Different Approaches to Creating Music

The creative process varies from person to person, and indeed from day to day – but if you’re looking for inspiration, there are plenty of ideas out there…

Listen Around You

The best way to get inspiration is often to simply stop and listen to what’s around you. This idea was central to John Cage’s famous work 4’33 – ostensibly four and a half minutes of silence – but one of the purposes of the piece was to force the listener to actually listen to their own environment.

Indeed, if you listen you will be able to find interesting sounds in any context. In the below video, Ben Burtt takes us through the process for creating the sounds of the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive malfunction – which includes a recording of the pipes under the sink in the studio bathroom…

A Lifetime Of Work

The creative processes of Brian Eno and David Byrne are always full of unique angles and approaches to creating music (and imagery). Once In A Lifetime is perhaps one of Talking Heads’ most iconic tracks, and the below video shows some of the techniques that went into its creation. This page at open culture also includes a full vocal-only version of the song; it’s interesting to hear how clear Byrne’s enunciation is (as well as the high level of reverb) and how much indeed he is mimicing some of the traits of evangelical preachers. The juxtaposition of religious ceremony and suburban mundanity is a core theme of the song, and comes across even more clearly in the video…