Compositional Technique: "the Mozart Effect"

This technique I call the mozart effect. It's named after this study that showed listening to classical music before taking a test improved your ability to solve certain types problems for a brief period of time, roughly about 15 minutes.

I get a similar but more powerful effect when I listen to something complicated and try to learn how to play it. I seem to get a jolt of creativity that lasts for a short amount of time. I feel like I can see things in a new light and recognize patterns I couldn't before with my compositions. It feels as if a dam has burst and I have a lot more of the answers, or a new understanding. I feel as if I have been "calibrated". The effect seems to work better the more the piece I am trying to learn is outside of my comfort zone.

I use it often when I have the urge to write something, but I can't seem to say what I want to say. I will go learn something complex, and it can sometimes release the pent up creative energy inside.

The effect unfortunately seems to only last for a short period of time. Anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. What's also interesting is that you don't even have to learn the whole piece. You just have to attempt to learn a part that is complicated for you to understand, without even actually ever accomplishing playing it properly.

Something else that is very bizarre is how the feeling of understanding fades away. You feel like you really learned something, that you really got it and you can't imagine not knowing this information in the future, but after a while it fades away it feels as if the experience never happened at all. Everything returns to being very average, and you can't see things the same way as before.

I think this is very similar to "shocking" your muscles when working out. You jump outside of your comfort zone to keep your muscles off guard so that they don't get too comfortable and continue to grow.

The effect works well if you are trying to learn something similar to what you want to write, but it also seems to work just as well if you try to learn something in a completely different style than what you want to write. For example, if I'm trying to write a pop punk song, I might go learn a bunch of speed metal, or classical or something. It can really unlock some doors so that when I return to the pop punk song, it feels a lot easier to write and I usually end up writing something more robust.