Finding and keeping inspiration in music production 

Thank you, Haibach, for this joyous cornucopia of ideas! When I was an art student in the 1970s, my painting class one day fell into a memorable discussion with our professor about "The Happy Accident." The idea is that you can just begin working without any preconceived idea about where the work is going to go and "just let the magic happen." I know you are intimately familiar with this concept. Most of us were senior students with maybe a couple of grad school students in the mix, and so by then, we all had experienced The Happy Accident phenomenon at least a few times in our efforts to create something good. We mutually validated it in our discussion. Sometimes it works well and some times, well... The day after we had that discussion, our professor -- whose name was John Metheny -- showed up with a large gesso-primed stretched canvas, a box full of oil paint tubes and cotton rags, a can of turpentine, an electric hotplate, a cast-iron skillet, six fresh beef steaks, a package of paper plates, some stainless steel flatware, and a bottle of linseed oil. He poured some of the linseed oil into the pan and turned on the hotplate burner. When the oil became smoking hot, he dropped in a couple of steaks and let them sizzle noisily in the hot oil until they were quite brown on one side, flipped them over with a fork, and quickly finished cooking the other side. He lightly seasoned the steaks with salt and pepper, cut them into a dozen pieces, and distributed them on the paper plates to us, his students, giving each of us a knife and fork, and then he cooked two more steaks in the same fashion, continuing until all of the steaks had been cooked and consumed. They tasted better than I would have expected. Professor Metheny then laid the stretched canvas down on the floor and squeezed some oil paint onto it, mostly in Earth tones -- just several thick, overlapping loops of paint in browns, ochre, greens, and added a bit of cerulean blue and titanium white. He took the bottle of linseed oil -- the remainder of what had been used to cook the steaks -- and poured that over the paint. He walked around the canvas, crouching to push and mix paints and oil right on the canvas using these rags made of old tee-shirts. He would occasionally thin an area of the paint with a splash of turpentine to allow some of the white ground -- the gesso -- to show through. Gradually the image of a landscape began to emerge on the canvas. It took perhaps 10 or 15 minutes to go from a completely blank canvas to a beautiful landscape. It was a journey of discovery for all of us, including the painter, John Metheny. Happy Accidents abounded. He called this method of working "The Michigan Landscape School." Whenever I feel "stuck" artistically, I find inspiration in the memory of those two happy days. I can still smell the oil, the sizzling beef steaks, and the turpentine.

The idea of showing up and doing the work really rings true to me. My best tunes or ideas have come after a while of me making it a habit firing up the studio every day and just go after it without me putting pressure on myself making something. Just fire up the studio and go explore. Lots of days no ideas or songs come out of it, but I might have learned something about a synth or a technique, I might have created an interesting patch on one of the synths that might trigger a song in the future...but most of all I´ve had a pause from the outer world and connected with my inner world and spent some time with my mind. Always worthwhile. Great thoughts on the matter in this video, you´re an eternal inspiration!

Hey bro, you raise some interesting points about inspiration. Nice 1. There is one very literal yet poetic angle that I'd like to share with you and our little youtube synth-wormhole community - inspire literally means to breathe in. Breath is like the fuel that drives our lives on a very fundamental level. To any musician, whether you play a wind instrument or not, breath is a core concept, as it is what informs our collective idea of phrasing, quite simply because we speak in sentences, the length of which is largely informed by an exhalation. So, the speaking of a sentence, or the playing of a melody, or any act of creation can be seen as breathing out. And in order to breathe out, you need to breathe in. To inspire. Now, that can be literally the action of taking breath into your lungs (don't forget to breathe!) but is also "breathing in" external stimuli, like the African music you reference, or a poem, or contemplating nature. All ways of breathing in. Of inspiring.

I like these videos the best honestly. There are many "tutorial" videos on youtube showing how gear works, but very few that talk about the workflow, psychology, human aspects of making music.

Watching this again, I had the meta realization that your videos like this are on my list of what I do to spark that creativity. After a long day of work it’s hard to just dive in and create something brilliant. But watching you or Cortini or other musicians getting really into something sparks that playfulness in me as well. I will often stop a video with an idea and jump into making music. RU-vid isn’t just for gear-acquisition, it can be great for gear-inspiration.

"I'm not a genius, I'm just a hard working guy." - Brian Wilson Hainbach, thank you for the reminder that the secret to creating is "Just showing up."

Whenever I need inspiration, I need only watch you, Hainbach.

Sometimes I feel inspired to make something just by seeing other people doing something. Like a RU-vidr making a track from a single sample or a single synth, and then I try something similar. A “flow” state is the most important aspect. I once had a job (unrelated to music) that I could literally just sit for an hour every morning jamming out tracks with my laptop and keyboard. The last months I was there I knew I’d already lined up a new job so I was completely carefree and could just stay completely in the zone. It was my most productive period, made a new track every day and about a third of them were pretty good.

Very nice description of a creative life. I might also add: even the simple step of touching some keys, turning a knob, patching CVs, etc can lead to new music if we listen closely to the sounds resulting from these minute actions; the rest is just following the sounds where they want to go.

My most favorite quote on daily creative habits generating infinite inspiration every day: "“Write [CREATE] a little every day, without hope, without despair.” - Karen Blixen (aka Isak Denisen) This shows that you can't ever hope your sessions will be brilliant, but you also can't be disappointed when they aren't, either. Brilliance simply evolves from the constant doing, and some retrospection.

Greatly inspired, thank you! As someone usually helping the creatives behind the glass, a common thread of apathy usually seems to stem from a fear of not being able to succeed at reaching "an end result", regardless of how convoluted that is. Maintaining the flow as you mentioned is a great foundation, combined with an honest appreciation for the process and a balanced goal of just making a start.

One of my favourite videos you have made. Always like to see others who find inspiration from reading (especially when it is Pynchon). For me personally I very much agree that it is about "showing up". However for me I do feel it's important to mention the mindset changes when you work everyday. I have now largely stopped sitting at my desk with the goal of "making a track". After years of working I have realised all of my most contrived works were born this way. Instead when I sit down to work, I try to focus on one thing. This could be a plugin I haven't used, an instrument I own, a technique I haven't tried; any singular aspect of music making. From there I just play and explore. I don't always make a track this way. But I DO always feel I have used my time wisely; and when a track does come from this, I often find it has the more unique qualities of whatever it is that makes up my music making. Thank you for sharing your experiences; I'd love to see more talky videos in future!

Hainbach, I love your making an album series. It is just amazing. Next time I see you walking down the street in NK I should greet you :)

Thank you Hainbach. I am now first a painter, then a musician, and now scratching the surface of working with test equipment mostly because Hainbach. I find this good advice for anybody creative, and a good reminder of things to do in quarantine, which some of us may have forgotten after becoming addicted to social media and RU-vid!

Great advice. It's like talent and inspiration are obsolete concepts when you realise it's all about the work you put in

The hardest but truest pieces of advice I've been told are these quotes: * Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working. -- Pablo Picasso, seen on the wall of a design museum * Court the muse every day. -- from a friend's composition professor, possibly Pauline Oliveros

Pure gold! Paid off my Q&A Patreon question from a week ago. Remember to support great artists like Hainbach and others on Patreon if you can. Times are hard for them too, but the art they create is what defines us as humans. Help us all stay human.

Reading, coffee and take a walk works for me almost every time when I feel stucked. I’m very into Williams Carlos Williams, Clarice Lispector and Oscar Hahn now. Greetings from Chile!

ive started listening to a lot of Hindustani music, especially the Qawalli, the Sufi devotional music. ive always had an interest in music from that part of the world, but actually diving into it has been a refresher.

Dear Hainbach, thank you for the thoughtful wisdom of this video, but especially for including books as a source of inspiration. As someone who is a voracious reader myself (and who actually makes a living designing books), I find that the value of the printed page has become increasingly obscured the further we move into the digital age. Having said that, print is not going away anytime soon, though. (By the way, I bought that same Daphne Oram book over a year ago-not an easy volume to find, here in New York-and you reminded me I still have not delved into it. Too many books, too little time!) Lastly, one thing I would add to your wonderful video is the benefit of exploring different creative disciplines. I already mentioned designing books for a living, but I also play and compose electronic music myself. I find that all and any artistic outlets inform each other the deeper you explore and the more time you spend with them: they help develop your intellect, massage your imagination, and ultimately not only reveal a full(er) picture of who you are as a person, but also inform and nurture that as well. In short, keep on being curious!

I can add a little extra bit about finding and keeping inspiration. I often produce very high-energy music, so going out for a run, or just doing some pushups or something other to really get the blood flowing has been great for me. For the latest house track I made, I literally went out and ran for 15 min straight, came home, took my guitar and wrote a 303 bassline as soon as I had taken the running shoes off. Feeling your heart pumping and your muscles swollen up really makes you feel frantic and kind of overstimulated haha, which leads great acid music I've noticed.

I found your video at a low point in my musical inspiration. When buying new gear to get new ideas is no longer viable we need ideas like yours. Thanks!

I feel so calm without any reason. Thank you

Process. Sir, this video is how to art. How to appreciate. How to be full of joy. This would be a good core reason as to why I appreciate your music, videos, words. Thank you.

Find out what your workflow is (in the box, out the box, etc.) and then just brute force inspiration. So many songs where I felt like I couldn't find the next step, just keep going at it, brute force, it will work out and in a year you listen to the song again and you can't imagine it being any other way.

"Going for a walk" oh those were the days when we could do that :-P

Wahre Worte, Hainbach! Jetzt hast du mich inspiriert.

thanks a bunch for the vid and for introducing me to Francis Bebey. I get also most inspired by just doing things with instruments/modifying sounds and samples etc. and just let it flow to watch what happens. keep on the great work here...

Never thought about the honeymoon phase of new instruments but it’s so true. Need to try to get some of that back sometimes.

Yes I like this very much and the rest of this series of creating an album also. I’m finding it very zen and southing. Other inspiration I find is in nature, I enjoy listening the sounds found there and viewing the landscapes while composing. It’s fun to use open back headphones and mix sounds that work with nature’s evolving sounds. Something i love about Aphex Twins music is that it all sounds good with nature sounds and city sounds...mixes perfectly. The other inspiration is working with other creators...the creativity can flow in harmony and disharmony wonderfully, etc....but not always :). Some times inspiration comes from leaving project that didn’t flow also ha...like taking off tight shoes and letting the feet breath and move again.... Thanks again for your videos they are fruitful and inspiring in themselves

"Hairs on the neck of my back" Hmm.... Lockdown got you all back to front, Hainbach! ;-)

Yes your music inspires me as I was using my GarageBand program today & one of the samples titled deep bass pulsations had a test equipment sound to it as I played with reverb & a tad of echo, then overlaid two sweep sounding sample delayed slightly. The result was a 6 minute swirling sounding song called Sublime & it had a kinda Hainbach sound to it after four hours of tweaking! 🙂🙂 Sounded blissful through the headphones! 🙂🙂 Love your videos Hainbach! 🙂🙂🎧🎧🎵🎵🔊🔊

Very helpful and insightful reflections. I appreciate and gain from hearing about the various workflows and practices different people have. Thank you for sharing!

Thanks for all the inspiration and for Francis Bebey :) I even got hold of an Uher Universalmaschine 5000 and it's a joy to play with. Stay healthy and greetings from Osnabrück

Thanks for this. I remember Randy Newman said much the same - he wrote songs as part of his daily work schedule, showed up at the piano at 9am and got to work.

So glad to see that you enjoyed the Daphne Oram book (it was me who suggested it on Instagram and I hoped it’d resonate). I’ve always been really bad at hitting record, currently enjoying a bit of the honeymoon period with electric pianos in PianoTeq... I should do some actual recording rather than just practice. Maybe I might even get as far as editing and releasing some music/AV one day... I always liked the idea of constantly recording into a buffer so that at any time after playing something good you can capture the past few minutes... I should get into that habit.

This has inspired me. Thank you Hainbach.

Wholesome, grounding and inspiring! Love your content and the community behind you

Excellent video! Practical and philosophical at the same time! Really helpful. would love to see more of this kind of content from you!

‘Defragmentation of my brain’?! Sounds like EXACTLY just the thing I’m looking out for! Recipes and prescriptions to help me defragment, or “OUT-DOCTRINATE”. Virtual reality has helped me to laugh at my seriousness and help me to see that I’m investing far too much feeling in my life here in my waking life, maybe better to feel more in my dreams or other worlds! THANKS AGAIN HAINBACH! I hope this becomes a bit more of a regular routine in your videos!! BEAUTIFUL PIECES, A1!!

Cada día me gusta más tu canal! Nice video! I heard a painter say years ago that he used to create early in the morning. He affirmed that we are more productive when we get up early and we are working just awake, in my case I have to say that it works. If I add some sport before (surfing in my case) it improves much more.

Thanks for this video! I appreciate hearing others’ perspectives on creative approach and dealing with the frustrations that can pop up. It’s especially helpful as a beginner/hobbyist. So thanks again for the advice on staying inspired, and I’d certainly enjoy more videos like this one.

hainbach is 100% some kind of mad scientist

I've recently been inspired by Caustic 3. It's been sitting unused on my phone for years, but before I got rid of it I wanted to give it another look. It can do an impressive lot for what it is.

I've been away too long. How could I miss this! Suffice to say, I was dragged into a guitar midi learning vortex 🤣😂

Fantastic video - just chipping away at a project a little bit every day can add up to something great. Thank you

I agree with you about using new instruments or else using old instruments in a different way. Getting away from electronic music here, recently I've been trying to learn mandocello (it's relation to the mandolin is like that of the cello to the violin). It's tuned across the neck in fifths unlike the guitar and bass which are tuned in forths and so I have to explore note relationships and different fingerings to see what works and what doesn't. I've found it to be very inspiring and several songs have resulted already. With guitars, trying out alternate tunings can lead to similar results. Another thing I have is a set of chime bars which I really love for their tone, and I use them frequently on my recordings. Sometimes the very simplest of melodies can come to life when using tuned percussion; things that would sound uninteresting had they been played on, say, a keyboard. Another trick is to jumble the chime bars into different configurations, so they are not laid out chromatically, and randomly play a rhythm on the bars, which of course can suggest a new melody.

This is a wonderful way to start the day. Lovely sounds. Going to get patching and blooping right away. Thanks Hainbach!

Hainbach, you´re an inspiration.

I love your passion, thats inspiration in itself! Thanks Hainbach!

That viola sound is absolutely mad. Going to have to sample some violins now...

Example of inspiration thanks of you : discovering your videos, be wondering what is this cool-designed plugin (Lekko), falling in love with this smooth piano sound reminding me some great stuff like Nils Frahm or Aphex Twin, and be inspired to begin a new track with it (that I'll send to you when it's finished).

This is a fantastic video- you have to "practice" your creativity in order to harness it on tap. And, you have to find ways around roadblocks or plateaus. In my work (architecture), we often get "stuck"- whether it's a design idea that won't budge, a client demand, or some other constraint that seems to sap our ability to move forward. We utilize a number of tools and methods like this to get "unstuck" in our creativity. These range from personal changes (like a walk, a sketch break, a hobby break) to full-blown mind exercises like Synectics or Cynefin frameworks to "unthink" our original conclusion. Not sure how these methods would translate over into composition, but I imagine some of the principles would. Thank you for sharing!

step 1) have lots of amazing toys to play with and awesome classic recording equipment

Oh yeah! Nathan Moody is brilliant, love his work, what an excellent choice for a collaboration!

Got goosebumps. Thank you, Hainbach. By the way, one more valuable inspiration is your own dreams. Try to put them into notes and intervals has giving me loads of inspiration and a will to better understand myself lately.

Inspiration strikes like lightning Some times out of the blue laying waste to peace and tranquility Sometimes you need to do a little rain dance

Thanks for the mention of our Ripcord cable, wonderful to think it's part of your process. We love the idea of making it easier to make music anywhere. If anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to answer them here. Luke.

I will never be able to express how much you are an inspiration to me. You may have given us (or me at least) among the best advice I have ever heard. Thank you very much

It's a different video, but these are really useful monologues that kick off new thoughts and discussions, they are insights to those of us who are new to music creation, as well as the more experienced who may be feeling jaded or lacking inspiration. Talking about the practicalities of being creative, the processes, knowing your own the best times, the flow that comes from the momentum of regular practice - these are the "soft", non-technical, but equally important aspects of being creative that formal education, books and teaching often miss. Thank you for a thoughtful, reflective narrative, I'm going to bookmark that for both my future self, and for others. Genuinely appreciated :-)

So cool! Often when I'm stuck for inspiration, I'll turn to the outdoors. More and more of my go-to synth gear is set up to be portable. I can now take my 0-Coast and a small amount of modular out with me (when I'm able to). Last year i was recommended a Rakit GO! USB power module for Eurorack. It's only 2HP and can power a modest amount of modular gear. I have built a 42HP case that I can swap stuff in and out of when inspiration strikes. I've taken it out on vacation with me when I was in the English Lake District last year, where I shot a video half-way up a hill!

Thanks for the nice and inspiring contemplation. Personally I resonate with showing up and keeping at it. I believe in the flow, or momentum that builds. It is about iterations and building experience with an idea, that can then bring fruition.

Short course on creativity. Thanks for making this!

definitely my favorite sounding track so far

A thing I realized not long time ago but made huge difference for me is: Small continuous effort is WAY better than eternal waiting for inspiration or free time. Got 15 minutes time? great, play around with the guitar. make some noises with the smartphone app. Record something with a dictaphone. Make some drum sounds. Program a patch. I've found this gives me a sense of 'momentum'. Then, when you finally have some more time, the inspiration comes by itself just by putting these little efforts next to each other and seeing them interact. That's because I have prepared beforehand!

There's an excellent video on the idea of mesmerism by PBS Ideas channel, well worth watching as it talks about the mesmerising elements of routine and how that can feed into creativity

One of my favorite videos from you is "How to turn a cassette recorder into a tape echo." I only have software, but I use that video for inspiration on adding harmonics & textures to sound

Loved the video! Personally, i used to be inspired a lot and have ideas in my head but struggled to put them down quickly enough to capture the essence of what i was feeling. I think the part of "showing up" regularly to create is so important. Getting that practice in has been really game changing for me as i dont get bogged down in the technical stuff not working the way i want and i can just create. Also, not letting the "editor" part of my brain take over and interrupt the flow. I can always delete something i dont like later, but running with the idea seems to take me places i didnt expect sometimes. Anyways, thanks again for the amazing videos!

Good stuff in here. Picked up some new ideas. Thanks!

Reading is my biggest inspiration. Particularly fiction. Just like you said: To get into someone else's head. It just nudges my imagination in unexpected ways and gets me thinking on new topics.

I am an artist that specializes in woodworking and carving but the inspiration techniques are very similar. If I am stuck in a certain piece I will put it to the side and work on something else for a while. Some days I will complete 1 project, some days I get the finishing touches done on 8 different projects, some days it feels like nothing was done, and some days I get an hours work into 8 to 9 different projects. When frustration sets in I have learned to step away and do other things. Otherwise anger gets in the way of the inspiration and that is when pieces get broken.

man you need make audio books, your voice is amazing!

I’ve once read this quote attributed to Stravinsky that since then stuck to me. Don’t know the exact wording anymore, but it kind of goes like: “I don’t wait around to be inspired, I start by writing down a single note and work from there.”

Words of wisdom.. this video is actually quite inspiring. Thank you Hainbach

a nice bike ride and a nice muse.....good food, good music and a little wine. that's all i need. :-)

Great video! I love Francis Bebey!

I’m reminded of a recent conversation I had with a young composer. He: What’s the most important thing to do if I want to be a good composer? Me: Listen!!!

You have great taste in poems

the distortion behind the reverb u madman

Loved this video, really interesting points and I think a great format I'd love to see more of from you. Thanks!!

Wonderful explained! Thank you.

Fantastic video! Hope you do more like this. So glad I came across your channel. Amazing work.

Great tips! Especially trying something different but related. My personal trick - try playing a different instrument that you cannot even really play. If you play piano, pick up a guitar, just mess around. You may find sudden new chord ideas or inspiration because you’re out of your element. Just my 2 cents :)

a great well here of inspiration on many fronts! thank you much for this.

I’m truly inspired by your enthusiaism. Thank you for that.

a wonderful video and full of helpful ideas!

Great video and wise words, especially regarding "staying in the flow". It can be a battle getting back into to the flow - one that I'm actually having right now, in fact. I know thta it will pass and I will eventually be able to dive back in but it's still frustrating when it#s happening. As always, keep up the good work.

This is a pretty great video, Hainbach. Departure? You have had a few of these lately, one building on another, talking about process. This feels to me to be of a piece with those prior videos. It is a very welcome one, stream-of-consciousness elements and all. It is full of good suggestions for directing, nurturing, and sometimes for reviving creativity. These ideas can be helpful to all sorts of people, not just musicians, but it will be especially helpful to receptive young artists and would-be artists (by which term I mean creative types of any sort). Thanks for making the effort to share these thoughts and to show us some of your instruments, reading material, and outdoor haunts. I agree on pretty much every point you make. Regarding inspiration, I find it to be coextensive with time given over specifically to doing the work, then letting my prepared mind resonate with my subject matter. The preparation of the mind is everything, as you outline well, to creating the context that allows me to find depth and beauty through whatever helps me to express myself. Finding regularity in giving myself over to my work, to my creative work, often proves to me to be the sticking point. To "clock in" for me means having the physical and mental wherewithal to place myself in at least a minimal sense of well-being to give rise to the resonances of a creative flow. With my crazy, extremely painful health issues, I can lose long periods of time to dealing with circumstances that make this kind of provisioning of regular work hours impossible for me. Getting back into a given project after these imposed breaks, even when I have done the mental preparation I think will help me to reengage, turns out to be far from straightforward for me. The preparation side is necessary and critically important but not sufficient to finding my way back into an unfinished piece of creative work. It usually takes patience, creative time. This is something I cannot reliably provide. There is a baseline sense of well-being we need to reach to find a productive engagement with our subject, tools, and - where applicable - our colleagues. For most people, happily, physical well-being is more or less a given. That part is either at the ready or is easily made so, and the main hurdles become mental ones. For my part, though I have my share of challenges on the psychological side, the biggest obstacles are the physical ones. Indeed, they drive some of the mental ones. When a person feels terrible, beyond a certain level of awfulness one feels pretty definitively, no amount of discipline, drive, or stubbornness - let alone normal mental preparation - will generate a fruitful connection with whatever one hopes to work. I try to leave things, when I have to stop work, in a state that will allow me easy reentry to that stream of possibility, but I cannot know when or if I will pick it up again, in a very concrete, always-real sense. The lesson for others is not to rely on an abundance of time and creative space to do later what you hope to do. I mean this in a way that goes much deeper than the usual platitudes about not knowing when we will expire. Permanent damage to and destruction of those possible projects is one bad day away. Sometimes a creative break with one's work is a good thing. Resting, recharging, seeing to other priorities, to families, friends, and all that, it is all good and positive. Imposed breaks are not good, and we can have them visited on us at any time. The medical world - in backward corporate-medical hellscapes like the United States particularly pointedly, but in all places, as we see again in recent months - does not offer solutions to all the puzzles we face in the course of maintaining our engagement with our possibilities. Make the most of the opportunities you have to what you hope to do. Planning for the future is great. If you can make, however, any of those creative plans happen now, if you can finish something sooner rather than later, take that option with profound gratitude for the possibility of doing it. Let it happen. Take that prepared mental and physical space, massage it into a flow, and by all means "turn on the recorder" as you ride the ripples of the moment. They are precious moments, whatever your skill level and experience. Thanks for another great video. There was some of the psychologist-style Bo Beats to this video (which I find to be his best look), but it is still clearly your own thing. Sorry about the length of my middle-of-the-night reflection.

Ich hab dein Video sehr genossen vielen Dank!!! :-)

Great great content! 🙏🏾

Danke... Again !

thx for very good inspiration...

I really wanted to get into Poetry more but it is super hard to find introductory books or good collections. It would be great if you could give some recommendations of your favourite authors or books. Since I am a German native I would be interested in poems in that language too! This is such an inspiring video thank you so much!

amazing work man!

The MASTER! I'm finding it hard to type this whilst bowing my head in supplication...

The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast is a go to for me when I get stuck! Love what you do, and thank you very much! Take a look at some of my videos, would love to hear what your interpretation is.

Interesting viewpoint about "..there's always a new keyboard". I kind of agree, yet I am always a bit hesitant to make a new gear acquisition. Of course you gain a lot of energy from diving into it. But I feel like sometimes it only procrastinates the problem and all the gear can be a bit overwhelming (I'm only saying this because I actually want to buy new gear haha). Anyway, keep up the vids!

brilliant

So much eerie space :)

I agree mostly with the things you’ve mentioned, but I have to say I disagree with the whole “keep working everyday and keep showing up”. Yes, it’s important to develop discipline and do the groundwork such as sound design for later use and create things without pressure of finishing, but some days for some people it’s hard to get out bed even (myself for instance), and the thought of doing anything music related is the last thing on my mind. I try to avoid forcing myself to create on these days as it will sour the process and my relationship with creating. In my opinion I think that we are too often a slave to our own work ethic and to the concept of productivity, and that if we aren’t productive we are somehow without worth. Not saying that’s what you are suggesting, but often I can slip into this mindset. All in all, another great video, and this is just my 2c and my own experience with creativity. Understanding our own cycles and learning to be okay with the peaks and troughs and sometimes just doing nothing at all. All the best! And thank you for what you do! Very inspiring, will check out the books you mentioned🙏