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Where does creativity come from?

G

gai113

Apr 25, 2008
866
7
#1
Hey guys i was just wondering what you do to get more creative..

Ever get stuck in a rut where you are always playing the same things over and over again?

I'm feeling really bored with bass lately and my vocab is pretty big;


Is it all about listening to lots of different music?

Also how many of your ideas come from borrowing them from other music/artists versus spotaneously coming out of nowhere?
 
#4
cire113 said:
Hey guys i was just wondering what you do to get more creative..

Ever get stuck in a rut where you are always playing the same things over and over again?

I'm feeling really bored with bass lately and my vocab is pretty big;


Is it all about listening to lots of different music?

Also how many of your ideas come from borrowing them from other music/artists versus spotaneously coming out of nowhere?
Click to expand...
I re-read my copy of Edward DeBono's "Lateral Thinking"
 
#5
I think it has something to do with our brain. But no one is really sure of a localized section of the brain that controls creativity. Perhaps in 50 years we may know.


Now that I am done avoiding the question within the thread, perhaps learning something very difficult to keep you playing would be helpful. Bach's Cello Suites are a good place to go. Listen to music from around the world. Take a break from playing. Try a different instrument for a bit, nothing too expensive and very difficult. Just something. Take acid. Look at musical theory. Take a song you loved from genre A, and make it into genre B (Maybe be easier with a whole band). Take more acid. Forget everything you ever knew and try to look at your bass the first time you laid on eyes on one.














acid does not increase creativity.
 
#6
I saw a doco on nat geo just the other day called 'My musical brain', that kind of touched on this, but in a very techinal way!
They had Sting inside some kind of MRI and was monitoring his brain activity while listening to and creating music.
It was quite interesting, although it didnt really tell you how to be more creative, but it showed which part of the brain was being used when creating music.
There is no other activity that utilizes or stimulates more parts of you brain than playing an instrument and theres evidence that learning an instrument can increase a persons IQ by an average of 7!
 
#7
Papa Dangerous said:
I think it has something to do with our brain. But no one is really sure of a localized section of the brain that controls creativity. Perhaps in 50 years we may know.

Now that I am doWassup jman, im in thailand sitting on the pooper takin a dump and for some reason i thought of you!
How did the re-recordings go? Hopefully your happier this time.
Cant wait to get back and hear some burning Burn homovember tracks!
Dave told me you pulled out of the barleycorn gig, hope that doesnt mean burn nomorevember.
Tonyne avoiding the question within the thread, perhaps learning something very difficult to keep you playing would be helpful. Bach's Cello Suites are a good place to go. Listen to music from around the world. Take a break from playing. Try a different instrument for a bit, nothing too expensive and very difficult. Just something. Take acid. Look at musical theory. Take a song you loved from genre A, and make it into genre B (Maybe be easier with a whole band). Take more acid. Forget everything you ever knew and try to look at your bass the first time you laid on eyes on one.

acid does not increase creativity.
Click to expand...

In that doco Sting says that learning new music styles and challenging himself is how he keeps his creative fire burning,
He mentions Indian music and instuments is something that fasinates him!
I remember the beatles went thru a similar phase. And freddy mercury was of indian decsent
 
#9
First off, I have no idea what all that jibberish is within my post. Some dude quoted something I said, and that added random stuff... But that post was not originally by me... My original post was by me....

Now that I got that clear...

Yeah, opening oneself to various types of music is a very good way to branch out of the norm. To add to your list of musicians that became fascinated by Indian music, I would have to add John Coltrane. After his stint with Miles, he went and studied Rage which had a profound effect on his playing.

I am personally trying to listen to Native American and Japanese music to open my worldly outlook. Perhaps India would be the next stop on my flight.

The brain is an amazing feature of the human. Learning piano causes a physical change in the human brain. A person develops more grey matter, which is a bundle of nerves, that helps coordinate left and right hand interactions.
 
#10
In 1996, I had the opportunity to watch Rock Across America, which was a Peavey promotional tour featuring Bobby Rock, Bill Dickens and Neil Zaza. Bill Dickens pretty much floored the audience with his blistering solos.

One item that stuck with me up to now, was a comment that Neil Zaza mentioned during a Q&A session. Someone asked him how he practices. Among other methods, one thing he does is turn on the TV, put it on mute, and try to mimick the emotions or activities that he's watching through his guitar.
 
#11
cire113 said:
Hey guys i was just wondering what you do to get more creative..
Click to expand...

Hi,

this is a rich seam to explore - I think it's probably helpful to think of some synonyms for 'creative' - what do you mean? Is it that you need 'new stuff' (novelty), or that your awareness of music is running ahead of your ability to play what you hear?

Being 'stuck in a rut' can be a problem of progress, or of perception... it may well be that there are aspects of what you're doing that can be developed that aren't about adding 'new stuff' to your vocabulary, but are about getting deeper inside the nuance of what you're playing.

Think about the development of an orchestral player, or an actor that focuses on Shakespear - the words/notes stay the same, the thing that changes is the last 3%. Depth, nuance, communication...

If I get stuck in terms of direction, I try to connect with my own vocabulary in a new way.

That often launches me into new things as it suggests new emotional contexts for what I do, that then lead me off into exploring how else to convey those things.

Does that help?

Steve
— Steve Lawson: Bass 2.0 — the soundtrack to the day you wish you'd had
 
#14
DONT BUY ANYTHING (except new strings) . that just makes you reliant on new gear for a bit of fresh energy. Thus, we have the gas phenomenon. But seriously, put your bass down for a while and listen to all new music. Then, change you strings (must buy) and go into it with an open mind. forget the 1 rhythmically and musically. Let it flow out!
 
#16
You have to learn to look at things from a different perspective than you are used to. Not just with bass, but with everything. Creativity is a separate skill from any artistic pursuit, but with practice, It can be learned.

Look for and imagine what connections exist between completely unrelated things. What do Ramen noodles have to do with antidisestablishmentarianism? I have no idea, but you think about that and get back to me with a theory or two.... or else pick your own random things.

Physically explore the world and go to new places. Tree tops, mountaintops, caves. Have you ever experienced absolute darkness and silence from being alone half-a-mile underground? That sort of thing makes a permanent mark within your mind and fires up all sorts of imaginings.

Study a subject you have never even considered before, something that is decidedly not your thing. Of course any kind of study is useful, but creativity is about opening up new mental paths in the brain. Therefore, the more you feel like an alien in what you are doing, the more your brain is discovering new ways to think about stuff.

Don't believe me? Want to try something short term and more applicable to music? Pick an instrument that is very unlike bass guitar. Harmonica, Banjo, Flute, bongo drums, but nothing with strings tuned in 5ths like a bass.... so no guitar and nothing with the same notes, so no piano. Study that for a few weeks and then go back to bass. You should have new ideas.

But globally, if you want to become more mentally creative on a big scale just experience new things and think about them.
 
#17
There is a common thread running through this common thread: Break From the Familiar, the habitual, the automatic.
Papa Dangerous gave a suggestion that really resonates with me: Take on some of the Bach Cello Suites. They enlighten on so many levels. Originally written for the Cello tuned in Fifths --- the finger dances on bass can be pretty outlandish and daunting.

Mapping out the fingerings, shifts, and positions can be slow-going for us mere mortal bassists --- this is good -- because when taking focused time you can notice a lot of things EG: how ingeniously Bach maps out endless permutations of tonal theory in musical ways; how he creates melody, accompaniment, and bassline through essentially 1 linear line.
One thing that really struck me was how he uses rhythmic patterns to solidly maintain momentum when changing melodoc movement.

On a personal note --- I went through a bad stretch of creative stagnation. There was a time I would routinely write stuff in my head while driving or excercising. But -- I hit a creative wall -- for about 3 years.
I think we are all out worst critics --- with me -- I never used to put a note to paper unless I felt it was already edited, refined and presentable.
One January, as a new-years resolution I decided to write everyday, externalize my ideas regardless insecurities,
I followed through with this everyday --- its really just like "making yourself practice".
Soon I started giving myself assignments with definite instructions and expectations, just like an instructor would.

I can remember my first self-imposed task: "Write a tune in 9/8, with phrases constructed of 4/8,5/8- then -5/8,4/8.
I dont often hear stuff like that naturally in my head. So --- I had to construct it -- and -- man -- it came out pretty nice.
With that little step I stumbled onto a compositional "recipe" that Ive used countless times over to create music
that I would never have imagined had I not adopted this particular process.
I went on to the next assignment and the next -soon ideas came to me more naturally again. Each piece was written through a slightly different process. I remember I banged the last one out at the piano ina one hour sitting. I had come full circle and eventually recorded an album from the tunes concieved
to back-up that new years resolution.
It`s called Brailehouse "Pledge" and samples can be heard on the internet. The song
"Pledge" is the result of that first "5/8---4/8" assignment.

Best of success in finding your path.....
 
#18
Thanks for the responses guys... I think part of helping me be creative is being free to explore and play anything without judging it good or bad or right or wrong..

But truly acting like a childs mindset fearless playing anything that comes to mind ..


Ive noticed most songs are rotated from about few popular progressions or variances of them..
 
#19
Thanks for the interesting ideas, everyone!

In my opinion, much of what we think of as creativity is basically just a willingness to do things outside the norm combined with hard work, patience and determination. It seems to me there are always plenty of good ideas out there ready to be explored, but I think it's those people who dedicate themselves to bringing them to fruition who are the ones we think of as "creative."
 

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