Want to Boost Creativity? Try This Musical Ritual
Do you sometimes imagine yourself being a dramatis personae of an opera? With a soundtrack accompanying your every step? If not, I think you are a really weird person, but I won’t throw you out of my blog. After all, you can change.
Leitmotifs
I always liked how in operas (mostly, though this practice spread into movies as well) every person of importance has it’s musical theme or motif. You know that someone is to enter the scene before you even see the actor, just because the orchestra started playing this person’s motif.
Now, I am no actor, neither I am an opera singer. But I like to imagine myself not as someone who plays in an opera, but who actually lives in such a world where music precedes or follows me wherever I go. This may partly be due to my extreme fondness of all things musical. Either that or some sort of extravagance that I expose quite often.
To the point! I like to indulge in various forms of rituals that my partner often mocks me about. I have my morning routine, I have my evening routine and I have my afternoon routine. I have my learning routine as well. Thing is each time I want to develop some new habit I like to either make it a part of my existing routine or wrap some entirely new one around it. This way I have fewer reasons to avoid actually doing the habit.
The Thinking Habit
Some time ago I wanted to do daily rounds of reading, writing, sitting & thinking and working on various Secret Projects. I figured out the early evening should be a good time to do so, but I already had an Evening Routine, so I needed to find some nice name (that’s another idiosyncrasy of mine). Even though naming things is usually hard, this time the enlightenment came quickly. The evening is almost similar to nighttime and immediately, The Gathering’s song “Nighttime Birds” came to my mind. When my partner noticed the strangely named event in my calendar she started asking questions what is it about. I carefully explained while playing the opus on our stereo.
This was when my brain began to get excited again. I had already had a morning playlist to encourage great mood for the rest of the day (I wrote about it here as well). But a Nighttime Birds routine simply couldn’t go without a soundtrack of its own. I started to compile some tracks I found fitting, though the actual content is pretty much a moving target with tracks coming and going according to my current taste. Not unlike my morning playlist, after all.
Is it Science-based?
You can check out why having a routine (or a ritual) helps you anchor your mind in Chengeer Lee’s article “How to use personal rituals to seize the day”. Or Vidya Sury’s “The magic of routines”. This post is neither scientific nor intended to be a manual. I just wanted to inspire you to experiment with your own musical routines.
The List
So without further ado, here is my early evening motif triggering me to end whatever I am doing and to start being the Idea Machine (the trick I learned from James Altucher).
The Gathering “Nighttime Birds”
I won’t write much here as this one is probably obvious.
The Gathering “Strange Machines”
Cannot say which one I like better, so both of them ended up here.
The Gathering “In Power We Entrust The Love Advocated”
In my defense, I am a Dead Can Dance fan myself. I love their recordings from different periods and absolutely adore both of their powerful voices. But this cover version, in my humble opinion, is somehow as good, if not better then, the original. There, I said it!
Siouxsie & the Banshees “Trust in Me”
Discovered only recently, a wonderful rendition of a song from a Disney movie “The Jungle Book”. Even though the movie is quite removed from the original book I found it entertaining and the music was especially great there.
This Mortal Coil “Kangaroo”
Cannot honestly say why I like it, but one of my favorite This Mortal Coil works and perhaps even one of my favorites from the whole 4AD catalog. Also, I really like kangaroos.
This Mortal Coil “Song to the Siren”
This is one of Elizabeth Fraser’s greatest works in my opinion. Simply stunning!
This Mortal Coil “We Never Danced”
Another recent discovery. Not only a great track in itself, the lyrics somehow remind me of lost opportunities, thus encouraging taking those that present themselves at the moment.
Elizabeth Fraser “Moses”
So far, the only solo recording of the previously mentioned Elizabeth Fraser. If you like Cocteau Twins, try this as well.
Siouxsie & Morrissey “The Interlude”
Two great voices of British music formed an ephemeral duet just to give us this jewel. Even though I am devouring music since I was 6, I have never known a better love song in my life.
That’s it. Do you have some personal soundtracks of your own?
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