Tell a story
Random/chance (eg roll a dice, toss a coin)
Use a pattern (eg a mathematical pattern such as the fibanacci sequence)
The muse - Respond to an urge or idea.
Set yourself a personal challenge - eg to write more marches than John Phillip Sousa
Try a style - Go for something new to you.
Imitate a hero (or parody a villain).
Collaborate with someone else - see where it goes
mutual input/ or lead by one person, in terms of the original aim
Competition - Attempt "pop"music, by considering the audience viewpoint as a starting point.
Jam for fun and record it- Keep the good bits.
Steal ideas deliberately - to begin a stimulus for your new ideas.
Try to do something new - Never done before. Break new ground.
Be pleasant - Make a gift to share with others (maybe an individual, or the whole world)
Verbally describe a style - then create it with sound.
Compose for a special/specific occasion (commissioned?)
Create studies/etudes for beginner students.
Comedy. write something funny.
Accompaniment for drama/TV/etc
Stealth - Arrange to have yourself secretly recorded. What songs/sounds/music do you create when you are not aware of it.
Vary a theme.
Parallel genres - Visual arts/ drama/ writing/ cooking/ building. What do these creations have in common with music? How can you use one of them to act as a stimulus for you. Eg create music to go with a visual artwork, use musical sound to describe the process of baking a cake (eg prepare ingredients, mixing, into the oven, baking, out of oven, cooling, alluring, consumption, burp, yearning for more.)
Lyric composition
Random words/ letters from a hat/ dice
Environmental words/phrases. Use words that you can see or hear near you eg on the bus on the way home, from your lounge room within the next 15 minutes.
Start off silly - Sing a recipe/ phonebook/ anything
What sounds/ stories are suggested by the singing.
Newspapers - letters to the editor
