creativity – Impact Guitar

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We imagine a creative person as a messy genius, with paint splashed everywhere, dishevelled hair and wild emotions. But in reality, creative people are like two sides of a coin: willing to experience temporarily chaos, but only for a long term vision; messy, but also very organised. After all, a painter needs to ensure their brushes are readily available when they need them.

The misconception comes from the initial spark of creativity, which often is messy, unpredictable and chaotic. Musicians, painters and writers learn to navigate their way through the first foggy stage by using their taste, instincts and experience until they have something that resembles their initial idea. The initial stage is like being a gardener – planting the seeds, waiting for them to grow and then nurturing them; falling in love with process. The second stage is more like being an architect, using logic, structure and order, and falling in love with the outcome.

I have a friend who is an astrophysicist and I often wish I could do the things he can do. Recently I was talking to him about my writing and he said, “I have no idea how you do that”. And that was when I realised that being creative is not something everyone feels comfortable with. Some people are more comfortable with numbers and a definite, concrete outcome. The messy initial stages of creativity are unbearable for some people, as they haven’t developed their internal compass to navigate through it. If you sit down to write a song, there are no guarantees or tangible truths to guide you there.

However intangible, creativity is also something that can be practised. There is no need to wait for “inspiration”, you only need to sit down and start. See what comes out. It may be mediocre, but that’s okay – just learn from it and know that the next thing you create will be a little bit better. You need to write 100 bad songs before you write your first good song. Before writing this post, I felt stuck and didn’t know what to write, so-called “writer’s block”. After much procrastination, I realised I just needed to write down the first few words and the rest would eventually come.

Creativity takes time, reflection and patience, but it is easy to lose these virtues with so many distractions readily available to absorb our senses. So whatever you want to create, just make a start right now, even if it is just the first twenty words of your novel, the first three chords of your song, or the initial pencil sketch for your oil painting. Make a start. And then do the same tomorrow.

My latest book “Guitar Gymnasium” is available on Amazon:

“The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self.. “
Igor Stravinsky

The blank page, the empty canvas and the silent guitar are the most difficult starting points, yet that is where we must all begin. When our options are infinite it is difficult to make creative decisions, but we can channel and focus our creativity by setting restrictions and limitations.

Below are some limitations you can use to write a song today. These are only starting points which we can always change later:

Limit yourself to some simple chords: C, Am, F, G. You might change these later, but they will serve as a good starting point.
Think of a rhythm you can use for the melody – don’t worry about what pitches will be sung, just the rhythm. You can keep it simple and use a rhythm similar to the word “coff-ee” on each beat, or do something like:

Now play the chords whilst you hum the rhythm you previously made. Start by using one pitch for the whole rhythm, and then make some notes higher and some notes lower. There are lots of good melodies which are based on only one or two pitches, such as the verse of “I Am The Walrus” by the Beatles, the verse of “Manic Monday” written by Prince, and the verse of “Champagne Supernova” by Oasis.
After a bit of experimenting you will have a basic structure which you can start to sculpt. Try changing the chords, switching the order of the chords, or change chords at a quicker pace (harmonic rhythm”).
When you’re ready to create the next section, repeat the process above, perhaps starting with different chords.

The tips above are for when you feel stuck and uninspired. In his great book ‘On Writing’, Stephen King says “Writing equals ass in chair”. If your inspiration is flowing, then grab it and seize the moment without over-analysing it.

Following the process above doesn’t guarantee you’ll write a great song, but you will write a song of some sort. Many legendary musicians have lots of songs that have never seen the light of day: Prince’s famous ‘vault’ contains thousands of unreleased songs; Adele’s initial songs for the hit album ‘25’ were shelved after legendary producer Rick Rubin thought they could be better.

If you write a hundred songs, most will be mediocre, but a handful will be good; and the more you write, the better you will become.

No one in existence has lived the same life as you, and no one except you can write the songs of your life.

Tag: creativity

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