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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
My Kind of Creativity
My Kind of Creativity
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wolfkristiansen
74 posts
Dec 23, 2010
7:00 PM
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I am a blues harmonica player, nothing more, nothing less. If my chosen instrument were oboe, I would be playing "blues oboe" on this earth. So the comments that follow come from the perspective of a blues player, which I am guessing describes about half of the contributors to this forum.
I don't think of myself as being particularly creative. I've written two songs in my life. Most of my playing is on stage, in front of an audience, with a beer or three inside me. I still get stage fright if I'm stone cold sober.
When I think about it, I create every time I'm on stage. I never play exactly the same. Yes, I play patterns, but there are subtle variations in the patterns whenever I play. There are also subtle variations in the rhythm.
But my greatest creativity comes when I, and my fellow musicians, get collectively "in the zone". This has been well described by others, and it's real.
For me, as a blues lover, it can also be described as being when I truly "feel the blues" inside me. It's bursting to come out. It feels like an overflowing spring. At times like that, my rhythm is effortless (other times I struggle), my melodic and harmonic ideas come effortlessly and spontaneously, and I truly create! I play outside my patterns.
Sometimes I hear recordings of those magic moments, and try to recreate them note for note the next time I play. It doesn't work.
This kind of creativity doesn't come solely from within. It comes from somewhere "out there". Where? I don't know. There's something otherworldly going on. (No intention to break the forum rules here!)
When it does happen, it's the most satisfying feeling in the world. For both the performer and the audience. Make no mistake, the audience hears it when you are "in the zone". It electrifies them. I'm not talking about the way they're moved to whistle and cheer when a musician puts on a big show, playing fast and loud and grimacing a lot. I'm talking about the playing that leaves them in a trance. You know that happens when there's a one or two second delay before they applaud, at the end of the song. During those seconds, they're busy coming back to earth after being transported to another world.
And of course, that feeling, where you're creating in every bar of the music, is better than any other feeling, including sex. Please don't tell our wives, (or husbands, for the female players in the forum).
Ponder all this, enjoy your Christmas, and say what you feel inspired to say when you're back at the keyboard.
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
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Joe_L
933 posts
Dec 23, 2010
7:40 PM
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Wolf - I couldn't agree more, nor could I have said it better. Merry Christmas to you!
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phogi
483 posts
Dec 24, 2010
3:06 AM
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I think of creativity like this:
It is a toxic residue in my body...if I don't do certain things, like compose music, improvise, write a song, build something, or write something, then it will poison me and I will die.
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BronzeWailer
51 posts
Dec 24, 2010
3:19 AM
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Well put, Wolf.
Shakespeare's been performed how many times? Yet people still make it fresh.
Often being 'boxed in' stimulates the creative juices, IMHO. Forces you to forge new paths.
Take the villanelle poetry form, e.g. Dylan Thomas's Do not go gentle into that goodnight; structure is extremely strict.
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Tuckster
798 posts
Dec 24, 2010
7:38 AM
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Well said,Wolf. I'm not quite sure it's better than good sex,but it has the same feeling(endorphins?) I have to confess that I do terrible playing unaccompanied. I need other musician to feed off of. It's an ever changing dynamic,depending on what the other musicians are doing.Every event is a snapshot in time,never to be repeated again.
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nacoran
3484 posts
Dec 24, 2010
1:52 PM
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Nicely put. Happy Holidays!
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Nate
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tf10music
68 posts
Dec 24, 2010
8:46 PM
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Bronzewailer:
That analogy is tenuous at best. But I see what you're saying, and agree.
I'd say that Paul Muldoon is an example of someone who uses forms like the Villanelle to amplify his own expression, which is more what you're talking about. Dylan Thomas is an entirely different story -- the way he uses language lends itself to form. As a result, he brings out the best in the form, not the other way round.
My question: is taking a song you haven't written and interpreting it any different than that? I'd argue that it is, but that's just my opinion...
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MP
1172 posts
Dec 24, 2010
9:31 PM
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-very, very, well said wolf. iv'e nothing to add.
i also really enjoyed phogis terse, hemingwayesque, observation.
happy christmas all!---------
MP
hibachi cook for the yakuza
doctor of semiotics
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Mojokane
195 posts
Dec 25, 2010
2:46 AM
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Happy Zone to all...
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BronzeWailer
52 posts
Dec 25, 2010
12:25 PM
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tf10
I agree that interpreting a song is different to creating something from scratch. Merely wanted to assert that 'boxes' - rules, strict forms etc. - can foster creativity.
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7LimitJI
258 posts
Dec 25, 2010
1:32 PM
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I front my band and record most gigs.
The last gig we played was our best.
The audience were in the palm of my hand, singing along with, and back to me in call and response.
Its the best feeling I've had on stage. I felt I could do no wrong.
The confidence, I got,just from that one gig was more than the previous six or more.
But oddly when I listened back to the recording of that gig, it was not our best as we made a few mistakes, I had soloed better, some starts and endings were a bit sloppy.
I think what made it our best was we didn't care about the mistakes as we were enjoying it so much.It was quite raw and loose,but really grooving.
The audience could feel this and they enjoyed it too, the more they enjoyed it, the more we fed off them, and so on and on.
What I took from that night is people want to be entertained and dance and have fun.
They don't care if you give them a note perfect blinding solo, they want a groove!!
If you give them that, regardless of a few mistakes, they'll come back.
Caveat.
I do strive for perfection, but its for my satisfaction only.
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Last Edited by on Dec 25, 2010 1:32 PM
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DirtyDeck
150 posts
Dec 25, 2010
2:01 PM
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There's another level of things going on there, magical stuff, I love it! It's the most beautiful experience, it gives me a reason to live, drives me to make something of myself so that I can experience it more often. Almost spiritual.
Reminds me of a Santana quote, he's talking about BB King coming on stage at the Fillmore to a mainly white audience with tears in his eyes, he says something like - 'That first note he hit man, there's a special zone you go to when you play like that. When you play like that, you heal yourself and others'
It's that transfer of energy, feels like god's flowing through you sometimes...
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nacoran
3489 posts
Dec 25, 2010
4:22 PM
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Bronze, yeah, our song writers' circle almost always has a theme for each meeting. Ask people to write a song about brown 23 and everyone shows up with something. Tell them to write whatever they want and people all show up saying, 'I didn't know what to write about, so I didn't write anything!'. It can also get you thinking in all sorts of bizarre ways because you have to think of different ways to make it different. Brown 23 got us ideas about brownstone houses, a girl with the last name brown, old cars, football players and all sorts of other crazy things.
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Nate
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BronzeWailer
53 posts
Dec 26, 2010
1:05 AM
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Nate: I hear you! Nothing's scarier than a totally blank page and the freedom to do whatever you want!
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bonedog569
168 posts
Dec 26, 2010
11:58 AM
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Nice thread and post Wolf. To me it's like getting to participate in the creative force of the universe. Getting to dance with it - and embelish it just a tad - with whatever my individual soul brings to the party. It is like prayer - or davening (Jewish prayer) in that when I feel the flow - the 'zone' - I am reminded that I am part of something greater than myself. When I am not - it can express my longing to be.
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