Inspiration and Creativity
Gregory Young, Steve Roens · 2022
Inspiration and creativity are necessary, but sometimes elusive first steps for composers. In an ideal world, inspiration would strike, and ideas would begin flowing like a river. Unfortunately, it’s usually not nearly that simple. Inspiration is normally something that needs to be actively sought out. A new environment or experience, improvisation, or exploring existing music can all be sources of inspiration and creativity. Often a driving force may be a commission or assignment, and much of the parameters are predetermined. Nonetheless, it’s important to have techniques for using creativity to escape compositional ruts. New ideas can be infinite, and sometimes it just takes some digging to uncover them.