Yanni Talks About The Creative Process

Wow, I saw this video by Yanni, and I was like blown away.  Sorry, for using cliche' phrases, but I'm just in awe. 

He explained in such detail how the creative process works for him.

Yanni was totally in his vulnerable state sharing which makes it even more special to me.

I love Yanni's music.  It has always been an inspiration to me because he just allows himself to create from his heart and from that deep space.

I love seeing these videos where he shows a side of himself that we don't normally get to see.

In the video he talked about when you're in the creative process, you can't observe it and if you are trying to observe it, you aren't in it.  (watch the video below)

I've found that the music just flowed from me when I was in the creative process.  Like a conversation is how I normally describe it.  We don't think about the conversation with a friend that we are having, we just talk to them.  For me, how I create is much the same way.

It is something that comes up from deep within me where it just spills out.  It just happens.  It just comes together.  If I try to force it (or in Yanni's words, observe it), it stops.  If I just surrender to it and let it happen, it shows up.

One of the things that I've never mastered and it may be in how my ability comes through, is whatever I create on the piano, I am never able to play again.  I wish I could, but if I try, it feels like one big blank space in me and I just stare at the piano.  So, all of my music has to be recorded at the time it is created or generally it is lost.

This is why I compare my creative pursuits on the piano to a conversation.  While you might try and paraphrase the conversation after it is over, you cannot repeat it.  I can't repeat it.  So, unless I'm recording, the music is lost.

I still remember the song, Meditation Music: Healing Angels, that I recorded some time ago.  I sat down at my keyboard just to mess around on it.  Sure, I felt this stuff that was bubbling up in me, almost like energy that needed to come out.  Yet, I didn't expect to be writing a song.

I sat down with my recording equipment running and put my fingers on the keyboard.  What came out of my hands at that minute surprised me.  Of course, in the moment I did not hear what I was playing.  I never do when I'm creating.  It isn't until after I'm done and listen to it, that I actually get to hear it.

Through that song, I felt so much warmth and energy and feeling and emotion.  I was crying hard.  I was swaying to what was going on.  I felt this empowerment come over me almost making it difficult to keep my hands on the keyboard.  When I got done, I had created the song, Meditation Music:  Healing Angels.

Most of the time, the songs I create are named for whatever thoughts are going through my mind at the time.  I jot them down and then find a title that brings them out so others can understand.  The songs are feelings and emotions and a conversation from a place I can't even describe.

Hearing Yanni talk about the Creative Process just helped me understand where I create from especially on my keyboard.  I have not recorded anything new for some time and I'm beginning to feel the urge to sit at my keyboard and do this again.

Often when I go through difficult periods of life, I'm not in a mood to sit at the keyboard.  Generally though, it is after I'm coming out of the difficult moment where I sit down and record.  I think until I've found my way through it, even if it is hard for me to see in that moment, that's when I can share it through the notes that I play.

Thank you Yanni for sharing this video.  You helped me understand myself a little more.

#Yanni

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

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