What is creativity? According to the article, The Two Sides of Musical Creativity by Robert Woody, Creativity involves:
An idea that is both (a) original, novel, or surprising and is (b) adaptive or functional (Simonton, 2010).
Exercising creativity can be quite challenging. It requires an honest and open understanding of oneself and background, and the ability to tackle challenges using a growth mindset. Creative musicians tend to study music in a much open and unrestricted way, eventually developing their own musical voice and presence. In the realm of art and music, the creative process is often messy and unpredictable. At times, it is fueled by dominance or insecurities resulting into some people being more creatively secure than others. Creativity, nevertheless, is accessible to anyone and can be employed in various situations.
Barriers to creativity may result due to human error or ignorance. Over time people learn to adjust, use flexible and agile approaches, and have a greater sense of security with skill by informing the way they do things or learning from experience or feedback. By increasing levels of creativity through life, musicians expand their knowledge and create multidimensional solutions to challenges. A creative musician has access to various tools that elevate learning, performance, and relationship with music and audiences. Striving for creativity not only influences musical outcomes, but allows musicians to make their music lasting and impactful (Woody, 2022).
Using creativity inspires a positive relationship with challenge.
Through years of classical music lessons, I learned that the ability to excel lies in the capacity to adapt creative problem-solving approaches and employ diverse solutions to similar obstacles. It is not so much about one's gender, background, and other physiological deficits or disabilities or strictly sticking to a method of learning. While schooling could teach us certain standards in life, the creative journey should be seen more as application-based rather than prescribed. Reitman and Simon's study on musical composition and architectural design offers a renewed outlook on operational creativity: while creativity can yield successful outcomes, it is further enhanced by incorporating a broad array of effective elements in the problem-solving process (Stokes, 2008). We use creativity, but we also feed it with our renewed experiences leading to cycles of growth.
Creativity is at its best when we are active about it. Start owning the process, practice openness and patience, and have a strengths over deficits mindset --- the key is channeling alternative approaches to challenges and making the learning process more fun, meaningful, and positive. Creativity is daunting, but it is also empowering.
References
Stokes, P.D. (2008), Creativity from Constraints: What can we learn from Motherwell? from Modrian? from Klee?. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 42: 223-236. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.2008.tb01297.x
Woody, R. (2022) The two sides of musical creativity, Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/live-in-concert/202201/the-two-sides-musical-creativity (Accessed: 10 September 2024).
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