UNLEASHING YOUR CREATIVITY

Creativity and innovation are the heart and soul of music and the industry that fuels it. Creativity naturally brings up fear as it exposes who you are! Jill Badonsky

Academics always said that Shakespeare was head and shoulders above any writer in history. We often wonder whether there could have been other creatives as successful as him that didn’t get their opportunity to shine.

Shakespeare had a way with words, for sure. But he also had a grammar school education and wealthy sponsors who were willing to bankroll his ideas. He was given a platform to show off his talents and money for his grind. He was empowered and privileged. Without somebody helping him along, we wouldn’t have known who he was. Today the disenfranchised have always had imaginations. They have always been creative, but they have not always been empowered. Think about how many creatives didn’t get their shot in Shakespeare’s time because of their gender or skin tone. Imagine life without hearing Nina Simone singing out ‘Feeling Good’ or the eloquence and power of Maya Angelou’s ‘Still I Rise’.

Coming up with a good idea is the hardest part of any creative process!

The drive to keep creative ideas alive and flowing while battling to make a little dent in the industry, or simply keep your personal creativity flowing can be a struggle. Musicians understand this dance, as we try to choreograph it with music recording, videos and performances and staying creatively engaged as you still have to earn a living. At times it can be a buzz, the things dreams are made of. However, there are some habits we do in autopilot that put out our fire instead of setting it a blaze. This can become a bigger problem to side-step once we’ve been in the habit of these behaviours for a while. Regardless of your genre it may be time to take a deeper look at what behaviors guide your unique creative process.

Is it time to upgrade your creative process, as you prepare for a more creative and fulfilling moment.

Develop your work and wellness balance. We all need a plan for well-being as part of our creative process. It’s what helps us to stay grounded, healthy, mentally clear, and in our creative flow, only through this will the magic happen. If you don’t have habits that include exercise, healthy eating, enjoying music, going to performances or something else that recharges your mind, body and spirit.

Understand your distractive behaviours and how you use them. It can be people, things or habits. One of the easiest ways to derail our creative process is by distracting our attention, so put down the phone. The important thing is not to blame ourselves, but notice when we do it, and how we are feeling when we do. What feeling or experience are we trying to avoid that drives us to distraction?

Remember, as we evolve, our creative process our habits must evolve, too.

Success is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration. But without that all-important 10%, there’d be nothing to sweat over.

Art acts as a collective mirror through which we can understand and learn

about our society, our surroundings, and ourselves. We can learn about an oppressive government from the art of the oppressed; we can learn about mental health from the art of the suffering; we can learn about prison from the art of the prisoner. Originally, urban artistic expression such as graffiti art and rap music served as a way to respond to the oppression and disenfranchisement within the inner cities.

John Lennon once said, “My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all”

Creativity flows from within and is a natural process, it has always been fun, playful and curious that allows you to show your true self. In the moment of music creation, you can be yourself your true self, and that can mean anything, be it one thing, or another entirely. You can embrace the contradictions and even your insecurities, if it means something to you. It is your right to make music any way you want: You can overcome the pressures and expectations around you. This is your moment to connect, through the universal frequencies of sound and say what soul has been saying from your earliest years. Don’t be corrupted by life and it’s demands and the pressures of your environment.

Basil Reynolds

Coaching Consultant

Finding the Music Inside