06 Apr Smartphone Sessions: Using Your Mobile Device As A Creative Weapon

Growing up, I can remember my mom keeping an old-school tape recorder in her purse to capture song ideas that would come to her at random moments. Today, we have smartphones with thousands of hours of recording space. We have access to apps that allow us to record at a quality level people could only dream about in eras past. I’ve heard so many stories of people recording concepts on their phones and those original recordings finding their way into the final creation. With apps like Spire and Garageband, you can even do multitrack audio and midi recordings on your phone. The possibilities are endless.

For modern creatives, nothing I just said is new. If you’re a creative reading this, you probably already have your arsenal of mobile tools to capture ideas at any given moment. Furthermore, you probably already have a substantial stockpile of creative fragments with the potential to be masterpieces. 

If you’re anything like me, you probably use this method of creative idea recording both randomly and sporadically. I don’t think there’s really anything wrong with this approach. You never know when a creative idea is going to occur to you, so it’s great to have recording tools on a device that is with you virtually all of the time.

One day during the quarantine, I was taking a drive around Simi Valley and I found a street that seemed interesting to me. I decided to follow it until the road ran out. I ended up running straight into a farm where animals were roaming about freely. It was a quite unexpected and delightfully inspiring experience. I saw this regal, vibrantly-colored peacock that was strikingly beautiful. When I returned home, an idea for an entire composition occurred to me. I quickly opened up my voice memo and began to hum the parts of this spur-of-the-moment composition into my phone. 

When I was done with my spontaneous session I had a thought: 

What if I set aside time to get out into the world with the express purpose of inspiring creative ideas? 

Then I had the counter thought, “But if I do that won’t it take all of the spontaneity out of it?” Continuing this conversation with myself, I’d answer “Not necessarily”. We never know what we will encounter when we go out into the world, nor what the change in scenery will inspire us to create.

The bigger concept behind this idea is that of intentionality. Intentionality is the means by which we invest virtue into the relationships we value most. Speaking physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, intentionality is showing up on purpose. 

Spontaneity has its place but intentionality takes the cake. Spontaneity can’t be trusted in the same way that intentionality can because spontaneity is, by definition, unpredictable. You can’t build anything sustaining upon something so unreliable. 

However, intentionality is the means by which the mundane becomes miraculous. Everybody eats, but eating with intention allows you to become healthy. Many musicians practice, but it’s practicing with intention that allows a musician to effectively grow. There have been billions of marriages, but the people I know that treat their marriages with intentional care get to enjoy them.

People seem to conflate the idea of spontaneity with curiosity, at least on the front end of the matter. I’ve found that intentional curiosity breeds spontaneous discovery. This version of spontaneity is at least as exhilarating as the random kind, but with much more reliable accessibility. The bottomline is that the most reliable way to summon creative spontaneity is in the intentional pursuit of curiosity.

Intentionality is a big idea. As one tool amongst many, I’d like to port the concept of intentionality into the specific application of recording creative  ideas into our smartphones.

 1. Schedule a session with just you and your smartphone recording app. 

Purposefully block out time to record whatever creative thoughts occur to you into your voice memo or phone camera app. The length of the session isn’t important. It’s about showing up to create on purpose for a purpose. 

It doesn’t even have to be musical. Maybe you write and want to spend time recording ideas for broadway shows or future novels. You could use your smartphone session time to brainstorm creative ways to solve problems at work. Maybe you’re an actor and you’ll use this time to practice monologues with your camera app. It doesn’t matter the creative outlet as long as you’re intentional about spending time letting it out.

2. Choose an inspiring environment.

In the book The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron presents the practice of taking yourself on “artist dates” as a way to encourage your inner artist. This exercise could make an amazing artist date, especially if you do it in a place you enjoy.

This location doesn’t need to be flashy either, as long as it holds some sort of inspirational significance to you. It can be going to your favorite spot in the house. But let’s face it… we’ve all been dealing with a pandemic for a year. Aren’t you ready to get out of the house? What if you went to your favorite spot on the beach, or hiked to your favorite spot on a trail and did this exercise? I love to go on drives so I could see myself doing it then. Going out to do your session also creates the possibility of recording random sources (ie. random people passing by, nature sounds, ambient street noise, etc). 

3. Give yourself the space not to edit yourself.

Don’t overthink this exercise. Once you show up and set aside time, there really is no wrong way to do it. Remember the point is to capture raw creative energy into your recording app of choice. Let the ideas flow. Perhaps the rawer the better. 

4. Use Do-Not-Disturb Mode

Distraction is the biggest threat to the quality of this time. Guard yourself from texts and calls for the duration of the session so that you can focus.

Whether creative ideas seem hard to come by for you, or you’re a person like me who has more creative ideas than the resources to actualize them, it can be extremely helpful to guide your creative time with a prompt of some sort. Here are some examples to get you started:

1. Take 10 minutes and voice record yourself creating as many two-bar bass line motifs as you can think of. You could do this with an instrument or just your voice. For added variety, choose a different tempo and/or time feel for each bass line.
2. Scan your environment for one word written somewhere in eyeshot. Spend 10-15 minutes creating a narrative around whatever this word sparks in your imagination.
3. Choose one color from your environment and come up with a theme based on it.
4. Find a tree branch or wooden stick and record yourself hitting as many things as you can with it for 15 minutes (be safe and sensible).
5. Go eavesdrop on a public conversation. Use the information you get from that conversation to jump to all of the conclusions you can. Write a narrative that fills in all of the missing context of that conversation.

A dash of intentionality takes this common creative outlet to a different level. If you decide to try this exercise I’d love to hear about it. Let me know how you approached it, what adaptations you made to the exercise, and how it went for you.