The benefit to being Closed Minded

They say : “There’s a time and place for everything” and when it comes to creativity, or at least to ‘getting things done’ it couldn’t be more true with relation to ‘Mindedness’.

Popular sayings such as : “When one door closes, another opens” encourage us to feel hope at a time when we have just experienced disappointment as it suggests that an opportunity for something new and hopefully ’better’ may be around the corner.

I do believe this of course as I don’t ever dwell too much on anything for too long since life, like a sound wave form, is a series of ups and downs. Bad weather follows good weather, followed by bad weather, and so on.

In that same logic, I don’t believe one can be open minded all the time or that we can inhale alone without ever exhaling. Closing the door, is just as important as opening doors just as outros are to intros!

We can all agree that to be inspired we must be open and willing to be influenced. We understand that open mindedness is crucial to get out of a rut, to think outside the box, and to simply have a meaningful exchange with others but what happens when you do have a revelation, a moment of clarity, creativity, or inspiration? What then?

Closing in, taking the shot, and making a choice requires commitment and without making a commitment to the new experience it will either keep changing all the time or disappear before we get the opportunity to capture it. This means that there is a time and place to be stubborn, to be closed minded, or to close the door, snap the picture, or capture a moment.

The difference between simply experiencing a moment and creating a product is the ability to commit to an idea and to accept and appreciate the result.

My video section has a few good examples of times where I composed music to video. In these examples I let the visual events dictate where I was going to place audio events so it was easy enough since there was an existing framework to build against however the challenge was in selecting or creating AND committing to sounds that fit the visuals.

Here’s a scene from the video game called Hitman:

For more examples using a Rambo trailer, the Daredevil intro, the Sopranos, and X-Files please check out my video section here.

That said, the commitment is needed even in situations where there is only music of course. How do you decide if the music will include drums or percussion or wether you will have piano or synth? It can go any direction but you make a decision based on what you feel sounds best at that moment and you move ahead to the next decision.

I can’t guarantee that you’ll enjoy what you hear however in my experience I’ve often looked back on (or listened to) what I’ve created and I usually feel pretty satisfied and even surprised at the result.

So, keep an open mind to all the options available to you but definitely take advantage of the option to close the door as well so that you can complete what you’ve started. Happy writing!