This category lists the blog posts that tell more about creativity, how to keep in flow, what’s blocking artists in their creativity and how to unblock.
After some weeks of gray and rainy weather, the sun is back. I now know again why fall is my favorite season. The yellow-orange-brown leaves in the sunshine give everything a golden line. It’s really beautiful to see, the trees are shining like stars! The beauty outside comes with a melancholic touch. I know hat the golden beauty outside is only temporary. End of November you can count the last leaves on a tree on the fingers of one hand. […]
As a musician you have a certain image you want to get across. You want others to see certain aspects of yourself, you want them to like you. And if you are ambitious, you put a whole marketing team on the development of that image. The more famous you get, the bigger the gap can grow between how others see you and how you see yourself. Others will see you in the way you present yourself to them. They see […]
How we see the world around us is for a high degree determined by what we have learned. Sometimes we have to unlearn to be able to give our creativity a boost, to broaden your musical horizons. Looking into the mirror Have you ever seen a baby in front of a mirror? The baby has to learn to recognize the image as belonging to him/her. When we look into a reverse mirror we experience something similar. In a ‘real mirror’ […]
Do you think of holiday too, when hearing the word ‘island’? I often wonder what’s so special about islands. Some people love them, others hate them. Island lovers are often charmed by the limitations an island gives. You are bound to the ferry-times for arrival and departure. The number of inhabitants is limited, same for services. On the small Dutch islands you don’t have a hospital. For romantics, life seems so simple on an island. And you have lots of […]
It’s a crazy thought, but it works. As adolescent, cleaning my room and having a clear mind always happened simultaneously. Most of the time my room was a mess. And when it was very chaotic in my mind too, it was time to clean up my room. My mind got cleared too. “If you want to improve your life immediately, clean out a closet. Often it’s what we hold onto that is holding us back.” (Cheryl Richardson) I still wonder […]
What’s the function of music and art? “Of beauty and solace” was the title of a Dutch TV series some years ago. At that time I thought that there would be no better definition of the function of art. In every episode the presenter had a musicians, writers, scientists, philosophers or similar as guest and asked questions like what makes life worthwhile. “Art is not a mirror to reflect the world, but a hammer with which to shape it” is […]
When I saw an old high-school friend last month, he told me about his new job in city planning and about his creative new boss. The boss loves to come with new plans and to draw them. “I hope that you don’t expect it from me, I have no inch of creativity in me,” my friend warned him, “my mom is creative, I can judge your drawings and give you my opinion, but don’t expect me to be creative too.” […]
Last night I went to the city theater to hear the Dutch comedian Daniel Arends talking about plan A and plan B. Plan A is who you are. You can grow in who you are, but you can’t really change it. Plan B is how you appear to others. You are authentic when you appear as who you are. Often we want to appear different than who we are. Many musicians are shy but want to appear spontaneous and confident. […]
Do you know that experience, that when you are in need of something, like a new guitar, you suddenly see guitars all around you, even in the bus and in the train? Or when you are enthusiast about a new subject, if it’s red shoes or old Blues LP’s, suddenly everyone seems to be part of a plot to show it to you and talk about it? Some call it coincidence, others call it synchronicity. I had it last year […]
Do you still know the sound of silence? I mean the sound when you don’t hear traffic, voices or music. It’s the sound you hear when you are not wearing a headphone, when there is no TV playing, away from traffic and people. Working in the music business, I have music around me all day. I wake up with classical music from the alarm clock. At breakfast I listen to the radio. In the bathroom I’m making too much noise […]
Spring is in the air, sun is shining and the birds are singing. After the cold and dark winter it feels like an awakening! Even when sitting at the office I enjoy the sun outside. When something is bothering me, when I’m stuck at work, I often go outside to take a walk. Moving my feet and looking at the nature around me seems to move my mind as well. I can think more clearly and discover new perspectives when […]
Music needs rhythm, no doubt about it. But where do you get the rhythm? Your own heartbeat is a good inspiration. I love it, when I’ve done some sports, heaving a quick heartbeat and listen to music that has the same rhythm. It’s so exciting! It also works the other way around. Music with a slow rhythm can calm me down when I’m upset. My heartbeat tries to mach the rhythm of the song. If you look around, everything seems […]
It seems that our brain is rigid when focused and can’t focus when being flexible. When we are focused, we don’t notice what’s going on around us. We concentrate on one task only. This is highly efficient and helps us to get in a flow. A great example for this is the selective attention test from Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris. While counting the number of passes, we don’t see the obvious image. Try it yourself: The other side is […]
If you listen to the radio here in the Netherlands, you don’t hear music with a message, unless the DJ put it on by mistake. When I think of 20 to 50 years ago, I think of many songs with a message with mainstream success, from Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin’” in support of the civil rights movement, through “God Save The Queen” by the Sex Pistols against monarchy, to “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the […]
Some weeks ago I heard a very interesting lecture by John Cleese. Most people know him from his period in Monty Python and the reunion of Monty Python last summer, or from the comedy Fawlty Towers. I still start laughing out loud when I think of the scenes at the Ministry of Silly Walks! Many people don’t know, that he’s given many lectures to business people. He’s earned a fortune with that, to give as alimentary to his divorced wives, […]
