Simpedia

Carrie L., Michigan

I’ve actually been thinking as well this week about who I am as a teacher. Am I able to grow, change, be the teacher that students need? It is ‘ok’ to follow a different series of events for some students and not others and create a program that works even better in some aspects for everyone? How do I incorporate Special needs in a way that works for our studio in a more powerful way?

Mark M., New York

One useful perspective comes form Robert Fritz, a well-known author, consultant and artist who specializes in the field of creativity. He says that creativity is not about being creative. It’s about creating.

That may not sound like a distinction at all, but it’s actually a crucial distinction, one that can make all the difference.

It doesn’t matter whether you feel creative or whether you perceive yourself as someone who is creative. It doesn’t matter whether you’re exceedingly clever or “original.” What matters is that you engage in the act of creating, whether that’s in the arts or in any other area in life.  It essentially means you take the subject/area of your intended creativity and approach it as a craft. Craftspeople do their work, day after day. Artists who rely on inspiration ebb and flow in their work, and even those who tap into genius have no idea if they’ll ever tap it again. But those who get to know their work like a craft are able to do their work, day after day. They’re more likely to turn out final products in the first place, to have those final products be at least halfway decent, and, also, and pretty importantly, to keep getting better at their work. Those who rely only on raw talent and spurious inspiration are not likely to really continually grow as artists.

When something becomes a craft, it’s much more subject to being broken down and turned into guidelines that people can learn to follow. Neil mentioned a few programs that some SM teachers have in the works, including the improvisation & composition program that I’ve been working and that he mentioned is fully structured and comprehensive. Creating music can, indeed, come naturally to some people and can seem magical and inaccessible to everyone else. I certainly hope that my program will contribute just the things you say, Ian, breaking such things down into manageable chunks and single thought processes, so that anyone can become free, flexible and confident in creating music, whether or not one ever “feels creative” either in general or in any given moment.

Laurie Richards, Nebraska

I agree Ian and Mark – we need to be conscious of our own creativity, and of our ability to create. For teachers who are uncomfortable with C & I / creating their own music, here is a prime opportunity to recognize the importance of being open and vulnerable enough to start down that path. I used to be one of those teachers. But having immersed myself in this curriculum for so many years, I have come to understand the wisdom in Neil’s quest to produce self-generative students and teachers. It is a transformative experience and is needed for the (near!) future.

For me, the opportunity is now to craft a dialogue with students who are afraid of (or ‘uninterested in’ etc. etc.) creating music and being self-generative. I have struggled with this conversation, but I do believe it is crucial to more intentionally foster creativity in my students. And to help them achieve such a level of ease and comfort with the process that it becomes a normal part of their playing and musical expression.

Sometimes the thought goes through my mind, “If someone is completely uninterested in creating their own music, saying they really only WANT to play other people’s music, should I tell them they MUST learn to be at least marginally creative?”. This is what I mean about crafting a dialogue. Way beyond “you must create something because I assigned it – just try it, here are some ideas”. Instead, easing them into the process, honoring their feelings of vulnerability, encouraging more and more projects, all the while keeping a conversation open about how different the creative process is psychologically and emotionally from learning ‘already-created’ pieces. Talk about taking risks, what are the rewards for doing so, and does that open up anything for us in other areas of our lives. I’ve given this some thought, because I think it has the potential to be a powerful thing for a lot of people.

Patti P., Hawaii

I really appreciate Mark & Laurie’s contributions to this discussion. I have a good friend who is an artist, and she works at her craft daily, always has a sketch book along to build up a body of “riffs”, if you will, for possible future use in a completed work of art (though, really the sketches themselves are works of art.) I encourage my more experienced students to keep their own “sketchbook” of musical ideas they discover during their improv/composition time. They have found this useful.

Of course all creations are not a mountain top experience – sometimes they are plateus, and sometimes valleys, but they all contribute to the whole journey, and lessons can be learned every step of the way.

Laurie, I like how you are thinking about honoring the vulnerability and navigating the psychological aspects with students. Composing, and especially performing one’s own composition puts one in a very vulnerable place.

I have had a number of comments lately from some of my newer students how much they like learning through exploration & composition, something they never would have thought they were capable of before. I want to give that gift to everyone – so that no matter how long or short their study time with me is, they go away knowing they can explore and find sounds that give expression in a way that is meaningful to them.

Gordon Harvey, Australia

This is an extremely interesting and important question and I don’t have much time right now, but I’ll throw a few thoughts into the ring and perhaps elaborate on them later if appropriate.

I think it’s crucial to reconsider our perception of creativity, and especially the false barrier that you are either being creative or not. Everyone is creating all the time! As Neil says, just talking is a wholly improvisatory experience. A person who says “I haven’t got a creative bone in my body” is being creative right there! What’s needed is to tap into the creative muscle they are already using.

An example of the above false barrier might be comparing a jazz pianist with a classical pianist and saying one is creative and the other isn’t. The classical player is being creative in perhaps a more subtle way, but it probably won’t be subtle to an expert listener, for whom two interpretations of the same piece will be cheese and chalk.

I have found this to be an ideal entry point for many students. In fact, the most helpful experience can be when you simply point out why they already do. Everyone interprets things all the time whether they like it or not, and sometimes all you have to do is point out the student’s particular interpretation. I once pointed out to an adult student that she played blues in a kind of light style with quite a delicate, staccato LH. That, at the time, was her “style”, and soon, with very little other than occasional suggestions from me, started to explore that idea more deeply, which slowly turned into a willingness to experiment and consciously build her own vocabulary, working entirely with existing pieces. All it took to begin the process was to see what she already did as legitimate.

I agree with Mark about treating the process as a craft, but it’s worth the student realising that they already have many tools and skills by default.

I also find it useful to see creativity as a problem-solving activity. Rather than elaborate on that now, because I’m running out of time, I’ll put it to anyone who cares to respond: does anyone else see creativity in that way?

Mark M., New York

I’ve certainly had students who resisted creating music, especially adults. But one of these who most looked down herself in this area certainly did come to see over time that it benefitted her. When I’d introduce a new project, or when she’d come back the following week having worked on a new project, she’d often say something like, “Well, I’m not good at this, but I know it’s good for me, so here it goes.”

Why is it good for someone uninterested in creating music to create music? Lots of reasons. Here are two big ones.

First, when our students come to us, we never know what areas of musicianship are going to end up really exciting a student — and they often don’t know themselves, because they can’t always know something about what they haven’t been exposed to. Some may desperately dream about making their own music, while others may have never even imagined it could be possible for them. Yet students from both these extremes could end up having improv/comp as among their favorite areas of their musicianship — and for some it will be the top favorite.

If we aren’t doing improv/comp with them, we’re denying them the opportunity to love music as much as they can. Some could even drop out of lessons forever because they didn’t end up feeling the connection to the long-term relationship that perhaps only improv/comp might have given them. Indeed, if a teacher isn’t comfortable doing improv/comp, his or her outright discomfort can be passed onto the students, making them downright hostile to the very pursuit of creating music. That would be sad for all students, but it would be especially tragic for those who otherwise would have really latched onto improv/comp as a special area for themselves. And of course the same applies to other areas of the curriculum.

In short, well-roundedness as a musician isn’t good just for its own sake. It’s good because it ensures that all students get all possible opportunities to find out who they really are as individual musicians. Teachers who don’t have a command of the full curriculum deny countless opportunities to their students — and reduce their own ability to take on and keep students in their studio.

The second reason, though, is much more general and applies equally as much for those students who after doing it regularly still never especially enjoy creating music. To get at this reason, I’m going to quote a bit from the improv project post I contributed to The Playground newsletter/blog last year: [edited slightly]

“My friend Kat is a director at a theatre company. She’s a great performer and also happens to be a respected consultant and trainer who specializes in using theatre, storytelling and improvisation to enhance professional performance, so she really understands a thing or two about how improvisation works. One of those things is that it isn’t actually some rare activity that only a few special people are good at. In fact, as she says, each and every one of us is, in fact, improvising all the time, making up what we say and do each day. Both Kat and Neil Moore note that nobody hands us a script to tell us what to say all day long, and yet we’re still able to carry on all our conversations. In Simply Music, that relates to how natural it is to delay the process of reading music, helping us understand how easy it can be to play songs without a page telling us what to do. As much as this notion applies to playing without reading, though, it applies even more to improvising music without knowing in advance what you’re going to play.”

The fundamentally great thing about Simply Music as a playing-based method is how much more quickly we can get to higher levels of performance than we could if we were reading. But guess what — the same thing is true about improvising one’s own music in comparison to learning and repeating back something someone else composed. Yes, it’s true that a complex passage with sophisticated fingering and position changes may not be the kind of thing that just anybody can improvise off the top of their head but could be mastered through ongoing practice. But most anyone should generally be able to improvise music at a higher level of complexity than what’s even above-average for their own repertoire.

In the end, improvisation is simply good for the fingers and the brain and the coordination between them. It provides exercise and skill building that in turn make it easier to do everything else a student has to do. Taking the time in lessons to improvise isn’t a distraction from the “real” curriculum — not anymore than an athletic team taking the time to do warm-up exercises is being distracted from the “real” practice. It *is* the real practice. It *prepares* them for the other things they have to do in their practice. These things contribute positive benefits rather than taking them away. And like anything else that an athlete learns to do, it’s something that can be taught by a coach who understands how the process breaks down. Same for music.

Sandy L., Nebraska

Regarding your question, Gordon, of seeing creativity as a problem-solving activity, I think that is exactly how creativity is viewed by everyone who is pushing the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) curriculum here in the U.S. Neil’s talk pointed out that we need it to be C-STEM–creativity, what is viewed as creative arts–added to the equation. I have seen other presenters call it STEAM (the A being the arts–music, visual arts, writing, poetry, anything viewed as “unscientific”…).

The arts are viewed by some as more creative and other subjects as more “scientific.” But, some educators have suggested that the division of subjects into categories is arbitrary and doesn’t always fit reality. Every inventor who ever invented anything is completely creative, and often, for the purpose of solving a problem, yet our society tends to look at this as a scientific activity and not an art, or even a craft. Inventors often approach their work as an ongoing day-to-day activity (fits Mark’s description of a craft, I think), and sometimes run up against “failure” much more frequently than “success.”

As Neil pointed out, music learning, especially SM with its focus on self-generative activity, promotes the ability to think in ways that allow for more creativity–ways of thinking that help people create, invent, problem-solve. The 3-note song suggested as a project in the Comp and Improv program seems to me to be a problem-solving activity. How can I take these 3 notes only and make a song? What mood or emotion will I choose to evoke with these 3 notes…? Creativity as problem-solving seems to fit both musically and scientifically.

I am looking forward to seeing what other responses you get to that question!

Sue C., Australia

I am feeling so happy as today a boy about 9 years old who has been having lessons for 2 or more years and is only just completing level 2 and I was a little discouraged with his slow pace. He also enjoys several accompaniment books.

Today he started playing beautiful music using broken chords. All of a sudden he is self generative! Well not really all of a sudden; all the things he has been playing have just come together and he can now play his own music.

This encourages me to not be discouraged, just let it happen and when it is ready it will come out. It is beautiful to see and hear when it occurs.

Cheri S., Utah

@Gordon: I just had a great experience with creativity as problem solving. I accompany the children’s Sunday School at church, and once a year the children do a 40-minute musical program during the main worship service. This year’s program is coming up, and on Sunday the director asked if we could do two of the songs as a medley, to conserve time. The songs are in totally different styles and completely unrelated keys. “Yikes!” I thought. But I said I’d work on it.

Using an online tool, I put them in the same key for starters. After only a few minutes of fiddling around, I noticed one little melodic line (less than a measure) that was similar between the two songs. The rhythm was the main difference between the songs. After just a little more fiddling around with the rhythm, I found/created (sometimes it does feel more like discovering something that was already there) a short transition between the two songs. Wow! As a formerly stuck-on-the-page musician, I was totally astounded by how quickly and easily it came together. Simply Music’s creative, self-generative approach has literally transformed my relationship with music. It enabled me to easily solve a musical problem that I wouldn’t have even considered engaging before.

Sue L., California

I have always felt creative and lonely! All things left brain have been difficult for me and caused me anxiety. I felt foreign and different from people who were more analytical, task-oriented, and structured — especially in corporate life. I was so excited when I discovered how SM integrates creativity, and I have had such fun coming up with ideas to help students experiment and make stuff up.

I think it’s important to value both the technical and the artistic sides of music, and not imply that one is better than the other. I try to create “baby steps” in each area and I applaud their efforts. I have a “yay” jar, and whenever I say the word “yay” I put a token in the jar. When they get 3 “yays,” I give them a prize. (little toys from Target’s dollar bin) I give lots of “yays” for trying new things. And I give “yays” for precision to those who tend to be less focused (like me!).

Gordon Harvey, Australia

More than any other arena, it seems to me we need to give students and ourselves freedom and a sense that whatever you do is legitimate. That may require finding an entry point that they are comfortable with, which may be extremely simple. I think generally it’s best to avoid pushing a student too far, since, for some of them at least, there is always the risk of stretching the idea of being “creative” outside their reality zone.

We could see our role as simply to make our students aware of their existing creativity, so they can more consciously explore and develop it, and apply “craft” via the tools we provide.

I remember a great moment in a jazz class I attended where each student had to come up to the piano and improvise over some chords. I played something without really knowing what I was doing, and the teacher immediately said “you’ve got a really interesting style” and started playing something amazing, telling me “look what you made me do – I’ve never played like that before!”. After I finally came down from cloud nine, I hit the ground running, creatively speaking. I felt like I had something to say that was valid, unique and of value. Although I was already familiar with improvisation and composition, I gained a new sense of legitimacy out of the experience.

I’ve since attended another workshop with the same teacher, who did pretty much the exact same thing with somebody else! But who cares if it was a trick – I had already been launched down a path with which I was well satisfied. As a teacher, the lesson for me was to find something in a student’s playing that they could consider special in some way. I think, at least to get them started on that path, that could be anything, however humble.

I think we can also look at ourselves in the same way. I would say if you don’t spend some time every day thinking about the unique way you contribute to the world, you are doing yourself, and the world, a grave disservice.

This may be getting off Ian’s original topic, but I think there’s still lots we can tease out of the conversation. Thanks, by the way, for the responses on the “problem-solving” question.

Terah W., Kansas

I just have to say that I get as thrilled about the new directions all over again just reading everyone’s responses. Gordon’s note touched on something that only recently has been trailing around in my mind…about finding the uniqueness of something someone is doing, validating it, and underscoring it to keep it growing strongly in the student’s thinking or behavior. Perhaps they don’t respond directly or even verbally to words of praise or encouragement; we have to be on the lookout for positive but non-verbal responses anyway. Because they are probably there!

Thinking of ourselves in that way also is the only way we are going to step out of our comfort zones and play more freely in our own learning journey or perform in the same way. I realized the other day in my effort to start branching out again to play in other venues (I did for years and stopped for about 30 years. Yes, I know. 30?….Ack!). But I had to tell myself I bring something unique to the table. If us older Vets have these conversations, it’s a cinch our younger students are experiencing a form of them as well.

Btw, one of the things I have always enjoyed about playing piano that has been super enhanced since becoming a SM Teacher is that when you are with colleagues, I never feel like, “Oooh, they are so good…I can’t play in front of them!” I don’t know why this hasn’t been a big deal for me like some have told me it was for them, but I always feel like you do when you dress up for a party in a dress that makes you feel like a million bucks: You find yourself enjoying all the other finery but you are attached (literally:) to your own. Kansas City SM Teachers have so much fun when we get together to just hang and do music–and they are always asking each other to play or show so-and-so this or that and encouraging each other. It’s amazing.

And SM has this way of validating and valuing each teacher, their efforts, their learning, their vulnerability, if you will, as well as encouraging us to find it in others. This is where creativity can thrive. I have long loved sitting at the piano for hours and playing stuff that just happens and have always wished there was some way to “teach” that to folks who have asked for it. I am finding that I am learning how to teach comp and improv and the light and love it brings to others is so terribly gratifying (as is the rest of it).

I hope we keep the Creativity Conversation going with each other and the world (it is more than crocheting and tatting and crafts—none of which I gravitate to!!) because it is the color we each bring to the table that keeps things fresh and growing. I hope this doesn’t sound rambly–these things have been on my mind for awhile. What I do/love best is what I want to know how to teach best, of course, and Neil is paving the way and setting the example for us all to open up and keep learning and growing. Thanks for setting the bar high (again), Neil.