All music carries with it the emotional purity and/or baggage of its creators. So how can you tell where a piece of music is “coming from”-what its hidden intentions and messages might be, apart from what it sounds like on the surface?  How do you listen for that?  No matter what style or form you may work in, music and art can be highly subjective. In fact, at certain stages in the creative process, plugging in to the heart of your own subjectivity can serve to ground your listening ability, deepen your expression, and awaken your musical conscience.  Encapsulated within the subtle emotional spirit of the music (underneath the surface of the sounds) lies essential information for the creative artist, whether they are listening to their own works-in-progress or learning from the music of others.  This podcast explores four specific qualities of sound that can provide clues about where the music is coming from.

 

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At a certain level, all creative endeavors share a common root structure–a well of creativity from which all are free to draw inspiration. By looking outside the language of your particular field, you may find hidden solutions to your artistic challenges and surprising breakthroughs in your ability to express yourself. Join JP as he explores how you can bring more music into your life and more life into your music by borrowing principles and practices from six other art forms, including cooking and sex, and applying them to your musical creativity.

 

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Art and self-expression, whether you are a songwriter, composer, recording artist, or performer, can be full of dark, mysterious pathways and corners. How do you know when you are headed in the right direction? How do you keep yourself “on the path.”

To start with, your destination must be clear. But unless your music is purely utilitarian, there is no map, no formula, and no single road. In fact, in some ways, you make up the road along the way.

Still, it’s good to have a compass–something that tells you when you are veering off-course and guides you to make adjustments both subtle and radical.

Listen to this podcast as JP discusses three basic paths (vision, faith, and intuition) and nine artistic tools for creating and strengthening your musical compass.

 

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Good songwriting may be based on considerations about key, tempo, harmonic progression, lyric form and structure, but somewhere along the line, you have to lay down your weapons and surrender to the unknown–the mystery of music. But does that mean it’s all up for grabs? Can you know exactly when and how to give up control and in what proportion? There are some tried and true techniques for subverting the rational mind in order to allow the pure spirit of the music to come through. Listen in as JP takes you on a brief journey into the non-rational spaces of musical creativity.

 

 SOS Episode #11: Getting Out Of Your Head: The limits Of Rationality In Songwriting and In Living (or “When To Stop Making Sense”): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download