Creativity
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On Musical Shepherding
The figure of the shepherd came to mind recently as I was working on music. At first I pictured literally a shepherd—a guy in galoshes shepherding sheep in the countryside somewhere, gently prodding the furry fellows up and over hillsides. Let’s go guys! (Which reminds me of an excellent book about the subject, James Rebanks’ Continue reading
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Nine Books About Creativity
Ferran Adria. A Day at elBulli: an insight into the ideas, methods and creativity of Ferran Adria Ed Catmull Creativity, Inc. Marcus du Sautoy The Creativity Code: Art and Innovation in the Age of AI Ken Kacienda Creative Selection Kyna Leski The Storm of Creativity David Lynch Catching The Big Fish: meditation, consciousness, and creativity Continue reading
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An Article On Creativity In Electronic Music Production
My article “Popular Music Production in Laptop Studios: Creative Workflows as Problem-Solving Within Ableton Live” is available in Perspectives on Music Production: Producing Music (Routledge 2019). The article takes a problem-solving approach to creativity by exploring electronic music production techniques within Ableton Live, one of the most influential and widely used DAW (digital audio workstation) Continue reading
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Frames Of Attention: Deciding On Musical Materials
One of the primary tasks involved in building a piece of music or a piece of writing is figuring out as early as possible in the process what materials you’re working with. Our process won’t reveal itself until we’re further along it, so there’s so sense worrying about that until we get there. But our Continue reading
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Arrows Of Attention: 100 Music Production Movements
Move from a blur to clarity. Move from sharp attack to slow. Move from everything sounding at once to a single sound. Move from bass-heavy to treble-light. Move from sparseness to density. Move from thick to transparent. Move from on-beat to off-beat. Move from left-panned to right-panned. Move from macro to granular. Move from Continue reading
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Notes On Ken Kocienda’s “Creative Selection” (2018)y
“When software behavior is mysterious, get more organized.” – Ken Kocienda, Creative Selection (2018) As a seeker of books about the pragmatics of the creative process, I’m always looking for ways to re-think through making music. I’ve learned from chefs (Ferran Adria), high wire artists (Philippe Petit), filmmakers (David Lynch), architects (Kyna Leski), musicians (Dennis DeSantis), Continue reading
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Creativity As Additive Or Subtractive?
Usually when I’m working on something—a piece of music, a piece of writing, a salad—I’m thinking about what I can add to it to make it better. For a long time my default stance was thinking that I didn’t have enough raw material. So I would compensate by putting in too much, and the predictable Continue reading
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Fulcrum
fulcrum – the point on which a lever pivots; a thing that plays an essential role in an activity (from Latin fulcire “to prop up”) While the implements percussionists use—sticks and mallets and other kinds of beaters—are imperfect constructions, there are ways of holding these implements that feel closer to perfect. The key is finding Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: James Dyson On Creativity
Here is British inventor/engineer James Dyson, known for his innovative vacuum cleaner design: “People think of creativity as a mystical process. The idea is that creative insights emerge from the ether, through pure contemplation. This model conceives of innovation as something that happens to people, normally geniuses. But this could not be more wrong. Creativity Continue reading
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