rules, laws, advices for creativity

[siln]

Maybe you would feel to share you best advices, adages, laws, for good creativity process
Ive got some to share :
the first come from the book the four agreements by don miguel ruiz this book is fascinating imo and very good for artistics views,
so the story related was like this : a young boudhist student asked to his master : if I meditate 2 hours a day , how many years will it take for I become a master? , the master answered 10 years, then the student asked : and if I meditate 4 hours a day , how many years will it take? the master answered : it will take 20 years ...
that being said could apply to music : if the amount of work take over the quality of your life then the quality of work will suffer from it ,
eventually working too hard you will find it out from yourself , as the quality of your life will deprive from itself and will result in a low energy that will prevent for good working
another advice in this book is : always do your best , but doing your best dont mean getting sick from try too hard ; i hope you get the idea of overall balance.

another rule is the 80/20: 80% of effects are produced by 20% of the causes this principle is know in the economical field as the law of paretto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle, and i think it could apply in music : make 80% of effort in 20 % of your mixing : ie the bass and the drums , 20% of the elements you want to put ahead, and then the 80% of other elements , lets say the synth guitars and fx will take you 20% efforts to make its not meant to be a common law but a lot of style emphasis on 20% of a songs elements but not every style, but this law of productivity could be close the the law of the less effort which is used my mother nature herself : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_effort
IRL : as far as i understand , you need at least these 20% of your time to be effective , and dont let the 80% of i.e painful job affect the quality of the 20% you would likely spend to raise value on your core activity/passion, and find the way for great productivity at less costs
links and blogs are countless on that matter just make your own research if you are interested in the subject and would be glad to here some others advices

[selig]

One of my favorite topics, as I consider myself more than anything a life long student of the creative process. And I'm well aware of the Four Agreements and the 80/20 rule (use it for design too, but it applies to SO many things).

Back in school when I was first studying drums, the teachers suggested practicing for three 15 minute sessions instead of one 45 minute session. Might be an exaggeration, but even now I find I get more work done when taking more breaks. I work on one thing until it's no longer fun, then do something else. The "something else" many still be the same type of work, but the "change up" (what a friend called "the other") was what produced the results for me.

Studies have shown that 90 minutes of focused work is as much as most can accomplish in one sitting. You may only need a 5 minute break, but you'll get more accomplished if you can learn what your limits are - it's about quality over quantity here, as it often is.

I'll read everything I can find on the creative process, and actually find I get more from reading about non-musician's process. All of us have to be creative to some degree in life. Everyone who's learned a lesson on creativity, from the dancer to the sculpture, the entrepreneur to the cleaning service provider, there are creative solutions to almost every problem and goal in life IMO. We are all naturally creative, so I've found it's more about getting out of the way than MAKING creativity "happen". You have only to find your 'muse', whatever that means to you!

BTW, check out my blog on things to do when inspiration leaves you:
https://www.reasontalk.com/2016/11/when ... heir-nets/

[raymondh]

Some random thoughts....

Creativity does indeed lend itself to many activities not traditionally thought of as any form of art.

Coming from the software industry; programming is a very creative process. So is design - not just what you see (UX) but also algorithms and back-office functionality.

Management is creative too, but many managers would not see it that way. They like to be matter-of-fact. That's partly why I think there are so many poor managers out there. People get into management and they follow the rule book on management, they try to be someone they're not (losing authenticity) and they can try to solve problems using 'tried and proven' ways, rather than turning on their brains and thinking outside the box (to use a cliche that is over used and hardly ever understood).

Problem solving and brainstorming is creative too. Some of the rules for brainstorming would apply nicely to composing music actually - eg. turn off your critical brain, and don't discard any ideas or judge anyone else for their ideas. Get them down and try to develop them instead...

As for long bursts, short bursts in effort etc., I don't think they're any indicator of effectiveness for anyone - it is highly personal, situational and lots of other words ending in "al". Sometimes the most creative I've been have involved very long nights. Other times I've remained staring at the screen waiting for the inspiration that never arrives. I think the most important thing is to be self aware, and 'change up' when you sense your wheels spinning (nice term Selig) and also learn techniques to relax. Pressure can help creativity (by creating focus and urgency). But stress rarely helps.

Some friends of mine who are highly educated in music (Jazz / composition and performance degrees) tell me that they often feel learning all the theory becomes a barrier to creativity. (I tell them I wouldn't mind meeting them half way )
I personally think the creative process is a lot slower without the theory/knowledge. Maybe being an expert on the theory means you place more stress on yourself to reach a standard, that ends up being counterproductive?

[plaamook]

I don't think art and creativity are the same thing. As has been said above there are lots of applications for creativity. Maths, science, engineering...all creative to my mind.
Art has also got a lot to do with problem solving. It's not like the only part of being creative is the germination of ideas out of nothing. You can produce a loop or riff or what have you but the process of turning that into a song, while still creative, is a different process to what I think if a jamming. Jamming produces ideas, problem solving realises them. To me music is a lot about solving problems nd that's creative.

[siln]

such nice answers and advices, thanks, im too just throwing ideas
yes, glad to bring selig's blog on topic, i like redundancy for these kinds of thoughts , i can eventually understand things with a new insight or add few elements.
Indeed the quote "when fishermen cant go to see, they mend their net" is awesome, as the others said creativity is not only about art, made me think at its origin creativity can be identified as survival (when man was alone and naked in the wild) : being creative would mean finding ways , tools, to be efficient at finding food : finding more energy supply than we have to spend : ie having to run after a rabbit all day without catching it , or going to fish with a broken net. In this case creativity is about figuring out how to be efficient in term of productivity (whether quality or quantity depends on many factors)
Maybe after figuring out these survival needs the man would apply such behaviors to the fantasy realm.

Another kind of analogy , inspired by the artist way by julia cameron, is that core creativity is found in the inner child, and its by taking care of our inner child , nurturing it , that we can connect in a way with our inspiration. I cant say too much about this idea , but it come with the idea of dont being to rude to yourself , and take care of the way you speak to yourself.

As Bruce Lee said ; know the rules so you can break the rules , its like the mind sets itself in sleep-mode when he is applying a rule for too long this meet the idea of diversity and stepping out of the comfort zone

[NekujaK]

Great topic. I've always been fascinated by the creative process and relate to much of what's been said in this thread, especially the notion of working in short spurts. I often find myself juggling 3 or 4 different activities (music, video, household chores, games, blogging, technical writing, etc...) jumping back and forth between each one as my interest level diminishes. This keeps my mind fresh for each task and doesn't make me resent being chained down to any one particular thing for a long time (and no, I'm not ADD )

For music in particular, what took me the longest time to embrace was the idea of not forcing or pushing creativity. More often than not, this will lead to mediocre or disappointing results. If I'm not feeling the creative spark, it's often better to just do something else and remain open.

I thought Arlo Guthrie described it best when he likened songwriting to fishing. Referring to one of his best songs, "My Darkest Hour", he said as water flows down the river, you catch a lot of little fish, but every now and then you get lucky and catch a big one. The problem is, we're all fishing downstream from Bob Dylan, who is catching all the biggest and best fish first, but apparently "My Darkest Hour" slipped by and Guthrie was lucky enough to catch it.

Of course, we're not all competing for the same fish, but the notion of waiting patiently, or finding the "right spot" mentally, emotionally, spiritually, or physically, makes sense to me in terms of being open to the creative spark.

[ejanuska]

Songs are just floating around in the air all the time. You just have to catch them.
I think Tom Waits said that.

[deepndark]

There's always a creative mode "trial/error' don't think it's no ok to go that way.

[siln]

thanks for all the invaluable and uplifting ideas here, keep them coming
so i ve been thinking lately about what i tried to say about survival, but specificaly the "hunting" or "catching butterflies" is about catching inspiration which is a volatile process that imply something external.
i see now 3 steps : preparation (mending the net, practicing,adapting , learning stuff), inspiration (catching butterflies, making love), and finishing product (which jared leto compared to raising a kid (which involve patience, time consuming, and problem solving)
seek quality over quantity as a way of efficiency , dont be rude to yourself , dont fear mistakes, trials and errors are ways to learn, be playful as it it quite a fun game , and i think there are a lot of bridges between these steps , jamming and improvising i.e

[Marco Raaphorst]

we focus too much on end results. enjoy the process. learning is being creative as well. making mistakes is being creative. it's all part of the process. trying things, working on it.

people judge our work, but it's not them who are creative, it is us being creative. and that's by doing it. and maybe never arriving.

[gak]

Stay away from the f....ing internet, you'll get more done.

[TritoneAddiction]

I'm personally not a big fan of the "sit around and wait for inspiration" method, at least not as the main method of creating music. I've seen some people around me going with that method and usually nothing or very little happens, except for a lot sitting around and waiting.
Sorry for sounding harsh, but to me "waiting for inspiration" sounds like an excuse to be lazy.
I'm not saying this method won't work for everyone. I'm sure it works for some people. But from my experience I associate it with very little results.

My method is pretty much the opposite. Write a bunch of ideas without judging the result. Allow yourself to suck. No one has to hear your bad ideas anyway. Just throw them away if they suck.
I'd rather come up with 10 ideas and use 2 of them than to sit around and get nothing done.

Another way you can look at it is the first part of music making, the inspiration part, the fun part of writing music. You come up with your little idea/vision and everything feels good. Then comes the part where you need to reach for that damn discipline to actually finish the song. Write that last part that the song needs, try out different song structure ideas, fix the arrangement, do the mixing tweaks that are necessary.

I've tried different methods, both forcing creativity and just making music when I feel like it. Usually alternating between the two works out pretty good in my opinion.

[pskovacs]

I find that my most creative times usually occur at the extreme ends of what is going on in my life at the moment... if I have either a whole bunch of free time on my hands, or nowhere near enough of it, those are the times when it seems my creative drive is at its fullest. My general rule for either of these times is to let loose and let fly, so long as it doesn't distract from getting other things done... not much of an issue when I'm not busy though.

Most of what I do musically is the product of a single session, where in the span of anywhere from mere minutes to a few hours, with whatever I've done in that time frame to be a finished and complete product... I generally don't like to fuss too much over getting thing "just right" as some would say, and tend to keep things as relatively simple as possible. More often than not it leads to some weird and interesting interludes or soundscapes, with occasional tunefulness springing up here or there.

[4filegate]

Why do tennis players showing their emotions on tennis court. Part of this is their racket abuse in foldable way. I would use Reason as a modular synthesizer and Rack Extensions for Reason on a laptop workstation, all is foldable.

[elMisse]

This works quite well for me/my kind of music. It's probably not the best method for everything.

Pick a good lead-sound and just write some short melodies for a day or two.
Then next I listen to them and try some harmonies around them. It's kind of making rules what you are allowed to do at the moment. I find it inspiring that I'm not even supposed to make a whole song/sound at once. And when you get beyond the harmonising point, you will have much clearer vision of what the song demands from other aspects too. Rhythm, form, general style/genre etc.
I've written quite many songs for ppl with exactly this method.

[Marco Raaphorst]

It's so easy to be creative. We are, most of us at least, are born with it. But it's hard to finish things. Do things which we actually like.

Being creative is a proces. But when you make something for other people to like you need to finish it.

For me what works best is:
- setting limits (endless possibilities feels nice but is often a problem), for example the amount of instrument you will be using
- making a plan
- setting a time limit

But I guess what works for me might totally not work for other people. I feel though that most people struggle with getting things finished though. Not with being creative.

[NekujaK]

For me what works best is:
- setting limits (endless possibilities feels nice but is often a problem), for example the amount of instrument you will be using
- making a plan
- setting a time limit

+1 to setting goals, limitations, and time limits. Doing this can generate some very rewarding musical results. A few years ago, I challenged myself to compose/record one new song a day for a month, and to spend no more than 1-2 hours working on each track. To help me stick to the regimen and to ensure I focused on making listenable music, I would send the completed tracks to friends - I think this is crucial, because there's a different level of intensity when you're making music for others, and not just yourself. I ended up with a nice collection of cool tracks, many of which were outside my normal writing style because each day I was trying to come up with something new and different. Yes, there were a few stinkers, but far fewer than I expected. It was an incredibly rewarding creative experience.

[siln]

found this could be inspiring : https://startupdayse.23video.com/video/ ... n-to-brand
PH CEO talked at stockholm school of entrepreneurship in 2011
like the ideas of setting a mission , and persistence

[Ahornberg]

do what you haven't done before