How Can We Foster Creativity in Young Musicians?

Last month I attended the Portland Creative Conference: a one day conference of creatives from all different fields, that supports the arts in Oregon. Speakers included an art director, a footwear designer, an author, musicians from the group “Portugal.The Man.”, the studio head for the company that produces Halo, and a television writer from the TV show “Scandal.”

It was a wide ranging group but there were common themes that came out between all of these speakers.

One of the main ones was this: creativity comes from the intersection of two disciplines.

Art plus motion

Fashion intersecting with a love for basketball

Art plus gaming

Part of the reason I make time to attend events like this is that I know how much hearing ideas from people outside my field fuels my own creativity and gives me ideas for writing and teaching.

After the event I started thinking:

How do we take this idea and use it, as parents and teachers, who work with children learning music?

How can the other interests our students have tie in, to help them make more artistic choices?

To become expressive players?

How can music combine with something else students are interested in, to help them with their practicing or performances?

Musicians can learn to be more creative and expressive people by . . .

Reading and Reciting Poetry
Relating the music they play to Movie characters they find interesting
Listening to music and creating a story
Listening to music and drawing
Playing along with different styles of background tracks and combing different styles of music together
Creating a story with interesting characters that goes along with a piece of music they are learning
the list could go on and on . . .

I started watching the new documentary about Itzhak Perlman last night and in it he described when he first came to the United States and started working with his new teacher, the legendary Dorothy Delay. He described how she had him learn to paint and do all sorts of endeavors that seemed to have nothing to do with the violin. But, both he and his wife shared that his teacher knew he needed a rich variety of experiences as a person in order to have artistry and emotion to share in his playing.

In last week’s article I shared the importance of seeing the study of an instrument as both an art and a discipline. This is the way we can nurture the artist side of our children and students.