Unlocking creativity

I listened to an excellent sermon on creativity at Mile Hi Church today given by the Rev. Barry Ebert. In addition to being a minister, Barry is also an excellent songwriter and we heard a few of his songs during the sermon. You can't ask for more at church.

I related his message to the creativity involved in songwriting. Some notes that I made were:

- "Everyone is creative and you create every day" - He used the example, if you ask 1st graders to put their hands up if they are an artist. Almost all do. If you ask the same question to 5th graders, a few will raise their hands. If you ask adults, on a rare occasion one will raise their hand. However, we are all artists in some way and are creative everything (dealing with kids, driving to work, getting dressed). You need to acknowledge and have faith that you are indeed creative.

- "The emotion of transformation is joy" - Bring joy into your life and things start to open up. Being joyful about yourself and the things you do, will open up your creativity.

- "Get yourself out of the way, opens the circuits" - You don't need to analyze, just believe that you are creative. Remove the doubts.

He also gave a quote that I'll remember before getting up on stage:

"It will be perfect when
Fear knocks on the door
Faith answers
There is no one home"

My take on this is that if you have faith that you are creative, a good musician, and a good performer then you will portray that to your audience. If you think otherwise, it will show.

I remember a comment from my first Song School, "you are a songwriter. You don't need to take a test or pass any criteria. Everyone is a songwriter."

Have faith, you are a songwriter!!!