Lessons in Creativity

At the beginning of this year I did a creativity challenge: JAMuary. Post a musical ‘jam’ (however you define it) every day for the entire month.

(If you really want to deep dive into my creative process you can listen to each jam on this playlist: https://open.audio/channels/musicministerjamuary23/episodes)

If you’ve ever done a creative challenge, whether it be a writing challenge like NaNoWriMo or a photography challenge, you’ll recognize that its helpful to have some prompts to get you started, especially when you’re not feeling creative. I enjoyed many of the prompts that I had: music to meditate by; use only one chord; use only one synth; write something at 60 BPM.

Some days I used the prompt, other days I already had a concept in mind. The more I did, the easier it got. The beauty of doing a new thing every day was that you inherently do not have time to think about what you are doing.

Let me rephrase: you don’t have time to ruminate/agonize over whether something you’ve done is good or bad. You just have to get it done, and move on.

This is incredibly freeing, actually.

WIth the analysis side of my brain switched off, I felt none of the paralysis. The all important flow state was easily achieved.

Later, much later, I was able to go back to critical listening mode, and sifted through it all to pull out some tracks that would, with some refinement, be useable on my first EP.

I used to wonder at how it was possible that songwriters could write 30 or 40 songs in preparation for an album, and end up using only 10 or 12. Now I understand a little bit better. It’s easier to get in and stay in the flow when you don’t stop to evaluate what you have. Nothing is wrong, nothing is bad, it is all just created pieces that you can judge later, but for the time being all valuations are put on hold.

Maybe this isn’t for everyone. But it’s worth giving it a try if you’re feeling stuck creatively.