Creatively Challenged

[Shoot!]

Perhaps unlike some of you, I stumble whenever I try to be creative. I can memorize and capture the essence of a song of phrase like nobody's business. I'm known around my friends for being the one who always quotes lines from different movies or singing a couple of lines from one of my favorite songs. However, the art of creating is something that I wasn't introduced to me when I was young, so I wonder if that is why my creativity is hindered.

Is there a way to 'unlock' your creativity? I have written two chord progressions and a couple of verses, trying to actually work on a chorus right now for a song, but I still don't feel like I'm a 'natural' when it comes to creating something. Whenever I play music, I just basically screw up until I play something that sounds good with whatever I'm supposed to be playing in key to. I don't know if I'm alone in this creativity isolation or not.

I used to write short stories called 'trainings' in these DBZ RPGs that I used to be a part of, but I felt like I was still copying from other things that I've been exposed to rather than coming up with my own original and fresh thought for ideas. I think I might have potential, but I don't know how to get out what's in me.

However, I don't think I'm an S at all, because I do admire creative ideas and I don't care too much about the physical world at all. But I dunno.:mellow:

[Faust06]

Some people say it just "happens". Others say it takes work. I'm with the latter, mostly.

You're always going to show your influences. There is no "pure" original idea you'll conceive... there's always something you can compare your work to (to different extents).

Usually when it comes to music, the best is conceived in my head first.. and then it's a matter of trying to transpose it on instruments effectively. You could always come back to it later with something else in mind. Otherwise, there's the kind of approach that'll let you come up with stuff you'd never imagine anyway... just pick up your instrument and fool around/go with feel, until something cool happens. It really really helps to know your scales, modes, some general theory. With that approach though, I find it hard to hear it in my head... I guess it helps to have a good sound. Which brings me to another tip: be in tune, all the time.

For any other kind of art, I'm terrible. I can't write lyrics, I can't draw or paint. At least I think so.

[2hype]

How much work are you putting in? Are you a perfectionist? Sometimes I think you need to just put in solid time working in your medium, and put out a lot of junk, before you do anything really creative or good. If you judge your early efforts too much, you'll probably quit before you really do anything good.

[Prothero]

Is there a way to 'unlock' your creativity?

Seems to simple to say: practice. I think it is the best, most important key to unlocking creative effort at will. Over time, experience brings an awareness of what works, where there is potential, and the remaining bits that just won't work together.
You've made it sound as though this is your first attempt at composing a complete song, but that you've made a fairly good start - whatever the struggle, you are likely gaining awareness of the progress - if this one is tough, the next might come a bit easier.
I wouldn't worry too much about creating derivative works. Some writers learn by actually writing out pages, word for word, of authors they admire. It's tedious, yet educational in terms of creativity. Nothing wrong if others compare your efforts to those who came before, just as it's fine to admit the influence of those you admire. Great art comes down to themes. How you express them is creativity.
If you wrote trainings for RPGs, it must have come from an interest in the game. Good practice, limited scope, but it establishes the saying "write what you know." I don't know what the trainings consisted of, but if was frameworks, move away from the RPG, adapt as necessary, and maybe there will be a story in the result. Find something else you care about, add some characters you admire or dislike and they may help you develop something. I think creativity comes from the obsessive need to create. If you're lacking that in one art form, try another.
The naturals are always those who make it seem easy, and always those who worked hard to achieve an objective. Clapton comes to mind, especially where it concerns having doubts.

Beethoven worked variations, Shakespeare rewrote stories - each gave enough of themselves to create something far beyond what they copied, and in doing so, created something new.

[Shoot!]

Some people say it just "happens". Others say it takes work. I'm with the latter, mostly.

Usually when it comes to music, the best is conceived in my head first...

I would agree with this. I've been looking into some books on songwriting, and it seems like it's more of a learned skill versus naturally just writing something as awesome as "Imagine" or "Hey Jude" on the first try. And I also agree with the idea that it's easier to conceive of the music in my head first. Sometimes, though, I'll just punch some chords in a certain order and try to put lyrics on top. However, I need to learn some more music theory so I can find different chord combinations that work. It also seems alot easier to put lyrics on top of music versus putting music on top of lyrics. But I do notice that alot of artists have a sort of 'concept' song, but I'm not sure if they make that concept before they even begin writing.


How much work are you putting in? Are you a perfectionist? Sometimes I think you need to just put in solid time working in your medium, and put out a lot of junk, before you do anything really creative or good. If you judge your early efforts too much, you'll probably quit before you really do anything good.

Ah yes, I do suffer from a bit of perfectionism. I'm not as violent as throwing out everything I write, but I do get a bit critical of my chord progressions sometimes. But your advice is sound - I should lighten up on it.


Seems to simple to say: practice. I think it is the best, most important key to unlocking creative effort at will. Over time, experience brings an awareness of what works, where there is potential, and the remaining bits that just won't work together.
...Beethoven worked variations, Shakespeare rewrote stories - each gave enough of themselves to create something far beyond what they copied, and in doing so, created something new.

I seem to get the gist of what you're saying. It seems to be a combination of relaxing when it comes to whether I sound like my influences, and also just basically to practice my creating skills. It's very odd though how my creative mind seems to work - I seem to go in spurts. I'll be sitting, thinking of a song I'm trying to create, and I'll get a whole idea for 4 lines of verse or a chorus. It seems to come sporatically, actually I had an idea for a chord progression in my head while in the shower this morning. But yea, I am learning what seems to be working the best for me - hopefully I can discover these hidden niches of brainstorming to maximize my creative potential.:headphone: :banana:

[Lethal Sage]

You've got to let yourself go. If you're struggling to create a specific thing that you don't really feel like working on at this time or are conceptualizing before expending effort, good luck. It takes work, but if you aren't entering that flow you're probably looking at it as some sort of mathematical equation, which doesn't help the creative side. Spew out some shit and find some magic.

[Shoot!]

You've got to let yourself go. If you're struggling to create a specific thing that you don't really feel like working on at this time or are conceptualizing before expending effort, good luck. It takes work, but if you aren't entering that flow you're probably looking at it as some sort of mathematical equation, which doesn't help the creative side. Spew out some shit and find some magic.

I don't care much for math. But I am trying to find a pattern - a certain sort of method to it. Spewing out shit and finding magic isn't a particularly useful method, in my experience with music.

[Lethal Sage]

"The Inner Game of Music" may be what you're looking for.

[Ptah]

Perhaps unlike some of you, I stumble whenever I try to be creative.

Yes. I have a weird relationship with the words "try" and "creative". To me, if I'm trying to be creative, I cannot be; I have used the term "contrived" to describe this state, and it plagues me very often during times when I'd like to be creative, but no natural creativeness wells forth.


Is there a way to 'unlock' your creativity?

It's strange, although I pride myself on conscious mastery of my self as a whole being, I find that I cannot willingly "unlock" my creativity through either immediate focus or elaborate set-ups to "trick myself"; basically, if I am aware that I am trying to "unlock" my creativity, I fail to do so... only "contrivance" comes forth (and, as a consequence, very poor quality creative artifacts).

What I can say is this. I am a progrmamer by profession, with illustration and writing as moderately developed secondary abilities (the former, upon a smidgeon of "natural talent", the latter as the byproduct of much self-study layered upon nothing but the intent to emulate natural ability). I find that I cannot draw anything with any quality whatsoever unless I happen to "just fall into drawing" between islands of months of hard, technical work at programming. For instance, between programming projects, sometimes I will naively grab a pencil and start doodling, the doodles are half not bad, and I'll have a week or two of creative energy. But it seems to diminish as I become more consciously aware of it, as I attempt to consciously direct it. Eventually, I slide back into "contrivance", a state in which I must simply put down drawing and dive back into programming for a few months until I next happen to pick up a pencil unthinkingly. I guess this rolls up into the suggestion: "Distract yourself; work another part of your brain/ability until it's tired, and then see if the desired creative ability is ready to create to your satisfaction"...?

[Faust06]

"The Inner Game of Music" may be what you're looking for.

I have "the Mastery Of Music" from the same author. Some interesting thoughts.. but I find it useless. So I haven't gotten around to reading the first book.

[rainfall]

You've got to let yourself go.

You've got to let yourself go.

You've got to let yourself go.

You've got to let yourself go.

You've got to let yourself go.

You've got to let yourself go.

You've got to let yourself go.

You've got to let yourself go.

You've got to let yourself go.

Even if that means screaming in street like a madman -


You've got to let yourself go.

[Stoned_Rider]

Being creative simply means expressing yourself, not worrying about who you sound like. There are far too many aspiring songwriters who deliberately go out of their way just to sound different or "original"... you can't be creative if you force yourself to go against your nature. It contradicts the very meaning of creativity.

You can rest assured that absolutely nothing you come up with will be "original" per se. Whatever ideas, melodies, chord progressions etc.. you come up with will have already been done before, probably thousands of times. At the same time, you can rest assured that, if you accurately and honestly express yourself, your sound will be unique. This is because there is no one else in the world who shares the exact same combination of thoughts, feelings, ideas, experiences, beliefs etc.. that you do.

To recap, the only thing that's original about us is the unique combination of our ideas, not the ideas themselves. So, do not be afraid to let your influences show in your music, no matter how apparently blatant (provided, of course, you are honestly expressing yourself), because your sound will always be unique in its own way. And there will always be people who will strongly relate to your music.



How do you express yourself through music? Two things:

1- Aural skills. Expressing yourself through music means that you have to accurately translate the music inside of you into the instrument of your choice. For that, you need good ears. There are numerous resources on the web for that. Just type "ear training" in Google. It is worth it. I am strongly against the idea of sitting with the guitar (or whatever instrument), mucking about with random chords in hope that something amazing will come up. Sure, it could work (magnificently at that), but IMO you can never truly express yourself this way.

2- Music theory. However, it should only be used as a means to facilitate the translation of your inner music into real music. For example, you come up with a decent melody and you need some help as to which chords would sound good with it, or maybe you are just missing that crucial chord that would tie everything together and accurately convey the mood of the song - this is where music theory comes into play. An important thing to remember: Music theory describes how music has been used and composed throughout history, and as such can be very helpful, but it does not dictate how it should be composed or how it will be composed in the future. So, there really are no limits to what you can do.

[Shoot!]

"The Inner Game of Music" may be what you're looking for.

I may have to check around for that, thanks for the suggestion.


Being creative simply means expressing yourself, not worrying about who you sound like. There are far too many aspiring songwriters who deliberately go out of their way just to sound different or "original"...

Very good point. I see this alot in indie music, in which my brother is a part of. His band appeals to a certain minority, but in my opinion I think they would do alot better if, as you suggest, they don't worry about sounding like one of their influences just a bit. Now I'm not suggesting that he should sound like everyone else, but rather not so much worry about being the most original thing out there.


1- Aural skills. Expressing yourself through music means that you have to accurately translate the music inside of you into the instrument of your choice. For that, you need good ears...It is worth it. I am strongly against the idea of sitting with the guitar (or whatever instrument), mucking about with random chords in hope that something amazing will come up...

I would agree with this, and I although I'm not the best with ear, I can play around until I find a certain sound that I'm looking for. I differentiate this from random chord pounding, because I try to have a specific melody or sound in my head as I mess around with the chords. If there's a particularly sad verse, I'll try to make a lower, minor chord and if it's happier I try to make it a bit more bright and major. But perhaps I should look up these ear training resources, and see if I can learn anything. It'd probably be very useful.



2- Music theory. However, it should only be used as a means to facilitate the translation of your inner music into real music.

Exactly, Music Theory isn't to be viewed as unbreakable rules, but when it comes to certain things as making solos or trying to find what minor key would complement which major key (circle of fifths), it becomes quite useful. Music Theory can definately be deviated from, but it lays the foundation/groundwork. I do need to learn about minor scales though - I can make any major scale just from the tone itself, or counting tone tone semitone, etc. But I don't know how minor scales should go. I should probably look that up.

[HeavyMetal]

creativity comes in spurts of energy.. when you were little what activities were you naturally drawn to?

[Shoot!]

creativity comes in spurts of energy.. when you were little what activities were you naturally drawn to?

Singing and Videogames, mostly.