The Morning Show - Creativity and Limits

The Morning Show is an blog companion to the podcast audio

Hey there, and welcome to the morning show!  Wanted to share an idea about creativity that will hopefully help you, regardless of your field of expertise.  As you may know, I'm a musician, and musicians like to buy gear.  We often make the mistake of thinking that we need more gear to create new things.  I was searching for a good keyboard sound the other day.  My first thought was "MORE SOFTWARE!"  I almost dropped $350 on an upgrade.  I wisely decided to think about it.  Sometimes having a limited budget is the best thing for creativity.  Rummaging around in my studio, I hooked up a weird guitar effect that sounds like a keyboard, and recorded that onto an old reel-to-reel tape recorder a friend had given men.  I sampled THAT into my software, and boom, had the coolest old school sound you'd ever want to hear.  Not only did I have it already, and not only did I save myself $350, but I created a custom sound that nobody else has, and learned more about sampling and recording in the process.  Bottom line:  I was able to use limitations to create something unique. PLEASE remind me of this next time I start whining that I need more gear.  And let me know what you cook up!