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  • More
    • Guitar Lessons
    • Kid's Guitar
    • Free Resources
      • Overcome Motivation Loss
      • How to Boost Creativity
      • Don't Try for Perfection
      • How to Memorize Songs
      • How to Stay Inspired
      • How Long to Ace Guitar?
      • How to Prevent Bad Habits
      • How to Make Guitar Fun
      • How To Harmonize a Melody
      • Which Pick Should I Pick?
      • Help Your Child Practice!
      • 3 Ways to Return to Music
      • Learning the Pentatonics
      • Gearing Up Like the Pros!
      • Guitar Gets Easier!
      • 3 Tips for Fingerstyle
      • Ear Training
      • 4 Ways to Use Rhythms
      • How to Practice Scales
    • Contact

The Cleburne Guitar Dojo

The Cleburne Guitar DojoThe Cleburne Guitar DojoThe Cleburne Guitar Dojo
  • Guitar Lessons
  • Kid's Guitar
  • Free Resources
    • Overcome Motivation Loss
    • How to Boost Creativity
    • Don't Try for Perfection
    • How to Memorize Songs
    • How to Stay Inspired
    • How Long to Ace Guitar?
    • How to Prevent Bad Habits
    • How to Make Guitar Fun
    • How To Harmonize a Melody
    • Which Pick Should I Pick?
    • Help Your Child Practice!
    • 3 Ways to Return to Music
    • Learning the Pentatonics
    • Gearing Up Like the Pros!
    • Guitar Gets Easier!
    • 3 Tips for Fingerstyle
    • Ear Training
    • 4 Ways to Use Rhythms
    • How to Practice Scales
  • Contact

How To Boost Your Creativity as a Musician

by Janez Janežič 


Have you ever felt like you're playing sounds the same all the time when jamming with friends, writing music or even when practicing?  Have you ever felt like you just can't get any »good« musical idea  out of your instrument and you felt like you'll never be as  creative as that other guitarist, who writes killer tunes on his  own?  I feel you. And probably every other musician feels you just the same. We all had creativity problems  at a certain point in our musical life. But how then can some people be so creative and write such good songs and improvise killer guitar solos? Can we actually become creative?  Sure, we can. 


Creativity is a muscle and we have to train it … as much as possible. Today we will explore  a few ideas on how to boost our creativity that I personally use in everyday life.  


What can you do about it?  


First and the most obvious thing you can do is: just do it. Yes, you've read that right. Many people stop before they even start to create because they have limiting beliefs about themselves. 


»But I'm no  creative artist, I just play for fun« is what we usually hear. There is a rule about everything we learn in  life: if you don't try, you don't grow. Even if you fail, you'll learn something new from that experience.  And that's the only way to do it. You can read all the books about creating music, know all about music theory, watch all videos on YouTube and you still will never learn as much you would if you just threw yourself in the ocean and try to swim.


  So how can you »start doing it«? You can schedule a block time regularly  every few days (or weeks) when you will devote your effort to working on  your songs, guitar solos or learning the skill of improvising. Do you already  have an X hours-long practice routine? Devote 30% of your practice time  to your creativity. Take 20 minutes out of an hour-long practice and do the exercises we will explain below.  Learned a new lick? Make dozens of variations.


 While by itself this suggestion might be confusing, it's  actually very simple when you write things down. Write down the lick you learned on a piece of paper,  or even better use Guitar Pro to do so. Then explore what happens, when you change the value of just  one note (e.g. quarter note -> make it an eight note). Relearn the lick and listen to it. It will probably  sound totally different: 


»Hey but that's not the same lick anymore!« That's true. What you have now  is a new lick that sounds and feels different than your starting point. Write that thing down. Then  change the value of another note, then another … and by the time you exhaust all different  possibilities, you'll have an arsenal of new licks. What then? Well, what happens when you change the  value of two notes? :)  Then you can move forward and start changing the pitch of the note (e.g. D# -> F) and explore all the  different possibilities you get. Then you can combine different rhythm and pitch variations. Do you see where this is going?


Just with one 4-note lick, you can have more than 100 thousand variations.   »But that's not creative. That's just ripping off someone's lick!« While in this context it is partly true,  you don't need to beat yourself with it. You've created the variations, so you've been creative, period.  Of course, not everything is going to sound good, but you might find some hidden gems that you really like and are totally usable in your guitar playing.  


Now, of course, you don't need to do hundreds and hundreds of variations of a single lick, because it  will probably bore you to death. But if you create 5 good sounding variations for everything you learn,  you're going to be at least 5 times more creative than you would be if you only learned licks by the  book.  Thorugh time you will become more creative because you will subconsciously start creating variations  of everything you hear. Maybe you'll hear church bells toll or a phone ring, and then when you'll pick up the guitar, some melodies will just start popping inside your head, and it will most possibly be a variation of something you've already heard.  


You can do this with licks, riffs, vocal melodies, chord progressions, scale sequences, arpeggios… you name it. Apply this to everything you learn and see yourself growing, not only as a guitarist but as a musician as well. 


About the Author:  


Janez Janežič is an aspiring guitarist, songwriter and guitar teacher from Slovenia. When he is not playing or composing for his bands, he is putting all his efforts into creating the best guitar lessons at učenje kitare v Novem  mestu, Slovenia.  


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