Songwriting: Practicing Creativity

Songwriters need both imagination and creativity. And no, those two words are not synonymous.

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The two main elements that come into play when writing songs are imagination and creativity. We often use the words interchangeably, but they are quite different. Think of the imagination as a pool of thoughts and ideas, generated within our mind and fuelled by our real-life experiences.

Our imagination allows us to take impossible or odd situations and pretend that they’re real. This happens when we dream at night; we might imagine that we live in a palace, having tea with Henry VIII. Every new experience we have in real life fuels our imagination.

As a pool of thoughts and ideas, the imagination is an important part of being human. Among its many purposes, the imagination allows us to, in a sense, test and try out situations and ideas in a safe and benign way. If you have children, you know that they spend the majority of their first 5 years of life imagining. It’s what allows them to learn quickly and safely.
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Creativity, on the other hand, is what we do with that pool of thoughts and ideas. While a songwriter’s imagination is what is responsible for conjuring up musical ideas in the first place, it is the writer’s sense of, and capacity for, creativity that makes good music happen.

And the good news is that creativity can be practiced, honed and improved. In fact, every time you put two notes together, you are creating. That is why daily writing is such an important part of improving songwriting skills. Waiting for inspiration wastes a lot of time.

To practice and improve your creative abilities, try the following.

1. Listen to good music every day.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT: Listening allows you to hear how other good songwriters have put their musical ideas together. You learn from their experiences. Don’t worry that this will lead to plagiarism on your part; it won’t. It does, however, give you ideas for designing and creating your own music that’s an important part of improving.

2. Stimulate your imagination with other art forms.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT: By enjoying other art forms, such as poetry, dance, painting, sculpture, etc., you add to your pool of artistic experiences that can and will ultimately affect your creative process. This can be done as simply as surrounding yourself with inspiring art as you write, or watch a video of interpretive dance before you sit down to compose. You tap into a different part of your creative mind when you do those things, and it’s always a good thing.

3. Talk about songwriting with good songwriters.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT: It can be amazingly stimulating to hear how other songwriters put their musical thoughts together. Sometimes, just hearing what goes through someone else’s mind when they write music can give you an entirely new way of looking at what you do. It doesn’t do much for your imagination, per se, but it can steer your creative brain in new and exciting directions.

The difference between imagination and creativity is vital, because it is entirely possible to be thoroughly imaginative, but to fail at the creative stage. In other words, you may have lots of thoughts about music, but no ability (or incentive) to put those thoughts together in a way that results in good music.

Creativity is improved every time you write music. So the best thing you can do is to create a writing schedule that involves daily (or almost daily) composing. How much you write, and how well you balance it with some down-time, is the main contributor to your musical success.

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Written by Gary Ewer. Follow on Twitter.

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