Reading to Improve Musical Writing?

I recently got a Kindle. A Kindle Paperwhite, actually. It was a gift from my wife, Kelly. I think for the most part I have always enjoyed reading. But books take up a bunch of room once you get a bunch, and it’s just a hassle to figure out lighting if you’re lying in bed or something like that. So I just haven’t read. In years. Instead, I’ve waited to get a Kindle.

And it’s worked. I’ve read 3 books so far. The last time I read a single book for pleasure was in the summer of 2009. That’s a long time ago. And in the span of two weeks, I just read 3. Granted, over that time I traveled to Utah and Vermont, but that’s still pretty impressive for someone who doesn’t often read.

Actually, though, to say that I didn’t read or don’t read isn’t entirely accurate. Because I read music-related articles and current events all the time; just nothing in book form; nothing conceived from creativity. Opinion articles and dissemination of facts is so much different from a fictitious novel.

So often we lack that creative plug. Look around society. Unless you seek out art, all of the media pushed on us is watered down garbage. Books were replaced by TV as a leisure activity a long time ago, but now we’re inundated with reality shows, mostly devoid of creativity. A handful of movies and tv shows have some merit, but the majority is mindless.

Which can also be said of music. We’ve embraced the quick buck and the easy pleasure. The idea that something can be thought provoking has been watered down from something that once consumed your conscious to something that makes you raise an eyebrow, but move on.

And as all of this happens, it only seeks to perpetuate itself. We aren’t inspiring people to be inspiring. We inspire people to become rich or to be famous. Those qualities are soulless and empty. The goal is no longer to be a great musician, but a rich musician. And this focus yields crappy music.

But when you get back to where you mind can roam free, there’s this enlightenment. You get lost in the book or lost in the music. You end up using parts of your brain that the rest of society has turned off.

And when you surround yourself with this, you can finally feel inspired.

Maybe it’s just correlation, but I’ve had a bit of a dry spell musically for a couple months. As an artist at the stage of my career that I’m at, it’s easy to see a show like B-Sides as the end game and to not know where to go from there. That’s about where I was at. But after delving into some good books, I feel like my creative juices have been rejuvenated. Now I don’t think that I’ll be writing any songs about the Hunger Games or anything like that, but the part of my brain that creates got moving again; forced from its sedentary lull.

Now this isn’t a call to read. I plan on continuing to read. But it is a call to surround yourself with opportunities to be creative. I’ve often times tried to force myself from a dry spell by listening to more good music or getting to more shows, thinking that that was the only solution. But if you want your music to speak to people, you need to know how to tell a story and a good book may be one of the better alternatives.