Maximizing creativity

I would like to hear some tips about how to maximize creativity and how to reach that mental state when wonders happen. I looked for tips on the internet elsewhere about this subject but would like to hear how you guys do your stuff.
kakku

Interesting question with so many possible answers. For me going outside of my comfort zone often forces me to think of things differntly. For example. I usually start with a melody and build from there. Sometimes I will do an opposite approach and compose melody last. Sometimes I will think of a concept like , for instance "addiction" and make a project with themes inspired by  related things.  The first track was called " the love of whiskey" which was an inside joke based on a tv character i saw who went to AA to deal with his murder addiction and referred to it as his "whiskey problem".  It made me think of a woman I found hard to resist who was in a sense my "whiskey problem" so the song ended up being a bluesy laid back collab with  a flute player that was somewhat sensual. Needless to say things evolved but started with simple decision to throw out a word.

Thank you guys for the tips. I will try to take heed of your advice. My problem lies mainly in the creation of good choruses. They may sound good first but after a couple of listens I realize that they are mostly not good. It is usually a fast process but I don't get the results I'm hoping for.
kakku

Thank you sharke for your advice. I will try to get that material you mentioned. I would use any way there is to achieve good results although I am not very patient.
kakku

Kakku... I like Rain's response....   work, work, work...
 
The more you work the better you get at something.... Then out of that work there are things that just naturally start happening, as if by magic.
 
I heard a hit songwriter, Jeff Steel, a guy who has over 24 #1 country hits to his credit say that he writes a song a day. He doesn't write with the intent of writing a hit, he simply writes. And out of the 250 or so songs he writes in a year, most are good, 10% are really good, and of that number one or two of them get recorded and climb the charts.  It's a numbers game.
 
If you want to supercharge your creativity, get a co-writer to work with on some music.  Even, or should I say especially, the big hit writers often collaborate on writing. 
 
Without a doubt, I think some of the best music I have written has been a collaborative effort of more then just me working alone.  That also tends to be the music that publishers have picked up and signed most often.
 
Hope this helps you.

Thank you Ben for your big contribution. I appreciate it. I think that one can boost one's capability to be creative by doing for example meditation or by positive thinking.
kakku

Rain
Fast forward out of the late 60's druggy clichés... 
 
The greatest creative minds of all time often speak of genius and creativity in very down to earth terms, and examine it in a very rational, even mathematical light. 
 
JS Bach used to say that anyone who'd put in as much effort as he did would arrive to similar results. Whether we agree or not with this is NOT the point here. (I personally don't).
 
They also often avoid mystical non-sense.
 
Though the tendency to fall into mysticism is often seen as relative to creativity, and though many artists do indeed suffer from that shortcoming, it is but a shortcoming, not a prerequisite.
 
 
It is also a cliché, and one dearest to people who fail to mature past a certain point and who prefer to avoid stepping out of this very comfortable state of confusion and move on to the next step.
 
True self-expolraion and self-knowledge - which are essential if you want to truly express something - should leave no room for such a confused blend of half truths, myths, and other superstitions. 
 
Those are in no way essential to creativity and arts except to those who lack the intellectual discipline and are satisfied w/ remaining a cliché themselves. 
 
That doesn't mean that you don't acknowledge stuff beyond the limits of your comprehension, but simply that you don't fall for pseudo-science and fairy tales and dwell in that confused state. 
 
The advice they give will denotes their lack of hold on anything - nothing but vague formulas and clichés, which in themselves, show how little grasp they have on anything.
 

Hmm I have three degrees (almost submission ready for Honours), I must be doing something right.  I fear it is the blue-collar worker vs the thinker/artist problem we have here.  Sure, there is a level of creativity in all and it can be tapped into...I named it creative craftsmanship.  It's the hard slog type and not easy to tap into.  You can possibly teach it, via the usual wishy washy channels: meditation, perseverance and positive thinking.
 
What I was talking about is not pseudo mysticism, nor 60's drug addled meanderings.  I in fact said, that it was bollocks to think by taking x or y it was going to increase creativity.  At best substances like marijuana will block out the internal dialogue and make it easier to concentrate.
 
I also gave examples of how creativity strikes and you should listen i.e. seeing how the colours come through the window at different times of the day and using this as inspiration.  Also you should look, hear and feel.  How can this not be good advice to budding creatives??
 
I think Rain, you are a poor scholar who likes to cherry pick peoples ideas and arguments to back up your own spurious assertions.  I perhaps, was saying to the OP, creativity is not something which can be taken lightly...it is a path and a way of existence.  Choose it wisely.  And to use the analogy of 60's drug addled musician's, they choose the path and they got lost.  I would also be cognisant of accusing me of being drug addled too, I have been diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger's, so hence...maybe I muse and wander from the topic but that is what artists do.  The technicians get frustrated with this.  Yes I am stimulant medication for ADHD but it only acts as a filter not as muse, catalyst or key.  I can work for hours and hours and hours, far more than a mortal man...these days.
 
I would also be aware of the many studies done on creativity, ADHD and Aspergers here is a small sample of some of the readings I have done:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Aspergers-and-Genius-Share-Same-Characteristics&id=1020152
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/3353548/Hunting-the-genes-of-genius.html
http://www.autismtoday.com/library-back/Einstein,%20Newton,%20Mozart%20achieved%20genius%20through%20autism.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8496955.stm
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26925271
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2044646.stm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3091391/
http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/8681.html
What you are doing Rain, is tantamount, to bullying the odd one out in the school yard...fortunately I can stand up for myself and fight back...with facts.      
 
Finally you mention Bach, well I've been doing what I have been doing for 28 years, I think it is long enough to have a grasp on the topic of music...in general, I've also done art history, general history and various other topics.  When you don't get caught in the trap of human (note human not humanity) foibles and crap, it leaves time for scholarly pursuits.  As for the assertion I don't leave my comfort zone, I can equally throw this broad and unproved assertion back at you.  I on the other hand, have dabbled in popular music, western art music, video art, photography, painting, drawing, poetry.  I play various instruments, I have had music that I have written and performed used on TV...not once...not twice but three times...actually four times and three songs.  It is quite surreal to hear oneself on TV.  I have also completed (submission pending) three degrees, I also have enough subjects for 1st year on a 4th one, with subjects as broad as The Fall of The Roman Republic, Philosophy, Film Studies, Photography and Electronic Media.
 
So I ask who has left their comfort zone? "with no direction home, like a complete unknown"..."you can never go home anymore" and who would you trust to give an appraisal of creativity, some blue collar worker or a scholar?  Sure most scholars are less flashy, less megalomaniacal, less assured, shrinking daisy's or violets.  And yes you are correct, the ones who scream the loudest about "genius", scholars and philosophers know the least but just maybe, just maybe the universe (mystical mumbo jumbo) has thrown humanity a curve ball.  Maybe there are many like me and have been many like me.
 
"But you've been told many times before
Messiahs pointed to the door
And no one had the guts to leave the temple"  Pete Townsend.
 
But sharks who can yell at the top of their voice's are the order of the day, the world we live in is filled with scared apathetic sheep, who follow the rules and play the pipe to which the rest follow.  So perhaps Rain you should come out and play.
 
Ok now for the whole, you need help...blah, you've got serious issues...yea well tell that to my highly qualified shrink...just because I don't see the world like you doesn't mean I don't see.
 
Sorry to the OP, I just thought you should experience true creativity, and possibly the perils and pitfalls.  Honestly just listen to the hum of the universe and you will be able to create.
 
Ben
     

Thank you guys for giving me such great answers and tips. I wish you could also continue to be as brilliant on my less successful thread that I would love to get some comments on. It was my meaning to improve the forum.
It is here:
http://forum.cakewalk.com...spx?m=3099401&fp=2

kakku

Thank you dstrenz for your good tip. Walking is a very good excercise form and it is probably also a good way to get those creative juices flowing. Listening to music is also said to be helpful though it is something I don't do enough.
kakku

Thank you Guitarhacker for ideas. I gotta continue working then. Maybe some day I can be satisfied with what I can do.
kakki

Thank you dubdisciple for your tips.
kakku

Just do what you want to do, not what you think others want to hear. Magic moments happen so infrequently, you have to create frequently to find them.