In Perfect Sound Forever, J. Vognsen asks musicians and composers (including me) how we “maintain an on-going passion for music”:
Album after album, concert after concert, how do you avoid routine suffocating the joy of it? As your list of musical experiences gets longer, how do you make sure each new one remains special?
I read with interest the reponses from Nina Garcia, Angelica Sanchez and others. Charles Hayward’s statement, in particular, (“I like aspects of the routine thing, setting up my drums builds the vibe towards the gig, it’s a joyful thing to clamp the pedal to the kick drum”) resonanted with me. As for me:
For me, I’m not sure ‘habit’ was ever a bad thing for my creative work. I feel like habit, in the context of creative practices, lives next door to ritual….
Habit and ritual are things I hold to during, and get me through, moments of creative funk. The ritual of getting up and making myself do creative work (or making myself ‘go through the motions’ of doing creative work) keeps my creative muscles working and not completely seizing-up from lack of use. From taking the guitar out of the case, switching the amp on, sitting down, stretching and warming-up (doing the guitarist’s equivalent of long-tones or drum rudiments), to grabbing my notebook and sketching, sketching, sketching until a shape emerges. [Read the rest…]
If you enjoyed Vognsen’s piece, please also check out ‘Creative Dead Ends in Music,’ his previous piece in Perfect Sound Forever to which I also contributed a response.
