What's Killing Your Creativity and Why

The acquisition of skills leads to creativity. Although it may be more challenging, someone who is new to composing music can still be creative.

Ideas are more likely to come to you as you gain knowledge and establish connections between various concepts. If you are aware that using a Compressor in one way produces a specific sort of sound and using a mysterious distortion plugin in another way produces a different type of sound, you are aware that combining the two will produce a different type of noise. 

However, that is not the topic of this post. I won't go into detail about what creativity is and isn't. Everybody has it. I'm going to challenge those of you who have doubts about your skills and those of you who might be a little too sure of them.

The perceived skill (or lack of faith in abilities) and the desire to produce a masterpiece are the two basic factors that stifle creativity.

The Skill Graph: Why Perceived Ability Stifles Creativity

Learning new abilities can be organised over a chronology of sorts. In the case of music production, it is only confusing to begin with.

You have no concept how to use the DAW, no idea what samples are, and no idea what a limiter is. It's overpowering, and you start struggling just to keep your head above the surface.

Within a few months, you will have learned a lot more. You are going to master the use of your DAW, you are going to be familiar with the function of a compressor, and will have created a few tracks. The most critical phase of skill development is at this point. It is the stage where perceived skill level is high but actual skill level is still low.

Basically, it goes like this.

 

You should be aware that your work probably isn't great if you've only been producing music for two months.

You shouldn't feel angry or frustrated, though. Instead, it should inspire you to put in more effort and produce more music.

You won't advance if you enter your DAW with a myriad of paralysing thoughts. Similar to this, you won't have the humility to learn if you enter your DAW with a false sense of expertise. In either scenario, composing music won't be enjoyable for you.

 

Masterpieces.

The ideal is masterpieces. They should be made, and they should be the ultimate goal, but if they are thought about and concentrated on, they may also be a hindrance.

Something happens when you open your DAW and promise yourself that you're going to produce a masterpiece. You instantly set a lofty standard of perfection.

When you have that perspective, every little mistake you make and every little thing that doesn't sound quite right constitute failure. You give it a listen and are let down.

Before the illusory cry of defeat finally appears—"Well, maybe not this track. "—you end up upset and in a bad attitude. but the following one! Yes, my upcoming song will be a gem! The cycle continues.

True masterpieces, in my opinion—and I hope you agree—come into being unintentionally. That is, the musician's main goal was to write good music, and the song just so happened to be a masterpiece.

The term "masterpiece" refers to work that has generally been produced after craft mastery. They were created by master artisans. Around or after ten years of practise, education, and innumerable amateurish compositions, many well-known symphonies were produced.

The Solution: Adopt a Better Mentality

Social psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson discusses the amazing advantages of a Get Better mindset in her well-liked 99U presentation. A way of thinking that, in my opinion, producers may and ought to foster.

We place excessive strain on ourselves. We believe that in order for us to succeed, everything we do must be perfect, including our next song. That kind of mindset is horrible when you work in an industry like music production where you learn something new virtually every day.

Halvorson's Get Better philosophy offers a different perspective. It's a way of thinking that acknowledges that, while not creating the most great tune right now, you will still learn something and advance as a result. I'm not very skilled at producing music, it turns out. into a "I'll be better than I was before, but this won't be fantastic."

Conclusions

When producing, don't put too much pressure on yourself, especially if you're just starting off. It makes no progress.

Make an effort to provide quality work. Develop the mindset of improvement to boost creativity and go forward successfully.

Have you ever been a victim of the masterpiece trap? Please provide your feedback in the box below.

 

Feel free to watch the presentation below: