It Might Get Loud

How are you creative?

I am a musician, and have played mostly guitar and drums for over 17 years. I remember my first guitar - it was a red Hohner stratocaster copycat. I got it during Christmas one year, and I remember when I first saw it in the garage after all the other gifts had been opened. My Dad led me to it through a false story about spilling coffee and needing some carpet cleaner. The first time I looked, I didn't even see it. But the second time, I did see it, and thanks to guys like Beau Bivins and my Dad, I was playing metal with power chords as often as I possibly could.

Any of us who likes partaking in creative endeavors can remember when we started and how it felt. That first time we made up our own song, played it with strangers who become our new best friends, and then showed it to others awaiting their response was unforgettable. The feeling of playing music you create, love, and share with others is like giving a friend a present. You are nervous about what they will think as they unwrap the box. Only, when you create something you are that much more nervous of the person's reception - what will they think of the colors you chose? What will they think of the sound it makes, or the way it looks? It's a fantastic feeling when it is received well and even better when asked for more.

"It Might Get Loud" serves as an example of the creative process through three men's legacies that have been shaped by the guitar. Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge get together to discuss the way the guitar has impacted their lives. We see and hear early video of the stories of U2, Led Zepplin, and Jack White's music, to sometimes comedic effect. However, this is not a documentary about bands, it is a documentary about creative persons. You see just how these guys approached the same instrument from different views and thus created something uniquely special where no two sound the same. The film explain's how each person developed or found their iconic instrument (The Edge's classic sunburst guitar, Jack White's unique take on pick ups, Jimmy Page's two neck guitar), and ultimately reminds us just how diverse and subjective music (or art in general) actually is.

The movie does not aim to create something with these three musicians. In fact, the end result of their conversation is a cover song, perhaps appropriately so. But there won't be any superstar band or "project" as a result of the meeting. I liked that. It kept the focus on the process of playing, discovering and creating. It took the focus off of content. These three men have made a career, traveled the world, and had emotional impacts on people across the planet from the same device: the guitar.

The thing is, it doesn't appear that being famous is what anyone was necessarily striving for - a refreshing change of pace in a reality tv world. The three men share a rabid love of playing and experiencing music. We go into their homes and see what vinyls they have, what their favorite songs are, and where other musicians have inspired each of them. It is fantastic. It is less rock star, and more giddy child interacting with music enthusiast. It made me feel like I was just hanging out with the guys. To make it even more amazing, the film revisits the homes or places where one of each musicians classic works were created.

The movie nicely covers a diversity in approach to the guitar. Each player has a specific philosophy about the art. Two ends of the musical spectrum candidly reveal themselves: to be aided by technology or to rebel against it. There are those who love the aid of digital manipulation, and those who refuse to participate in anything remotely digitized. In the film, these spectrum's are inhabited at polar opposites by Jack White and The Edge. It is revealed that The Edge has an individual, no two alike effect for nearly every U2 song. He shows how there is a sort of artistic approach to the aid of technical effects and devices. Then there is Jack White, who rebels against technology like a 4 year old to broccoli. His guitars and sound are happily obtained from thrift stores or places tech head musicians wouldn't dare touch. However, White is clearly in search of a specific sound. Jimmy Page appears to be somewhere in the middle of the two, having a raw sound but with the aid of some effect and polished gear.

I am very much opposed to overly used effects when I play. However, in watching the film it occurred to me that the effect is not the instrument or the pedal, but the player. Just as a paint brush doesn't talk or move without the aid of an artist, a guitar sounds how its handler wants it to sound. The artist is the effect pedal. The instrument is being played through them as much as anything digitally manipulated. The film made me think about how I create and what I use to create with.

It would be interesting to see the movie with other guitarists that cover more than a mostly rock n' roll spectrum. What would it have been like if BB King were there? Or how about a jazz or classical player who can manipulate the guitar into other absurdly beautiful or technical spectrums? Or, in a dream world - could you imagine if Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix were still alive and played together in this film?

I left the film wanting to begin playing again after a several year hiatus that had been brought on by my own lack of inspiration clogged by the demands of the stages in my life. Just hearing about how these men discovered music, play an instrument, and love their work made this an infectious movie. I cannot think of too many movies which left me wanting to go out and be creative. I got home, plugged in "Big Red" (all musicians name their instruments) and wrote a song.

All of the sudden I was playing music again, and it felt really good.

Questions to consider:

1. How are you creative? What is your primary means of creativity?

2. What inspires your creativity?

3. How often do you spend time admiring and praising the creativity of others?

4. If you haven't felt creative lately, what do you think some reasons might be?

5. What is something you have made that you are proud of?

6. How do you encourage the creativity of others?

7. Who inspires your creativity?