My whole reason for writing this blog is to inspire people who are searching for new and creative things to do with music. Sometimes the best way to get inspired is to start playing around with ideas that seem really far out or completely off the wall.
So here are a few random ideas. Take them, think about them, twist them up, look at them backwards, play around with them, and see if any of them inspire you for some new sounds.
-Try writing some music where each instrument takes on a style of a different genre. Maybe you’ll be playing country guitar over rock drums with a reggae bass line and a jazz piano part. It might not work…. but then again, it might.
-Try breaking some musical stereotypes. Write a really heavy rock or metal song with no guitars. Write a fast punk song with a piano riff. Use a banjo to play the blues
-What does a recorded Ukulele sound like with heavy distortion added to it?
-Record a familiar riff or part on any instrument, then reverse it. Create a song with the reversed riff.
-Pick a random web page, and let the first letter of every sentence that corresponds with a musical note (A-G) determine your next chord progression. Make up your own rules to determine whether that note should be flatted, sharped, or minored.
A lot of you who have songwriting experience might think I’m crazy after I post things like this, but remember, being musically creative comes from finding the boundaries, stereotypes, rules, and theories of music and seeing how you can bend them. Think about how crazy “established” musicians must have thought the first person to purposely distort their guitar recordings must have been. How odd did people think it was when John Lenon was to want to sing the same vocal part twice on one recording? How about when Brian Wilson wanted to use toy pianos and farm animals in his recordings?
Push the boundaries! Explore what is outside of the musical box!
