Creativity Exercises

[Fnord Explorer]

A lot of people talk about technical exercises and theory exercises a lot in the music world, but what do some the Talkbass'rs do to hone that holiest of holy grails: creative inspiration?

One of the things I like to do is a sort of musical version of an "exquisite corpse" where I'll record a short phrase, write down the last note, come back later and record another starting with the note of the last phrase and continue this over the course of a week or two and then listen to the whole thing in one sitting and listen for interesting angles that are produced when listening to the piece as a whole and hearing how things change when you forget what you recorded previously.

I do the same thing in a way with sheet music at work when it's slow. I'll just randomly write a bar or two of music on staff paper and come back later and write another bar or two and so on and then go back and play it.

Another cool thing is to have a little voice recorder handy and when I'm trying to come up with parts to partially-written songs I'll go for a walk and let my internal rhythm take over from there and hum ideas into the recorder. I do these kinds of things to avoid falling into ruts and familiar territory and sometimes the best time to come up with ideas is when you aren't holding an instrument or sitting at a drumset.


What about you guys?

[BassChuck]

Good suggestions.

I think one thing to keep in mind is that the best creativity comes from limits and restrictions rather than from endless options. So, I'll set up a standard chord progression in Band in a Box and play only roots... or only roots and sevenths... or some other kind of limitation like all chord changes have to start with the fifth of the chord... or all chord changes have to start with a chord tone, but it has to be on the 'A' string, or G, whatever. Do a blues progression but only use 2 different pitches for the whole song... let the 'music' come from the rhythm... or the other way around, some rhythm for every measure, variety comes from pitch choice.

Once you get going on this all sorts of other 'games' come to mind.... it really does help.

Another one is to take a phrase and, without changing the rhythm, pitchs see how many different ways you can play that phrase.

Changes styles. "Giant Steps" actually is a pretty interesting polka.

[Fnord Explorer]

^^ yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. Limitations stretch the brain a little more. My one band plays a lot of stuff where we jump genres mid-song. It's a lot of fun.

As for the rest of you. . .



C'mon people! You can't ALL play in cover bands. Give me some ideas here!

[Hoover]

Originally Posted by BassChuck

I think one thing to keep in mind is that the best creativity comes from limits and restrictions rather than from endless options.

+1
One of my favorite approaches to "inspiration mining" is to simply tell myself Now I Will Only Use _________ (insert some sort of restriction or limitation). Or the corrollary, Now I Will Not Use _________

It could be anything: Now I Will Only Use Whole Notes. Or, Now I Will Only Use Notes From The Lydian Dominant Mode. Now I Will Only Use My Pinkie To Fret Notes. Now I Will Not Use Chord Roots. Now I Will Only Use The Interval Sequence From Webern's Opus 24 Tone Row. Now I Will Not Use An Instrument I Know How To Play. Now I Will Not Use The Actual Backing Tracks To The Recording I'm Overdubbing On. Etc etc etc.

[Deluge Of Sound]

Smoke some weed.

Yeah, it's a stupid cliche. No, it's not the 1960's anymore, and I'm not Phil Lesh or Ken Kesey. No, you certainly don't have to do drugs to find ways out of your creative holes...

but they sure can help!




Seriously though, limits are a great way to do it. Another way I've found is by switching around on basses--if you usually play a Fender Jazz, try out a Gibson with a Mudbucker. You'd be surprised how often different basses lead to new and interesting things.

(and don't forget to smoke some reefer)

[HooBass]

Have only done this twice so far, but with good outcomes to my ears:

When I'm writing a new tune and it comes to the bassline, a couple times I've put down the bass and noodled a bass line on keyboards, and record it (using MIDI). I can then edit it to sharpen it up given I don't play keys well enough to get timing right, etc.

What I've found is that a) it takes me out of my habits of playing "what I see", i.e., what I think "looks like it'll sound good" when I'm watching the fretboard and thinking about what to play; b) it is sometimes a little "disapointing" in terms of my perceptions of what's technically challenging, but it seems to fit better in the tune; and finally, c) there've been a couple of things that are harder to play on bass than keys, and it's pushed me.

HooBass