Songwriting and "np" (now playing)

[Tedster]

Here's a question to toss to the masses:

 

Do you find listening to a lot of music helps or hinders the creative process? Do ideas come more readily when you're exposed to a diverse array of music, or when your mind is free to wander without the hindrance of other influences? I could see how it could be beneficial both ways.

 

And, sorry, I'm posting this as a new topic. Technically it probably could have gone under either of two other threads...but I couldn't decide which thread to post it under, so I hit the "new topic" button.

[trick fall]

I listen to a lot of different music, but I only know how to play like two songs that I didn't write. I actually think this helps a lot.

[Guest]

What's funny, to me, (should be sad)because of the damage to my hearing, when the volume is low, (I use way too many commas) (and parenthese)the best songs I have written are what I think I hear. I sometimes turn the radio on low so I can come up with new ideas. That's not copyright infringement, is it?

np- not sure. sounds like a new song to me

JP

[Anderton]

Interesting question, and worthy of its own topic.

 

I've gone both ways. Sometimes I'm at my most creative when I haven't been listening to a lot of music. But in general, the more music I listen to, the more music I create. I don't think this has as much to do with copping ideas subliminally, but it's like bias on an analog tape deck...it puts me into a more musical frame of mind, and music comes out.

 

I just know that when I get back next week from gigging in Switzerland that I will be mega-inspired by my interaction with all the DJs and other musicians, and that songs will flow out. Also, it seems that I get lots of ideas when travelling, because I'm exposed to different types of music.

 

np: Yankees vs. Mets, game 5 of the World Series...not much music happening there, though.

[Scott from MA]

I don't think it's so much the amount of music I'm listening to, or the variety of music, as much as the "quality" (there's a dubious word!) of the music. If I listen to something that really blows me away, I get real inspired to write some new songs.

 

This happens to me whenever Bob Mould puts out a new CD. After my first listen, I'm intensely motivated to write. It's not even that I write in his style, or that his music gives me ideas, just that I remember why I love music.

 

Same thing happens with Ben Harper. My music sounds NOTHING like Ben's, but when I listen to him I just want to play guitar for hours.

 

Did this actually answer the topic question? My mind wanders to easily!

 

NP: HUM - "Downward is Heavenward"

[Tedster]

Yeah, Scott, I think that kinda nailed the topic! But, as in many cases, there is no right or wrong, just what you prefer. Whatever works. I can't remember who posted earlier that they like to have the radio playing at almost a subliminally low level. That's not ripping stuff off in my opinion...I've heard different takes on melodies using that technique before, and when I turn the radio up, what's playing sounds nothing like what I heard. Sort of a songwriter's form of the gradeschool game "rumor", I guess http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif.

[Lee Flier]

For me, it depends on what I'm trying to do and what my state of mind is. There are times when it helps me a LOT to listen to as much music as possible. Other times if I listen to music it seems to supercede or interrupt what I'm hearing in my head, so I prefer quiet. Sometimes I also like to listen to other sounds like the cicadas singing at night or the rain.

 

Inspiration can come from just about anywhere!

 

--Lee

[the stranger]

I'm always listening to music, pretty much every waking hour. All types. I figure the more the better.

As someone else said, if I pick up a new killer album, it inspires me to get busy. I won't be doing anything like what inspires me, just doing what ever comes natural.

I think it is the vibe. It's like getting recharged.

I kind of like the musical blender idea. I just pour as much different shit in there as I can, hit puree, and see what I get.

 

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