Let’s talk about how other music influences your music.
Now, I must admit, I used to think very differently about this topic, before I became educated in the topics of cognitive psychology and creativity.
I used to think that influence had no place in music in any other type of art. I mean, if you are creative, you’re not copying other people are you?
Well, not exactly, but listening to other music is actually very important in the creativity process.
Let’s take a look at the creativity process so we can see where influence comes into play.
Firstly, you take in information through your senses. In the case of music, you use your auditory modality to accept and process the incoming
information (music).
As you take in this information or music, there are two things that happen. 1. You develop internal criteria for music that you like, music you don’t
like, and everything in between. Also, these criteria are always in flux. This means that it is constantly being re-evaluated and is always changing.
2. The information (music) is processed, distorted, distilled, filtered, and integrated in different ways. And out of this incredible process hybrid ideas are created. These hybrids are actually the musical ideas that you have created. Therefore, your creativity is actually a result of all the music that you have ever heard!
The two things that I’ve just listed above are also intertwined in a very interesting way. You see, if you’re intending to create ground breaking music that you love, your unconscious will use your internal criteria that you’ve developed that govern what GREAT music should sound like.
So to put it simply, the ideas that are created by your mind are compared against criteria that you have gathered and tweaked your whole life.
Your brain has the ability to accept musical information, distill it, filter it through internal criteria, integrate, and then create the most elegant hybrid musical ideas as a result, which are your moments of inspiration when you discover a magical musical idea.
This is how the creative process works.
As a musician, mastering this process is your most valuable asset.
Just imagine having the ability to continually dream up the most amazing, brilliant music compositions, over and over again!
This is inevitable if you can master the creative process.
And as you are beginning to see, an important part of the creative process is the input of information. Your unconscious needs this meat to create new musical ideas.
And musical influence or listening to other people’s musical compositions is how you input the required information to your unconscious so it can begin the creation process.
Can you see where this is going? You know what I’m going to ask you do, right?
That’s right… You need to listen to as much music as possible! But let’s narrow it down further…
It’s not much use listening to music that you don’t like—except to gather more criteria for what you don’t like!
You need to listen to music you love.
And even more powerful is listening to the musicians that are pushing the envelope in your chosen genre—the musicians who are constantly breaking new ground and bending the so-called “rules.”
Listening to this type of music constantly is the perfect “input of information” that will give the creativity process a running start. Also, (and I do this as much as I can) listen to music that you wouldn’t normally listen to. This stretches your creative abilities even further because it presents your mind with new and exciting possibilities. Pretty much listen to any good music you can get your hands on. Surround yourself in it.
Allow your unconscious to soak it all in.
Listen to music when you get up, when you work, and when you’re falling asleep. Become completely and utterly saturated by good music.
And remember, the more variety you have in your listening sessions, the better.
Every new musical idea you hear, every new and interesting progression gives your mind more material to use to create new and interesting ideas for you.
This is another reason why it’s important to listen to a wide variety of music. You want to feed your mind a wide range of general AND specific information so it has “lot’s of meat” from which to create new and interesting ideas.
Let’s face it. There is LOTS of great music out there, but you may or may not listen to a wide variety of music at the moment.
Here’s some advice if you listen to only one or two genres of music. The reason you only listen to limited styles of music is because of the internal criteria you have developed that governs the rules of music you like.
This criteria usually depends a lot on the people you hang out with, your circumstances growing up, and a few other things.
The thing is, there is so much great music out there for you to enjoy. If you are limiting what you are listening to because of inflexible internal criteria you've developed and you would like this to change…
… then you can change!
Just the realization that you have limited the types of music you listen to because of your internal criteria can be enough to “let go” and explore new styles of music.
And remember, doing this will increase your creativity powers as you will be feeding your unconscious a wider range of information.
Homework
I’m going to give you the greatest homework assignment you’ve ever had! Firstly, break out your favorite CD of all time and give it a run through. Listen and enjoy every moment.
Secondly, go deep into your CD collection and bring out an old favorite that you haven’t heard in a while. Listen, and while doing so you will be feeding more information to your mind.
Finally, borrow or buy a CD that is of a musical genre that you are not familiar with. A good way to do this is:
1. Choose a music genre you wouldn't normally listen to.
2. On the Internet, search a few sites of this genre and see if there are any CD titles that seem to be popular and highly acclaimed.
Enjoy your homework, and remember that feeding your mind with new music is a highly important part of being creative as a musician.
With this large input of information, combined with the other techniques in this course, you are soon to write music that will blow you away.