No Bad Ideas

I’ve often heard other composers say something along the lines of, “Most of my ideas are bad. I only share the good ones with the world.”

An important element of my writing process is my philosophy on good and bad ideas – there is no such thing as a bad idea. Rather than thinking of my ideas on a scale of bad to good I visualize them on a scale of start to (more or less) finished. It’s important to keep an open mind when creating, and I’ve found if I tell myself an idea is or could be “bad,” I trap myself. Instead, I just start writing and meet the ideas where they’re at rather than allowing my judgement as to whether they’re good or bad prevent me from writing any ideas at all.

Sure, there are usually plenty of other ideas behind the one that I choose to share with the world, but that’s just part of the process. Those ideas weren’t bad – they simply helped me shape the final idea. 

I’ve yet to hear any musical ideas that cannot be turned into something beautiful. And yes, that’s a challenge. Send me your “worst” musical ideas and let’s see what I can do with it. Most “bad” ideas are really just starting points if you embrace the mentality of “What can I do to turn this into something I like?”

I’m not going to pretend that I’m happy with all my first ideas. But let’s be clear, there’s a big difference between not liking an idea and an idea being bad. Bad implies objectivity while liking it implies subjectivity. This is a topic that’ll I’ll talk about more later, but music making is art. There is no right way to do it, so that means music is fundamentally subjective. It’s perfectly ok not to like your ideas, but calling them bad, that is to say objectively they have no place in the musical world, closes the door to any possibility of either using that idea in the future or allowing that idea to grow into something else. Saying this isn’t my favorite idea right now let’s me move on from it while keeping the doors open to using the idea later.

So here are some other ways I like to approach ideas.

Ideas Are Alive

I think about ideas like they’re alive. That means they’re constantly changing. I approach this by envisioning myself molding my ideas. The first thing I write down is usually a little bland for my taste, but I constantly tweak it – from changing the notes, rhythm, and so on. Oftentimes, this results in the idea slowly transforming into something new and perhaps completely different. But if it wasn’t for that initial idea, I would have never reached the final one.

This mindset often helps me get past creator’s block, as rather than waiting until I have the ultimate idea, I write down whatever comes to mind – even if it’s just a few random notes – and now I have something I can start to work with.

The Right Context

Context is important, and sometimes an idea seems bad simply because it’s in the wrong setting. Perhaps that idea works better for a rock song or a classical piece or a film score. Perhaps it works great for your style, it just belongs in a different song. Or maybe that idea belongs in someone else’s hands – try sending it to someone else and see if your idea inspires anything from them!

Inspires Later Ideas

I’ve often started a piece with a very specific idea in mind, which ultimately gets left out entirely. Even if the resulting composition is completely different than the first idea, that initial thought still sparked all the material I eventually wrote. By seeing all ideas, even those I’m not very excited about, as the potential seed for a beautiful piece of music, I open numerous creative avenues.

This approach has also widened my scope of inspiration. When you start to see anything as the potential start to a new piece of music, you quickly realize that there are virtually endless possibilities out there. 

Ideas as Learning Opportunities

Another important philosophy of mine when writing for my own projects is to always try something new. To embrace this, I must throw out the thought that what I write may be bad, as again, that can easily prevent me from trying new things. I won’t be happy with everything I try, and I can’t pursue every single new idea I have. But, even if it’s just one small new idea on a chart, by embracing it and giving it a chance – asking “How can I make this work?” rather than “Is this idea good enough to pursue?” – I’m creating a learning opportunity. Of course, when you have an overabundance of ideas to try, you must limit them down. But rather than asking which is the best, I find myself asking questions like, “Which idea resonates with me most right now?” or “Which idea is most appropriate for the song?” or sometimes “Which idea is the most different from my norm so that I’ll be pushed to expand my creativity?”

Yes, sometimes I try something that doesn’t work like I wanted it to. But if there’s something to learn from trying that idea, then that’s not bad. In fact, I believe learning opportunities like that are one of the most wonderful things you can encounter.

Ideas As a Snapshot

Another aspect of this I keep in mind is that any ideas I have are a snapshot of that moment in time. Looking back on older ideas and songs, I may be tempted to say that they’re not as good as what I’m coming up with now. But if they were true to who I was a person and a musician at that time, what’s wrong with them? Instead of thinking about the changes in my writing as becoming a better composer, I think of it as continuing my growth as a musician and composer as I learn new means of expressing who I am now through music. It’s not fair to past-Joseph to say I’m a better composer now. I write music to express myself, so I’m always aiming to create something that resonates with me. And that’s exactly what I did back then. So what makes that worse than what I’m doing now? 

Don’t Care What Others Think

When it comes to writing music – or really any form of creating – it’s easy to be concerned what others think. What if people think what you wrote is bad? But if you write something meaningful to you, and someone tells you that it’s bad, then they’re probably not – or at least shouldn’t be – your friends.

Not everyone will like everything you write, but that’s normal. We’re all different and have different tastes. Anyways, Music shouldn’t be about impressing. It should be about expressing yourself, sharing a part of you with the world. Real friends will see that, and they’ll support you 100%.

Last Thoughts

I should reiterate that my proposal to stop describing musical ideas as bad or good doesn’t mean that we should refrain from editing our ideas. It’s again about underdeveloped versus developed or unfinished versus finished. It’s about exploring the possibilities and finding those that resonate with you.

And again, this whole blog is a challenge. Send me a musical idea that you think is bad, and I’ll show you what I can do with it.