Process is an experience one can have with something. It could be cooking, cleaning, writing, washing, making music, or anything else. Yet, there are some ways in which a purely creative process differs from the one which is not. Therefore, as a creative person, it’s imperative to find one’s process. And Aryf is here to help you as he shares his own creative process as a musician.
From the beginning, Aryf knew that music was in his blood. He was born with a foot that tapped at every rhythm and an ear that instantly responded to new sounds. In being able to identify this gift from an early age, Aryf knew that he’d have to develop a process that allowed him to take this gift to the next level. Talking about the initial stages of finding his creative process, he says, “In the beginning, I had no idea that there’s something called a process. I guess this was when my intuition was at its height.
I wanted to play every instrument, sing every song, and exhaust myself till I got it right. That raw fervor, although very productive, took its toll on me. I found myself too exhausted to do anything that wasn’t music. Of course, that was an extreme approach, and I knew better than to continue it. I think it was at that time that I started to develop a more nuanced approach to making music. I felt the need to develop a method, or timetable as I used to call it, to have dedicated hours of practice. Although it started off well, I soon found myself limited by the restrictions it put on the free flow of my ideas. I knew it was time to evolve a new creative process.”
Creative people are often pictured as ones with cluttered desks and tangled-up wires. They seem entitled to messiness and disorderliness because their minds are slowly beginning to give shape to their art or music. For Aryf, it was no different. At one point, he had to allow himself to let the messiness be and focus on creating music. He says, “Creative people often come in the grip of creative madness.
They begin to belong to a different world. It’s those situations that need to be dealt with care because I feel that’s where music comes from – a place beyond our own yet somehow rooted to where we are. So, in order to make the most of this creative high while not letting go of life’s other branches altogether, I decided to find the hours in the day when I felt most inspired. Turns out, a two-to-three-hour early morning practice session was the best time for me to make music. Not only did it leave me the rest of the day, but it allowed me also to ponder over what I have created without missing out on life.”
May Aryf’s creative process yield the kind of music that can inspire others like him.