6 Ways to Get Inspired
Inspiration is essential to musicians, but it can be an elusive and fickle beast. Rob Boffard brings you his six tips to get inspired and ensure your creative well doesn’t run dry… Writers often talk about their muses. Stephen King’s muse, according to him, is an old guy who sits around all day, smoking cigars […]
Inspiration is essential to musicians, but it can be an elusive and fickle beast. Rob Boffard brings you his six tips to get inspired and ensure your creative well doesn’t run dry…
Writers often talk about their muses. Stephen King’s muse, according to him, is an old guy who sits around all day, smoking cigars and doling out nuggets of genius for King to make into stories (judging by King’s track record, this must happen quite a lot). While it’s not often put as explicitly as that, musicians have muses as well. We might not have a personified imaginary friend, but we do have places from where we get inspiration… except when it refuses to come. Inspiration is a very fickle thing, and it’s easy to find yourself without any at a crucial moment. Here are six ways to get that inspiration back.
1: Listen to Something Else
Seriously, anything. At all. As long as it’s not the genre you actually create music in. If you spend your time creating drum ’n’ bass, then turn off your regular playlist and bump some hip-hop instead. Or rock.
Or classical. Doesn’t matter – as long as it’s something different to what you normally bump. The science behind this is that your brain needs to switch off to make the right connections.
Harvard scientist Dr Shelley Carson calls this ‘divergent thinking’, and it’s about the mind defocusing from the current project and being allowed to just drift, letting it make the connections it needs to. And on that note…
2: Capture it
You don’t get to control when inspiration strikes. It can happen in the shower, at the shops, as you’re falling asleep; and if you forget the details, you’ll have lost it forever. So you need – absolutely need – something to capture it on. Since the inspiration is musical, that means something that can record sound. With smartphones and their assorted apps, there have never been more ways to jot down an idea.
There are dozens available, most of sufficient quality to put down a quick idea, even if it’s a hummed melody or beatboxed beat. We like Apple’s Garageband (free on iOS), Propellerhead Figure (also free) and FL Studio (paid, on Android). They aren’t as fully-featured as most DAWs, but they’re fantastic for putting down bare-bones ideas.
3: Get out
Following on from that: sometimes, you need a change of scenery. It sounds so obvious – and that’s the problem, because it’s a trick that can often be overlooked. Do whatever you have to do: go for a walk, go for a run, go watch a movie, go play a PS4/Xbox, go kick around a football. As long as it takes you out of the studio for a bit. It gives you distance from the material, lets your mind wander a little and gives those overworked neurons a break. If you’re really clever, you’ll find a way to make your brain perform different creative tasks.
Video games are perfect – the benefits of playing them have been well documented, and as much as it might not look it, taking down a tricky boss or beating a particular area is a creative act. Yes, we’re giving you permission to go gaming. It’s work. Totally.