As a musician, many people assume that I am a creative individual. Of course, their assumption stems from the fact that I am quite heavily involved in the arts, all of which is considered to be “creative” endeavors. However, upon reflection of how I was involved in music, I can definitely say that I am a “well-trained” pianist. My first piano teacher was big on technique, ad we played scales and exercises until those well-known callouses formed on our fingers. My piano teacher in college was big on being “musical”, which was phrasing the music in such a way that was sylistically appropriate and expressed the music as well as my own intentions.
When I stopped taking piano lessons, I realized that I didn’t consider myself to be a creative person. I was not necessarily breaking through barriers and conventions and making something new. I was, however, using my skill and my training to express myself through the music that other people wrote. Perhaps it’s a bit narcissistic, because sometimes playing piano served me more than anyone else. This is especially true because I wasn’t sharing “my” music – I was sharing myself with other people through the medium of music. And of course, perhaps that is the point – in everything we do, we really express ourselves, whether it is through music of our own creation, or music that others created. When playing a piece, I always imagined some sort of narrative so that the piece has personal meaning – that way, the piece became a part of me. Is that act, that of creating a narrative to a piece of music, creative? Of course, compsers seem to do the opposite – create music in terms of a narrative.
As a student teacher, I observe that so much time is devoted to doing what someone tells us to do. Teachers always say that children love boundaries and restrictions because it makes them feel safe. However, do we need ot provide students with those restrictions? That “safety net”? Of course, when creating music, the worst that will happen is that someone will forget about it, which happens to perhaps 99% of musical ideas anyway. Why put these restrictions on children and students if the consequence for taking a risk is so slight? How can we encourage them to take these risks? To be creative?
What then, is a way to be creative while teaching? It seems to me that so many of our instrumental methodology rely more on skills first, and then creativity second. is there a way in which both can be honored and honed at the same time? I have yet to see it. Hm. Perhaps I can “create” it.
