Musical Brainstorms

I love music so very much. It has a magical ability to affect our moods and thoughts.

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So it's natural that we'll come up with different kinds of ideas when listening to different types of music.

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The main point of a creative thinking workout is to create conditions where we think of ideas we wouldn't have otherwise. And that's what we'll do via a "musical brainstorm."

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It's an easy one. Block off 30 minutes to attack an important challenge. (Or however much time works schedule-wise. Remix this approach, as needed.)

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Then build a 30-minute playlist with radically different styles of music. Especially if some of them are unfamiliar (or even unlikable).

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Ideally, switch it up every 3-4 minutes or so.

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A helpful, but not-even-close-to-exhaustive list of possibilities:

• Classical Music

• Instrumental Jazz

• Lo-Fi Music

• Upbeat Pop

• EDM

• World Music

• Psychedelic Music

• Heavy Metal (or try Death Metal for something really different)

• Blues

• Film Scores

• Folk

• Hip-Hop

• Minimalist Classical (e.g., Philip Glass)

• Oldies

• Acoustic Guitar or Piano

• Reggae or Ska

• Indie Rock

• Opera

• Bluegrass

• Silence or White Noise

  
  

Then, pop headphones on and go. Stay focused on generating ideas to solve whatever challenge is most interesting at the moment.

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But also, notice how the different styles of music poke the brain in different ways.