Step Up Your Mental Game

great post! and:

the easiest way to get in touch with your sub conscious -> a few hits from the bong / blunt / whatever you prefer

no, im not kidding
 
Great read, I heard about all this stuff before. Like a few days ago I was like "let's go learn R&B" and soon as I sat down at the keys to make a melody for a rap beat I come up with this r&b melody! it's crazy
 
TonyV said:
thats why in interviews you always here them say that there best ideals or melody's came from nowhere:hello: (Unconscious Mind )

i have to agree, the days i make my best tracks and write my best music is when i have no thought of doing either
 
Weed unlocks that unconcious mind, I noticed...liquor doesn't tho...if anything it limits both the concious and unconcious mind....
 
everything is mental ..just look at sports the best are the ones who step up there mental game.tiger woods,Mj .you aways here stuff like i was in a zone .well musicians get in a zone too.dre talks about that zone as a train:hello:that does not come around alot so when it does you better ride it to the end.
 
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read a book on psychology it has all this information study the brain. Which part of your brain is more dominate right hemisphere or the left hemisphere? The conscious mind is more sequential and anaytical follows the logical approach (The left hemisphere) while your unconscious mind is more intuitive, creative, imaginative and spontaneous most of your musicians and artist and dominate in this area the (right hemisphere). Just something I learned from reading a psychology book.
 
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I did not write this. Difference between Traditional Songwriting and Creative Songwriting?
You will find that the techniques described are anything but traditional.
There is a reason for that.
I didn’t want to delve into the traditional methods of songwriting for a few very specific reasons:
Firstly, it’s already been done to death. There is a wealth of traditional songwriting methods already available for you to learn from.
Secondly (and more importantly) I don’t feel that learning traditional songwriting methods is as empowering as learning how to increase your creativity. Once you are in touch with your creative side, and you know how to channel this creativity into material form, songwriting will be easy for you.
It will become easy to write song after song because the ideas are always flowing and the inspiration is always there.
Here’s another interesting point that clarifies the difference between traditional songwriting and creative songwriting.
What exactly is learning traditional songwriting techniques all about?
Well, basically it’s becoming familiar with a set of rules that will allow you to write a song. These rules are to do with the following things:
• The structure of a song
• What notes and scales the song should be based on
• The way the song is produced
• How the melody should be structured
Here’s the thing though…
Just think for a minute? Where did these rules originate? For that matter, where do any rules originate?
Well, here’s the answer.
Traditional songwriting methods were developed by simply observing what a musician was doing, and then creating and defining rules that govern the process.

The rules are simply an explanation of what is happening.
To help you to get a deeper understanding of this, here’s an example that is not related to music.
Take gravity for instance. The law of gravity is a physical rule that applies to everything that exists on this planet.
The thing is: gravity existed before “the rules of gravity” were discovered. Gravity is something that somebody observed, and then decided to explain how it works.
The rules are simply an explanation that describes what the affect of gravity is.
The key thing is (and I am repeating it because it is important): Gravity existed before any rules were governed to explain it. It does not exist because of the rules.
In the same way, great songwriting existed before there were rules to govern it.
The rules are simply there because someone has listened to it and thought, “This is great songwriting, I wonder how it works?”
So traditional methods of songwriting are really just a way of explaining how great music works. It outlines common elements of great music, and how they are strung together and molded into a great song.
Why Isn’t This That Important?
Surely it could be helpful to have this knowledge of how great songwriting occurs?
Well, to a certain extent it can.
But here’s the reason why following traditional songwriting methods doesn’t always benefit your songwriting in the way that you wish.
To come up with rules for songwriting, great music was analyzed. It was literally pulled apart, examined, and rules were derived that followed the pattern of songwriting
The thing is: When this music was created it was not from an analytical point of view. These great pieces of music were written from a creative point of view.


And this applies to any type of art.
The analysis was only brought into play when interested parties wanted to discover the “rules” that seemed to govern the songwriting process.
Your creative mind and your analytical mind are two completely different styles of thinking. Learning traditional songwriting methods and trying to apply them to your music is an analytical task. Meaning you are not using the creative parts of you to create the music.
If you want to really burst through your songwriting limitations and write music that is completely earth shattering, you need to approach music the way that the artists did whose music defined the rules.
They wrote this amazing music through using their creativity, and this is what you need to do as well.
You need to discover the creative side of you. And I promise you that once you do, not only will your life seem much more creative and meaningful, but you will write music that you couldn’t possibly dream of writing using your analytical mind.
What Is Creative Songwriting?
Creative songwriting, and being creative in general, is about learning to trust the parts of your brain that are unconscious.
Have you ever been sitting quietly, and all of a sudden, a GREAT idea just pops into your head?
This is an example of you receiving an idea from your unconscious mind.
One of the main purposes of this is to get you to be aware when you are getting an idea from your subconscious mind.
The other “big one” is to develop the mindset that will get you to continually come up with new groundbreaking musical ideas.
We will do this by first working on your mindset.
You will first learn how a great and creative musician “thinks” and “acts.” You see, great musicians believe certain things; use specific thought processes, and are very in touch with what’s called their “musical thinking modalities.”
When you adopt this method of thinking, you will be in the perfect position to create your own masterpieces. This mindset you will develop is very important in the process, because it allows you to develop an “endless flow of musical ideas.”


Once you have adopted the mindset of a great songwriter, you will learn to develop the parts of your brain that you use to write music. This element is the thing that most people and traditional methods are missing. This will separate and elevate you from the rest.
When you have completed this part of the training you will be able to hear the most inspirational music in your mind so clearly that it will be a snap to document it and create a piece of music with it.
This “brain development” part of your training is the key to being highly creative in your songwriting, because in this training you are actually developing and strengthening your musical brain. No traditional methods even touch on this.
Well, it’s time to be introduced and become intimate with your creative side!

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What’s the Difference between You and a Musical Genius?
A musical genius thinks and acts in a very specific way.
Just think about that for a second.
Just pretend for a moment that you’re sitting in a room with a master songwriter, who is, before your very eyes, creating a musical masterpiece.
As you watch this person, they are thinking and acting.
There is something that is going on inside this musician’s mind (thinking) that is allowing them to create this music, by either playing it or recording it in some other manner (the acting).
The exciting thing is, if you know what’s going on inside of this musicians mind, AND you can adopt this way of thinking, then you can create similar breathtaking music.
Now the way a great musician thinks and acts isn’t simple. It’s not completely straightforward, and it does take practice to adopt this new way of thinking and acting. Fortunately, I've already done most of the work for you, and by following the exercises I will give you, this new way of seeing the creation process will become completely natural for you.
Music Software
Inside your brain you have “music software” that allows you to create music. This software is programmed to control the way that you approach your songwriting. It controls things such as:
• How you generate musical ideas
• How you decode the ideas inside your head
• Your ability to play these ideas on your chosen instrument
• What you believe music should sound like
• What you believe about your own musical abilities
• The way that you critique your own music
• And a few other things
A musical genius also has “music software” running inside their head.
So what’s the difference between your software and the genius’ software?
Well, it’s the way he uses his musical software.

The good news is that your equipment isn’t different from the musical geniuses. The differences is in the programming.
Even better, if you can re-program your software to match the musical genius’ software, you will begin to get similar results in your songwriting!
Here’s an example to help make this clearer.
A musical genius has the ability to hear a note and immediately know what this note is. This skill is known as perfect pitch.
The reason this person can hear a note and immediately know what it is isn’t because he has some kind of magical ear. It’s because he has for some reason or another developed this skill naturally. He’s stumbled upon a way of thinking that allows him to pick pitches easily.
Now, perfect pitch is an element in your music software. If you can’t hear different notes easily at present, you can still be taught a way of thinking that will allow you to develop perfect pitch.
This is just one example of how a musical genius has naturally developed “music software” that allows him to create a never-ending flow of wonderful music.
Another element of his “musical software” is the way he generates ideas. This “idea generation” has a lot to do with engaging the creativity process. One of the biggest differences between a “genius” and the average musician, is the genius has stumbled upon a way to engage the creativity process and draw deep from their creative resources. The average musician, however, tends to create ideas in a more “analytical” method, using their conscious mind to try and mold ideas.
A large part of this is dedicated to teaching you how to “short circuit” this analytical part of you and allow your deeper creative resources to “take over” the idea generation process.
Adapting the Software of a Genius
You will learn each element in your “music software.” After this you will learn how you can use each element of this software more like our “musical genius” friend. As you master each part of your “music software” your results will become more and more like those of a musical genius.
It’s very interesting that there is a growing mass of evidence suggesting that the “geniuses” of the world get their rare results only because they’ve stumbled upon a much more effective way to use their resources.


By adapting the “musical software” of a genius, you too will learn to use your resources in a much more effective way, which will result in the creation of a sea of musical inspiration that will truly change your life.

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What Does Your “Musical Software” Consist Of?
In this chapter we will go through the different elements of the “music software” that runs in your brain. Each element of the software will be briefly introduced in this chapter.
Now, before we begin, it’s important to note that while we are going through these elements separately, in reality all these elements work together as a complete system.
As we go through each separate element, begin asking yourself, “How do I use this element to create music”? The idea is that if you are not using one or more elements to their full potential, you can make changes that will make your “music software” run better and give you much better results.
Let’s begin looking at the first element.
Thinking Modalities (How you represent music to yourself)
Your thinking modalities are what you use to “think.” This part of your music software determines the way you represent music to yourself.
Do you hear sounds in your head? Are the sounds accompanied by pictures or smells?
There are a few different ways that can be used to represent music to yourself. You will learn the best ways to represent music to yourself, and also learn exercises that will sharpen your musical senses and allow you to perceive much more musical information—effectively widening your awareness as to what’s going on inside your head. This is one of the keys to accessing your greater creative resources and the ideas that they create for you.
Instrument Skill
This part of your music software relates to the skill you’ve developed on your chosen instrument, and more importantly, your ability to take the musical ideas in your head, and play them on your instrument.
Your Musical Ear
This part of your music software relates to your ability to hear a note, and pick the pitch of the note. This is a skill that will greatly improve your ability to hear musical ideas in your head, and play them on your chosen instrument.

Filters
This part of your “music software” is used to sort the musical information that you’ve taken in. Your internal filters help form what I call your musical mindset. It’s this mindset that will give you confidence to break through the barriers and create truly mesmerizing music.
Some of your filters include what you believe about your musical abilities; what you value about your musical abilities; your emotional state; and a few other things that affect your confidence and the way you approach your songwriting.
Once you’ve developed the right musical mindset you will be in a perfect, receptive state to receive ideas from your deepest creative resources.
Internal Criteria
This part of your “music software” refers to the criteria you have gathered about music and what good music requires. This is the part of your software that decides whether music is great, terrible, or anything in between.
Your internal criteria include things like:
• What’s important to your about music
• What you believe music should sound like
• Your personal music taste
It’s your internal criteria that can define you as a completely unique songwriter. In this course you will learn how to trust your internal criteria, which will lead you to creating some completely unique and inspiring music.
Your Creativity Process
Perhaps the most important element of your musical software (although tweaking all the other elements can have a large affect on your songwriting abilities!). This is the part of your music software that defines how you create new musical ideas, or struggle to create anything at all.
One of the main focuses of this is to teach you how the creativity process works, and teach you to pull your ideas from your richest creative resources. Learning how to do this will open the gates to an unstoppable flow of magical musical ideas. Once you master this process, you are in for a lifetime of amazing musical exploration!


Your Critical/Analytical Side
The musical critic in you is very valuable for molding your musical ideas. As you will learn though, it’s very damaging to the creativity process to consult your internal critic too early. You will learn a very precise method that will allow you to ignore your critic, and only invite him/her back when you need them the most!
Your Complete Music Software
These are all the basic elements of your musical software. As you move through this you will learn much more detailed information about each element. And you will also learn procedures that will allow you to use each element to its full potential.Even just tweaking a few of these elements will cause dramatic improvements in your songwriting abilities. For instance, learning how to engage the creative process deliberately in yourself will produce a massive onslaught of ideas for you to pursue. Just this one shift will dramatically change your musical life for the better! The Five Step Process
Now that we’ve talked about what is possible, let’s discuss what steps you are going to take over the next five sections.
1. The first step you will take is to sharpen your internal senses so you can observe and recognize the creative process that runs within you.
Inside your head there are many lines of thought going on. You probably notice that you can hear sounds in your head. You can see pictures. You can talk to yourself.
All these things are methods you use to think. These things are actually the way that your creative unconscious communicates with you as well. For example a creative musical idea may come to you in the form of sounds inside your head.
The first step in this development process is to sharpen attention so you notice these internal processes. There is a lot going on inside your mind that you’re likely not aware of at this stage. In fact for every main focus you have there are literally hundreds of “sideband” thoughts that are going on just beyond your awareness.
Once you sharpen your senses though you will begin to become aware of these secondary perceptions as they occur. You will become much more sensitive and aware of hearing sounds in your head, seeing pictures in your mind’s eye and so forth.
I’m positive you’ll be absolutely delighted as you become more in touch with this “outer world” that until now has remained outside of your awareness.
As you move through these “internal sharpening” exercises you will begin to see just how creative you can be, and realize that your creative powers are indeed limitless.
2. The second step is to understand exactly how the creative process works. Once you know this you will be able to leverage the full power of this process.
The creative process is a highly complicated topic. There is much debate on how it occurs and many brilliant minds are focused on discovering just what is going on inside the brain whilst in a creative state.
No matter what anybody says there is still much to learn about the human brain and how it works. At this stage we only know a small amount of the picture.

Despite this though, through studying in depth what has been discovered about human “genius” and particularly “musical genius” there are creative processes that seem to work without fail, and you will learn about these methods.
These creative processes have not come to light because of a thorough understanding of the human mind. They have come to light through actually observing the procedure that needs to be completed to have a “moment of inspiration.”
These processes have been derived from some of the sharpest thinkers on the planet and I can tell you… you will be astounded at the impact they will have on your level of creativity.
Once you have a sound understanding of the creative process, you are ready to move onto the next step.
3. You must adapt the mindset of a great—even genius songwriter.
Great musicians believe certain things. They value certain things. They have certain attitudes towards music. All these things are like their “inner programming” that allow them to explore their full potential as an artist.
Beliefs have tremendous power. Can you ever remember completing a task that was so large it simply towered above you? Now, if you did complete this task, did you always believe that you were going to complete the task?
It’s likely that you did believe that you would succeed at this task.
Your brain is designed in a way that if you believe something strongly enough, it will notice evidence that supports this belief. Therefore, if you believe you won’t complete a task, or you believe that you won’t write outstanding music, it won’t happen. And then you see the evidence that you indeed are incapable of writing great music.
However, if you have a strong belief that you are a brilliant songwriter, your mind will go on a search and find mission, searching for evidence that confirms this belief. This will put you in a state very open to creating and responding to new and interesting musical ideas.
As you can see, simply believing that you are a great musician capable of irresistible music can give you an edge in creating magical music. In fact, without this belief you most likely will never be able to generate many ideas, and when you do you will fail to act on them.
In the third step of this transformation process you will discover the way that a wonderful songwriter thinks and acts. Once you know this you can work at adopting this way of thinking and acting, and your songwriting powers will be magnified because of it!

4. By this stage you understand how creativity works. You know the basics of engaging this process within yourself and you know what it will look like when you do. You also will have razor-sharp internal senses from the exercises in part 1 of the process. You will begin to perceive a lot more of what goes on in your mind.
It’s at this point when it’s time to begin the endless flow of musical ideas that’s going to enrich you for the rest of your life! In Step 4 you will begin performing procedures that will incorporate all that we have discussed. These procedures will switch on the creative process in you and the ideas will begin to flow.
This is the exciting part, because you will be discovering ideas unlike anything you’ve created before. You will touch new musical ground, and continue to again and again. In fact, once you’ve turned your creativity in this way, it will never stop.
In Step 4 you will amass a great number of new interesting and groundbreaking ideas. Once you have all this “new meat” to work with though, what comes next?
5. Step 5 involves using your creativity to pull all these new ideas and arrange, integrate, and polish them until they are in the form of a complete piece of music.
When you begin writing music in the way that you will learn, one problem that can come up is having too many ideas to work with! (Sounds ridiculous, right?!)
In the fifth part of this process you will learn some strategies and tips that will allow you to arrange all your new musical ideas in inspiring ways that will complete them as finished pieces.
This is the part of the process that I’ve personally struggled with the most. Although after some deep thought and engaging the creative process to find solutions to the problem, I’ve found ways that can make this part of songwriting a snap.
And if I find things easy with these methods, it almost guarantees that you will find things even easier!
 
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Thank you so much for this, its pointed out exactly why Ive been struggling and Ive got results almost immediately after following the advice!! AMAZING!
 
Thank you so much for this, its pointed out exactly why Ive been struggling and Ive got results almost immediately after following the advice!! AMAZING!
No problem,I forgot were i had this and haven't been able to use this info myself lol.
 
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Possibly the biggest mistake the majority of songwriters make, is they try and create music from a very consciously controlled perspective

quoted for truth.

whenever i step to the controls & controllers, it's all subconscious...

i have no idea where my sound comes from, or even why my shyt sounds the way it does...
 
I have no problem with ideas coming out of no where. . . .it's just. . .I CAN'T PLAY WHAT I HEAR =/

I can't wait to learn the keys :(

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And oh yeah this thread got bookmarked
 
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