Subject: What Inspires You?
You are getting this e-mail because you subscribed to it on www.learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com. If you don't want to receive these e-mails any longer, go to the bottom of this message and click on "unsubscribe." Hey there Friend, I'm writing a song now that I intend to have at least a rough mix recorded by the end of the month as an anniversary gift to my wife of 21 years, Meghen. While we all have our faults, she got the worse end of the deal, and I want her to know how much she means to me. I'm not real good at spontaneous conversation, so a song is a perfect, non-mundane way to remind her how I feel.Her sticking with me through these years is an inspiration to me, a source of thoughts, feelings and words that can be woven together to create a love note for her, accented by the musical passage I've fused together. I hope she likes it... Who, or what inspires you? Where do your ideas come from? As musicians, I don't believe any of us became interested in playing music merely because we wanted to cover tunes by other people. Regardless of the type of music you enjoy, the moment the spark entered your mind to become a musician (anyone who aspires to make music) you felt a need to create something in the language of emotion. Let me say that again - you felt it. We are inspired because something external to us touches us in such a way that it spawns a personal need to share our version or impression of that something. We are affected and compelled to act on that inspiration. Of course, inspiration doesn't have to be the byproduct of some emotional experience. It might come to you as a random thought or a snippet of sound that hits your ears. It could be pulled from a line in a movie or song, or someone else's story. I've had moments where a simple idea for a drum beat instantly created a rhythm pattern in my mind that I felt would work well in a chord progression. In fact, these little flashes happen to me all the time. The challenge is always whether I will remember the idea long enough to get it down on paper or recorded on a rough track. Because I can't control when the inspiration is going to hit me, many times I'm not really in a position to sing into a recorder (on my iPhone) or to capture those in Garageband or some other recording software. Sadly, a lot of ideas don't make it past the initial spark. That's okay. I continue to be inspired and have ideas daily, and sometimes the ones that got away come back. I guess they were just meant to be. But that certainly means I can't squander those ideas - I need to make something of them, even if they don't turn into full songs. I've got hundreds of snippets that I've written down in hopes that one day some of those will find their ways into finished works. I used to be concerned that my ideas weren't original, that I would be ripping off someone else's work, but that is the nature of inspiration. There are countless examples of songs where it's clear the artist was influenced by work from another performer or songwriter. As long as your idea isn't an identical copy, that you take that riff or beat in a different direction, you should be in good shape. I don't know how different a creative work has to be in order to prevent nasty letters from showing up at your door - that's for copyright attorneys to figure out. Maybe a good rule of thumb is, if it sounds like a song someone else has already done, you've got more work to do. Here's the thing. It's going to be extremely difficult to find truly original (i.e. never been done before) sounds out there without taking extreme measures to produce sound in spaces no one has explored. But that doesn't prevent us from taking queues from other artists and songs and tweaking sounds in ways that have never been recorded. We can combine instruments that aren't commonly associated with each other and make original compositions from these combinations - think Neo-Classical Metal, where classical music technicalities are applied in a heavy metal application. There are many possibilities for us to do the same thing - look at what Lindsay Stirling has done with violin and dub step / dance. What could you do combining your favorite form of music with another completely unrelated, like classic rock with bluegrass? That's the beauty of inspiration - we can create completely new forms of music by listening to the prompts inspiration gives us. We're All Artists Regardless of your current playing ability, you are an artist. You will have sparks of inspiration, ideas you want to try out on your guitar (or whatever instrument you call your own). Go for it! It's too easy to discount our ideas without giving them some time to expand and mature. Sure, you may have heard your idea somewhere else, but if you can take it in another direction musically, it becomes a new work - and potentially an inspiration for someone else! Rock it out loud and proud! Peace~ Dave Dave "Eddie" Vance is a rock guitar enthusiast and gear nut. He has been playing guitar for over 30 years and enjoys tormenting the neighbors every chance he gets. When he's not slaving for the man, you can find him rocking out with his B.C. Rich Bich guitar, a cold beer and some sweet tunes. He also runs Learn-To-Play-Rock-Guitar.com, but you knew that already! Follow Learn To Play Rock Guitar:I welcome your feedback! Did you like today's message? What other topics would you like to see covered in my e-mails? Please let me know at: dave@learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com As always, please feel free to forward this email to a friend! I review products before recommending them. 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