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The Creativity of the Innocent

  • We have all remarked when an innocent child speaks his/her mind and reveals something so candid, with no worries about consequences, failure, embarrassment, or judgment that makes us blush. We also know there is something envious about that special quality; total freedom to express with no fears or hang-ups. When a 2nd grader drums on a desk, draws on a paper, or sings, sincerity is at its best. And it’s all valid because it’s sincere.
  • Our attraction to music is a personal one. Sure, there are musical cliques, peer pressures, and multi musical purposes, but somewhere in our hearts we have our own musical tastes. Most people who are not “musicians” listen to their musical tastes. When they are alone they listen to exactly what they want. Tastes can change, but no one can force you to like something. When a child is forced to play a particular instrument by parents or the needs of a school orchestra, he seldom sticks with it for life. Often not even a year or two. But that same child will enjoy music, want a good sound system, and spend hours and hours listening, while the parents have to fight tooth and nail to get 30 minutes of practice time. Clearly, something is wrong with this picture. What makes listening fun and practicing not? Why is one “play” and the other “work”? Is it possible to make work fun? I think so!
  • Why do most people like to dance to music? (not the slow dances, guys!) Answer: expression, freedom, participation, communication, and flat out fun. Heck, I’ve even seen people dancing, egoing out, mimicking that wild guitar solo as if they were playing it! The truth is nearly everyone wishes they could play music. I mean PLAY it. Go wild. Express themselves through it, create with it. But most settle for dancing or lip-syncing the vocals.
  • The high school violinist usually gets the most musical pleasure from the recitals, feeling pride from accomplishment. I once asked an entire music theory class, consisting of various instrumentalists in the teen range, if they ever listened to any of the pieces they work on in practice, played by professionals so they can actually hear what they can aspire to, and unanimously, no one did.
  • A simplified view of this problem lies partly in musical tastes. Why can a teenager of today spend countless hours with a guitar every day for years figuring out how to play his music on it strictly by ear with no instruction? Sheer love of the music and determination!
  • What if we had a fresh look at instruments and sound? For instance, a desk is not an instrument but makes a sound when struck. Before class, let’s say 3 people were sitting at their desks early (haha) and one started tapping out a rhythm; soon the other 2 joined him for a musical rhythm jam session that was both musical, fun, and communicative.
  • Alternatively, my daughter brought home a bassoon, clearly an instrument designed for music. Although I often heard her practicing, I never heard her exploring the sounds on that great instrument, or even making up things with sounds. She simply couldn’t afford the luxury of time to do that. She assumed that if it weren’t a proven piece of music, it had no validity.
  • I believe that there is validity at every stage of development, musically or otherwise. I feel it’s tragic to not explore music and life through creativity and self development. I respect the ideal of traditional development of needed musical skills BUT NOT AT THE EXPENSE OF CREATIVITY. No one should have to wait some undetermined amount of time to compose something or even think about composing something. Same with improvisation. You should get “permission” to improvise right out of the womb! Improvising is a fun way to learn, express, and communicate. It’s “play”. It’s jazz. It’s sincere. It’s in the moment. (If you plan it, it’s not improvising.)
  • There is music living in all of us. The idea of being a musician is not just to be like someone else and do what they do or did. That’s only part of it. Just like a book is written by a mortal person who wrote down personal thoughts, music is also a personal expression. If we are moved by the music, (not words) that means that we agree with it in some profound way. It is already a part of us. Our individuality is a composite of all that we have experienced and will only surface via indirect influences, not through copying.
  • In conclusion, I want to unify music and musicians as a whole. I want to validate people’s ability to create at all stages of development. We already have built in diversities based on genetics, social status, sex, nationalities, and various abilities. In wishful thinking, I would like to lessen competition, insensitivity, musical insecurities, cliques, jazz snobs, classical snobs, star mentalities, negativity, gimmick users, judgmentalists and egotists; and broaden sensitivity, evolution, self development, artistic mentalities, interaction, sincerity and positive thinking. I want to inspire musicians to think about musical experimentation and self development instead of relying on quick-fix dogmatic materials. Finally, I would like musicians to take all their intellectual musical knowledge and turn it into musical wisdom. Then and only then will they experience the true feeling of creative playing.