Harvesting ideas and taking time to play

 

Something that keeps me inspired is to continue to learn new things and work on new projects.  Since I work as a professional musician, I have to be careful that my music does not become "another job." I get so much fulfillment out of learning new pieces, coming up with new ideas for projects and spending time being creative.

Here are some of the things I'm working on. I've been asked by the local library to play music as part of The Big Read event next spring. This is a big deal and a real honor for me. The book chosen will be The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.  With this in mind,  this morning I put 3 poems by Carson McCullers to music. She did not write a lot of poetry but if you look her up, you'll find poems. I find this process of setting poems to music to be tremendously satisfying.

Also in the picture above is my music journal where I "tab" out (guitar notation) new songs and the one above is "And I Love Her" by the Beatles. Over the summer, I arranged over 30 songs for a wedding party and had so much fun doing it.  I'm also working on some Christmas music.

I usually go to the gym in the morning but today I stayed home to have a creative brainstorm day. It was very productive and I am particularly excited about my Carson McCullers' poems. A great way to spend a rainy morning. Oh and I forgot to say that my cat Jasper helped ensure I took many breaks to pet and play with him. :)

What ways do you like to be creative?