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Top 5 tips to become more creative ?


mschafft

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Everyone does or oughta try to escape the limbos of technique for itself or gear for itself. These are obviously means to achieve something greater, which is music.Let's focus this thread on the creative aspect. What would be your 5 major tips on how to either come up with personal material or develop very personal versions of pre-existing songs ?

1  ?

2  ??

3  ???

4  ????

5  ?????

 

Thanks for spreading your wisdom upon this virtual second-home of ours!

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1. Learn something new - creativity isn't born in a vaccuum.  The more tools you have in your toolbelt, the more cool stuff you can build, and the more ideas you'll have to draw from.  Learn a new song, learn a new technique, learn how to read music, learn another instrument.

2. Complete something.  Everyone has a hard drive full of riffs.  That's cool and all, but it doesn't mean anything until you mold them into an actual song.  That takes creativity (and usually a fair amount of patience and work).  Don't wait for "the muse," put the time in and finish something.  This is practical creativity.  Coming up with just the right bridge or chorus, or outtro will really exercise your creativity.  Leaving a song half-finished is like going to the gym for a workout and then leaving after you've put on your sweatsuit and laced up your shoes.

3. Listen to more music.  I get tons of ideas for songs (or titles, phrases, melodies) by listening to other music.  Be sure to always carry a notebook (or voice recorder) with you so you can jot down those ideas.

4. Force yourself to play with restrictions.  Pick 3-4 specific notes on the fretboard.  Not sit down for 30 minutes and see how interesting you can make those notes.  Bend into them bend out of them.  Explore rhythmic ideas.  Try playing all your scales on one string.  There are many ways you can restrict your playing that will lead to opening up creativity.

5. Be okay with bad ideas and bad songs.  Not everything you write is going to be awesome.  Get over it and move on.  Just don't let that stop you from writing and creating new stuff.   Some of the coolest stuff in the world came out of mistakes.  I might add the caveat that the stage isn't usually the best place to be throwing everything on the wall to see what sticks. :)

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1) Improvising.  All the time.  Whether it be on guitar or thinking up melodies in your head.  Everyone can do it.  It's not that hard.  It's just that a lot of the time people write it off as "noodling" and think they can't get anything from it.  The term "noodling" has always bugged me.   I never noodle.   I always create.  Most of it is bad, but the best stuff always comes from the same process...for me anyway. 

 

2) Study rhythm and dynamics.  The key to creating on the guitar (once you know your basics) is the RIGHT hand...not the left.   If you can't pick/strum out the melody in your head complete with the dynamics then you've got nothing.

 

3) Trust in simplicity.  I had a buddy once who came up with amazing little riffs and licks, all the time when we would jam.  (I'm a drummer as well), and SO many times when I'd say "that's cool man...play it again"...he write it off.   I think many people subconciously think that it needs to be more complicated to be good and then they miss out on great ideas.  Listen to your favorite songs.  I don't know about you but the VAST majority of the ones I like are really quite simple melodies. 

 

4)Relates to 3.  Trust yourself.  If it sounds good then use it.  Record yourself.  Listen back.  That really shows things clearly.  Many times I'll come up with a cool riff...record it and go back later and realize...naa...that sucked.  But the reverse also happens.  Trust your ears.

 

And in my opinion probably the MOST important thing that separates the truly great song writers from the rest is

 

5) Study ARRANGING!  When I was a kid I spent hours upon hours upon hours disecting EVERY SINGLE minute detail about the music I liked, trying to understand WHY I liked it.  I mean I was truly obsessive about it.   Before I ever picked up drum sticks, or a guitar, I wanted to know what was making the sounds I liked, and even why I DIDN'T like other stuff.  Learning the names of the different parts of the drumset and their sound, what a bass was, what a guitar was, different pedals and effects, etc...and how to pick all of them out in a mix.  How to focus on one and ignore the others, how to listen to them collectively.  How they intertwined or played off each other.  How they all fit in a mix.

But also how different PARTS of songs fit togehter.  How different melodies, riffs, licks etc, hooked up.  Song dynamics (as opposed to instrument dynamics above in #2) All the greatest song writers know how to do this...take all those cool pieces they come up with and stitch them together into a cohesive song.

What I didn't realize as a kid, but do now is that by paying attention to all that stuff I was learning arraging and a fair bit of production. 

 

Creativity is not something that people are either born with or not born with.  I personally think that is nonsense.  Song writing is a learnable skill.  It comes from the study music obviously, but also song structure.  Anyone can do it. 

 

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I can only think of one tip.... don't follow anyone elses tips to be creative!

There is no "how to manual" or "idiots guide to creativy"!  It is not changing your oil or installing a garbage disposal.  You be creative by being creative.

 

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Sure, but have you got any ideas as to making the writing process more rewarding or some tips to get people started? The input keep getting more and more minimal. The good old five tip phase already belongs to the golden age of this thread. I could write a song about forum dynamics... Inspired again!

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The only difference I've found between songwriters and non-songwriters who want to write is that songwriters write and finish, and non-songwriters are too insecure to finish anything. It doesn't matter how you write a song. The important thing is that you do it. Yes, it will suck at first. The good songs come later.

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