Creativity is a very interesting subject to think about if you are a songwriter trying to write the next big song that can launch a musical career.

Where does it come from?
There are a couple schools of thought of where these creative ideas come from. Some say that there is a “pool” of creative ideas somewhere that each and every one of us can somehow tap into. Other claim that God is responsible for sending the ideas to us. Still others claim that the ideas are internal to us and get developed in our own sub conscience mind. No matter how these ideas originate the one thing that is certain is that they do exist and there are certain things that we can do to capture these ideas when they do come to us.

Creative Time
I believe that we all have a specific time and or activities that these creative ideas seem to be associated with. I find for myself that I get more ideas in the morning than in the evening hours. I also noted that I get a lot of ideas when I am in my car driving somewhere. To discover what your creative times and activities are you can do this test. Make sure that you have a pen and paper to write down your ideas or some type of tape recorder to record musical ideas. For the next few weeks write down or record all the ideas that pop up in your mind. Also write down or record what you were doing when you got the idea and what time it was. What you will start to notice is that there are certain times and activities that you will get more ideas that others. This is very important because you can make sure that you have the means to capture these ideas at these times or doing these activities. For instance I put a small pad of paper with a pen in my car, when I get an idea for something I write it down immediately.

Good / Bad Ideas
You should write down everything that comes to you and be very careful not to judge the idea at this point. Some of it may not be useful at all now but you never know if this idea may be the answer to something your working on down the road. For instance you may think of a cool bridge to put in the new song your working on, however when you get back to your instrument you find it just doesn’t work. Six months down the road your working on another song and you need a bridge, you go over your ideas tape and there it is, this idea that didn’t work 6 months ago that you completely forgot about.

Creativity is a very powerful tool for songwriters and by paying attention and capturing these ideas that come to you can strengthen your songwriting skills. Remember that every song ever written was first just a thought in someone’s mind.