The Benefits of Musical Doodling
28 Jan 2014
I'm reading Michael Atavar's "12 Rules of Creativity" at the moment - a handy little guide to generating ideas and freeing creative energy. The most tangible idea I've taken from it so far is his encouragement of doodling as a way of offloading half-formed or repetitive thoughts and shapes, leaving more space for considered creative processes.
 |
| A string of mostly single-line doodles on manuscript paper |
Although Michael is a visual artist, I've started following his suggestion by noting down on manuscript paper the small melodic fragments or musical ideas that whizz around my head most of the time. I never used to pay attention to these small, seemingly insignificant little musical thoughts and it's surprising to see that some of them are quite sophisticated. I'm amazed how the subconscious can come up with these meandering melodic streams which somehow still conform to a roughly 16- or 32- bar basic outline!
There is something almost intimate in listening for these babblings of the musical mind, giving them just enough attention to capture them in pencil and paper, and then letting go. In the past I've often found one or two "primitive" musical thoughts pulsing around my inner ear all day long, without the ability to stop or move on from them. While I'm working on a project for someone else these thoughts then usually get sidelined in favour of the more "useful", adult ideas that are generated at a more deliberate, concept-heavy level of mind.
 |
| Manuscript paper and pencil ready to hand at the workplace |
I think of this practice like a subtle kindness to the inner child that is cooing and singing along to whatever's happening in the outside world. Letting this child know that its babblings and gurgles are heard and welcome means the child will let us carry on with our adult business of making "serious" culture. Or, as the child might see it, with our own, nonsensical adult babblings.
Older Post
Home
Newer Post