What are the appropriate/technical approaches that professional composers do to induce creativity in music making process?

Question

I feel like I've already been "programmed" by pop songs when creating new sound. I always enjoy simply improvising on piano but I can never break through that musicality that is "programmed" in my head after yeas of listening to pop songs. The only thing I can do is exploring melodically, putting aside the harmony first; but then, again, I tend to go back to the "common practice"(and often times it's the chord progression that is just working so fine in transition) of what makes a pop song sound nice to ears. How can I get out of the box and explore creativity? Advice from different genre and styles are all welcomed. Thanks a lot! p.s. As a matter of fact, this question is **not** entirely for opinions, as I'm **not** asking for opinions. There might be opinions that are **partially** included in the answers though, but that are just advice to **support** the methods. Ultimately, I just want to know what are the **technical/appropriate** ways composers do to explore creativity and get out of the box.

Answer 1

Hi There,

This is a great question and something that I also struggle with. I have found one extremely effective way of combatting this, and that involves breaking down sections and throwing numbers at it.

1) Start by isolating a section you want to work on (its fine if this naturally expands in the second step but it's often easier to focus small at first). This is usually as small as a single melodic line from a verse and not the entire verse section. It's helpful if the section is cohesive enough to be its own phrase. Choose something you can already tell is not as original or creative as you'd like it to be.

2) Take your section and rewrite it (while keeping the original and every new version) at least 20 times (the more the better!). Play around with embellishments, change the direction of the melodic flow, see if you can mirror any lyrics. Try and make each version different. The important thing here is to not censor yourself if you don't love it. Just record it and keep going. I can't emphasize this enough - even if you find one you like better than the original, keep going. This is partially an exercise to push you creatively, but also to reset your "programming".

3) Repeat this process for every section of your song that you are not completely in love with. It can almost always be improved by this process.

I hope this helps you, as it's really helped me. I do want to point out that the process can often be a little uncomfortable and challenging, as if you feel "programmed", then that is what is coming the most naturally and easily. This will be outside of that area for you, but your songwriting will greatly improve!

Answer 2

Hi Neil, There are actually two questions here, one in the title of your question and another in the body of your message.

In your second question, what I get is that you want to expand your style in your songwriting but, also perhaps would like to write instrumental music and you are locked into a way of working that is not allowing you to do so. In either case, you need to expand your compositional techniques. For instance if your were to study some counterpoint, you would be writing in a completely different way than playing chords and putting a melody to them or vice versa. Instead you would be working individual "voices" which compliment each other but retain a sense liveness, rather than working with blocks of sound with a melody on top. This would be the beginning of real composition and would open up a whole new way of looking at music. I know this because I started off as a songwriter and then studied counterpoint and it completely changed the way I hear and view music...and gave me the ability to compose instrumental music as well as much more technique with melodies and chords. It's an "under-the-hood" view of music as against a surface view and it takes a bit of work to learn.

Your first question is really about "Creative Process" which has to do with learning how to access your creative flow consistently and reliably. This is one of the most important aspects of being a composer and one that is rarely taught. I'm not going to go into it here more than to say that you've raised a good question and one that should explored by any anyone serious about writing music.

If you have follow up question, I'll do my best to answer.

Stephen