[box type=”note”]My Writing 101: Unlock the Mind assignment is to spend 20 minutes writing anything that comes into my head.[/box]

Creating is like playing. You go and do things without thinking too much about them. And you’re not making decisions as you play. Your brain will make decisions for you unconsciously. You need to breath, your muscles need oxygen to help you with playing. But you don’t do it consciously. This way you get into a flow where things will start to happen without thinking about it.

When I am playing my guitar I cannot think about anything, I simply need to hit the strings. I can’t think of things like “is my timing okay?” or “will it sound right?” When I’m thinking like that I know my timing will be off and my playing will suck. The only thing I can do is to play while not thinking about it.

More or less the same thing happens when I work on a piece of music on my laptop. I need to find this sweet spot where I’m not judgemental in ways that will limit the outcome. When I am working I need to get in this trancelike state where I loose myself and just play, listen and feel what’s happening.

While playing I need to allow myself to make mistakes because I can erase them later on. And some of these mistakes will probably turn out not to be mistakes.

To stop the mind from thinking, it’s a hard thing to do. But it’s needed when creating music. It’s my rule number one.