What is the nature of the creative mind? How does inspiration work? Have you ever written/composed/painted/etc anything that just seemed to fall out of you, like it came from something other than you and you are merely a conduit of some kind? Are you tired of me asking questions?

There's an old saying that music/art/writing/whatever is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. For me that is rarely true. Unfortunately I am innately lazy, and if it were as the old saying goes, I'd probably never finish anything beyond that 10%. In fact, one of the purposes of this here blog is to force myself into a more workmanlike approach to starting and finishing creative projects. But what makes it hard, particularly with my chosen field of music, is that I so often just vomit out a completed piece of music with little or no effort at all. In fact, even in a band situation, 90% of the best things I come up with are on the very first effort. If another band member is introducing a song, an idea for a song, or a riff/chord progression or bass line, the very best thing I will ever come up with for it will be the very first thing I play, without thinking about it or processing it, just letting it come out and trying to stay out of it's way. If we are jamming on something for the first time, I will come up with at least 4-5 parts and melodies or whatnot that can go with it. I will very likely never come up with anything very good to go with something later on,  beyond that first effort. This is why I have so many songs that are 2/3 finished. Because, I come up with the initial riff or progression or melody, and then immediately find a great complimentary second part to be a chorus or bridge, but never am able to come up with that elusive 3rd part to round out the song. Many of my songs are finalized having only 2 parts. This is one reason I really enjoy collaborations with other artists, they can usually add those finishing touches that didn't make it out of my head at the initial creation of the song.

I have written songs in my sleep.

Or, something has. I've woken up having written a completed, extremely cheesy Nashville pop-country song in my head while I was dozing off. Here are the lyrics for it:

The sun will still rise when you're not here,
But the mornings just aren't right, somehow the day now seems less bright.
My heart will still beat when you're not near,
But this old heart is telling me, there's somewhere it would rather be.

I can be thankful for my health,
At least that's what I keep telling myself.

And I can live without you,
I just don't want to.
I can go on, I can be strong.

I can sleep without you,
I guess I'll have to.
I can still see the sun rise, through the tears in my eyes.

I can live without you,
But I don't want to.
No, I don't want to.

That song is complete in my head. Done. I can hear the vocalist (which isn't me) and all the instrumentation. And it happened while I was asleep. Yes, it is a cheesy pop-country song. No, I don't like it. No, I'll probably never do anything with it save maybe trying to sell it to some Nashville type. But this isn't the only country song my head has written without the permission of my consciousness. Here's part of another:

I'm only easy when you're not crazy.
I'm only with you when you're not gone.
If you want me to love you,
And put no one above you
Then you'll have see our problems through right and wrong.

I don't know why I'm giving these examples. I've also written a complete Flamenco guitar piece at 3am after waking up and feeling a need to grab my guitar. I don't listen to a lot of flamenco. My most technically difficult jazz piece was written in the middle of the night on one of my sit bolt upright in bed needing to grab my guitar moments, too.
     I've concluded that whatever part of my brain it is that fuels my inspirations, whatever clicks "on" that allows music to flow effortlessly out of me sometimes is somewhere closely related to the part of my mind that activates during REM sleep. My often bizarre and occasionally epic but always unusual dreams suggest this as well. However, for me, creative "juice" seems to be finite, and has a daily amount that can be exhausted. I can sense when I'm out of juice, and know when it is best to leave something on the back-burner until I can approach it with a fresh supply.

This is why I love improvisational music. It is spur-of-the-moment, instant creativity. Nothing gives me more pleasure than reaching into my ass and actually pulling out something that doesn't sound like it came from my ass.

Next time I'll discuss the difference between creating music with my hands and creating music with my head.