We are all naturally creative, it’s part of being human. Just as we all breathe oxygen and eat food, we’re creative.
When we think of what it means to “be creative”, it is easy to dismiss our own abilities. We often associate “being creative” with peak performers, or people at the top of their field, such as Michelangelo, Bach, Steve Jobs, etc.
There are two mistakes that we often make when thinking about our creative potential:
I read a great quote on music inspiration the other day:
The famous composer Schubert is said to have told a friends that his own creative process consisted in “remembering a melody” that neither he nor anyone else had ever thought of before
and it got me thinking about creativity. A lot of people have the false belief that creativity is something that “the chosen few” are naturally born with. I prefer to think of it as a muscle.
I’m just getting back into the swing of songwriting regularly the last few days (I know, I’ve not even released the first record yet!) and I forgot how, just like any other musical skill, it’s something that needs to be trained and practised. I haven’t done any writing at all for a few months and the last serious writing I did was over a year ago.
Writing needs to be just as big a part of my guitar routine as practising technique, theory, ear training, etc.