Part of a regular Adorama Learning Center series, Sara Landeau’s ‘InSound’ explores the best in audio gear, how-to’s and interviews with other musicians. Read previous installments here.
Are you feeling uninspired lately? If so, don’t beat yourself up – instead, be proactive and realize that as easy as it was to fall into that rut, there is also an easy way out. All it takes is a little effort, and you’ll be on to your next creative idea in no time.
Here are 10 simple steps to get out of a creative rut and start feeling inspired again:
1. Field record everything. On the last European tour, I created a sonic diary by recording unfamiliar sounds and environments, capturing the foreign culture, and documenting the chatty walks to the stage as well as the shows themselves. And don’t just use your phone. Try a 4-channel handheld stereo recorder with adjustable microphones. The fidelity is undeniable and you’ll never want to record with your phone again. Get creative with the clips, put them into your songs, or just listen for unexplored sounds.
2. Simplify your environment. To paraphrase Patti Smith from her book “M Train” as she investigated her new Rockaway seaside bungalow property, “all I needed was a place to think, make spaghetti, brew coffee, and to write.” If you can’t afford a seaside home, clear off a table or area and make a day for yourself without any unnecessary mental or physical distractions.
3. Find something new in the ordinary. Force yourself to find one creative thing to photograph in your everyday environment. Think you know your walk to the deli? You even know everything they have in there, right? On days I feel like I have zero creativity, I force myself to photograph something from what I consider my mundane daily walks. The ten minute run to the store to get cat food in the rain is an opportunity for a good shot. A moody photograph of a tree bursting through concrete, something I pass unnoticed daily, came out of that assignment. Make yourself be creative in a small amount of time instead of waiting around for it. Use the image for inspiration – musically, literally, or visually.
4. Give yourself a comically short deadline. Is one minute short enough? For the women’s band classes I coach, there was trouble with overwriting songs and endless changes and additions. So we used the “one minute song” method. This consisted of taking just sixty seconds to throw some chords on paper, choose a drum rhythm, a quirky bass line, and pick a random subject. Then we’d buckle down and play it. Bam. No time to judge or worry. The temporary foundation is there, the accessories can be added later. These turned into several new songs that we workshopped and completed.
5. Play another instrument. Pick something you don’t know – horns, theremin, synthesizer, viola, anything. Try pedals through your vocal mics. Use a new setting on the amp or play a familiar instrument in a different tuning. When the security of knowing your instrument is taken away, you’re forced to be creative with what’s left. Be sure to record everything.
6. Aim to fail 100 times per year. I constantly go back to this article by Kim Liao. She emphasizes the power of collecting rejections. If you shoot for one hundred rejections in a year, you’ve have put yourself out there enough to also receive several acceptances. She cites the example of a pottery class divided into those who aim for quantity – make as many pots as possible – and quality, those who are to focus on one, albeit perfect, pot. Who did the best work in the end? The quality group since they continuously churned out work and learned from their mistakes.
7. Learn one cover song per day. If that seems like an extreme goal, aim for one cover per week. I didn’t have the luxury when I first started guitar to print out tabs, chords, and lyrics on a moment’s whim. I had to go buy the songbooks! Now we can. Since sheet music is illegal to download free online for copyright reasons, tab sites are the next best option. Remember online tabs are just a rough draft, someone’s transcription, and often wrong. Use this as a tool to listen and correct the tab. Memorize what chords sound good together in your favorite songs and take inspiration from it. Could be as complex as an intricate harmony, or as simple an A to F# progression.
8. Do a creative “purge.” Record several ideas in your DAW and don’t listen back for a few days. I like to do a creative “purge” sometimes by hooking up guitar pedals and laying down 15 different tracks based on one idea. I’ll name the track, date it, and put it away to listen back to in a few days. Sometimes I won’t listen back for months. There’s freedom in not analyzing them in the moment, and excitement in pulling out a few for a sort of sonic library to be browsed in the future.
9. Get good soft headphones with a noise canceling feature. Or how about new speakers? You don’t have to spend a lot. When my students explain that they’re going out of town and can’t practice, I always tell them that the act of listening to music is still practice. Separate the instruments in the song. Listen to just the bass line. What’s the drummer doing? What kind of pedals is the guitarist using, if any? Or maybe it’s orchestral. What’s happening in it? Listening to the parts of the instrument you play, in all genres, is invaluable. Treat your ears and upgrade those buds or computer speakers.
10. Stop trying. Forget being creative. Work on technical specifications of one important thing. D-BEAT on the drums, the perfect major bar chord, something you know you should really be effortlessly doing by now and clean it up. Get repetitive while watching a movie. I once played the open C chord for a month because it was driving me crazy. I read somewhere that doing something for 8 days in a row makes a habit, 8 weeks makes a lifestyle. However long it takes, creativity will find you if you’re prepared for it, or so it’s said. And if not, at least I can play a perfect C chord now.
