This week we go to the core of music creation and explain what you can do to improve your compositional skills so you can compose more often. The more you do it, the better you become. The problem is maintaining consistency and inspiration. So here are our tips.
How To Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
There are many ways. One way is to listen to other people’s music. Listen to the music you like in order to get inspired. This will trigger your own creation.
Go out, walk, change the air, do something that you usually don’t do, change scenery and get inspired by a new ambiance. That often works.
When you go to sleep, keep a recorder on your bedside table. It’s around the time when you’re drifting off that the best ideas come to you. You should therefore be ready to record something, even if it’s just you singing it roughly. Sometimes it won’t make too much sense in the morning when you listen back, but sometimes you end up with really good stuff.
Compose Regularly
Get into the right state of mind about this. You may have had a full day and, at night, you’re too tired and just want to relax… no. Please don’t do that. Don’t watch TV. Instead, sit down and write music. Turn on your computer and start writing. I guarantee you, once you get going, you won’t be able to stop. If you write every day you will end up with a big catalogue of ideas and a few high peaks of creation.
Practicing the craft is a very important factor, but so is analysing the compositions of other musicians that you like. Take your favourite song and figure out why it works. What is the music about? What’s the tempo? What’s the structure? Verse, bridge, chorus? A section, B section? What’s the overall mood: happy, sad, pumped up, sophisticated, dreamy, politically motivated? There are so many things that you can say with music. Analysing the work of artists you like is a great way to improve your craft and stay inspired.
In conclusion, you have no control over the amount of talent you have. The only thing you can control is the amount of work you put into it. If you want your compositions to be better you have to put in more work making them.
Related blog:
How To Make It In The Music Industry