How do you stay creative?

The Fight

The Fight

Long Hair Demigod
Joined
Apr 23, 2015
Messages
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under the surface
Hey guys!
Woke up today around 9am, first day of night shift, going to work in the pm.
Went jogging, came home and started playing guitar. I noticed that I'm most creative in the afternoon, after a work out and breakfast. A few hours later I had to leave for work but was not ready to drop the guitar, don't you just hate that!

When getting off the night shift and coming home, I go to bed immediately.
Why? Bcs if I don't, it gets harder to wake up earlier and becomes a bad habit to wake up late.

When at work I try to listen to good music like Rush, Journey, Van Halen and Def Leopard. This gets me stoked to come home and play and keeps me interested.

Weekends are the best because that's when I get to really turn up my amp! Also get to play longer through the night. I'm sure all my neighbors can hear me quite well but I don't care, its the weekend and most of my friends and family are cautious when calling me.

I'd say I'm really obsessed with playing my (prs) guitar, especially when working on new material. I like to get myself in the zone. On the weekends ill start with stretching my hands and arms then proceed with practicing scales and warm ups, usually interrupted by an alarm. I then like to play my own material and go through the songs in their entirety followed by practicing the solos over and over, actually really fun.
After that I'll go into covers of songs that I know and ones that I'm learning. After the alarm goes off again, well then it's what I like to call free style! And that just me fooling around to backing tracks and trying to imitate EVH with a bunch of ACDC riffs. Fun.

Keeping a good and healthy guitar schedule keeps me fit, in terms of guitar chops. For me personally, its not hard to be inspired when I have a plan and specific goals. I like to make goals I can reach, like learning a piece of material or Mby even saving up money for a new piece of gear. Though from time to time plans fall through and I'll have no desire to play guitar. When this happens, I recognize it immediately. This is mostly due to what I like to call Plateau, music or technique that's not going anywhere. This happens, and it will happen alot, but you have to recognize it and don't wait to long to make a decision about what your going to do about it. What I like to do, is Mby step away from the guitar for a little, take a break! I try not to stay on break too long, mby a day or two, mby a week. If a break is turning into a month try buying some tickets to you favorite "guitar" band. For me it would have to be Joe Satriani, after a Joe show, I'm running on pure inspiration for two weeks straight! Live shows help alot, especially when you go to see the competition ;) jams help too!
What ever it takes to get that desire back.

Last thing I wanna say is that I hate when my sharpness is gone and I'm not at the level were I was before. If you don't use it you lose it! And come one we love guitar to much to loose it!
 
Great idea for a thread. I'm curious to hear the responses.

You know, man... I used to have a varied routine like yours when I was actively trying to get better at guitar and had a goal I wanted to achieve. Now I usually try playing with new people for inspiration (like the vampire I am) or find inspiration if I absolutely hate the project I'm working on!:mad:

Sometimes anger is a great motivator, that and a deadline. I do love a deadline.
 
I'm kinda like Serg. I often need a deadline.

A Purchse Order from an ad agency is also a great motivator. ;)

But for inspiration I like to listen to bands and artists I really enjoy, and I listen to film scores and classical music, jazz, whatever. You never know where inspiration will strike!

As to playing...I'm kinda bummed out about what's happening with a nerve problem in my hand - playing is like being with a gorgeous woman in bed, and being all ready to go, and having her dad walk in...kind of a less-than-stellar experience, if you get my drift...
 
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Dunno about staying creative. I'd like to become creative (beyond new reasons for why I'm late home or didn't fix x y and z).

Playing with new people
Learning new material hopefully involving some new technique or rhythm
I am still taking some lessons and will continue to do so while it improves my play and assuming my teacher has enough time when he is back from his tour. I kind of feel embarrassed after 40 years of playing to still be taking lessons but the truth is I've improved more in the past three years than the previous 25 and as a result enjoy what I'm doing.
I also think trying to compose some songs forces you to do the hard work part of being creative. What's a bridge that works, what's a decent riff to build a hook round.? What lyrics are going to resonate with an audience.
 
Wow, this hits home for me. After going DAW and a bit of research on todays music scene & market, I've come to a standstill. I also came to the hard conclusion that guitar playing (especially improvisation and solos) doesn't matter that much to todays young listeners* and sadly, coming from a classic rock, jazz, funk and jazz-rock fusion background, I have to abandon my musicianship roots to even try to be relevant in this copy & paste world. With that in mind I searched out as much of what's going on in today's music but found extremely little that I appreciated or connected to, my distain for artificial drums and such left me with with nothing to connect my old school roots to an inspiration of writing anything applicable to todays market.

Yes, I could do what I want and record only songs that I like and maybe could have been a hit back in the day, but I've done a lot of that and I do hope to be able to produce something that todays market might embrace. I've got some old school ideas that I could record right now, but on trying to create something "alternative" "indie" or EDM I'm a bit lost because most of the music out there right now doesn't inspire me, it bores me. (Maybe I have to dig down deep, or dumb things down to match to today's market.)

But if it's just creativity based on my roots and inspiration of certain music, I'm never at a loss for ideas.................just probably wouldn't sell.:p

*I have to say the little guitar work I found in the top 200 left me bewildered but it makes me appreciate you folks, this forum and others like it, for keeping the six string in the heart of our passions.
 
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Huggy B said:
Wow, this hits home for me. After going DAW and a bit of research on todays music scene & market, I've come to a standstill. I also came to the hard conclusion that guitar playing (especially improvisation and solos) doesn't matter that much to todays young listeners* and sadly, coming from a classic rock, jazz, funk and jazz-rock fusion background, I have to abandon my musicianship roots to even try to be relevant in this copy & paste world. With that in mind I searched out as much of what's going on in today's music but found extremely little that I appreciated or connected to, my distain for artificial drums and such left me with with nothing to connect my old school roots to an inspiration of writing anything applicable to todays market.

Yes, I could do what I want and record only songs that I like and maybe could have been a hit back in the day, but I've done a lot of that and I do hope to be able to produce something that todays market might embrace. I've got some old school ideas that I could record right now, but on trying to create something "alternative" "indie" or EDM I'm a bit lost because most of the music out there right now doesn't inspire me, it bores me. (Maybe I have to dig down deep, or dumb things down to match to today's market.)

But if it's just creativity based on my roots and inspiration of certain music, I'm never at a loss for ideas.................just probably wouldn't sell.:p

*I have to say the little guitar work I found in the top 200 left me bewildered but it makes me appreciate you folks, this forum and others like it, for keeping the six string in the heart of our passions.
Click to expand...

Just wanna say this, and it's with respect and you know I like what you have to say a lot. So this is just a reminder to get you thinking another way:

1. Few artists have ever had control over whether something will sell. The making art part, and the selling art part, are two completely different vocations and they are intended to serve two different purposes. To tie your creative output to whether it will sell, well, that's not relevant to its creation.

It's only relevant to whether there will be a financial payoff. If you need a financial payoff, chances are you're making music for the wrong reasons.

2. Oddly enough, I work on guitar based tracks all the time that my ad clients give me financial rewards for. Go figure, huh? But that's still not why I do it, I choose to do music because I love music. I have a law license. I could do that instead and make more money. But I don't.

3. Young people don't listen to real drums/bass/guitar/vocals? That's odd. My son's band is a rock band with 2 guitars, vocals bass and real drums, and they just toured the US opening for another guitars/bass/drums band before thousands of very excited young people in their late teens and twenties, at some really nice venues, and got paid for their efforts. Their music is getting great reviews (I've posted many links on the general discussion part of the forum). Their record comes out this summer.

Before that, Jamie (that's my son) toured the world twice with 30 Seconds to Mars, another Guitar/Bass/Drums band that sells lots of records. They played in front of 400,000 people in Germany at one festival alone. I will repeat: Four. Hundred. Thousand. Fans. One festival. Tell me again that rock music isn't popular any more?

Now, I have to tell you, I have been to electronic music festivals, they hold them here in Detroit every year. And I will tell you, 400,000 people do NOT show up. Don't get me wrong, they get a nice little crowd. But no, not 400,000 people. More like 4-5,000.

4. Ever hear of Coldplay? They have guitars, bass, piano, vocals, and real drums. They've had 5 consecutive #1 albums, and have sold more records than anyone since the Beatles, Rolling Stones,Led Zep, and Wings. Their last album sold 300,000 copies in the first WEEK.

I'm not saying Coldplay is the Beatles, though I do like their work. I'm saying an awful lot of people buy rock and roll records that aren't electronic music.

Adele just knocked them off the #1 spot with her latest, very traditional, record.

So your assumption that people won't buy real music is...I'm sorry...but it isn't true. That excuse does not compute! ;)
 
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I keep fresh by changing what I found and what I listen to. Sometimes driving I just listen to the first radio station that comes in clean. I'll switch if it is just hideous, or babble, but otherwise will listen to that style.

When playing, I switch styles a lot. I'll play classical,or chord charts, experiment with chord progression. Mix up beats and timing to try to emulate a feel I don't normally play. I'll play things on the wrong guitar - like classical on a Santana just to get a different feel.

If I really feel stale I'll try to make up a new scale. I just pick 5 notes, without regard for whether or not they fit a normal scale, then see if I can make them sound good. Often those 5 notes end up being part of a normal scale, but by just picking 5 notes I have to think differently about how they fit together, which forces some creativity.
 
Adele *DID* put out a traditional track that's a massive hit, but she's one of the very few. Your son & his band..... god bless him, proof that rock will never die even in these tough times.
Coldplay?!!.......................they sound like a perpetual car commercial to me with whiney vocals, exactly what I think is wrong about todays music and bores me to death.
Now the fact that electro music gigs don't bring in huge crowds is solid truth but todays youth doesn't hold concerts in as high regard as days of the past, all you have to do is research the top selling live acts and you'll see names like AC/DC, and even John Fogerty grossing more than younger acts. When it comes to downloads of original songs it's the exact opposite though.

It is true, a majority of the world buys music that is not done by real instruments, it's just a fact of our times.

That said, I've got 4 of my original song done up on Logic pro and turned one into a house beat track that one of my singers loves to death, so I'm starting to get a grip on it...................even though it sounds like crap to me.o_O

But hey, turning my old R&B slo-jam into a house track took some creativity and that's what this thread is all about.:cool:
 
Since I don't play for a living, make any money recording or playing out live, we have to be a 'self-starter' when it comes to a tune I that think I can have some fun recording here at home and put my 'creative spin' on it.

The latest example we're working on came to me while listening to a sports talk radio program. One show opening, and they've always used, had a particular guitar riff that leads into a tune(with a killer horn melody) from a movie soundtrack. I'd heard the song many times, but this time I said to myself, 'I know that movie soundtrack' but what's the name of the song? And why can't I play it on guitar? So we dug down and found the title, then went to youtube to find the original. Low and behold, it was composed by a famous Japanese guitar player who, in fact, played it live(with very good close up video of all the fretwork) with two other guitar players(dual and triple harmonies) live and loud as hell. Bingo~! I immediately dropped the slow ballad project I'd been fiddling with(and not making any progress on it really) and now working on this new one using the Fishman Triple Play I just bought and installed on my McCarty to emulate the horn parts(mixed with one, then two, then all three guitars in playing in harmony).

So 'staying creative' for me was 'out of the blue'; just listening to a sports talk radio station one day last week.
 
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I don't necessarily listen to new music, like the latest top hundred. I know who Adele is and Cold Play but I didn't buy their records.
I'm not trying to be rude, but that's not my kind of music. And though they may be very successful, I'd take the Rolling Stones over them two any day :)
But I do recognize that sometimes guitar players as my self can be conservative and at times religious. "Not as good as back in the day" talk.
I do think though if you don't like what your hearing then play what you do want to hear. As far as making money, well that just a different game, you fake it tell you make it!
 
Creative slumps/boredom causes me to purchase another guitar/amp/pedal etc...

That's a sad fact for me which I'm trying to break. Scales, picking and fretting exercises along with a new found respect for theary is what I'm trying to use for inspiration now.
 
Huggy B said:
Adele *DID* put out a traditional track that's a massive hit, but she's one of the very few. Your son & his band..... god bless him, proof that rock will never die even in these tough times.
Coldplay?!!.......................they sound like a perpetual car commercial to me with whiney vocals, exactly what I think is wrong about todays music and bores me to death.
Click to expand...

Speaking of whiney vocals, go back to The Four Seasons (1962) and tell me that's new...

I do like Coldplay, but the point wasn't whether one likes or dislikes their music, it was merely to say that a band with the traditional instruments and drums is still the largest selling recording band in the world right now. Don't get hung up on the example, Coldplay and Adele were listed to illustrate a point, not use them as shining examples of great music - though I think they ARE pretty darn good at what they do.

Car commercials ape popular culture. When I got in the biz around 1990, the ad agencies wanted Latin and fusion music; then "film scores;" later Americana - everything had to sound like Tom Petty. Afterward they wanted Techno music, electronica. Remember when all the biggest advertisers were licensing Moby?

In the 90s they insisted on "real drums," even though none of them could tell the difference between drums and samples (of course, we musicians can). But they wanted a rock and roll show when they came to sessions. Now they don't come to sessions any more, they sit at their computers and listen to an mp3 we email them.

So in recent years it's been, "Can you do something kind of Coldplay-ish?"

Don't forget, at the height of Beatles, Zep, Cream, and Rolling Stones, there were also equally large-selling pop hits by Tony Orlando and Dawn, The Archies (who were actually ringers produced by an ad music composer), Brenda Lee (!), and Jimmy Dean...

It's always been the case that music is segmented into various fan bases. At one time, you'd hear everything, all styles of pop music on one radio station. That's no longer the case. But it is a mistake to proceed under the assumption that traditional rock production is dead or on its way out. At least for now, the opposite seems to be true.
 
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The bullseye keeps changing. As I type this, the classic rock station for Baltimore is playing Pear Jam Evenflow.

I dig it, but I'm like, "Whaaaaat?"
 
LSchefman said:
Car commercials ape popular culture. .
Click to expand...
To me Coldplay "apes" music.

But don't get me wrong, I'm steady getting up to speed on Logic Pro and the fact I impressed one of my singers with my last house beat arrangement shows I'm crawling out of the musical jurassic period...... ....even though I don't like to listen to it afterward that much.
 
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