Jennifer Rodriguez

4/5/2016
MUSE375: Creative Music-Making Chapter
"Creative Music-Making" by Shannan Hibbard and Dr. Palmer focuses primarily on encouraging
the creative process in students through topic areas such as composition, improvisation and overall
interpretive performances and listening experiences as an ensemble. The following paper discusses my
overview of this chapter as well as what knowledge I gained from this assignment.
Creativity is the concept of utilizing prior knowledge of work in ones subject, such as other
musical creations, and branching from those works through composition and improvisation to form
something new. Creativity is a branch between convergent and divergent thinking, where divergent
thinking is regularly used to test new musical ideas or expression and through trial and error connect these
divergent thoughts to the convergent knowledge of what is considered right and normal in ones musical
and compositional vocabulary.
Incorporating creativity into music education can be very important to developing musicians
because it lets them experience trial and error, as well as create personal opinions as to what sounds good
to their ear. This experience in music making can be very subjective and relate directly to each individual
who is practicing creativity. It creates a personal connection to musical understanding and allows
individuals to express the way they conceive music, out loud. Creating allows individuals to branch to
many areas of their interest of a certain subject and form yet another idea out of that subject, enforcing
these opinions and allowing the one creating to deepen their opinions on the matter. Further, consistently
incorporating creativity helps connect music to the individual past being involved in a class, to having
music be part of who he or she is. When a student progressively works on being able to improvise for
example, they are slowly creating an internal musical vocabulary that speaks to them and makes sense off
of prior musical knowledge and studies.
To successfully include creativity in a music curriculum, one can make great efforts to include
composition and improvisation. When involving composition in a curriculum, it is important to focus on a
few key elements: intention, expressivity, and artistic craftsmanship, as suggested on page 217 of the

Jennifer Rodriguez
4/5/2016
MUSE375: Creative Music-Making Chapter
article. Intention is one aspect that focuses on the concept which gave purpose to a students reason to
begin composing. Whether it is an abstract concept, or an inspiration that is based off of another art form
or personal life experience, intention is the focus that should get the students started on their musical
work. Further, expressivity is what allows the students to determine what creates the connection between
how their piece sounds, and what emotions this evokes. On page 221 of the article, some specific
examples are listed of how to create expression within a composition through areas such as, how to
orchestrate various timbres, how to create mjusical phrases ending in cadences, (and) how to compose an
accompanying harmony to a melody Getting into this specific of detail is what allows students to form
their artistic craftsmanship, molding their pieces to their specific liking.
Involving improvisation, as well, involves some important consideration as to where it is
involved in a curriculum. The chapter discusses going through a process in a classroom of improvising to
learn music, learning to improvise music, and improvising music to learn (pg. 227). When improvising to
learn music, students can work with any form of music and utilize games to create situations in which
they need to form new ideas on their instrument. When moving on to learning how to improvise, these
improvisational traits are then implemented into specific styles in the classroom, such as bluegrass or
jazz. Finally, the last part of the cycle involves getting students to the point of comfortably improvising
rhythms and melodies on the spot to express themselves. By working through this process within a
classroom setting and utilizing each of these aspects of improvisation, students will be regularly tested to
express themselves and learn more about the components of improvisation.
Last, creativity can also be expressed through interpretive performance and experienced through
listening. By having students be involved in the creative decision making process through interpretation
of a piece, it makes them feel more involved in the musical process. It is important to walk through what
was intended by the composer, as well as to discuss as a class concepts such as what to envision while
playing certain sections of a piece, as well as how the ensemble should articulate or phrase certain

Jennifer Rodriguez
4/5/2016
MUSE375: Creative Music-Making Chapter
sections of a piece. Allowing this involvement helps students feel more connected to their musical
experience, which allows them to be more invested in their musical education. This same use of
communication and opinions is very important to include in listening experiences. In the musical
classroom, students should not only be listening to music, but utilizing this time to analyze what senses
are being evoked in a piece they are listening to and how the musical composition is personally affecting
them. This form of listening analysis can lead to a divergent sense of musical interpretation and
convergent understanding of its form and style.
After reading, "Creative Music-Making" by Shannan Hibbard and Dr. Palmer, it has become more
apparent to me that more regular listening and discussion should take place in the music classroom. By
having students listen and explain how they feel about a piece, it may open a whole new perspective to
their classmates and teacher that could better their musical learning process. As well, I have learned that
improvisation can affect more areas of music education aside from jazz to strengthen individuality in
music. Generally, I have a gained a better understanding of how to approach music to support the
individuality of my students, which will help greatly when assigning projects that may relate to other
subjects. The incorporation of comprehensive musicianship could involve inspiration from other subjects
to form musical compositions, and listening to multiple interpretations of pieces could open up
conversations about culture and historical influence on their creative process.