your personality type -

What are your preferences for the ways you write music? Some people like to sit quietly and internalise it, others like to thump away on an instrument, in creative broadcast mode. There’s an interesting parallel between writing music and the Myers Briggs personality type assessment, and one which you can use to stretch your creative muscles.

The Myers Briggs test identifies your preferences in how you perceive the world and make decisions. It places you in one of 16 areas in a grid, each area of the grid being a different balance between the following dimensions:

Focus – where you get your energy from and where you prefer to focus, whether outward-facing activities or internal thoughts.

Perception – whether you prefer to focus on information from your five senses, or more theoretical and abstract ideas

Decisions – whether you prefer to make decisions based more on logic or feelings.

Judging – whether you prefer to get things done and move on, or prefer to stay open to changes and new ideas.

We use all of these attributes, but have natural preferences. The idea is that knowing what your preferences are can help us become more aware of how we operate, and also understand and work more successfully with others who, for example, may have a different set of preferences.

But how could you use it to write music? Well I’m an INTJ, which means my preferences are for relative quiet, ideas, abstract theories, logic and planning. You can see where my preferences for writing music (working mostly alone, being methodical, going for a walk on my own to clear the mind and generate ideas, reflecting etc) come from. But what if I were to go completely against type?

The ESFP personality type is the opposite of my category. They get their energy from the outside world and interactions with others. They tend to be concrete rather than abstract, focusing on details and the present rather than the future. Their decisions tend to be based on personal need / social implications rather than logic or objective criteria. And they tend to keep their options open, delaying decisions in case circumstances change.

To stretch myself by following these preferences, I might seek out collaboration, write by sitting in a room with someone (or even a group), keep the structure of a composition loose up to the last minute, and so on. Just writing that made me feel uncomfortable with the idea! But that’s the point – yes, it would feel uncomfortable, but I would grow as a composer, gaining skills and experience.

What approaches to writing music would stretch you?

You can find free online Myers Briggs personality type tests online, along with a wealth of information about what it means to be each personality type. And of course there are plenty of other kinds of personality tests you can take which might give you insights into how you approach the creative process.

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