Creative learning and 'original' music
performance
Project overview | Project narrative | Workshops | Questionnaire | Fieldwork | Outputs
The questionnaire distributed in September 2010 examined students' concepts of creativity both implicitly and explicitly, using quantitative and qualitative questions. It also aimed to place skills with potential relevance to creativity in the context of the many other skills that musicians need, and to examine the contexts within which they may be learned (e.g. one-to-one lessons, performances, practice, observing others, etc.). The questionnaire was distributed to virtually all music students at the Guildhall School who were attending induction events during the first week of the September term; this included all four undergraduate years and first-year postgraduates, with 415 questionnaires returned of which 280 were totally complete. It had originally been planned to launch the questionnaire at the Royal College of Music as well, but logistical obstacles meant that comprehensive access to the student population could not be achieved.
Results of the analysis support the notion that creativity in performance may be conceived of as comprising a number of related skills, abilities and attributes, namely spontaneity, a personal artistic 'voice', ability to be in the moment ('flow'), ability to take expressive risks, deep emotional engagement with music, stage presence and ability to communicate musically with an audience. Two other findings are of particular importance. First, this cluster of skills appears to be unrelated to concepts of musicality and expressiveness in general. Secondly, these are among the skills that students are least likely to believe can be learned or improved; this came as a surprise to the teaching staff whom we briefed. These findings are of considerable interest and have important implications for the teaching and learning of skills relevant to creativity. They also pose methodological challenges for capturing processes that may be widely distributed in time and location.
More recently, one part of the questionnaire was re-administered during the induction week at the Guildhall School in September 2011 in order to test the findings from the previous year, some of which were contrary to both our expectations and those of the teachers and administrators whom we consulted. Analysis of this newly issued questionnaire is ongoing.
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Shaping
music in 
performance