I'm talking about the imagination with a view to using it to improvise with the harp.
It may be that I'm plateau-ing for a while. I got so far down the line and made good progress, then.....nothing for a while.
It's something that scares me. I've always used my imagination because I am creative by nature.
Just recently, I'm worried because when I shut my eyes or listen to my inner thoughts, there's nothing there. No-ones at home and the lights are turned out. Scarey......Boo!
Dang! Technology has given me a sound recording studio, synthesiser, step sequencer with all the bells and whistles, a video recording studio capable of 1080 high definition complete with high quality stereo sound, enough memory for the next ten years and some very complex and advanced tools to do virtually anything I can imagine. I have more computing power than was conceivable only fifty years ago sitting on my desk. I have more computing power than Nasa probably had when man set foot on the moon.
Technology has also helped me learn to play the harp.
What do I do with it all? Nothing. Lack of imagination prevents me from creating something fantastic which all this technology is so easily capable of.
children are born with little more than imagination. they are the great creators of dreams. Then society pounds this out of them until they fit in the assembly line. To keep that childhood imagination, or to rediscover it, is the key to making great art. Anybody can pretty much become a great technician, mastering an instrument or art medium. Most artists surviving on their art live in that reality. They have to fit the current scene or fade away - aka no dinero in their pockets. Sadly our society really appreciates technical wizardry much more than a child like imagination. The child approach forces you to slow down and use your own imagination. The technical whiz approach does it all for you. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
I don't think it's an age thing. When my imaginary mojo runs dry I have a few tricks. Don't try to force it. Listen to a bunch of stuff you would never normally listen to, go see some live shows, particularly really open open mics where you will hear a wide variety of stuff. In writing writers do exercises called free writing, where you just write whatever comes into your mind. On harp I think the equivalent is to just play notes without trying to make a melody, but listen to see if anything sparks. You could try some things to force it. Pick one or two random notes and play trying to avoid them.
The question as originally posted is virtually guaranteed to develop into flame war on this board. I've seen in-depth pieces that argue both sides of that question across multiple disciplines.
Two quick ones off the top of my head: In science, higher levels of math for example, I read a piece that said most of the creative breakthroughs come from relatively young mathematicians. On the other hand, in business, Ray Kroc didn't start McDonalds until he was in his 50's (i know, i know he didn't START ther first restaurant..but he was the guy who recognized it's potential, analyzed why it was so successful, and created the empire).
While neither example above is about music they do involve creativity of their own type.
My own guess is that there is no absolute answer..ie; it's entirely possible to be imaginative/creative later in life.
Me thinks you've might well have set your own personal goal impossibly high. you're a good player..i listen to all the stuff you post....cut yourself a little slack.
Honkin, I think as long as you are constantly exposing yourself to new ideas your brain will keep putting those new ideas together in new ways. Some people cut themselves off from new ideas as they get older.
Tooka, here's an example, and if I remember it correctly, it involves you (although if it wasn't you it still makes the same point)... there was a thread about harmonica materials and someone mentioned the new spray on glass that reduced germs. The article they cited didn't mention anything about harmonicas, but they (was that you?) mashed the two ideas together. That's all creativity is. Archimedes supposedly had his famous eureka moment because he had one problem (how to figure out the weight and volume of gold without melting it down into a known shape) and was thinking about that problem in a novel setting (the bathtub... most people do their best thinking on the toilet!) Sometimes there will be eureka moments where it just hits you. Sometimes creativity is mashing different ideas together without having any idea if they'll fit.
it's been proven by research that it does. when you hit the stage you're at, you have what they call, "giveitupgeezer" syndrome. start auctioning off your gear.
dont sweat it. find other hobbies/activities for a while.
I think it depends on your life style . I think too much drugs & alcohol will kill your imagination & creativity in the long run, sometimes it is hard to keep inspired if nothing much is happening with your life or if it's all work & no play. I would love to be like old Pablo & still be exploding in my 80's /I think it is definitely possible to be a good Artist/Musician in your old age but you got to make it happen, I agree with what Waltertore said about Kids & creativity .
TED's got lots of great videos on all sorts of topics. I particularly liked the one about the Spanish man who produced the Foie Gras that one top honors without the crazy force feeding of the geese. There are all sorts of great ones on creativity, music...
We have a jam session in Bristol of all ages 20 - 65 there is ease of communication and fun is had by all. There is no problem!!! Improvisation is all.. thats all we do..nothing is organised and there can be 10 + good harp players with imagination and minimum technology. Come down Took and feel the spirit..
"I think many musicians seem to throw all their best ideas into their first album."
MrV. I agree and this seems to be even more true with authors. I suppose musicians and authors spend 5, 10 even twenty years working on their first opus but once recognized have a year or less to produce a second. I love guys like Tom Wolf who will spend 10 years writing a book. ---------- The Art Teacher Formally Known As scstrickland
The music business does not encourage imagination. It signs artists that are willing to accept constraints imposed on them. Hardly anyone will sign an artist and tell them to do what ever they want and it will be put out and supported. most guys that experience success with a recording pretty much follow the industry standard of doing the same stuff over again with new window dressings for the rest of their careers. Few artists walk blindly to new callings and most all labels, agents, booking agents will never support such stuff. The goal is to sell as many products as possible with the least amount of effort. More energy is spent on trying to feed the public a line of crap about how earth breaking each new release is, than actually having anything new or inovative on the recording. For most music to sell it has to be highly polished and similarly sounding to what is deemed good stuff. That is the simple truth. That also puts a near iron curtain of restraint on allowing ones imagination to dictate the sound. So the artists talk about their new album being a great leap of faith, inovative, new, etc, when in reality they are just spewing a lot of words with the same product they have been doing all along, that has been top heavy with constraints put on them. How can anyone use their imagination with such a lifestyle? One will forget how to imagine if they stay in that scene too long. Most people call this growing up. I call it just plain sad because the child like imagination we all were born with never has to die. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
I firmly believe in a particular statement from Times magazine that creativity isn't so much about being complex and trying to think out of the box and all that quasi-sophisticated shit.
All it is, is YOU doing something that only you would think of.
If you are true to yourself and trust who you are and what you've been through it always seem to pay off more than just trying to copy one or two people in an over-objective sorta way.
For example, there are things that I do on harp that I get told of for which I deliberately do. Not because I don't know how to not do it, or don't know how to play it some other way... I just play it in such a way because I LIKE IT like that. Of course, that reason is not meant to be abused as free ticket to abuse creative expression.
But I think what most of us harp players have our heads messed up with the most is trying to meet other harp players expectations a little too much. I think it's healthier to get even set of opinions from harp players, non harp playing musicians, and non musicians as well.
I guess what's why people say self-expression is the spark of creativity.
Stick, my theory on why so many first albums are bands best albums is three fold. First, you can get in a rut. If your innovative trick is the same one you did on your first album and you are on your third album you have failed in some way. Second, success changes people. Metallica, once known as a great fan band that let fans bootleg more freely than just about anyone else turned into the RIAA's lapdogs. The hard roots where less believable with them living in giant mansions. And third, (oh wait, there are going to be 4 not three) the record company is going to try to get you to do whatever sold well the first time. And lastly, your first album usually comes out after you've got about a billion songs. You pick the 12 or so songs out of all the songs you and your bandmates have written since you started writing songs and there is such a backlog that you only end up putting good stuff on it. ---------- Nate Facebook Thread Organizer
In the old days of vinyl, it was the other way around - it was rare for a debut album to be a band's best - things like Can's Monster Movie were rare.
I think part of the problem is that vinyl records were only 35 or 40 minutes (and used to come out once a year), CDs are anything around 70 minutes (and tend to be released every two years). Not only does a first CD exhaust a lot of people's creativity, or perhaps simply, make a very definitive statement, but in order to fill a second 70-minute CD, they have to really strain at stuff that just isn't going to come naturally and a lot of padding-out is done. Too much is demanded of them. The result is often now described as a sophomore album, e.g. Bloc Party's horrible Weekend in the City.
---------- Andrew, gentleman of leisure, noodler extraordinaire.
