Music & Innovation

🎧 I have been part of an underground music studio for more than 10 years, and these are innovation related inspirations I drew from the musical journey.

I recently attended an innovation session titled “Unleashing Creativity in Teams: Lessons From Jazz” conducted by PA Consulting. They highlighted how innovation is related to Jazz music and its improvisational approach to making music. And it hit me hard, creating music and turning ideas to value is more similar than I ever realized.

🎶 The creative process and innovation process are reflections of the same school of thought.

And here are the top similarity points to take into consideration:

1. Orchestrating the thought process and ideas are like building up a new symphony. Different instruments and sounds introduce new vibes, you can have more than 10 versions of the same baseline.

2. Music and lyrics unleash imagination just like how thoughts and ideas manifest themself. This provokes creativity that is needed on both fronts.

3. In rap there is something called “throw a bone”, a lyrical bar that the MC builds upon. Take one favorite verse and start making your own lyrics on it and you will understand what I mean. This is exactly how people build upon each other’s ideas.

4. Out of the hundred beats we made, only a selected few made the final cut and were completed. We call them the “Lost Tapes”, remind me how only 14% of ideas make it successfully to the market?

5. Artists in the studio feed off each others energy, just like how NWA changed the musical scene and Eazy-E wasn’t even a rapper when he joined. Participants feed of each other’s energy in excitement and get lost in the ideation rhythm and beats.

🎷 We all enjoy one form of music or another because this is one universal language that doesn’t need translation. So is innovation, any sound is welcomed if it can vibe with the song.