arrange • compose • conduct
Posts discussing creativity, both in and outside of music
I used to think linearly in my writing–work on one project until it’s done, and then start the next one. More recently, I’ve found two big benefits from having multiple current projects at once. First, it enables me to stay more consistently creative. Knowing that I have several things to […]
Keep going. That’s my 2020 resolution. Keep learning, of course. Keep dreaming, definitely. Keep connecting, keep teaching, keep growing, keep questioning, keep improving. But most of all: keep going.
In my experience, every piece you write makes you feel like a new composer again. That’s because every aspect of writing a piece comes with limitations and guides you in specific directions. They all make demands on your writing that require you to become a new composer. The text makes […]
Art can feel rare and elusive sometimes – especially for artists, who pour all of their energy into their creation. But I really think that making art is the default. And I was reminded that most forcefully tonight as I watched a dozen performers create a truly remarkable 2 1/2-hour […]
For a lot of skills, you get faster as you level up. What used to take you six hours takes you three. What took you an hour takes a couple of minutes. If you are charging an hourly rate, this can be a problem. And even if you don’t, it’s […]
“You won’t understand anything about the imagination until you realize that it’s not about making things up, it’s about perception.” From The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman (Chapter 9) I came across this quotation today and was struck by it. Do you think of imagination as invention, or as understanding? […]
I’ve been thinking lately about Lynda Barry’s “The Two Questions.” It’s a short autobiographical comic about creativity, originally published in McSweeney’s Issue #13. She writes about her desire to create and the struggles she constantly goes through, in particular with the two questions her inner censor is constantly asking: “Is […]