Título CREATIVE THINKING IN INSTRUMENTAL CLASSES.

Autor Priest,  Thomas

Editor/Autor adic. Priest,  Thomas

Publicação Music Educators Journal Jan 2002, Vol. 88 Issue 4, p.47-53

ANO 2002

Presents guidelines for encouraging creative thinking in instrumental classes in the

United States. Introduction of compositional rules; Abilities of students to process
Abstract
musical notation; Opportunities for students for composition; Evaluation of the role
of music in the society.

Assunto UNITED  States

CREATIVE  thinking

INSTRUMENTAL  music

ISSN 0027-4321

Texto (cópia de texto original sem imagens/figs)

Magazine: MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL; JANUARY 2002

CREATIVE THINKING IN INSTRUMENTAL CLASSES

What can music teachers do to encourage creative thinking? Here are some
suggestions that can lead young instrumentalists to improvisation and
composition.
Mr. Patterson, the band teacher, sounded disappointed when he told me that his students
played by ear the melody of a piece he had assigned. With dissatisfaction resonating in his
voice, he said that they played the song as it was usually sung rather than by reading the
notation. I looked at the notation in the book and noticed that the familiar tune was written
in a way that differed from how I had learned to enjoy this melody. Therefore, I was not
surprised that the students played the melody as they thought it should sound rather than
the way it was written in their method book. Although I understood that Mr. Patterson
wanted his students to read the notation, I admired his students' ability to play the melody
as they knew it should sound. [1]  
Should we not be somewhat pleased with our students when they are able to play a
melody by ear? Is this not evidence of their musical sensitivity? Playing by ear is a
valuable skill. It is integrally related to our ability to perform, to sight-read, to improvise, to
compose, and to listen to music.[2] Because musical imagination is clearly related to our
ability to function as musicians, this article presents a discussion of the theory and practice
of musical creative thinking and offers several techniques that instrumental teachers can
use to foster their students' abilities to function creatively as listeners, performers,
improvisers, and composers.

Why Creative Thinking?

The invention of method books significantly altered our understanding of music teaching
and learning. Yet, as with every innovation from the quill to the computer, we essentially
lost a valuable experience that was common before the innovation. As music educators,
we should ask how people learned to play an instrument before the invention of method
books. In our answer, we would discover that individuals spent more time improvising,
playing by ear, and composing—all worthwhile and valuable experiences. As we ponder
what constitutes a music education in the broadest sense, we must revisit these intuitive
forms of learning when we evaluate what takes place in our classrooms.
When we look at the music cultures of the world, it is striking how much music-making
occurs without written musical notation, and it is apparent that the transmission of a
musical culture may take many forms. It would be easy to conclude that instrumental
music in the United States is transmitted almost solely through written musical notation.
As we look, however, at the diversity of our students, we must ask if this approach limits
the music education of those who learn best through aural forms of transmission. A
written notation approach may also reduce our students' exposure to musical traditions
and cultural practices that naturally foster an aural system of transfer, from bluegrass to
gospel to the local garage band. We would never dream of asking a child to communicate
with an adult exclusively through written language, yet this is similar to what occurs in
many school bands and orchestras, where students are limited to communicating through
traditional notation.
This situation poses a number of critical questions: To what extent do music-reading
experiences contribute to attrition in instrumental music programs? Are we losing the
students who might learn best aurally? Are we losing the students who would rather be
composing their own music? Are we retaining those who learn visually and those who are
not as interested in creating their own music? Most important, what kinds of experiences
will best prepare our students for their life with music? Although many students will not
continue to play a musical instrument, most will continue to interact with music as listeners
and consumers for the rest of their lives. Therefore, an approach to music learning that
nurtures a variety of behaviors would more likely serve the needs of the entire population,
while still meeting the requirements of those who eventually choose music as their
profession.
Since the early 1960s, leaders in music education have continually called for fostering
creativity, but there has been resistance from teachers who believe that making time for
activities such as composing would result in less rehearsal time and might lower
performance standards or diminish student interest. The research, however, does not
support this conclusion; rather, results suggest that time spent on a variety of experiences,
such as improvising, singing, listening, and movement activities, tends to enhance
performance achievement or at least not adversely affect it.[3] Several studies suggest
that performance achievement, traditionally assessed via music reading, is not diminished
if students begin instrumental music in the sixth grade rather than the fifth grade.[4] It
would be interesting, however, if we would expand our definition of performance
achievement. For example, what would happen if we regularly assessed students'
improvisation skills in the fifth and sixth grade? Additionally, what would happen if we
assessed their ability to play by ear in the fifth and sixth grade?
Offer Opportunities
Many instrumental students begin by experimenting with their instruments. Their natural
curiosity encourages them to improvise with the technical mechanism as well as the kinds
of sounds they may produce. Soon, however, students are guided by a pedagogy that
places musical notation at the head of the class. The early natural inquiries soon fade,
because the student learns that the teacher is only interested in the sounds that are
translated from the printed page.
One way to change this notation focus would be to offer students opportunities to share
their improvisations or compositions. Simply by asking students to improvise and providing
time for them to play their improvisations, the teacher would foster this natural form of
learning. By arranging for students to use a room or office to record their creations, the
teacher could continue to work with other members of the class while students are sharing
their improvisations via the tape recorder.
These improvisations then become a part of the student's portfolio, an ongoing
assessment record. This system also works well because students are able to function
creatively without being directly observed. The research on creativity suggests that overt
forms of observation tend to inhibit creative activity. Similarly, external evaluation tends to
lower levels of creativity. Therefore, it is better not to link students' compositions with
academic grades or other forms of teacher approval/disapproval. Instead, allow students
to positively evaluate their own compositions or improvisations. This helps to shift the
focus from the external evaluations that tend to undermine creativity to internal motivations
that tend to foster creativity.[5]

Provide Examples
Composition does not successfully take place in a vacuum of ideas. In order to compose
or improvise, individuals need to have aural ideas or be able to develop aural ideas.
Composers sometimes draw upon other composers' works in order to create their own
works. It could be said that composition is not so much originality as it is flexibility.
Students need to draw upon their musical knowledge to be able to rearrange musical
ideas. For example, an individual might think: “I know what these three pitches sound like
in this tune; therefore, I could rearrange these pitches in a different order and create a new
tune. Or, I could keep the same order of the pitches, but change the rhythm.” Teachers
can use tunes that students have learned from their method books or by ear as jumping-
off points for improvisations.
Unless an individual has been immersed in listening to the blues, it is much more
reasonable for a beginning instrumental music student to play a variation on “Hot Cross
Buns” than to improvise on a portion of the blues scale. While some students will need
little guidance, others could benefit from the teacher offering aural examples of how they
might create an improvisation on a familiar melody. The teacher must also be sensitive to
the developmental levels of the students when offering these examples.

Share Control
Many instrumental teachers require students to echo pitch patterns or echo rhythmic
patterns. These études can also provide a useful starting point for improvisation or
composition. However, instead of merely using these études as a means to introduce the
so-called “real” music, notated in the method book or in the score, the teacher should
view the étude as an opportunity to create a call and response. In addition, the teacher
should allow the students to assume the role of caller as well as responder. This inevitably
limits the calls to a given pitch set or a specified rhythmic length. Other compositional rules
can also be helpful, for example, “You must start on the pitch you ended on.” Although
some teachers are afraid to limit or constrain students when they are composing,
limitations or constraints that the students perceive as helpful will generally raise levels of
creativity.[6]
Giving control of the group improvisation over to the students leads to exciting
opportunities. When learners have more control over what and how they learn, they will be
more likely to take responsibility for their own learning.[7] By recognizing that they have a
direct impact on how the music grows and develops, students are better prepared to
enjoy their roles as performers, listeners, and composers.

Maintain Expressive Integrity

Within music, we might say there is an unspoken agreement among composer, performer,
and listener that something is being expressed. As composers, students must recognize
that they are engaging in a means to express their own ideas through sound. Most
composers do not put notes on paper without hearing them either in their mind or through
an instrument. Therefore, if we ask students to put notes on a page without being able to
hear the sounds they represent, the expressive intent will be lost. To hear the emerging
product, the maturing composition needs to be continually performed by the student-
composer, a teacher, a computer, or another student.
Expressive integrity may come from either a musical or “nonmusical” idea. Compositions
and improvisations may be based on a musical concept taken from a musical context
(such as a song, rap, sonata, symphony, or aria) or a nonmusical idea (such as a poem,
comic strip, feeling, story, or object). Consider making lists to initiate improvisations. Make
a distinction between a “music list” and a “life list.”[8] See table 1 for an example of these
two lists and then try making lists of your own. If a composer starts with something on the
life list, he or she must figure out how to use various musical concepts to convey this idea.
The items on the music list do not necessarily correspond to the items on the life list. But it
is interesting and useful to ponder questions such as “How could I use F major to convey
the idea of chocolate ice cream?”
Because students may have little experience notating their musical ideas, musical notation
can be a major roadblock to developing students' compositional abilities. Before insisting
that students compose using notation, it is worthwhile to discover what they are able to do
without notation. The teacher who insists (at least at first) that students use traditional
notation is probably more concerned with the students' abilities to process musical
notation than with the students' development of their creative potential as performers,
composers, and listeners. After students complete a composition without notation, it
provides a ripe opportunity to begin transferring their pieces to invented or traditional
notation. When students want others to perform their compositions, they may be surprised
when their invented notations produce various interpretations. This disparity provides an
important impetus for learning and using traditional notation, and students begin to
appreciate the value of traditional notion for ensemble playing as well as other enjoyable
musical experiences.

Keep Standards High

Teachers may become frustrated by their students' compositional experiences because
they allow students to do or play anything they want. This yields products that no one
values. Instead of saying “Anything you play is okay,” it would be better to say: “Try
playing some of your musical ideas and, as you play, decide which sounds work best for
you.” Teachers need to establish compositional criteria and encourage students to
establish their own criteria. Students should be guided to evaluate their own compositions
according to established criteria. See table 2 for some examples.
Another way to develop students' music-reading skills, as well as their ability to compose,
is to create melodies based on rhythms drawn from poetry (see figure 1). After students
have spoken and clapped the rhythm of a poem, they can figure out how to graph the
rhythm. Using rhythmic icons, students can suggest ways the poem might be notated. As
students suggest different lengths of sound, the instructor can continually speak the poem
in the rhythm they suggest, tapping the underlying shortest sound. When the class has
agreed on the rhythm for the poem, the students can begin to improvise with different
pitches. With beginners, the teacher should limit them to three to five pitches. More
advanced players might use a major or minor scale. The class may continue to operate as
a group, however, and accept that individual students will be playing different pitches even
though they are playing the same rhythm. As students improvise with different pitches,
they should be encouraged to make choices that they think sound best. They may
complete their compositions at home and then play them into a tape recorder when they
return to school. After they have completed their compositions, it is easy to have the
students transfer their graphic notation into traditional notation. The teacher may use this
opportunity to have them recognize that the shortest length of sound may become a
sixteenth note, an eighth note, a quarter note, or whatever else they choose. This helps
students understand how music notation describes a relationship between shorter and
longer as well as higher and lower. The graphic notation provides a visual description of
duration that is not always perceived by students through traditional notation.

Teach Problem Finding

Creative thinkers want to learn and accumulate information. They also tend to be self-
reliant and are more likely to take risks. Creative thinkers are generally unwilling to accept
things as they are, and they actively seek ways to improve the situation.[9] Thus, it is
reasonable to conclude that fostering creative thinking would generally foster learning.
Although many think of creativity as originality, it is perhaps more important to consider
factors such as fluency and flexibility in the solving of problems. Whether making music or
planning a garden, one has opportunities to fluently and flexibly use creative thinking skills.
This involves the generation of many ideas and the avoidance of assumptions about how
a given problem might be solved. This approach affords the opportunity to choose from
 many ideas, techniques, and strategies for proceeding. Each choice, however, will reveal
more problems to be solved.
Learners who continue to find problems throughout any creative process often create
products that are considered more original. Learners who search for the quickest and
easiest solution to a problem usually develop products that are not as original.[10]
Therefore, we may conclude that problem-finding is at least as important as problem-
solving in fostering creative thinking. Musicians who are able to identify problems of
performance, composition, and analysis will be more likely to function flexibly and fluently
in our global community.
As music educators, we continue to reevaluate the purpose of a music education in our
multicultural society, and we will continue to ponder what constitutes an appropriate music
education for all individuals. (See the Resources for Fostering Creativity sidebar for further
reading on this topic.) As we observe the ease with which students compose without
traditional notation and the prevalence of aurally transmitted musical cultures, we need to
reexamine the potential for our students to function not only as listeners and performers,
but also as composers and improvisers.

Notes

1. This article is based on work done for the author's doctoral dissertation, “Fostering Creative and Critical Thinking in
a Beginning Instrumental Music Class” (Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois, 1997).

2. G. E. McPherson, Michael B. Bailey, and Kenneth E. Sinclair, “Path Analysis of a Theoretical Model to Describe
the Relationship among Five Types of Musical Performance,” Journal of Research in Music Education 45, no. 1
(Spring 1997): 103–29.

3. Charles A. Elliott and William J. Moody, “A Decade of Band Research as Reported in Four Journals,” Update:
Applications of Research in Music Education 16, no. 2 (Spring-Summer 1997): 23&–28.

4. Judith K. Delzell and Paul F. Doerksen, “Reconsidering the Grade Level for Beginning Instrumental Music,”
Update: Applications of Research in Music Education 16, no. 2 (Spring-Summer 1998): 17–22.

5. Teresa M. Amabile, Creativity in Context (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1996), 243–62.

6. Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan, Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior (New York:
Plenum, 1985), 60–64.

7. Ibid.

8. Class notes from Art Lande's course on improvisation, University of Colorado-Boulder, 1992.

9. Joy Paul Guilford, “Creativity: A Quarter Century of Progress,” in Perspectives in Creativity, ed. Irving A. Taylor and
Jacob W. Getzels (Chicago: Aldine, 1975): 37–59.

10. Jacob W. Getzels and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, The Creative Vision: A Longitudinal Study of Problem Finding in
Art (New York: Wiley, 1976).

Resources for Fostering Creativity

Austin, James R. “Comprehensive Musicianship Research: Implications for Addressing the National Standards in
Music Ensemble Classes.” Update: Applications of Research in Music Education 17, no. 1 (Fall-Winter 1998): 25–32.

Azzara, Christopher D. “Audiation-Based Improvisation Techniques and Elementary Instrumental Students' Music
Achievement.” Journal of Research in Music Education 41, no. 4 (Winter 1993): 328–42.

Daignault, Louis. “Children's Creative Musical Thinking within the Context of a Computer-Supported Improvisational
Approach to Composition” (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1996).

DeLorenzo, Lisa C. “A Field Study of Sixth-Grade Students' Creative Music Problem-Solving Processes.” Journal of
Research in Music Education 37 (1989): 188–200.

Delzell, Judith K. “The Effects of Musical Discrimination Training in Beginning Instrumental Music Classes.” Journal of
Research in Music Education 37, no. 1 (Spring 1989): 21–31.

Gardner, Howard. Creating Minds: An Anatomy of Creativity Seen through the Lives of Freud Einstein, Picasso,
Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi. New York: Basic Books, 1993.

Grashel, John. “An Integrated Approach: Comprehensive Musicianship.” Music Educators Journal 79, no. 8 (April
1993): 38–41

MacKnight, Carol. B. “Music Reading Ability of Beginning Wind Instrumentalists after Melodic Instruction.” Journal of
Research in Music Education 23 (Spring 1975): 23–34.

Table 1. Invitations to improvise

Music List Life List

F major Peaceful

A pitch set made up of E, D, and C Industrial

An even grouping of beats Triangles and Squares

An uneven grouping of beats Red

G minor Animals of the Amazon

Dotted Rhythms Diamonds

Ternary Form Wind in the Desert

Dynamics Dry and Wet

Staccato Popcorn
Legato Blue

D Dorian Sports

Table 2. Possible criteria for compositions

1. The piece must use a predetermined rhythmic framework.

2. The piece must use a certain set of pitches.

3. The piece must begin and end on the tonic (home tone).

4. The piece must have at least two sections that are distinctly different from each other. One section should

primarily use staccato sounds and the other primarily legato sounds.

5. The piece must use a triple meter.

6. The piece should convey ideas drawn from a poem.

Figure 1. DIAGRAM: Overhead transparency/handout for students for setting a poem to music.

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Students could be asked to create an improvisation based on a familiar melody or to
compose a melody based on the rhythm of a poem.

Oakland Elementary School Children. Big Music, Little Musicians: Compositions and improvisations by Oakland
Elementary School Children (compact disc). Oakland, CA: Randy Porter and Compact Disc Production Committee,
1994.

Slavin, Robert E. Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research and Practice. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1990.

Upitis, Rena. Can I Play You My Song? The Compositions and Invented Notations of Children. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann Educational Books, 1992.

Webster, Peter. “Creativity as Creative Thinking.” Music Educators Journal 76, no. 9 (May 1990): 22–28.

Wiggins, Jackie. Composition in the Classroom: A Tool For Teaching. Reston, VA: Music Educators National
Conference, 1990.

 
Thomas Priest is director of music education at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.

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Source: Music Educators Journal, Jan 2002, Vol. 88 Issue 4, p47, 6p, 2 charts, 1 diagram, 1bw

Accession Number: 5859701