In this article, we continue laying the groundwork for developing your voice as an artist. In order to do that effectively, you need to have the right mindset.
So you want to sound original… Have you ever thought about what originality is?
Purely a subjective perception.
The truth is, nothing in this world is truly original. If something were to be completely original, it would have had to come together in complete isolation from everything else.
Of course, that is not the case with anything.
In a piece of music, some of the ideas and influences live on the surface where they’re easy for anyone to spot. Others hide deep inside the creative process. It requires a deeper understanding of the craft to notice those. Furthermore, some of the influences are not even clear to the creator of the piece. We pick up and do so many things subconsciously.
In this way, our music consists of layers on top of layers. And they all come from somewhere. The music we do is not separate from other music out there. It’s all connected, a part of something larger.
Imagine a huge rapid. You see water flowing downstream with great velocity. But when you look close you’ll notice many smaller currents going in all directions – especially at the edges of the rapid. You are a small part of one of those small currents. You begin merely as a drop of water, splashing around in a chaotic manner. As you develop, you grow into a small current of your own. You begin to accumulate substance, direction, and stability. Sometimes you may even flow in the opposite direction to the rapid itself, yet unable to change its course. You always keep blending into other currents in a process that forms endless new combinations.
An infinite number of variations manifest to those with the skills, experience, and intuition. You have to throw yourself into the rapid, no matter how dangerous it seems. You have to flow with it to make the new combinations you seek happen.
So let’s stop worrying about being original. You can’t force that. The things that make your music distinctive will start to form and reveal themselves through the process. You just need to throw yourself into it and then keep going.
Let’s return to the sentence at the beginning of this article: So you want to sound original? I chose those words to speak about originality but also to point out that the issue is semantic, too. Often when we say original, don’t we actually mean interesting?
Instead of trying to “be original”, I think a good way to look at your creative process is to simply strive to make something interesting.
Work with nature and not against it. It’s ok to steal ideas. It’s ok to imitate. It’s ok to combine influences and build on what others have done before you. You could do nothing but imitate others and still have your own thing going on. As with so many other things, it’s not what you do – it’s how you do it. Do it in an interesting way and people will pay attention.
So once again, we come back to crafting your expression. Accumulating skill and experience. Yes, it requires time and effort. But if creating interesting music is what you want to do, then you should be looking forward to doing that work. Everyone you look up to has started from nothing. And I guarantee they will all tell you it’s a journey that never ends.
Feel free to leave your comments below so we can continue the discussion.
Book recommendation: Mastery by Robert Greene (affiliate link)
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