My most fruitful days as a composer and arranger come when I’m just playing.
Others might be more systematic about their arranging and composing – exhausting all possibilities in a long list. And I have those days, too: when I’m not sure what to do next and I simply try a lot of possibilities.
But when I can relax and play, I often come more quickly to innovative and pleasing ideas. It might be just playing with a melody in my head, or playfully combining two unrelated ideas, with no expectations for success, or it might just be playing a song over and over again without judgement, until something new inevitably comes to mind.