We all have creative blocks from time to time. Creativity
requires positive thinking! As a musician, its important to
believe in yourself and create the right environment in order to
feel more creative and be spontaneous. Of course, if you don't
take yourself first, you can't be creative at all. To increase
your creativity, make sure you get enough sleep, practice deep
breathing, daydream, and find other ways to relax. Eat foods
that nourish you and drink plenty of water. Once your basic
needs are met, your body will allow your mind to explore new
ideas.
The environment is also an important factor in enhancing your
creativity. For example, one who would like to read would like a
quiet environment, and what perfect place than the seats at
Terminal 2 of London's Heathrow airport. If you like to play
basketball, its better to be in a nice court where you can
really get into your peak state, rather than on a net attached
to the side of your semi-detached house where space is limited.
Creativity comes easier with practice. Make it a habit to go
into your music phase at a certain time each day. A ritual may
get you into the mood. Perhaps lighting a candle or incense or
putting on a certain type of music. These cues tune you into
your purpose for being there; however, note that it's important
to pick the right kind of cues to create the right mood for your
music. If you're going to be playing heavy metal, lighting
candles may not be the most appropriate cue for creativity
enhancement.
Now that you have taken care of your basic needs and set up a
good working environment, you are free to start creating
something tremendously wonderful. To come up with new ideas, you
can use free association with word phrases, images, music, and
other props.
One thing that I get some of my clients to do is to keep a
journal--a place where you put sketches, fragments of word
phrases, advertisements and images that inspire you. It doesn't
have to be arranged pretty, just get the information down and
use it as a workbook.
Get into the habit of making notes no matter what you are doing.
Keep a notebook by the TV, by your bed, or wherever you may need
one when a new idea strikes. If you are working on a certain
project make a file where you can put photos and ideas when you
come across them. If you see me, I've normally got a very small
notebook in my back pocket and I take it out whenever I'm
thinking and just write down anything I want. It's my space, and
inevitably my life thoughts. A good link on journalling is here
:
http://www.wakimbo.com/htdocs/tools/jrn/If you have a piece of music in mind, visualize how you would
like it to feel when played and then create a breakdown of the
music, note down the feeling next to it and then practice each
segment several times before patching it up together. Remember
this important rule: Break your goals into baby steps until they
feel manageable. If you feel stuck on the piece, make a deal
with yourself to only work on it a certain amount of time each
day. Alternating activities can help get your creativity moving.
Get inspiration by looking at artists you wouldn't normally look
at. Or reading books you wouldn't ordinarily read. Doing
something different than your normal activities can be get you
going again. After a long time out of reading fiction, I finally
picked up the book "Night-time is my time" by Mark Higgins
Clark. It's such a great book, and I can't let it go. It doesn't
have any direct links at the moment, but one day, it'll enhance
some of my creativity whether it's a current project or not. I'm
sure of that.
There is always a way to do something different. Open yourself
to the possibilities. When you see a music project you like, ask
yourself what you could do to make it even better. There are
really no right and wrong ways to do most things and we make
progress when strive to keep finding different ways to do
things. Give yourself permission to do something unconventional
and give yourself permission for your experiments to work out
different than you thought they would.
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