Where do you get Inspiration?

[cuttime]

I'm a firm believer that creativity is a muscle that must be exercised. A true musical professional can produce capable, if not inspirational, music on demand. I find that musical inspiration is a fleeting moment that is often hard to capture. How do you capture those moments? I find that those inspirational moments are usually when I'm away from my magnificent technological tools. Maybe in the car, or the shower, or at the "Day Job". I use a personal voice recorder to hum those fleeting ideas, but doesn't work too well in the shower. I've made notes on pieces of legal pad. I can compose large scores in my head, but the minute I need to submit these ideas in concrete, I am distracted by email, news , RSS feeds, and of course, Unicornation. Is Inspiration just another idea, or is it something that transcends the obvious idea of production of music on demand? How do you produce it? Beethoven would take long walks with notebooks in the countryside. He could produce music on demand.

[Phil O]

A close friend of mine works in film and TV. He writes on demand all of the time. He says when he gets writers block, he'll just take anything and make a melody out of it. Maybe a photo of a skyline (height of the buildings from left to right is his pitch), or perhaps a phone number. He's sited examples of some of his stuff that was just great. "Take for instance this piece. It was my phone number out in LA." I've tried it and I come up with garbage. In fact everything I write is garbage. I'm pretty good at arranging, but when it comes to starting from scratch...garbage. But I digress.

I think that the magic is just there for some. The tricks they use to produce on demand are just the incantations. My magic is mixing. It's what I do. Been doing it for a long time. When the magic ain't working I go back and listen to the old stuff. Early recordings that were made before they had fancy plugins, and computers were just science fiction. That was a time of true magicians. A muscle that must be exercised? Perhaps. But I prefer to believe in magic.

Phil

[npatton]

I can produce on demand if I need to, but that stuff tends to sound alike (predictable chord progressions, in particular). My best inpiration is in the shower or in the john. My wife knows what's up when I get out of the shower and go running to the office mumbling a tune. Thus, relaxation (*ahem*) seems to be a key for me to get any ideas going. A friend of mine who runs a studio once told me that if he's feeling stuck fixing a mix, he just goes and pees. When he comes back, he's usually able to fix it!

When I know I'm going to be away from an instrument for a while, I try to keep a notepad and a hand-held recorder with me. Learning solfeggio in college aural skills has also allowed me to keep some hooks in my head that otherwise might have disappeared. Having words associated with the melody gives my brain one more angle to view the melody from. My professor showed us a unique way to transcribe a melody quickly using a simple timeline and solfeg syllables. It's saved my butt many times when I only had a napkin and a pen.

Over the past 7-8 years, I've filled up three 90-minute tapes with ideas (most of them worthless). A couple months ago I recorded their contents into my computer, where I hope to sift through them for more ideas.

I also keep a folder on my Mac called "Sketchbook" where I just throw down short piano sketches and even full rhythm section sequences in DP. I'll come back months later and see if they're any good and if they are, I put them in another folder called "Develop These!". Sometimes I'll categorize them further based on possible projects I can use them in.

If I'm feeling dead inspirationally, I listen to and watch the things and people that inspire me. I love watching documentaries on film-making, watching their creative process. Lately I've been re-reading "The Art of the Lord of the Rings", a collection of art and commentary from the creative process for those films. I collect concert DVD's and enjoy learning from them. A picture on my desktop of one of my favorite performer/composers also reminds me to get back to work when I'm drifting. Maybe silly stuff, but these remind me of what I can do if I work hard enough.

Trying new sounds/new instruments often opens whole new avenues of creativity for me. Getting Stylus RMX really launched a couple weeks of great ideas for me, and helped me rediscover some of my old synths. Unfortunately, end-of-the-school-year stuff with my teaching has pulled me away from some of that, but the sketches are in my virtual sketchbook waiting for further evaluation...

Finally, simple moods trigger my best stuff. 9/11, an anniversary of D-Day, watching a sappy movie with my wife, the death of a loved one, watching my kids grow up in some way, these are the things that have produced my most moving (I think) material. The trick is to be open, and then to carve out the time to get those emotions into sound.

Sorry to go on so long, but I'm fascinated by this topic!

Thanks,
n

[DeMoloy]

I‘m working within the field of modern classical music writing commissions, and for me inspiration is a short moment of something (Epiphany). The rest is pure work. I have days when I‘m not inspired to work, but off course I do it; deadlines.

But one workaround is to write something every day. Revise compositions you have all ready written. Listen and read what other composers and producers have done.

It is also important for me to have some weeks where I‘m only studying (learn the technics), reading literature, be oriented in culture and society, and best of all networking/friends. For inspiration you need impulses. To be inspired you have to work.

But it is not easy to write and produce music, and I think it should not be to easy. For me composing is a challenge. And most important of all; I can not imagine doing anything else (it‘s my way of breathing).

[nickysnd]

But it is not easy to write and produce music, and I think it should not be to easy.

I don't know how hard/easy it should be, but for me, inventing music is the most natural and the easiest thing in the world. Everything inspires music, even silence and darkness. There is absolutely no trick to get inspired, just let the music come to you, and it really comes down to you, just like that. That is all. Simple. Inventing melodies? Ha! - Piece of cake! Just sing, hum, write, record, whatever. Everything goes! Music is in the air, everywhere, music surrounds you, just grab it and put it down on paper, in recorders, DAWs, etc. Then play with it, change it, turn it round, stretch it, mold it, leave it as it is, do whatever you want. You got it. It's there. It's yours.

Here comes the catch - WHO cares? But first, what is my purpose in writing music? Is it important that someone else would like my music? I suppose it is. Now, would somebody else like my music? Who? And why? What would enable someone else to like one or another piece that I have written? How am I to write music that somebody else would like? Is that possible at all? It seems so. If it is possible, how is that possible? I mean - what is the thing that would make the liking-of-the-others possible? Huh??

Trying to figure that out, at some point I've come upon an interesting concept called the audience, or, more precisely: my audience. Does it exist? If it does, what is it, where is it, how can I recognize it, how can I reach to it? If it doesn't, what am I to do to find one, where to look? But, in the first place, do I care to have an audience at all, other than myself? Well, I guess I do. Then, who is the audience that I am willing to serve? Supposing I've found it - am I ready to serve that audience? Do I deserve to serve that audience, am I capable to do it, will I meet their expectations? What do I know about my audience? The things that I think I know about my audience, does that knowledge have any value of truth? Or am I deluding myself? How would I know that? Am I able to produce something that my audience would like? If I am, how do I do it? If I am not, what prevents me to do it?

When I will answer those questions, and a few others, then I will know everything I need to know about composing successful* music.

I'll keep you posted!

Edit -
* I think the successful issue is at stake here. Unsuccessful music is easy to write, as I said in the beginning of my post. By unsuccessful I don't mean bad music, no such thing. By unsuccessful I only mean music that nobody cares of. So the question would be: How to write music that somebody else would like? And ultimately, how to write music that a lot of people would like?

Other than that, as I said - making music is the easiest thing in the world, seriously, I mean it. I got tons of pieces (mostly fragments, or seeds as I call them) in my sketchbooks and in my mind, and I come up every day with more and more, whenever I want to. I'm not more special than anyone else, everybody can do it. The problem is just this: Who cares?

[npatton]

Maybe OT, but piggy-backing on nickysnd's post:

When my piano students compose something and bring it to me for input, the first thing I try to determine with them, before I say a word, is "Who are you writing for?" Yourself? Your family? A particular audience? Money? What story are you trying to tell?

This goes miles toward helping me know how to coach them. If a student is trying to write pop songs, I'm going to spend a lot of time on melody (hook) and specific types of harmonic voicing and progression. Writing for themselves? All bets are off, then. At THAT point, I do feel there's no such thing as a bad song.

I have students who are writing pieces that are sooo personal and expressive of their life stories. Very long, sometimes dissonant, sometimes repetetive. In these situations I tread lightly. If input is desired for what's effective and what's not, than I give it. If it's expressing what they need to express, it's gold.

Other students are trying to write professionally for orchestra and/or concert band. At that point, I'm more adamant about what is and is not acceptable practice and what is more "listenable" to the average audience. Instrument ranges and capabilities form a lot of our discussions, as well as what makes an interesting melody or chord progression. "What are you trying to say, and whom do you want to understand it?"

[nickysnd]

"Who are you writing for?"

Yes, I think that is the right question, you have nailed it down better than me. "Who you are writing for" should precede and determine "What you are writing." So let me rephrase my questions: Who are those that I want to care about my piece? and How will I make them care about it? Forget my other questions in that awfully long post. I'd just keep these two ones. Now I'm out to find some answers.

[cuttime]

"Who are you writing for?"

Yes, I think that is the right question

I decided a long time ago that I would approach music as a form of communication. I have long since tired of the concept of the arts as "expression". "Expression" can be almost anything, but usually falls in the realm of self absorbed, angst ridden intellectual masturbation. I can express anything. My pets express hunger, fear and rage. Music should not be just psychotherapy, but a language. If I can conceive of an idea or emotion, and then communicate it to an observer via sounds and rhythms, then I have succeeded as a composer.

[cuttime]

My best inpiration is in the shower or in the john. ...A friend of mine who runs a studio once told me that if he's feeling stuck fixing a mix, he just goes and pees. When he comes back, he's usually able to fix it!

I shouldn't be surprised that bodily functions rate highly on the inspiration scale. Guess that it why we have so many Love Songs!

[Frodo]

While deadlines serve as huge inspiration just to "git'r dun", I also find that in between projects it's nice to create imaginary starter projects for no reason at all. Keeping starter sequences of basic ideas-- a chord progress, a series of variations on a melody and the harmonies which might support it, a particular percussion groove interacting with bass line, etc. I guess this is the same concept mentioned earlier of keeping a sketchbook, which is itself a method that is centuries old.

Years ago, I'd written a song out of the blue-- couldn't figure out from whence it came or what it's purpose might be. 10 years later while struggling to find just the right piece of music to fill in a gap for a concert, parts of that song proved to be the right choice where momentary inspiration may have failed.

In addition to churning out tunes and arrangements on demand, it seems quite unavoidable to always listen to music new and old. I'm often inspired by the way a track is mixed, how the drama unfolds over the course of an arrangement, how certain types of instrumentalists play individually and collectively. Often, I'll consider what "bass player" I'd like to have playing on a track-- Abe Laboriel, John Patitucci, Nathan East, Sting, McCartney-- what type of guitarists' styles might compliment the track I'm working, what type of keyboardists, and even what types of orchestrators might score strings or brass for certain projects that just fit properly in a particular track.

For the sake of originality, sometimes it's nice to take a closer look at my own turnkey approaches, look for the formulas I tend to use as a matter of routine and then intentionally break the rules to create a whole new approach. Lots of happy accidents lead to the creation of a more original sound so that my use of a particular VI doesn't sound so much akin to what everyone else is doing-- or even what I myself might tend to resort to in the course of creating a new track.

But most often, we are given criteria to follow and are at the whim of our employers who have ideas of their own which must be honored at the expense of our own better instincts and judgments at times. I just use lots of reference tracks and even printed scores from film (where available) and the classical literature as guides for at least creating some sort of structure as a starting point.

I forget the popular proportion, but for me it really is 80% perspiration (or more) and 20% inspiration (or less). Sometimes you've just gotta get in there and knock it out by any means possible.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

"All the inspiration I ever needed was a phone call from a producer."

- Cole Porter

There is a technique to creation. For a working artist, inspiration is most often a given, and why you chose creating works of art as your profession. What is important is to be a working artist and be called upon to create on a regular basis.

Motivation is the critical element (which is where the producer comes in). If you are not motivated to create, all the inspiration in the world is useless. If you are not paid to create, then you need to find another way to pay the rent unless you are independently wealthy.

So the short answer to your question is: everywhere. The good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, a bran muffin, a speaker cone, a train wreck, etc. ANYTHING can be turned into art.

Sure, I am at times inspired to write because I am in love, or pain, or whatever. But I am ALWAYS inspired to write when a client calls, and remain so until the project is complete.

[nickysnd]

"All the inspiration I ever needed was a phone call from a producer."

- Cole Porter

...

Motivation is the crucial element (which is where the producer comes in).

Right, this is the best motivation in the world - an audience to be pleased. Even a one-person audience, like a film director. Or, as good ol' Archimedes said: "Give me a fixed point, and I can move the world."

But this motivation issue ringed a bell in my memory:

"When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'" (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000033/bio)

[MIDI Life Crisis]

...

Motivation is the crucial element..

Right, this is the best motivation in the world - an audience to be pleased. Even a one-person audience

I was fortunate to have collaborated with Martha Graham. She insisted that her dancers perform to ONE person in the audience. Pick out a person somewhere in the theater and play to THEM. She was the master of that technique (and many others) and whenever she spoke to a large group, everyone I talked to afterwards was convinced she was talking directly to them.

I still do this whenever I play (even when I practice) and also do it when I compose. Although I don't necessarily think of it as "pleasing" as much as "connecting with" the listener. The message isn't always pleasant, nor do I feel it should be.

[nickysnd]

I don't necessarily think of it as "pleasing" as much as "connecting with" the listener. The message isn't always pleasant, nor do I feel it should be.

Of course, I was using the word pleasing in its broader sense, which includes what Hitchcock was doing.

"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible"

[Frodo]

'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'"

I have to say amen to that. So often I'll get contracted to do a live concert with orchestra for an all-in fee. Months after the contract is signed and pre-production is under way, someone will unfailingly call to say they want to add an artist to the program but the artist doesn't have any orchestral materials-- and that they "need to be created". Of course, there also follows the sob story of "we don't have it in the budget to pay for orchestrations". When I decline to throw in the extras as part of the budget I often don't get rehired. When someone is more forthcoming with compensation to take care of their own additions I do feel an extra measure of motivation and inspiration.

Any consideration at all for the inequity is motivation enough for me-- if there's no budget to actually pay for the extra work, then a better hotel room or a bump up to a first class plane ticket at least takes some of the edge off.... with the understanding that such back-end gauging will be avoided in the future.

SHOW ME THE MONEY!!