The Musical Alchemist - A Mind's Eye Mindset You Need to Channel Your Creativity and Share Your Authenticity

The creative mind has always been an enigma. Abstract, right-brain thinkers and artists usually are the first to come to mind when the subject of creativity arises. From fanciful euphoria to self-perpetuating depression, creatives explore themselves through their expression.

The truth is that everyone has the ability to be creative. Yes even YOU!

If you think about the formation of celestial bodies or the process of making wine, the act of creation in itself aims to break the mold, explore different states, to destroy and combine things to produce new results.

In other words, ALL creation is a form of transformation.

I’d like to show you how unlocking your own musical creativity, through the lens of the ancient practice of alchemy, can spark new perceptions and reveal the hidden genius inside you!

Artistic alchemy is truly the leader in self-transformation.

A paradigm for creative, personal and spiritual development.

“Art is not a thing, it is a way” — Elbert Hubbard

Do you have a hard drive full of unmixed tracks, half completed songs and 8 bar loops? Do you constantly create new ideas but never finish anything? Have you always been attracted to make music, but never made the plunge?

Or, like me do you have hundreds of guitar riffs scattered across all your mobile devices?

Despite a chaotic, jam-packed schedule you’re always daydreaming about writing music and conjuring up new ideas. You’ve got the creative itch. You don’t necessarily know where to start, or exactly how to finish but you’re determined to CREATE!

Maaad props. We need more people like you.

What if I told you there was a plan, a method to madness, an order that could help you focus the chaos in your mind and turn your dreams into reality? (No I’m not a Sith Lord)

I’ll tell you this now. The approach you have towards your creative endeavours is as much of an art form as the creation itself. “How” you do things is just as important as “What” you do. The journey is directly linked to the destination, and alchemy is the map.

“When in my most inspired moods, I have definite compelling visions, involving a higher selfhood. I feel at such moments that I am tapping the source of Infinite and Eternal energy from which you and I and all things proceed. Religion calls it God.” — Richard Strauss

I don’t want to get to hippie-dippie with you and deep dive into the origin of creation, but those flow-state moments of inspiration are something we all know and have felt.

Those moments are the key to discovering your voice, and ultimately yourself through the creation of music.

I’d like to share my strategy to help you to strategically incorporate a workflow that encourages those moments.

Rethinking Alchemy

First, let’s talk about alchemy.

“You mean the primitive scientific pursuit of transforming led into gold?… What does that have to do with my music?” - You

Haha… I hear you, but stick with me. (Yes I realize I’m talking to myself while writing this).

Alchemy, often misconstrued as a primitive low IQ quest in turning
led to gold, is actually an enlightening philosophical framework. Although it’s commonly reduced to have only been a less advanced pre-cursor to modern chemistry, it was actually in truth a high-level esoteric science.

Often termed as “The Great Work” many great minds such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Issac Newton, Carl Jung, Terrence McKenna were students of the craft.

Alchemy as been hinted to in countless artists' works over time, such as Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, Pink Floyd’s album Saucerful Of Secrets, or even Yacht Club’s Shovel Knight, but has still remained veiled in secrecy.

Exit conspiracy talk, stage left even!

“Stage left even!” — Snagglepuss

Parallel to the proverbial “hero’s journey”, the end goal is self-transformation into a completed state. The aim is to correlate the various transformational processes of matter to the various stages of growth and developmental progressions along the human journey.

The Alchemical Process IS the Creative Process.

What I want to focus on is bringing that alchemical understanding to your creativity. The same processes that occur within the different stages in alchemy can apply directly to your creative workflow.

“ The skill and process of learning an instrument (or music production) parallels the process of individuation in many ways. Therefore, when music is used as a medium for inner transformation, it becomes alchemy, and the suffering of the music maker is transmuted into inner gold” — Carl Jung

The whole purpose behind understanding the processes of material creation, with alchemy's philosophical approach, is to then correlate them to your personal experiences. Then, you can identify those principles and apply them to the refinement of your character.

Often this is called “The Great Work”. Which within alchemy is described as working with the prima materia, (primary material) consciousness, to create the philosophers stone; the mystic union of the Self with the All. It’s the same with music. You are a music producer, using your authentic human essence to create with the goal to be in union with your creation.

The Musical Alchemist

Your music will reflect the personal relationships you have to the various steps in your creative workflow. Pretty meta, right?

Do your current production practices spark creativity and motivate you towards the completion stage? Or does it stagnate your progress, break your focus and lead you to self-doubt and over-analyze yourself?

Either way… your output with reflect that process. As within, so without.

It’s time to become the creative wizard you already are.

The person who completes the work is a different person than the one who started it. Artistic creation is a process of external and internal transformation. Mirroring the alchemical process, that all creative pursuits follow (in one way or another), will support you in creating meaningful work and most importantly, finishing it!

With that understanding, you can begin to create a workflow, a system, a method to channel your creativity with passion and meaning behind it. And in turn, you’ll also learn about your craft and yourself.

This is using alchemy in music. WOKE

7 Steps Of Creation

The key is to develop an approach to the way you create so that you produce something meaningful, remain inspired and see it to completion.

Every step feeds into each other, they are intrinsically connected. Your ability to complete the full cycle depends on how much focused attention you give to every step.

For example; if you don’t take the time to properly complete the “calcination” stage; meaning establish a vision, set certain limitations, find your sounds/tones, pick a musical key and any other preliminary mental or technical task, you’ll have a harder time with the“dissolution” phase of being creative, generating ideas and staying in a “flow” state.

Here are the 7 main alchemical processes in the transformation of matter and how they can apply to your music production.
 
1. Calcination — Is the process of decomposing/reducing a substance through heating. 
 
Music — Visualize/Determine. You want to make a song and are ready to act! Clarify the music you intend to create. You have to reduce the infinite possibilities, to allow for creative freedom. Design your sounds, write some lyrics, find your tones, select/create your instruments. All this is to optimize your creativity.
 
2. Dissolution — Is the process of liquifying, dispersing from solid to liquid.

Music — Flow/Improvise. *Vibe* out and unlock your creative flow. That’s right, right brain only. No judgement., no inhibitions. Jam out ideas and improvise. Try and capture anything and everything. Keep it messy and creative. There are no mistakes in this step.
 
3. Separation — Is the process of sifting, filtering, to extract.

Music — Collect/Extract. Decision time. Now it’s time to judge and start making sense of your ideas. Fall back into the familiar role of being your own analytical left-brained critic. Collect your best ideas and ditch the rest. 
 
4. Conjunction — Is the process of combining elements into a new substance.
 
Music — Compose/Arrange/Combine. Time to start structuring your song, where it starts to take a new identity. This step is where the personality, impact, and story of your song will take shape. Try a different sequence of parts, think about transitions. What will translate this expression to its most meaningful and highest potential
 
5. Fermentation — Is the process of purifying a substance, or breaking it down into a more pure form.
 
Music — Refine/Polish/Edit. This is usually the longest most tedious step. This is the big workload. Removing mistakes, editing audio and correcting timing. The overall clean up of the session, adding layers, effects, extra elements, removing parts, tweaking sounds, and transitions. 
 
6. Distillation -Is the process of extracting, refining and balancing a substance.
 
Music — Mixing. Balancing the levels, accentuating the dynamics. Enhancing the synergy of sounds. Processing with EQ, compression. Adding depth. Automation of various parameters to add impact. The extraction of the essential meaning of the song. The final artistic touch. 
 
7. Coagulation — Clotting and solidifying, into a new form.
 
Music — Mastering. The final glue. Making it sound good on all types of audio systems. A final birds-eye view of total balance and harmony. Solidifying it into a single file, ready to release.

Only YOU

In the end, you’ll have to discover the recording process, writing environments, inspiring mindsets and DAW templates that lead you to feel as if something is moving through you when you make music. If you are properly being a channel for the power of your creation, you’ll find yourself inspired to write.

In that flow state is where you’ll find yourself grooving with a smile on your face and a singing heart. NOT paralyzed by analytical thought. If you’re trying to ‘think out’ the music using theory or structure, that’s the ego-mind making music from its base of knowledge.

The key is a complete lack of resistance. Letting it all come through with a musical vision, but no plan.

“The deepest experience of music, like the climax of love, is a self-forgetting, a replacement of the ego by the state of ecstasy: a condition of perfect presence and perfect concentration — concentration without effort, presence without a person to be present.” — Joscelyn Godwin

You are not making a thing separate from you. Everything exists in relationship. Your music is a harmonic expression of yourself. The connection you have with it throughout its manifestation will be the connection you share with others.

As you are created in the moment, so does the art become created!

I hope this provided some insight into how you can approach exploring your creativity.

Interested in learning more? Click here to download your Mindset Map and discover your next steps in your musical journey.

My name is Alexandre Joyal. I help music creators achieve success with their music by teaching them how to produce themselves and adopt a creative mindset.