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 The Bravura Newsletter provides valuable information that you can use to reach your music career goals and to help you gain a balanced and enjoyable life whilst working within the fast-paced Music Industry.
Blooming Creativity! Are you an artist who finds it hard to devote time to nourish your creativity? Are you working in the music industry in a non-performing role and find it hard to allow your creativity to flow through into your work? Are you beginning to think to yourself, what creativity? You used to be creative, now you just don't have the space or time to be so. In a previous newsletter we talked about your creativity being blocked, this newsletter is about being proactive in nurturing your creativity so that it will thrive, blossom and bloom! How important is your creativity? "Very", I'd say. On an individual level, it's important for you to find a medium for expressing your creativity - through your music, performances or writing lyrics to a song, you are able to let out your thoughts, stresses, irritations, your love and every other emotion. Being able to create makes you happy - it gives you a good feeling and the more happy you feel, the more creative you can become. So being happy and creative can lead to a very fulfilling and enjoyable life for you. If you are not able to create and express yourself, you can find that you get a build up of energy with no-where for it to go - this can make you irritable or restless and can even become quite destructive - even leading down the slippery slope of drugs and alcohol and other forms of self harm. On a world scale - your creativity is extremely important. Can you imagine life without music? Not being able to stick a CD on your hi-fi, or listen to the radio, or your MP3 player - therefore your creativity is not only important for yourself, but for everyone else too. How many times have you trawled through MySpace and found a great song - it's irrelevant whether the songwriter/performer is signed or otherwise - if their piece of music, or guitar riff, or song or lyrics has given you pleasure then the world becomes a better place for it or even to live in - even for a short time. Check out this link for a beautiful rendition of the James Morrison song, You Give Me Something! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXTX557AFMI The girl in the clip has a very pure voice and is a pleasure to listen to. Unfortunately, because you live in a world that is fast-paced and full of urgency and deadlines, it often doesn't allow you to create your music as much as perhaps you'd like it to. The artists that I speak with are forever telling me that they don't have the time - they're either on the road touring and get tired from travelling from city to city and living out of strange hotel rooms that all look the same or they have day jobs and other commitments that doesn't give any time to really be as creative as they'd like. In a sense they are not being stimulated by the environments they are in or their creativity gets buried in work and domesticity! I hope the following Tips will help you to start nurturing your own creativity and allow it to blossom! Tip 1 - Make the time! Time is a major issue for you, I know, but if you are a signed artist with a contract for a specific number of albums, you have to have time to be creative so you can fulfil that contract! If you are an aspiring artist - you need to create songs to perform and get noticed and to build your fan base. If you are an artist or in a band that performs for the sheer pleasure of it and it's more of a hobby for you - the same applies - people won't come to see you perform unless you get creative and write great songs. So despite how busy you are, it is essential that you make time for your creativity. So take a good look at the hours in your day and schedule in a time each day that you can dedicate at least half an hour to your creativity - even if this means getting up a wee bit earlier or turning off the TV in the evening for this practice. Once you start, it will quickly become habit forming and the other people in your life or your management team will know that this time is sacred and you cannot be disturbed. If you are touring for instance - make use of your time when sitting on the tour bus to get creative or in your hotel room. Tip 2 - You need input. To gain fresh and new ideas for your music and lyrics it's a good idea to get inspired - how to do this? Visit new places and meet new people, get out and about in your locality, read great books, watch amazing films, jam with other musicians, listen to other music - whatever takes your fancy. If you listen to Reverend and the Makers and of course the Arctic Monkeys, they both mention local place names and sing about their local city, their way of life and the people in it - there's not many songs that mention Manor Top! (a rundown part of Sheffield - a city in South Yorkshire, for those of you who don't live in the UK). Again if you are on tour - make the most of all the city's you visit - get out there and roam the streets and coffee bars, museums and galleries - and go incognito if you fear being recognised! Use your senses to take all this new and stimulating information into your brain and then let it out again through your creativity. Tip 3 - let your muse loose! The more you schedule in your creative time - the easier it will become to connect with your muse - your inner voice that naturally flows, the energy that powerfully releases your inner thoughts, your pure expression that you turn into such incredible lyrics and music. But to help you listen to your muse, you can undertake practices such as meditations, yoga, walks in the countryside, anything that is relaxing, that takes away your daily worries and stresses and your internal chatter that stops your creative voice coming through. A great way to get rid of your internal chatter as you meditate or are just relaxing, is to imagine your thoughts pouring out of the side of your head into a black plastic bin liner, tying up the top of the bag and locking it outside of your room. You can then settle down to your creative writing or singing or making music. And of course if you want all those thoughts to be returned to you after you've finished creating, then you can always imagine you unlocking your door, untying the bag and allowing the thoughts to come back into your mind! Tip 4 - Clear a space. Your environment is important when wanting to create. For instance having a chaotically messy room full of papers etc, can make you feel messy inside your head too. They say that your outer world reflects your inner world - it's amazing what a good clear out of your cluttered office or special creative room can do for you when you need a clear head to start creating afresh! Make your creative tools special - so if you like to write your lyrics in a specific journal, make sure the journal feels positive to you and/or you could use a nice pen. If you write on scraps of paper - make sure you keep them safe in some kind of folder or plastic A4 wallet. Again if you are on tour and you find that all the hotel rooms look the same and you find it hard to write in them - take along with you all the special things that you like to have around you at home when you're being creative and set these up wherever you are. Otherwise try to seek out somewhere in the vicinity that inspires you - again this may be a coffee bar or if you need complete silence, it could even be a library! Most cities and towns have gardens and parks - you may find that this kind of environment helps you form the lyrics and music you want. It's a case of whatever works for you. Tip 5 - Keep healthy. Your creativity is like a flower or a tree - they need good nutrients and water in order to grow - make sure you water and feed yourself with good food and plenty of water, so that your creativity thrives, blossoms and blooms! I hope this newsletter has been helpful and you are able to see just how important your creativity is to your music career in whatever capacity and how to nurture it for your and everyone else's benefit! Remember that you are welcome to email me to arrange a free consultation call to discuss how I may be able to help you to nurture your creativity or any other issues that you are dealing with. So is your creativity blooming? With very best wishes,  Bravura Group helping you brave the music industry http://www.bravura-group.com t: 01246 231 249 / 0845 456 460 e: lindsey@bravura-group.com I work with signed and unsigned artists and personnel working in the Music Industry who want to become more productive, creative and ultimately more successful in their music careers, whilst enjoying a more enriched, fulfilling and balanced personal life. If you have received this copy of the Bravura newsletter from a friend or colleague and would like to receive future copies, please visit www.bravura-group.com to subscribe. Thank you. |
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