Creating Creativity

How does a person become artistically creative?  I’m a music composer, so I’ll use music composition as my example.  The same principles apply to fiction writers, painters, or whoever.

Skills: Spend 5-10 years developing skills:

• Learn techniques: Take lessons, read books, watch videos, and get advice from your musical friends.  Practice diligently, meaning that you pay attention to what you’re doing and you’re constantly trying to improve.  Learn some new techniques, then go back to the basics … do this again and again.
•  Imitate what you like.  Try to play or sing your favorite songs.  Start with the easy stuff, and gradually improve.  Don’t worry now about developing your own style; that will come later. 
• Actively listen.  If a song works or doesn’t work for you, ask yourself why.  Listen to individual parts, and listen for how parts work together. Keep an open mind and listen to other musical styles, and think about how one technique works in one style but not in another style.  Most importantly, you’ll develop your artistic taste by actively listening, i.e., you’ll refine what you like and dislike.

Style: OK, you’ve learned to play by the rules.  Now you can create your own style by breaking some of the rules.  

• Style is the combination of technique and artistic taste.  Put another way, it’s what you can make happen, combined with what you want to happen. 
• Explore: Try combining techniques from different styles.  Try combining old rules with new techniques.  Experiment, to see what’s possible.  If you can’t create the artistic statement that you want, keep searching.  Find an idea, explore it, make something if you can from it, and move on to the next idea.  Find a way to work around your artistic limitations. 
• Caution: if you break all the rules, nobody can relate.  If you break none of the rules, nobody is interested. 

Your artistic process: Create a way for you to create.  Find a way to create time/space in your life to work on your art.

composing, part 2

By the time I've finished composing a piece of music, I don't know if I've written a masterpiece or a piece of crap. 

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I never worked for the CIA.

But that's what I'd say if I ever worked for the CIA.  

Good news, bad news ...

A NASA astronomer discovers that a huge asteroid is headed right towards the earth.  There is no escape.  All the world’s nuclear weapons are not powerful enough to knock it off course.  Even if they could nuke the asteroid into pieces, the pieces would still obliterate the earth. 

The astronomer travels to Washington DC to inform the president.  As he stands before the president, he says “Mr. President, I have some good news and some bad news.  The good news is that you don’t have to worry about being re-elected”.

How To Compose Music

Step 1: Add a note. 
Step 2: Add a note, delete a note, or change a note. 
Step 3: Repeat Step 2 until done.

Everything You Need to Know About The Music Business

There's a good book titled "Everything You Need to Know About The Music Business".

If I wrote that book, it would have only three words:

Give up now.

Apple should think differently

I recently tried to download some apps to my iPhone, but I'm out of memory because I have too many songs.  So, I can just delete some songs from within the iPhone, right?

No.  Apple requires that you connect your iPhone to a computer that has iTunes.  Within iTunes, you select what you want on the iPhone, and then iTunes will completely overwrite your iPhone with your new selections.  So, that's a bit awkward, but it should be easy, right?

No.  A year ago, I spent a long weekend painfully loading 100+ music CDs into iTunes on my computer.  A few weeks ago, that computer died, so I'm now using a new computer.  I can't overwrite my iPhone with my music, because my new computer doesn't have that music.  So, it's a bit convoluted, but ... I can copy music from my iPhone to iTunes, select what I want within iTunes, and then copy it back to the iPhone, right?

No.  Apple intentionally prevents you from copying music from your iPhone to iTunes.  I assume the record companies were scared bad people would steal music, and Apple put their interests ahead of mine.  Within the computer industry, there's a technical term for my situation.  That term is "screwed". 

So, what are my options?  Option 1 is to spend another long weekend copying music from my 100+ CDs into iTunes.  Option 2 is to buy software that does what I need.  When I say buy, I mean give my credit card info to a complete stranger on the internet.  Option 3 is to hope that someone at my local Apple store can delete some songs from my iPhone. 

UPDATE:  I've learned that widely-used program "senuti" (iTunes backwards) can do what I want, but that only works on Apple computers.  There's no free Windows equivalent that I can find.

Two Hopes

I live in California, and at least once I year I visit my parents on the east coast.  About two years ago, as Mom and Dad drove me to the airport, Mom felt compelled to tell me she had two hopes for our family.  One hope is that her kids love each other, and the other hope is that we are all happy.  

Mom passed away a month ago, and our family came together in common grief for the week of her funeral.  We cried in front of each other.  We ate together.  We talked for hours and hours. Afterwards, I realized that Mom's final act, of dying, brought our family closer together.  Her final act of life was to help our family love each other.

So that's hope number one.  

Hope number two is happiness. Am I happy? Well, that's something I'm still working on. I try to remember that life is short and the best time to be happy is now.  I try to understand how I contribute to my inner drama.  And sometimes, I feel that Mom is in my heart and she wants me to be happy.

Heartbreaks and Hospice‏

In May 2013 my Mom suffered a major irreversible stroke.  Mom had a living will, so Dad placed her in hospice.  I took a leave of absence from work, and flew to Florida to help them however I could.  Mom passed away two weeks later.

Heartbreak #1:  When I first arrived at the hospice, I saw just a shadow of my Mom.  Almost everything about her as a person was gone.  All emotion had gone from her face and voice.  She could answer a few short questions, but nothing more, and sometimes she didn’t respond at all.

Heartbreak #2:  Mom occasionally asked for tea, and I would hold the cup while she sipped the tea.  And I would think “she held my cup for me a thousand times when I was a baby”.

Heartbreak #3: Dad and I were in the horrible situation of loving her dearly and wishing she would die.  We wondered if she was holding on because she was worried about us.  So, during her last few days, Dad and I told her she could go.  Dad told her he would be OK, and all his friends and relatives would take good care of him.  Dad told her she raised four wonderful children and there’s nothing more she needed to do.  I told her she had been a good Mom, and now her mother and brother Buddy were waiting for her in heaven.  And of course, my Dad and I could barely say these words without crying.

These heartbreaks were awful, just awful.  But I was grateful to be there.  I felt there was still a little piece of Mom left, and I wanted her to know she was loved.

And I’m grateful for a heartbreak I didn't have to endure.  About 25 years ago, I accepted that my parents weren’t perfect, and I decided to create a new future with them.  I told them I loved them and I thanked them for all they had done for me.  I told them I knew they did the best they could for me.  Since then, in ways large and small, I gave them love.  And so, as I sat in hospice, I didn’t have to endure the heartbreak of regret.  I had already told Mom everything I needed to say.