Open Certainty (a creative process).

I believe that when you master an instrument like a guitar or a keyboard, the instrument at the same time also masters you, in the sense that it naturally imposes its “language” on your musical approach, demanding that you play music in its specific way. 

So, the “vocabulary” of a specific instrument no matter how extensive, original, and expressive it can be, demands and directs the player to musically think and play within the boundaries of its framed charted territory.

In my projects as a musician/producer, when I started working with modular synths I intentionally never precisely knew (or wanted to know) what to play or compose for sure.

My process was less instrumental driven, and in fact more conceptual and experimental. I was trying to see what electricity and modulation would give me instead of commanding an initial specific musical direction, melody, or result.

Don’t get me wrong, I wanted something for sure, but I acted like I was a question asking for answers that would reply to my inputs.

These inputs were guided by a specific mood and theme I had in mind (a concept) and in having that, I intentionally created a filter that could select outputs from the machines, without limiting the possibilities. 

So, in the context of this theme filter, elements like textures, noises, and ambiance were more important than notes and melody. Actually, melodies when present were a byproduct of this process and never a starting point. 

I call this creative approach Open Certainty (Certeza Aberta)- a process in which I’m in the know but try to never be sure, keeping myself open all the time to what the modular synths can give me back.

As a matter of fact, this is not a process applicable only to music, but in fact to Arts in general, and to any activity in which a creative mind wants to avoid the already extensively mapped out routes so as to reach new destinations. ( If you pay attention, you will note that Generative A.I. applied to the creative process also goes in this direction).

It’s important to say, however, that in order to escape these “mapped out routes” one needs to know what they are and where they are. So, mastering is necessary as a basis for this process if one wants to know what to avoid and then break with the “be mastered” effect.

There’s a revealing example of this in an excerpt of the João Cabral de Mello Neto poem “O sim contra o sim"(Yes versus Yes) from the book “Serial” from 1959-61, in which he refers to Miró: 

"Miró sentia a mão direita demasiado sábia e que saber tanto, já não podia inventar nada. Quis então que desaprendesse o muito que aprendera a fim de reencontrar a linha ainda fresca da esquerda. Pois que ela não pôde, ele pô-se a desenhar com esta, até que se operando, no braço direito ele a enxerta. A mão esquerda ( se não se é canhoto) é mão sem habilidade: reaprende a cada linha, cada instante a recomeçar-se.”

In a free English translation, it means something like this:

"When felling his right hand too wise, so skillful that could no longer invent anything, Miró began to paint with his left hand in order to relearn, with each line, at each instant, how to start over fresh again.”

Certainty is a closed box filled with learnings and lessons. It’s useful for a lot of things. But to create something new, try getting the Certainty box opened.