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Subject: Creative Slump
Original Message 1/27 13-Sep-00 @ 05:52 PM - Creative Slump
Message 2/27 14-Sep-00 @ 03:00 AM - RE: Creative Slump
eof
Message 3/27 14-Sep-00 @ 02:12 PM - RE: Creative Slump
Go to a rave. Watch some fucked up movies with
your mates before you go, do moderate amounts
of drugs (stay away from downers unless that's
your thing), stay up all night and go to McDonalds
for breakfast. Don't sleep in your bed, sleep on the
floor, or on the couch. Watch cartoons the next day
and putter around with your gear, but don't try to
make any serious attempts. Make sure you drink
coffee with everyone you went to the party with. Give
it a few days and you'll be inspired again. Try to do
things that aren't in your usual routine.
Also, listen to ALOT of music. No matter what
anyone says, most musicians are influenced by
other music. Buy several albums, and listen to
them. Keep new musical ideas coming into your
head and new ideas will come out of your head.
You have to get your mind kick-started, making
new connections (read the 'connections' thread in
Music Theory). An object in motion tends to stay in
motion.
And for God's sake, get a good book!! I
recommend 'Snow Crash' by Neil Stephenson.
Best of luck... I'm in another slump myself, and
come the weekend I'll be trying to get myself in
motion again.
Message 4/27 14-Sep-00 @ 11:52 PM - RE: Creative Slump
laterz
Message 5/27 15-Sep-00 @ 07:43 AM - RE: Creative Slump
living. A steady diet of these two things will help
inspire anyone. Here's some more tips...
Classical composers used to turn sheet music upside
down and try to play the music, to gain new insights
into progressions and melodies. While not the same as
'upside down and backwards', listening to music
backwards can also give you alot of ideas. Remember,
learning is all about connecting ideas, and actual
spaces, in our brains. Like water flowing through a
labrynth of channels and passages, when a new
connection is formed, the water can flow into new
areas. A single new connection can cause hundreds of
other connections to be called into more frequent use.
Get some new gear. I hate to admit it, but new
equipment is the quickest way to feed yourself some new
sounds, which entertain the portion of brain concerned
wholly with identifying what sounds are. This part of
the brain creates the best feelings when excited,
contrary to our belief that it's the notes and melodies
that entertain us the most. The pleasing sounds are the
candy coating around the melodic payload...
The best sounds have alot of 'overtones'. Basically, a
piano has alot of overtones. Play middle C, and at a
lower amplitude the c an octave up is mixed in, and the
next c quieter yet, and so forth. As we move up the
keys, the overtones decrease beyond our ability to hear
them. The more overtones (and not necessarily at the
octaves) the better! Ever wonder why we can listen to a
piano or a cello for hours and not get sick of the
sound? OVERTONES. Something lacking from purely digital
instruments. That's why electronic musicians have to
build them back into the sounds using LFOs, filters,
reverbs and delays.
Get a mentor. You need someone who will be honest and
tell you when you're making crap. Someone who can also
steer you away from habitual paths.
Alot of new age musicians claim to have had near-death
experiences. While dead, they say that they have heard
the most beautiful music. They spend the rest of their
lives trying to re-create the music they heard while
dead. They are driven because they have a goal in mind,
one that they may never reach. If you don't have a goal
besides 'a banging track', you may find your creativity
lacking more often than not. I have such a goal, but I
do lose sight of it, sometimes.
If people want me to shut up, jus
Message 6/27 15-Sep-00 @ 10:33 AM - RE: Creative Slump
Best of luck mate
Message 7/27 16-Sep-00 @ 04:44 AM - RE: Creative Slump
btw ggehiere I listened to a couple of your tracks the other day, I like'em :-)
Message 8/27 16-Sep-00 @ 08:22 AM - RE: Creative Slump
Message 9/27 16-Sep-00 @ 08:28 AM - RE: Creative Slump
Message 10/27 18-Sep-00 @ 06:23 AM - RE: Creative Slump
are some definitely dangerous perils to the 'more
gear' solution.
I've always said that gas (gear aquisition
syndrome) just gets in the way - the choosing,
obsessing, saving for, purchasing, buying, being
frustrated by, learning and ultimately using new
gear just get in the way of what's really important -
writing music.
But it is one of the ways we feel 'trapped', and like
our creativity is going in circles...
By the way, FLuCKs should tell us what kind of
music he/ she is writing.
Later...
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