The glory of the acoustic is that it’s always ready at the moment of inspiration. You don’t need any pedals or a noisy amp to get your tone together. The acoustic is your...
The glory of the acoustic is that it’s always ready at the moment of inspiration. You don’t need any pedals or a noisy amp to get your tone together. The acoustic is your anytime/all-the-time guitar. Keep it close by. When you wake up in the morning, walk over to it and simply start playing. All those weird dreams are still lingering, waiting to come through your fingertips and become music. Don’t think. Just play. It’s the only time of day not obscured by all the thoughts that start accumulating the moment you become conscious. Always record right into your phone. Don’t waste time hooking stuff up. Get right to playing, and keep the creative flow going for as long as it lasts. Once your conscious mind starts taking over, then give it a chance to make sense of the raw creativity. Can you repeat what you just did? Is there an A and a B section? If you’re lucky enough to feel a song manifesting, pursue it doggedly, following the path like a hound tracking a rabbit until you’ve either snagged that sucker, or the trail goes cold. Once you start playing familiar licks—stop. Give a listen back. Got it? Good. Move on with your morning.
ANOTHER THING…
After you’ve been doing other things for a while, grab your acoustic again. What happens when you pick it up and start playing this time? Is it that thing from earlier, or something altogether different? Follow through. All the emotions and thoughts that the day has brought are waiting to be translated. If it’s the earlier thing again, is it happening exactly the same way? Great! You’ve got something solid. If not, that’s cool too. Maybe it’s better, more developed. Maybe both ideas are valuable. Variation on a