
Hi!

Fellow Fostex X-15 alumnus here... ahh those were the days... actually some decent fidelity could be had from them if you kept your signals hot and avoided track bouncing as much as possible..

I can relate to what you are talking about, I had a productive writing spell 15 years ago that just drifted away as well, probably actually more a priority shift with family life and raising kids which of course I'd never trade for anything. As the kids grew up I began to despair that along with the hair loss and other telltale middle-age signs I had lost the ability to write songs... In recent years the Muse has returned and in revisiting some of the unfinished songs from the old days some new songs have just fallen into my lap very quickly like they used to, in addition my kids have grown up and embraced music and have become musical collaborators which I believe has also enhanced creativity and helped me to appreciate different musical genres that I may not have otherwise been introduced to...

Here is something that has helped me in the past, like many people I began my recording interest by recording covers, after finishing a few and realizing that they weren't really cutting it when compared to the songs by the original artists I started trying to write my own original songs that had the characterstics of the covers I liked ... in other words I tried write the kind of songs I wanted to listen to. Of course in many cases I would fail miserably with something that was too directly derivative, or had shitty lyrics or whatever but as time went on at least some of them wound up being inspired original works.. Something else that worked was a fellow songwriter and I came up with three random phrases and challenged each other to write songs with those phrases as titles, although we didn't both write three killer songs we both got one decent song out of our self-imposed challenge and that was kind of fun..

Like many things in life when our thoughts become dominated with the fear or resentment of losing something then at some level it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy... I understand and empathize that it's terribly frustrating to know you have creative ability and not be able to connect to it, and creating music is such an intensely unique and personal thing that what works for one person may not work for another. Perhaps if you can be OK and have peace with your current lack of inspiration in a kind of "it is what it is" way you may find that once you let go the Muse will be tapping you on the shoulder again..

Best of luck and best wishes for you to reconnect with your inspiration :)
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Re: Kick starting creativity

Post by apathity »

Playing music is like cooking. So many tastes. So when you get bored with the usual food, you have to try new things? I guess that's how most dishes were created. Or maybe not cook at all for a while, and just consume different things.

I can't cook anything when there are too many options available
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Re: Kick starting creativity

Post by ssj71 »

GMaq wrote:I tried write the kind of songs I wanted to listen to
I do exactly that too. Many of those songs end up being ones I listen to over and over simply because they are exactly what I want to hear. Its like when you wish there were more songs on an album or that an artist had made more songs like that one, just make them yourself. :) Great tip GMaq!

Once I get my studio ducks in a row and start making new episodes of the Open Source Musician Podcast we'll have some more tunestorms that always have some constraint that spurs my creativity. You could even make a late entry to the ones we've had in the past. I can even put it in the next episode if you'd like (whenever that may be).
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swirusek
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Re: Kick starting creativity

Post by swirusek »

for me, there is no way to starting creativity.
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Re: Kick starting creativity

Post by Nachei »

I compose most of my songs in a crappy old guitar, with a crack covered with dutch tape and the strings waay far from the neck. Very often nothing comes out of it, but under such constrains, when something is good you really know it's good, because there's no place to hide: voice+creaky chords, and still sounds cool? Then you can flesh it out, elaborate and bring on the heavy gear. Also, I play it when I'm distracted, in front of the TV.

Another resource:with such wonderful equipment+Audacity, I sometimes do marathons of "recording one song a day till I have 60 mins of stuff". The length is because I started doing this in the times of cassettes - now I do create folders A and B in the computer for the sides!!!). Recording some sound every day, whatever comes... an easy cover or a joke or a jingle in the worst case scenario... Once you're done you find that some of those songs are revisable later; the best way to get a good song is writing a lot of them...
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Re: Kick starting creativity

Post by English Guy »

Nachei wrote:I compose most of my songs in a crappy old guitar, with a crack covered with dutch tape and the strings waay far from the neck. Very often nothing comes out of it, but under such constrains, when something is good you really know it's good, because there's no place to hide: voice+creaky chords, and still sounds cool? Then you can flesh it out, elaborate and bring on the heavy gear. Also, I play it when I'm distracted, in front of the TV.

Another resource:with such wonderful equipment+Audacity, I sometimes do marathons of "recording one song a day till I have 60 mins of stuff". The length is because I started doing this in the times of cassettes - now I do create folders A and B in the computer for the sides!!!). Recording some sound every day, whatever comes... an easy cover or a joke or a jingle in the worst case scenario... Once you're done you find that some of those songs are revisable later; the best way to get a good song is writing a lot of them...
Interesting, I used to write a lot on an old battered nylon strung guitar (long gone). Also interesting what you said about writing lots, I read that is how Richard Thompson used to write; write plenty and then cull. I am staring to record some stuff with video, videoing my hands for later reference so I can remember the twiddly bits ;)
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