Forecast Calls for Creativity

This week – today in particular – the meteorologists are busy scaring everyone into home improvement stores, scurrying to buy snow shovels, getting their snow throwers tuned up, and generally battening down the hatches.  Hopefully the musicians and songwriters are pursuing their instruments and writing devices, respectively, with the same fervor.

Too many times people are anxious to use bad weather as an excuse to break from the norm.  “I think we ought to keep the kids home from school.”  “I’m going to call the dentist’s office and cancel the appointment I had for a cleaning.”  “It’s a good thing I’ve got a couple personal days still left.  I’m definitely not going to work today.”

C’mon, folks, be like the U.S. Postal Service.  Remember?  Through rain or snow or sleet or hail.  Does that ring a bell?

Think of it this way – there’s probably no better time to learn the songs your band is going to start adding to the set list.  Or to dive into that new solo you’ve been meaning to work out.  Or to clean out all the song ideas in your smartphone’s voice notes.

If you’re going to sequester yourself indoors, there’s no excuse for not getting on Skype with that songwriter you met at the festival last month who you talked about co-writing with.

A flat tire, long lines at the supermarket, or heavy traffic that made you late won’t fly when you aren’t leaving the house.

Here’s a suggestion – To really try to stimulate creativity, take your music projects into a different room this time.  Maybe you’ll have a whole new outlook on a song you’ve been struggling with, just because you’re sitting down with it in the kitchen this time.

Perhaps even make sure it’s not a room with a TV in it so that you’re not tempted to say, “Well, let me just check and see how bad the weather really is around the country.”  With my apologies to The Weather Channel, that won’t help matters.

Not that it makes it okay, but when it’s sunny and warm outside, of course it’s easier to walk away from the musical tasks you should be trying to check off your list.  But now that it’s not postcard weather, make friends with that To Do list.  Make a game out of it for yourself: “Okay, it’s 54 degrees outside.  Let’s see how many tasks on my list I can complete before it drops down into the high 40s.”

Who knows, you might just even end up writing a song about the weather.  Or about To Do lists.  Or both!

By the time you’re finished, as crazy as this sounds, you might just end up longing for bad weather days and smiling when you hear that there’s more dreariness in the forecast.  Perhaps it can be one of the secrets of your success.