Creativity: Another Take
Below is my response to a piece that appeared the Jan / Feb 2015 issue of the Baltimore Jazz Alliance Newsletter. While not disputing George Colligan's talent as a musician, I've found his political commentary oppressive and filled with opinion masquerading as fact. That's why I'm suspicious of his blog, Jazz Truth, the reason being that most sites that claim to be about truth aren't.
Creativity: Another Take
I liked George Colligan's comments in the Jan/Feb 2015 issue of the BJA Newsletter, but am in disagreement with the idea that "There Is No Theory ... Only Sound."
In regard to the challenge to get students to think for themselves and be creative. I feel that part of the issue is innate ability. As I.Q. and aptitude tests show, proficiency in an area varies from person to person. The ability for an instructor to recognize a student's potential is a first step, and the ability to be able to convey the knowledge is a close second, but what does one do to inspire another's creativity?
For me, it was the years I spent studying with Jessica Williams, perhaps not so much the lessons, but the fact that she was such an unbelievably creative person. I feel good that after 40 years, I've composed over 600 pieces. When I started studying with Jessica in 1971, she, at age 24, had already written over 500 pieces. She was also a painter, and wrote good science fiction. The experience was more like learning by osmosis then anything else, my mind absorbing and understanding what an intelligent and genuinely creative person was truly like. So I feel that being in a creative environment is the best way to inspire it.
This started a voyage of self-discovery that is still going on today. One the first events was figuring out how to study, something I was not taught while growing up. I use this process with my own students, essentially teaching them how to teach themselves: my feeling being that teachers are just guides.
As far as the theory aspect, as George says, it is critical not to get bogged down in all the minutiae. For me though, the ability to easily grasp theory in college turned out to be one of my greatest assets. (Applied piano was a struggle, in part due to breaking both bones in my right arm just behind the wrist when i was 14}. This blossomed during my time with Jessica. Besides working on tunes, often our lessons were spent listening to albums. I'd already composed some easy jazz and progressive-rock tunes in college. So as a way to teach myself, I'd take the progressions and forms of standards, combine them in different ways, then drawing upon what we'd listened to, create appropriate motifs. That is how I started.
What it comes down to with George and George, is a matter of experience. Both views are valid, and there are surely others.
George F. Spicka
www.georgefspicka.com
I liked George Colligan's comments in the Jan/Feb 2015 issue of the BJA Newsletter, but am in disagreement with the idea that "There Is No Theory ... Only Sound."
In regard to the challenge to get students to think for themselves and be creative. I feel that part of the issue is innate ability. As I.Q. and aptitude tests show, proficiency in an area varies from person to person. The ability for an instructor to recognize a student's potential is a first step, and the ability to be able to convey the knowledge is a close second, but what does one do to inspire another's creativity?
For me, it was the years I spent studying with Jessica Williams, perhaps not so much the lessons, but the fact that she was such an unbelievably creative person. I feel good that after 40 years, I've composed over 600 pieces. When I started studying with Jessica in 1971, she, at age 24, had already written over 500 pieces. She was also a painter, and wrote good science fiction. The experience was more like learning by osmosis then anything else, my mind absorbing and understanding what an intelligent and genuinely creative person was truly like. So I feel that being in a creative environment is the best way to inspire it.
This started a voyage of self-discovery that is still going on today. One the first events was figuring out how to study, something I was not taught while growing up. I use this process with my own students, essentially teaching them how to teach themselves: my feeling being that teachers are just guides.
As far as the theory aspect, as George says, it is critical not to get bogged down in all the minutiae. For me though, the ability to easily grasp theory in college turned out to be one of my greatest assets. (Applied piano was a struggle, in part due to breaking both bones in my right arm just behind the wrist when i was 14}. This blossomed during my time with Jessica. Besides working on tunes, often our lessons were spent listening to albums. I'd already composed some easy jazz and progressive-rock tunes in college. So as a way to teach myself, I'd take the progressions and forms of standards, combine them in different ways, then drawing upon what we'd listened to, create appropriate motifs. That is how I started.
What it comes down to with George and George, is a matter of experience. Both views are valid, and there are surely others.
George F. Spicka
www.georgefspicka.com