Inspiration

It's amazing how little it actually takes to inspire us sometimes.  In my last post, I talked about Pinnacle, the insane four-day-long handbell marathon my wife and I attended in Nashville.  It was an intense couple of days, but in terms of percentage of our whole year, it wasn't all that much.

Yet the inspiration that came from it!  I was so jazzed after seeing so many outstanding handbell ensembles that I came back, ready and rearing to write.  I'd told Dave Harris of the Raleigh Ringers I'd do a piece for them, and last night, I was able to send him not one but two pieces: a transcription of Debussy's Clair de Lune, and an original entitled Escape Velocity.  Not sure what they'll do with them, but it felt good to get two big pieces written in so short a time.

I often wonder if inspiration is like that: if I could constantly pour sizeable amounts of inspiration into my mind (in the form of recordings, concerts, rehearsals, talking with fellow creative people, whatever), how much could I create, and how quickly could I create it?  I won't say those two pieces were effortless (because no piece, no matter how easy it feels, is effortless), but for those couple of days I was working on them, nothing else existed.  I'm sitting here on Thursday, not sure what happened to Saturday through Tuesday.

Inspiration is just one of the topics I'll broach when this blog changes over on Sunday, August 1 to The Creative, a look at creativity in the world all around us, and how just a little bit of creativity every day can make our world a better place.  More than just a blog for musicians or writers or artists, The Creative will be a portal for everybody to realize the creative potential in their own lives, and how to add just a little creativity to their world each and every day.  I'll still talk about my music and all things handbell, but this will also give me the chance to delve into writing, art, theater, and whatever else takes my fancy.  I do hope you'll join me.

Oh, and in one last handbell-related item, I have uploaded the most recent audio files of my latest handbell releases over on www.jasonwkrug.com.  Click on "listening station" on the left to get there.