Creativity – Where does it come from?

A student asked me a really simple question the other day. He almost didn’t ask because he felt like it was a dumb or pointless question, but it turned out to spark a really interesting string of thoughts and conversation about music and creativity. He asked me “When you write music, where, like, does it come from?”

When you write music, it comes from all sorts of places within you. Obviously you draw on your own musical influences, but it can also come from life events, however mundane or profound. It could come from movies, a moment in a park, a restaurant.

Creativity is interesting in that way, how it’s almost completely random when it strikes. You can’t force a good musical idea. You can create the right setting for ideas to come, or do inspiring things like going to a concert or watching a movie, but you can’t just sit there and force your brain to conjure up good music.

Your musical style initially comes straight from your influences. If you love Metallica, your first songs are going to sound like them. And that’s okay! You’re learning your own writing process and it takes time for your own musical style to mature. Your first song might only be 5% your style, but your 10th song will be more you, and so on so forth.

I’ve made music my whole life, and I’ve dived into so many different genres and styles of playing, and I draw on all of that when I write. I compare it to cooking. We all start by following recipes, then we naturally start to put our own twists on things and combine recipes and techniques. Eventually we just make food straight from the brain, completely improvised. So it’s okay if your first songs sound like other artists, learn their recipes so you can make your own later!

Where do you start? Well, it’s different every time. Sometimes I start with a chord progression and work the melody and everything else from there. Sometimes the melody or drum beat comes first. So there’s no wrong place to start if you’re unsure. I would recommend starting with chords though, since they tend to inspire melody and rhythm. Chords are great in that way.

What kind of song should it be? Ironically, you can do this 2 very different ways. You could give yourself a clear goal, like a reggaeton song, a metal song, a happy song, an angry song. Having this frame can help give you a springboard for ideas. Opposite to that is to not give yourself any concrete goals or expectations, just shoot in the dark until you hit something you like. This can be a very rewarding way to write!

I hope this gives you a little insight into creativity and more importantly I hope it inspires you to try making your own music. It’s probably a lot easier and it’s definitely more rewarding than you might think.