What Does It Take to Bring a Creative Project to Life?
I once heard a humorous line that is probably more a reality than a joke.
What does it take for a musician to bring a performance to life?
A musician drives 50 miles in a $5,000 car, carrying a $50,000 instrument, to perform for the evening and get paid $15.
While that may sound ridiculous, it is closer to the truth than I would like to admit. But it also points to something we don't always think about: the difference between creating art and doing everything necessary to bring that art before an audience.
You Don't Just Get Up and Play
I once had a neighbor who asked whether I would be performing at a community show, as I had been doing for several months. I told her I was taking that month off because I wanted a break from having to maintain my daily practice routine.
She looked surprised and said, "I thought you just got up on stage and played the piano."
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Anyone who performs knows that practicing and rehearsing go with the territory. Whether you perform as a pianist, as I do, sing in a church choir, or play in a community band, individual practice and group rehearsals are essential.
Most people understand this to some degree. After all, we know the old joke:
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.
But there is another side of creative work that is much less visible.
The Work Behind the Work
The effort that artists, composers, and other creative people make to bring their work to the point where viewers and listeners can experience it is often less obvious.
Recently, a musician friend of mine was selected to be the music director of a prestigious jazz ensemble preparing for a performance at a top New York City jazz club.
My friend is not only an excellent ensemble director but also an extraordinary violinist. Yet before anyone could hear the performance, she had another job to do: she had to prepare the individual instrumental parts so that every musician would have the correct music on the night of the performance.
The reality was simple. If she didn't do the copying and preparation, there would be no music for the ensemble to play.
When Composing Stops and Preparation Begins
Her experience really hit home with me recently when I was preparing to launch my two reed quintets.
The composing was finished—but the work wasn't.
To bring these pieces to the point where musicians can actually play them, I had to edit and prepare 45 musical parts, create combined recordings, and organize approximately 300 pages of music into printable scores and parts.
The process required me to take nearly two weeks away from composing—the creative work that gives me such satisfaction and enjoyment.
It was a reminder that finishing a composition and bringing a composition to life are not necessarily the same thing.
The Other Side of Being an Artist
I've also learned a great deal about what I sometimes think of as the "corporate" side of creativity, from my wife, who is a lifelong visual artist.
A painting may be finished, but that doesn't mean the artist's work is finished.
Paintings need sufficient time to dry before an exhibition. Artwork must be photographed. Those photographs may need to be carefully adjusted on a computer so that the colors accurately represent the original work. Images have to be prepared for prints and websites. Work has to be titled, catalogued, priced, packaged, transported, displayed, and promoted.
The list can seem endless.
Filmmakers, game designers, writers, composers, photographers, and many other creative people encounter their own versions of this same reality. Some of the work remains highly creative. Other parts are organizational, technical, repetitive, or simply necessary.
But all of it contributes to getting the finished creation out into the world.
Bringing Creativity Into the World
Perhaps that's the part we don't see when we hear a wonderful performance, stand in front of a painting, read a book, watch a film, or listen to a new composition.
We experience the finished work.
Behind it may be hundreds of hours of creating, practicing, revising, editing, organizing, preparing, and solving problems that the audience will never know existed.
Whether you are someone who creates or someone who appreciates the creative work of others, recognizing both sides of the process—the creative and the practical—gives us a deeper appreciation for what it really takes to bring an idea to life.
Creativity may begin with inspiration. But bringing it into the world takes work.
Interested in Exploring Composition or Playing the Piano?
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