Six ways music teachers can encourage creative musical expression

1. Make time for creativity – Learning takes time and so does learning to be creative. Students are not always open to leaving the printed page, especially if their lessons have always been “by the book”. Have patience and offer plenty of praise for their effort (pat yourself on the back, too). Think of including creativity as a long-term goal, not the subject of a single music lesson.

2. Be Playful – Playing is different than practicing! When children play, often they are experimenting, testing scenarios, engaging in “what if?” thinking. This can be done with music as well. Instead of being focused on the final result, let students see what happens to a phrase when played with different rhythms or styles. Let them explore the possibilities or even compose an alternate ending.

3. Focus on sound – Sometimes it’s easy to get into a rut of relying too much on the notes on the page. Encourage students to listen to themselves, to hear the intervals and the rhythmic patterns. You could record them and then let them listen to themselves. Or have them close their eyes and listen as you play an excerpt. Afterward, talk about the sound together. It can be quite challenging to talk about sound at first, but it gets easier through practice.

4. Give students the freedom to make mistakes – Students afraid of failure will not take risks. Yet risk-taking is essential to getting beyond what you know and can do right now. It is important for teachers to provide a sense of “safety” during lessons so that the fear of making mistakes is lessened. I have known teachers who celebrated mistakes because they could use that information to plan the next steps—for them, a mistake is an expected part of the learning process!

5. Set the example – Teachers can lead the way toward creative musical expression by trying new things in the studio, like improvising with students! The goal is not to do it right the first time: it is to discover something new about music, about yourself, about the way you learn!

6. Be open to all kinds of musical expression – Students will often oversome significant barriers to learning when they realize they can be themselves . One way teachers can make students feel safe or special is to ask them about the types of music they enjoy listening to at home. Let them use their i-pod or mp3 player to share one of their favorite songs with you. This can be a great starting point for improvising together

Advertisement