I bought a blue toy tractor the other day. Something about it spoke to me from the shop window. I now realize it is my metaphor for this album project...and my creative process.
Tractors are about tilling, seeding, cultivating, harvesting...and hard work. And this tractor is blue...like the blues that are my musical roots.
I've made something like sixteen albums of original solo guitar music, yet I always forget just how challenging it is to create new music until I am back in the tractor seat.
There are always ideas. That's never the problem.
There is always my enjoyment of playing guitar. That's never a problem either.
The problem, always, is finding something new to say...new to me...something not quite like anything I've said before.
When I achieve this, there's nothing more satisfying. That's the joy that I get out of making music.
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I like this idea of finding a particular object which can help spark the creative process, Preston.
ReplyDeleteI have found in the past that getting the first germ of a new idea can be difficult and you can hunt around for days for something to inspire you.
Once you've got it the hard graft takes over and you somehow get into full swing until the thing is completed.
It always strikes me amazing how composers like Mozart and Beethoven could weave masterpieces out of such small melodic fragments. These melodic fragments seemed to be all they needed to get going. Perhaps it helps to start with something incredibly simple and then see where it takes you.
for what its worth, you are one of the most amazing and inspiring guitar players I have ever heard.
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