What Inspires Creativity?

Can you guys name a few things that help you in creating music or what inspires you?
Like:
*Theory
*Dreams
*Other musicians
*Meditation
*Religion

Emotion, personal matters. Other musicians.
I don't dream that much. That lucid dreaming thread is pretty interesting though.

It really just depends on what mood I am in. Sometimes, a riff or something just kind of hits me. Other times I just really want to write something cool or pay tribute to my influences. So I guess here would be my list:

Emotion - I put a lot of feeling into my music, because it is my way of talking to whoever wants to listen. My music is very personal and if you ever want to get to know me, just listen to my music.

Music - Music makes me want to write more music. I hear so many good songs and bands and I want to be a part of this amazing thing that is music. I think any musician, be they popular or not and no matter of the genre, is a part of a great, great culture.

Tribute - I think that musicians can be hero's. Some people put Obama stickers on their car fenders, I sometimes play music heavily influenced by my favorite bands.

«Rock on!»

technique, chops, skillz, theory, phrasing. just my 2 cents mmk

skillz, lol.

There was couple mentioned...

Nature
Interesting discussions
News
Books
Streets
and ofcourse, girls!

Empirism

Life. Look around.
when you find a subject to write about that you can connect to, whether it is love, hate, confusion, or just happiness, the music is already written. and it is beautiful! it is your job as a musician to transfer that music into reality as unfiltered as possible. for example, try to remember your first crush, or one that meant something to you. as you are thinking of that, listen to the music playing in your head. we all have soundtracks playing in our heads, especially musicians. and the music always fits perfectly to how you feel about the situation. once you are satisfied with the music, the lyrics soon follow. and it helps to be somewhat of a poet. you can get trippy with it to, using metaphors and such to hide meanings and artistically express the meanings.
like instead of just singing: "the politicians decide our future, you cry and beg, but they just wont hear you", you can sing: "the mice they whisper of times yet passed, as they drink their wine and raise their glass"

sorry i kinda rambled, i get passionate sometimes! i hope you get what i mean, its one of those things that is really hard to explain on paper.

Thanks for all the replies

@future_god_of_the_axe I get what you mean and nice post by the way, Im only instrumental but still you can express alot through only a guitar.

Ye i forgot alot of topics to mention though but just interesting to see all you guys point of view

Oh and @Ozzfan486 you dream average of 100minutes per night you just dont remember them, it takes practice to recall your own dreams but they are there :)

I'm not a real lyrics guy. I'm more into the music. I like fusion and not neccessarily jazz fusion but anything that can't be classified so I like to listen to a lot of music: Jazz, rock, metal, fusion, soul, funk, and blues.

One of these days I'll post some of my songs so you know what I mean.

i find that:

thinking
listening to music
nature, i love nature, theres a nature conserve by me that i love to go to and i find i can always find new riffs or mostly lyrics there.
dreams i can agree with, but id like to go deeper and say the state and pshycology of the mind. i find it interesting

would it be rediculous to say pot? :)

i dont really find "theory" to influence ideas but more to allow them and to broaden them... or build upon them, but i dont think i ever created a song thinking about theory...unless you mean theorys about stuff

also news i havent written with my band but by myself have about events

i acctually have a song about religion, however unlike clapton or skynyrd its saying how rediculous it is to follow and mold and live your life according to something that you dont know is true and isnt based on facts. but thats my opinion and dont look to get in a religious discussion, i can bad mouth the 'industry' as i call it but the theory of religion i respect a lot and dont discourage. i just hate what its become in a way.

no it woulden't

Life..



RAWK!
Cs

women
insomnia
beer
love
random conversations
idiots
masterbation
taking a dump
hatred
weed
politics
owning guitars
sleazy bars
fast cars
life on mars
...
in short inspiration is everywhere if you look hard enough

@harleyofdoom just wanted some views from the forum's perspective, not telling me I should look harder. . .

Theory and practice. Mostly pratice.

i say theory limits creativity. but thats just my opinion

@bodom
I disagree and yeah I know it's just my opinion too. Take the musical piece Bolero by Maurice Ravel for example. According to Ravel, it's just an exercise or experiment in theory. He never meant for it to be the masterpiece that it is. But, it's one of the popular classical pieces written in the last century.

If you havent heard of this piece, get it and sit down and treat yourself to a real journey of music!

Carl owned everybody.

@BBT, Theory was never meant to be a strict set of rules. so i think if you said that theory limits your creativity you might have the wrong impression of theory.

I have felt like BBT, I thought, that theory "forces" one's playing and musical themes into "marked" way, but lately I started to look things different way, without theory, it sounds like avantgarde or something without "sense". Larger the theory, better you can expand your themes into more musical and melodical way that sounds like "music"

Sadly im not there yet :)
Empirism

Theory in and of itself is creativity. Some person or persons at one point or another in history agreed that out of the 12 semitones in an octave that 7 of them are the most melodic when played in various sequences. And there you have the major scale which all western music stems from.

@Reinhardt,

Hey dude, just so you know, Harley isn't trying to sound offensive, he's just sharing his experiences with you. No harm intended, trust me, he's a very laid back dude and pretty cool when you get to know him :)

@ BBT, so by that statement, I'm limited? Or even Carl is limited? Even the greats know theory dude - they're guidelines only. Creativity comes from inside - if by learning something you suddenly become crap then you never had the talent to begin with - just a burst of experimentation.

no offence taken Jazzy. . . thx for all your input guys. Everyone has their own opinion to creativity which makes us human so please dont argue bout it mmkay :P

I agree with Jazz, theory only gives you the tools to say what you mean in the most effective way. And yeah, if you can't do it when you have more knowledge, then can you really do it anyway or was it just luck?

I'm just sayin it CAN limit you, if you just follow all the theory, you might get stuck into doing things "right" instead of doing what you want. But then, I dont really understand enough theory to really say anything about it, didnt mean to offend!

@bbt, no offense taken

@BBT, hey dude, the general fact that you're already thinking "Theory could make me think along the guildlines only..." already proves the fact that it won't - because you're aware that they're only guidelines. You're also aware that there is no "right" way to do things... you shouldn't worry man.

But it's your choice if you don't want to learn theory; I just think it's a shame that most of the new generation can't be bothered or just don't want to.

Seperate issue here, but the world is growing to be too simple minded -_- (I'm mainly thinking about kids who come on here and only think about powerchords, losing brain cells by headbanding constantly and saying their music is the only music)

a beautiful woman. or maybe just any other thing