Creativity stops the moment i pick up my instrument

[anon]

When I'm just walking down the street i can hear these amazing lines and passages in my head but the second I pick up my guitar i can't think of anything except the things my fingers do automatically without the mind being involved whatsoever. It's the same sort of feeling as when you think of a book you really want to read in the middle of a supermarket but you can't remember what it was when you walk into the library. Has anyone had any experience with anything similar to this? Any way to solve it?

[TH]

SUCH a common thing. How are you at hearing a line and then playing it? It's ear training and it's a really important step if you're going to be an improvisor.
Can you sing your lines? Can you sing a line and then play it?
Those are small steps that connect your imagination with your voice (which can be in your vocal cords or your guitar) and your ear with your guitar.

All these things need to operate together.

It also helps to KNOW what it is you're hearing in your head, and have that same knowledge in your hands on the guitar.
You hear an amazing line. Can you identify where those notes exist within the scale? (Oh that's a scale run from the 3rd of the scale to the tonic with a syncopated chromatic approach note on the 4th beat...) That thing you hear has some kind of intention and shape, some kind of place within the chord you hear. When you know what you're imagining, and you know where those notes are on the fingerboard, then you can start to put them together.

Start by always knowing what you're playing... in your ear too.
I don't know what you practice so there's not a whole lot more I can say, but practice hearing. Ear training. Vocabulary.

Take a simple tune, a folk tune or something with a melody. Sing it. Play it by ear. Then add complexity and embellishment to it.
Start there and some idea of your practice routine and where you are on the instrument would be really helpful
Good luck

David

[bako]

Carry a small digital recorder with you as you walk and record the creative ideas that come to you.
Later with guitar in hand, transcribe yourself.

When working on compositions or arrangements, sometimes I will feel stuck. I find myself pounding away
at endless variations of an idea, that regardless how cool will not fulfill what is needed.
In this circumstance imagining the music away from an instrument while walking will often provide fresh insight.

[docbop]

Happens to everyone you're distracting your self, in the store you forget because distracted by all the other people and books around you. With guitar it's the guitar and now letting thoughts of fingerings chords, time, and etc keep you from relaxing and just letting the music come out. That why some musician make a clear distinction between practice some will call it warming up and working on improv. Practice is the time for thinking about technique, chords, notes, fingers, etc. After that's done, then time to just getting into the Zone as some call it and let things happen. Focus on getting out of your head and on to the instrument. This is when you really need the song or the chords your working on playing in your head so you have to song playing in back of you mind and your focus thinking of lines, then playing lines as close to what your thinking. Joe Diorio talks about practicing being creative with gesture improv, and playing in dark room, and other that force you to just let things come out. He would talk about the books Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain, and Free Play by Stephen Nachmanovitch. Kenny Werner books and lots of Youtubes he talks about getting into Zone to play and learn to trust what comes out. Coltrane and other use a lot Eastern Spiritual method to get into the zone. All about learning to let go to stop the distractions and trusting what comes out.

It's like athletes they have practice to drill on the fundamentals and thinking aspect of the game. Then they have practice games to play and trust they will react the right way in situations thrown at them. Music is the same thing.

[jordanklemons]

When I'm just walking down the street i can hear these amazing lines and passages in my head but the second I pick up my guitar i can't think of anything except the things my fingers do automatically without the mind being involved whatsoever. It's the same sort of feeling as when you think of a book you really want to read in the middle of a supermarket but you can't remember what it was when you walk into the library. Has anyone had any experience with anything similar to this? Any way to solve it?

This is precisely why it's important to gain a very personal, intimate relationship with the sound (notes). Some people set out to do this by transcribing a lot, and overtime finding that relationship. A great practice no doubt. I prefer to (for the most part) bypass the dependence on others and the excessive training of telling my fingers to do even more stuff that they will automatically go into and rather to slow things down even more and really get to know each and every note and develop a personal relationship with each one. I think of each note like a spice or an herb, and I'm a chef. I could just learn to recreate a bunch of dishes that other people have mastered. That's no doubt going to help. I just much more enjoy the process of picking one flavor, rosemary. And I'll just sit with that flavor for a while. I'll try it with different types of meats or veggies, how does it behave when it's in a sauce? What if I boil it? On and on. I want to get to the point where I've exhausted every possible experience I can think of with it, so that I can identify it by smell, taste, and look immediately. Then I'll move on to basil. Rinse and repeat. Etc.

This process has helped me connect the music I hear in my mind with my fingers and my fretboard in a way that I'm able to make very intentional note choices while composing and improvising.

I think both of these practices, plus singing (which could be done separately or as a part of either of the above mentioned practices) can be extremely helpful for where you are.

And of course, continue listening to music you love. And also... just compose. I pull out my phone all the time and record myself singing a little idea I have while walking down the street. And then every few months, I'll go through and listen to all this older videos. If I no longer dig the idea, delete. If I really enjoy it and keep listening to it over and over, I'll write it out and start working on turning it into a tune. But anything you do that connects your inner music with your fingers, your instrument, and the externalized music you create will help you in this process.

[Jonah]

Actually it happens even when you are a pen composer... you have plenty of ideas but when you are a blank sheet in front of you... oops.
I think it is more about difference between an idea and realization... when you begin to play the things are much more definite and real than she you think of them. The only way is to develops ability to transfer ideal into real that is to be able to translate the image into a piece with conventional means we use in any art.


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[Nabil B]

anon, I can relate to that a hundred percent. I've felt the exact same thing but It got better with time. Here's what helped me :

- I clearly differentiate practice and play. There is a time for thinking and working, and a time for letting go and just be creative. I find this mindset really help me to connect with my creative side when I need to.

- Singing when playing has been an excellent tool for me lately. When I do it, my solos are more interesting, and improvising is much more enjoyable. It really makes me feel like I'm expressing my true self. One funny thing I noticed -just yesterday- is that I can achieve the same feeling and effects when I just move my lips, barely making any sound with my voice (I'm lip dubbing my solo, in other words). My inner ear is still working, and moving my lips help me get the flow right. Your playing becomes dependent on your breathing, same as horn players.

Hope that helps !

[christianm77]

I'm different actually. I have to spend time listening to music and playing & singing lines to get warmed up musically. Otherwise I go more into lick mode!

I mean so much of the problem is hearing amazing lines and playing them back, be they ones you've come up with or off a record. Maybe practicing the latter will help you with the former?

[emanresu]

Keep a dictaphone ready all times.
Oh, someone said that already.

I noticed that when I have to stop playing and go do other stuff in a few minutes, the creativity suddenly rises. Been wondering about it but not too much.

[KirkP]

When you hum a melody away from the guitar, try to figure out which note in the melody is the tonic. Then hum the major scale from that tonic. Then hum your melody again and try to figure out each scale interval in your melody by ear. Then find a guitar (or piano) play a scale in the same key, then try to play your melody. At first you may only be able to handle short phrases, but the more you do it the longer the melodies can be. For starters the melody should be simple and diatonic. Eventually you'll be able to handle chromatic lines and key changes.

I think a lot of composers avoid composing melodies on their main instrument. It's too easy to fall into muscle memory patterns. The brain is highly adapted to operate from learned patterns as a matter of survival. For creative work you sometimes need to create situations where those learned patterns can't dominate.

[Kirk Garrett]

The OP describes the phenomenon so well. It happens in music, drawing, writing, etc.

I agree with the recommendations so far. And maybe check out Barney Kessel's instructional video on improvisation, on Youtube. Very smart, very inspiring.

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[Jonah]

Just one note about singing/humming practice... though it's more intuitive... still voice is also a medium... so there's a big chance that when singing the line you will instinctively adopt to what your voice feel more comfortable - especially if you did not have enough solfege-like practice - especially some outside of chromatic runs... to sing it you need special practice... even ifyou hear it in your head.

And also there's a chance that yourmind will try to adopt the line you hear internally to somethng more standard to ear...

What I mean that not only fingers follow learnt patterns but our creativity sometimes too...

It's not only about playng what you hear, but also make what you learn and like something that you naturally hear.


So again it is more about ability to translate an image or idea of music into real music... when you're a write... there are visual writers like Faulkner - he just somtimes saw some scene and did not really get what was going on just some people some place then some talking maybe... and as he kept writing something more clear outlined and then he already could arrange it in a way...

But the thing is that whe he was a first image of people sitting around a table it did not mean he wrote: ''There were people sitting around teh table.'' maybe he metioned a table onle after a page or two... nevertheless he manged to trasfer to us the feeling of the scene...

So one has to elaborate kind of language, translation sysytem... and this comes only with experience... I am sure that after 10-20 years of daily improvizing and playing you will come up to the point when you exactly know how the musical idea in your head will be trasferred into real practice.

Besides, it's a bit simpler to me than Faulkner's case... becasue a writer uses colloquial l communicational languge which is overloaded with meanings... he somehow has to overcome it to achiev that epople saw felt heard but did not just read the words...

Though is also a language still it is clean from daily conventional usage... and a bit more definite... if you hear a line you can just put it down aeven without understanding what it is about. Like a poet. And a novelist - a great one - is a hard worker in mines.

[Jonah]

The OP describes the phenomenon so well. It happens in music, drawing, writing, etc.

I agree with the recommendations so far. And maybe check out Barney Kessel's instructional video on improvisation, on Youtube. Very smart, very inspiring.

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what Barney says here is so much about meaning... I do not know why but people often try to avoid talking music as meaningful semantic system... as if they just consider music something meaninglessly beautiful and if you say there's a meaning you kill the spirit.

But to me quite an opposite - we find music beautiful becasue it is full of meanings we recognize. And Barney talks a lot about... he tells you what different idiomas of musical language could mean.

[Jonah]

I think a lot of composers avoid composing melodies on their main instrument. It's too easy to fall into muscle memory patterns. The brain is highly adapted to operate from learned patterns as a matter of survival. For creative work you sometimes need to create situations where those learned patterns can't dominate.

Actually for the best I believe it makes no difference... Wagner, Skryabin composed a lot at the piano, so did Morton Feldman...

But I believe it is conneceted with their style... at least I am sure that Wagner and Feldman did something we talk about here: they just heard something in their heads, some musical idea and they needed to pick it up.. just to figure out what is going on. It is the style of their music...

And Skrybin was an improvizor in calssical Romantic sence (as was Chopin or Rakhmaninov) so he was much connected with the instrument even composing orchestral works.

[ruger9]

Interesting topic.

For me, it REALLY depends on the day. Some days, creativity is just there, as if being handed to me from some higher power. Other days (most days), I have to play THRU the mundane to get to the creativity.... it's like, after 45min-1hr of play time, all of a sudden I find something creative and unique.

Of course some days are just duds altogether, but it's still time on the instrument.

[henryrobinett]

If creativity stops the moment you pick up the guitar I'd suggest just start doing creative things with the guitar. ONLY creative things for awhile. Maybe for a long while. If you associate guitar with practicing mundane scales and exercises, stop it. Play tunes you know. Improvise only. Do a bunch of nonsensical stuff. Go nuts. But don't play mundane boring stuff. Create. Guitar should be, at least in jazz, a creative tool.


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[rlrhett]

I struggle with the opposite, to be honest. It is easy for me to sit with a guitar and spend hours just exploring sounds. But music is mostly a social group activity. You play to an audience or with other musicians.

You have to reward the audience for taking the time to hear you. Tension/release has its cousins challenging/comfortable and foreign/familiar.

The audience wants familiar. They often need music played EXACTLY how they expect it and have heard it a thousand times. Creativity has to be at balance with strict adherence to the form. I marvel at musicians who can memorize a complex 3:30 minute piece and play it again and again. I can't seem to play Mary Had A Little Lamb the same way twice.

Creativity is magic. But the obsession with creativity in music, especially jazz, can shut an audience out and turn the music into an exercise in auto erotica.


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[Jonah]

I struggle with the opposite, to be honest. It is easy for me to sit with a guitar and spend hours just exploring sounds. But music is mostly a social group activity. You play to an audience or with other musicians.

You have to reward the audience for taking the time to hear you. Tension/release has its cousins challenging/comfortable and foreign/familiar.

The audience wants familiar. They often need music played EXACTLY how they expect it and have heard it a thousand times. Creativity has to be at balance with strict adherence to the form. I marvel at musicians who can memorize a complex 3:30 minute piece and play it again and again. I can't seem to play Mary Had A Little Lamb the same way twice.

Creativity is magic. But the obsession with creativity in music, especially jazz, can shut an audience out and turn the music into an exercise in auto erotica.


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I think it's wrong. You should be obsessed with creativity.
Honesty to yourself is your only real debt to the audience.


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[Jonah]

And creativity is not only improvising by the way... classical musicians perform written music but creativity of Horowitz or Gould is way above many jazz players to me

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[henryrobinett]

That's the part I don't get completely. And I know it's me. If you're just interpreting someone else's written notes how is that as creative as the one who wrote them? You're bringing your emotion and vision to a piece of music to give it life, sometimes perhaps exceeding or at least matching the composers. But how is that MORE creative. I've always been a fan of the composer.


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[Jonah]

That's the part I don't get completely. And I know it's me. If you're just interpreting someone else's written notes how is that as creative as the one who wrote them? You're bringing your emotion and vision to a piece of music to give it life, sometimes perhaps exceeding or at least matching the composers. But how is that MORE creative. I've always been a fan of the composer.


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I did not mean in general... I meant some certain players against some certain jazz players. For example when I listen to late Menuhin or Horowitz records, or recently l was at Hopkinson Smith lute concert... it is the level of penetration into music and mastery that I cannot even call mastery because already their nature ... I did listen to music, I heard stories, saw images, felt living... life.
that all gives a feeling that music life is created right now they play it as if they compose it in the spot. Besides they play something more than just music they meanings. I believe in classical tradition performance is such an important part of it.

It's close to acting... great play is still great on paper. But some poor performance can make you feel bore even with the great play.


Though in general I second you. I always was a composer type... even as a kid I seemed to lose interest in polishing the performance once I had a compositional understanding of a piece I played .

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[christianm77]

And creativity is not only improvising by the way... classical musicians perform written music but creativity of Horowitz or Gould is way above many jazz players to me

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I think the difference between performing composed material and improvisation gets smaller the better one gets and the more natural it becomes, or the better you know a piece.

In both instances you are not creating music - it's creating itself through you.

Your choice is what path you take as an artist, but to be a professional musician increasingly requires both. Cross genre is the norm in my circle.

I would love to have the chance to play more extended composed works in an ensemble. It's not something I get much chance to do.