We’ve all heard the old adage in one form or another–”When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. It’s up to us to be sure we know how (and when) to pick up another tool when the job requires it.

Life in the groove.

It’s awesome when we get into a creative groove. Ideas flow freely, life makes sense, and most importantly, music (or whatever’s your poison) gets made. The scary thing is, that’s exactly the wrong time to get comfortable with ourselves. Without warning that creative groove can narrow into a nasty rut, and suddenly we realize everything we are doing sounds the same. Or worse, we don’t realize it and the walls begin to close in.

We can do that one thing, that one style, that one sound, quite well. But come time to push off from that wall (which I believe we should be doing every time) to meet the needs of a project, we wobble, buckle at the knees, and totter towards a fall. Then, it’s either (a) learn to walk under pressure, or (b) flee to the old, safe creative territory. More often than not, due to constraints of time and circumstance, returning to the rut is the only choice.

Writer’s block is good?

Everyone dreads writer’s block. There have been times in the studio when I’ve been stopped cold for and hour or more. Not a single new note, just panicked diddling and worrying. Inevitably this is the time for wondering what I am doing, if I should be doing what I’m doing, and whether I even know what I’m trying to do. I believe that writer’s block is really rooted in stubbornness. There is an easy, perhaps even logical way to push through the challenge, but we aren’t satisfied. We want more, and we want better than what’s easy.

Through some strange magic, the periods of writer’s block often give lead to some of the best music I’ve written. The less creatively comfortable I am, the better the results. Being an inspired composer is not a passive pursuit! Better to be frightened out of my mind and working on the edge of my seat, than complacent and self assured, when it comes to writing music.

“As soon as you become complacent your show gets canceled.”

-Dick Wolf, Emmy Award winning Producer

Get into the deep end.

Where’s your comfort area? What’s your hammer? It could be almost anything. Is it a genre? Orchestration style? A musical scale, an instrument, a sample library, or a time signature? Is it time itself?

Put down try hammer and try something new. Do you use the same instrument in everything you write? Write without it. Does it take you too long to finish a piece? Try speedwriting. Are you strong in big orchestra music? Write for a 4 piece band. Make a habit of stretching yourself every time you compose.

If we build a habit of exploration when it comes to creating, the very idea of being in unfamiliar territory becomes familiar. Then it makes no difference what the course for the day is. Time to write in a new style? Fine. Never used that one before, but stepping out and doing something new is exactly what this business is about.