this article is to challenge our assumptions about creativity, student voice, and the place of creative practice throughout the music curriculum. I ask you to imagine what would hap- pen if we dared to place creativity at the core of our values as music teachers? What if we were to consider students’ musical and intellectual input as crucial to their development as musicians, thus essential to daily classroom practice? I know some of us face tremendous pressure to perform and compete, and it may at first seem impractical to make such a philosophical shift. I ask you to consider this idea through the concept of an Eastern sense of practice, however. Rather than “practice makes perfect” as a Western driving force fo- cused on product, can we think of our daily creative practice as a revisiting, a time for exploration, and needed space for students to use their imaginations in ways that could never be possible through divergent practices alone? This type of practice is not tied to outcome, but values the process in whatever form it might take—messy, beautiful, humorous, etc. Could we consider that taking even five minutes in each rehearsal to “practice” in this way might help students grow and change in ways that go beyond what we could imagine for them?
When we place creativity at the core of our practice, we, by default, assume that all students’ voices are important. In valuing creativity, we acknowledge students’ capacities to imagine, contribute, and co-create a musical experience. Despite students’ age, ability, or skill level, we may encour- age students to feel truly valued in our classrooms through this simple (yet often very difficult) affirmation: I will strive to hear each student’s unique and important creative voice. This addresses themes of democracy and agency that deter- mine how power is viewed and shared within a classroom context. To truly embody this, I must continually examine how I frame music teaching and learning. How are decisions made in my classroom? Whose voices are heard, both musi- cal and intellectual? Whose aren’t? Why not? I have found I must continue to challenge myself to seek out the voices that are hard to hear, or the musical voices that may not be as technically proficient as others. I must embody my commit- ment to shared power and creativity by continually revisiting my commitment to enacting these ideals.
Recommendations for practice 1. Creative play at all ages and stages
It is through exploring, playing, and solution-seeking that students grow in their creative capacities, which can be en- couraged in a variety of contexts. Whether in guitar class, general music settings, “traditional” secondary ensemble rehearsals, etc., all students can and should be encouraged to stretch and exercise their imaginations while they also de- velop the skills, knowledge, and technical capacities to per- form. Whether you have the flexibility to structure improvi- sational and compositional experiences on a regular basis, or
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have a full calendar of performance obligations, a culture of creativity can be fostered in your classroom. It goes without saying that we can devote entire classes and units to impro- visation and composition, but we can also enliven creativ- ity with composed pieces as a foundational canvas. Within the context of direct instruction and rehearsal time, we can encourage students to engage in musical play. Students can improvise alternate endings, compose replacement phrases, and play in another style, tonality, or meter. Students can be prompted to enact ways they may change a piece to improve upon it, or deconstruct/reconstruct its parts to create a unique sound. We can design warm-ups and games that develop the skills and knowledge we want to encourage at a given time. Better yet, we can allow students to design such experienc- es. We may just bear witness to some incredible ideas while also allowing students to understand a piece or concept with more depth and richness than before.
2. Creative listening Recently, I have been encouraged by music education schol- ars to view the listening process as a creative act that is unique to each individual (Kratus, 2014; Kerchner, 2014). Each individual hears music differently, and we can give students the opportunity to represent their inner experiences externally. Creative listening can be fostered by allowing students to create representations of their unique multisen- sory responses (Kerchner, 2014). Embodied expression, movement, visual representation, metaphor, and other non- discursive forms of response can be used within recordings, live listening experiences, and in rehearsals. Students can be encouraged to listen creatively with open-ended prompts that allow for multiple responses (Kratus, 2014). By using prompts that go beyond the identification of correct answers, we can validate students’ creative listening abilities. Again, these experiences can not only shape creativity uniquely, but simultaneously lead to deeper and more personal musical understanding.
3. Decision-making and critical thinking All students in a class or ensemble should have the chance to mold the music and the musical community. On the other hand, when we hold all the decision-making power in our classrooms, we, by default, tell students their creative voices are not important. Before students may convergently explore many possibilities to a problem, we must learn how to create such opportunities. As teachers, we can decide what deci- sions and elements of our program are flexible then empow- er students to creatively shape them. The range of ways we may allow students to make decisions is quite broad, from concert attire, to just how loud pp should be performed in a piece, to how the group might stand to create the best sound, to how the community may work together to solve problems that arise. It is our jobs as teachers to simply present the problems for solving, and get out of the way. We may also create space for students to present problems and their solu-
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