Creative Expression, How do you develop it? Options

[Phil66]

Hello folks and a happy & health new year to you all.

Kris and I had a little chat this morning and creativity came up.

I said:
"Guitar is like a lot of things, just like language, we can all read and write but we can't all write a good novel. I think that's one of the biggest things people miss about being a musician, it's hard to be creatively musical no matter how good your technique gets. Maybe that's why there are so many cover bands."

Kris said:
" You have a point. But I think everyone who has lived the ups and downs of life has a lot to say, it's a matter of finding the right setting for it. But yes - technique is just a tool, nothing else - you also need to dig deep within to find what message you feel strongly about conveying through your playing/music. And then - start working on HOW to get it out (with the use of your technique)"

How do you all develop your creative expression?

Cheers

Phil

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[Osedmen]

Hello folks and a happy & health new year to you all.

Kris and I had a little chat this morning and creativity came up.

I said:
"Guitar is like a lot of things, just like language, we can all read and write but we can't all write a good novel. I think that's one of the biggest things people miss about being a musician, it's hard to be creatively musical no matter how good your technique gets. Maybe that's why there are so many cover bands."

Kris said:
" You have a point. But I think everyone who has lived the ups and downs of life has a lot to say, it's a matter of finding the right setting for it. But yes - technique is just a tool, nothing else - you also need to dig deep within to find what message you feel strongly about conveying through your playing/music. And then - start working on HOW to get it out (with the use of your technique)"

How do you all develop your creative expression?

Cheers

Phil

Hello Phil, man i think you must prove different situations to get experience and finally be a musician.

in my case sharing with others and playing alive is rewarding.

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[Storm Linnebjerg]

I take a few different approaches to creativity and probably more so song writing.

I have struggled massively with perfectionism. Back in 2005 a friend and me wrote some stuff. He wrote the lyrics, and I wrote all the music in Guitar Pro 4. Just all midi. It was okay for my age at the time, but over the next 8-10 years it would become my one and only target to improve this music, to re-write it and make it better. I was obsessed in a bad, bad way. Whatever riff I wrote, it wasn't good enough for this project, and if it wasn't good enough for this project that was my one and all, then it wasn't good enough for anything. I still at times struggle with that mentality, though not related as much to that 2005-project.

Sometimes trying a new instrument can cause a wave of inspiration. I found that both when I started singing some years back and recently when I have used my full-sized weighted keys midi keyboard.

Another approach is to really zone in on a feeling. Any feeling. I gave an example here on the forum on hating to do the laundry, I think it was. So what's in this thing? Well, first I gotta walk to the laundry basket and look into it. That could be a phrase. Relate something to that phrase to make it a paragraph of going to the laundry, putting in into the washing machine, getting it out to dry and what have we. Think of a motif. This can be done with just a few notes. In reality though you don't have to let your audience actually know that you are talking about that one thing. They can feel what they want in this, but the original feeling is yours. So how could you portray walking to the laundry basket and looking into it? Maybe just some staccato quarter notes, then ending with some more "flash" (bend, slide, you name it). And so forth...

In regards to the audience not really hearing the exact "theme" behind it all (laundry in my example), I can imagine if Steve Vai had called his "For the Love of God" something else, we would probably have related it to that - "Roses in my Garden". Of course some people have learnt ways of portraying feelings better, and even just in minor and major is some sad vs. happy. I think my point is that getting an actual story across only by instrumental music gives room for more interpretation by the listener.

I also think in terms of creativity and writing it is often a case of "you need 99 bad ideas before you get to the good one", that doesn't mean the other 99 ideas should be thrown out. They can be worked on, improved, function in another setting and so on. But I doubt there are many artists that SOLELY writes things that work out first time around.

Sometimes I sing an improvised melody when I'm walking home from shopping. Just a simple line with random gibberishg. When I get I might try and figure out what the notes were and write down the melody. Singing a melody helps to hear it better, I find. Maybe you'll locate that the steps between the first two notes was a minor 2nd, major 3rd or whatever, and that will be your starting point for figuring this out.

There's also random playing to get creativity out. And technique being a tool, as Kris says, but technique should not be the goal of a song unless you are maybe demonstrating something. Hell, I know you know the A minor pentatonic and can play that well, and I'm sure if you picked 4 notes from that you could come up with a great motif!

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[Phil66]

I think for me I want to be able to make the listener "get it", maybe that's hard without words. That's a very good point about titles, a song like "Cryin'" by Satch, makes me think of tears but would it have made me think like that if I hadn't read the title first? Probably not, I may have thought about an Eagle soaring along a mountain side.

I used to really enjoy Gab's creativity workshops and am quite proud of some of them especially as many are one shot takes. I used to look at the picture each time I did practise and think about it for a couple of days and then just do it. You have heard some of them in another thread I did when I was having a guitar funk but others might like them and can some of them HERE if they wish.

I think the hardest part is expressing your mood when improvising, it's like the pathway from brain to fingers is too slow but that's another thing to work on.

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[Todd Simpson]

The short answer is, practice, get feedback from people you trust, try again, repeat.It's a skill like any other. It' takes repetition and practice. Then it takes good feedback.Rinse, repeat.
Todd

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