60 Days to Rehabilitate a Creative Muscle
By: Lawrence Yeo
Tags: Self Improvement, Musings On Music, Creativity, Rehabilitation

Photo Credit: Stan Robinson

I’ve been afraid to admit this to myself for the last few months, but now’s the time to own up to the reality of it.

My creative muscle, the very thing that’s kept me feeling alive for the last 5 years… has atrophied.

My name is Lawrence Yeo, and I create music under the name Trebles and Blues. Music is one of those interesting playgrounds where fully grown adults can have superhero names that other fully grown adults will refer to you as without hesitation. However, since I haven’t made a single song since December of last year, I feel guilty of having this luxury. I guess for now, you can call me Lawrence.

I haven’t made a song in almost five months, which represents the longest stretch in time in which I haven’t made music since I started in 2009 (to be fair, I have made some music with my good friend, No Alias, but I’m referring to solo work in this case). Not surprisingly, these past five months have been extremely challenging. I’ve doubted my abilities and talents far more than I ever have in my life thus far. My drive to become better has waned. I’ve wandered too far from my roots.

So it’s time to try and find my way back.

When creativity flees, there are usually two solutions:

(1) You step away from it further and “live life” until inspiration hits you again. Then you ride that wave and get back to it. I don’t like that solution because I hate waiting for shit to happen.

(2) James Altucher speaks of exercising your idea muscle to prevent it from atrophying. In my case, my creative muscle has already atrophied, so I would need to rehabilitate it. Just like an athlete would go through an intense physical therapy regimen after an injury, a creative would need to exercise their muscle as well. Repeatedly. Again. And again. And again. Until the numbness disappears and you can feel the muscle moving again. Then you can work to make it stronger than it ever was.

Solution #2 sounds fucking hard. However, it sounds better than waiting for this elusive sense of inspiration to hit me.

Today, I have decided to start my creative therapy through exercising my degenerated muscle. Not through delicacy, but through targeted, repeated use. Here’s my pledge.

The Regimen:

Everyday for the next 60 days, I will be making a beat and posting it up on Soundcloud, while also writing a little bit about each piece on Medium as well. Writing is another creative outlet I’ve always wanted to explore further, and this can also act as a little journal I could keep throughout this journey. The posts will probably be very short and will act as complementary pieces to the beats.

They will be posted on my Soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/treblesandblues

They will be posted here on my Medium page: https://medium.com/@lawrenceyeo

The Rules:

#1: I will have to make the whole beat on that specific day. I will not be able to work on it the day before and complete it the next day. Everything has be done on that day.

A quick note regarding samples: If I use samples, I can choose which ones I want and chop them up prior to the day I actually make the beat. However, I cannot arrange them or sequence/record them in until the day I create the beat.

#2: I will post the song on Soundcloud and post some accompanying thoughts on Medium before I go to sleep that day. As a result, some posts will be up after midnight PST, which technically is not on that specific day, but to me it will be because I haven’t passed out yet.

Some Disclaimers:

There should not be any expectation that these beats will be super complex and intricate pieces. When rehabilitating an athlete, you don’t just throw him/her into the next regular season game with all the other folks, hoping that they will magically perform. I have just one day to make these beats (which already includes work and other life priorities as well), so time is limited. However, I am going to work with the restraints I have to exercise my creativity. Some days will be good, some days will be bad. Some beats might stink, some might come out all right. That’s the nature of rehabilitation.

Some of you might be asking, “Why do you have to make it public then? Why don’t you just do it on your own time and keep it to yourself?” Well, a main reason is accountability. Once I hit “Publish”, it doesn’t matter how many people see this — I’m held accountable to myself to make this shit happen. Another reason is so I can share in this journey. Honestly, I don’t want to have any expectation as to who is going to see this through with me. In the end, it might literally be nobody else but myself. And that’s perfectly fine to me. However, if there are other folks that happen to check in every now and then, some feedback loops might be created that would really help me out. I know this isn’t going to be easy, so having a few folks there along the journey would be good for morale.

All right, it’s 7:47 PM here now in Los Angeles on Tuesday, May 3rd. When this is all said and done, it will be Saturday, July 2nd. I’m going to publish this now and go to my room to work on Day 1’s song. I’m nervous, but confident in knowing that this is what I need.

Thanks y’all.

-Lawrence