[Mr. Envelope]

Okey, it may sound wierd. But hear me out here:

I'm sitting here in the living room and philosophizes a bit, and came to think of books. I don't read books. I have read about two or three books in the last five years. But when I do read a book, I get images in my head of what I read. That must mean that my imagination starts to work.

When I compose in Ableton at night I sometimes feel that my ideas are bad and nothing sounds good. But if I started to read more books, my fantasy should get better, right? Which should help me come up with more interesting leads / basses / drum patterns / ect. I mean, if you don't have some imagination in your music creation process, everything should sound the same, right?

What do you think about my theory? Is reading books (about anything else than music), the secret key to better compositions?

[rizzkid89]

I find that books, movies, music, art, photography, and other creative works can be inspirational. While I don't think they will automatically make you better, I think you can harness some of that inspiration and then refine that into a great song. What I'm trying to say is, it's more about the process and inspiration that stems from other works, and not the act of reading alone, for example.

[relic]

It would seem to me that keeping the creative part of your brain working by stimulating it with other people's creations would benefit you and at worst would have a neutral effect.

[Evelon]

I think all creative/analyzing/re-organizing/critical/etc thinking train the brain and keep it active, just like any other muscle in your body when you work out. Also, other creative mediums like books/paintings/movies etc all have arrangement, build, structure, contrasts, dualism, dynamics, elements of surprice, etc. I wouldn't be surpriced if it would translate into what you are creativing. In essence, it all goes hand in hand.

[relic]

I'm a huge Science Fiction fan...whether it's movies, books, still art, etc...both the literal and invoked imagery from texts are very much an influence on my music.

[ckiiln]

Any inspiration is good. It doesn't have to be books. If your imagination is good anyway. I've read about 12.000 pages of fiction during the last two and a half years, but I make fine compositions even when I'm not reading. It's everywhere if you look for it.

[relic]

I just read an interview with a producer who takes a portable turn table, some vinyls and SP404 out into the woods and produces in the middle of no where.

[Paggos]

For me, gaming helps...so does working out, and just relaxing the mind....

Still make semi-chaotic music that doesn't "work", however...

[mimicry]

Literature is, like music and film, an artform that exists in time, meaning you get the information one bit after another in the sequence the artist intended. So there are a lot of similarities and common techniques between books and music. Tension and release, rule of three etc.

[stray medicine]

I think that anything that requires creativity and imagination helps with making music.
Books help people to become creative because they require imagination, picturing what certain images look like inside your head, it's handed to you in a sense because of description but you have to fill in all the blanks for everything that isn't described.
When you sit down and watch TV, that doesn't take as much brain power because it's an image that's just shown to you fully.

Anything that requires creativity, even if it isn't quite related to music can help get your creative gears going again and then help you write music better.

[essenthy]

if you know how to translate images from imagination to concrete musical parts , maybe yes , otherwise you better try producing harder :p

[Toronto Is Broken]

I'd love to create an album based on Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" series

[Optimal Prime]

I think it comes more from listening to music especially in the genre you are working within. You get to a stage where you begin to automatically forward think almost on a subconscious level. Quite often, it's ideas that came from other songs but you don't quite realise it. I find that if i'm working on something I wouldn't normally work on or don't listen to enough of that genre outside of production, it can be hard to make decisions.

[EatTheFood]

Originally Posted by relic

I just read an interview with a producer who takes a portable turn table, some vinyls and SP404 out into the woods and produces in the middle of no where.

This would be awesome on the top of a mountain, or in a forest.
I'd really love to take all my gear outside somewhere and be able to plug it to produce, I'm sure the creativity is greater. If not bigger, then simply different.

[Roland_Abuser]

Originally Posted by stray medicine

When you sit down and watch TV, that doesn't take as much brain power because it's an image that's just shown to you fully.

I think this is true to an extent but imo something which makes certain TV series/films stand out from the crowd is when you get more than just what's on screen through creative connotations etc.

For example some horror movies have stupid amounts of blood, gore and very graphic images but just aren't that scary whereas others can shit you up no end by not showing you everything, instead letting your mind conjure up images for itself.

As others have said I think that all (decent) forms of media are good for the creative process as they get your imagination working on one level or the other and you can then translate that into your music when you sit down to produce.

[AbM]

I really found that reading general philosophy can be pretty cool, but the more specific musicology books can really give you a boost when you're producing. Jacques Attali's Noise; John Berger's Ways of Seeing Robert Pepperell's The Posthuman Condition Pelosi's Plato on Music, Soul, and Body.. Very insightful, and can give you (well, it gave me...) an unusual amount of confidence in your productions. A little heavy, but really worth it. Even some of the mixing books out there are really cool. Like... Mike Senior's Mixing Secrets

[Subflex]

Originally Posted by relic

It would seem to me that keeping the creative part of your brain working by stimulating it with other people's creations would benefit you

agree completely

on another forum, they have a thread where you base a track off of a picture... and use the picture as the inspiration for your track. it works

[ghyt wembpang]

the idea that just reading a book will make you automatically craft better music seems quite silly to me.

however as others have said in here, stimulating your creativity and discovering new ideas can of course be a big help, and doing things away from making music can help keep you from burning out on it.

[carlgrace]

Reading books has certainly helped my lyric writing.

As far as composing music, it's hard to say there is a direct effect beyond just exercising your imagination.

I think of reading as creative cross-training.

[Subflex]

yeah, its kind of like an olympic athlete... a sprinter doesnt only sprint... he also does lots of other exercises and activities that work the same muscles as sprinting, so he can indirectly increase his sprint by other means nomsayin