Third-Stream Music Education

Do Bands Kill Creativity?

September 1st, 2008

I am often the last to hear about hot new goings-on, so I imagine I’m the last to hear about the TED conventions. If you aren’t hip to it, then check out Sir Ken Robinson’s brilliant TED lecture before continuing.

On the one hand, he is right, and all music educators should embrace his message. In fact, each of us should make the video of Sir Robinson’s talk a main tool in our advocacy toolbox. Show a 2-minute snippet to your school board, to prospective Band parents, to every administrator whom you can make watch.

On the other hand, my question today is whether the modern school band (orchestra, choir) program kills creativity. Certainly we, Performing Arts teachers, have the greatest opportunity to develop creativity in students. But do we actually encourage creativity? Do young people harness creative energy while marking time in a 250-person marching block? Do young people feel encouraged to explore while tuning the 3rd of a minor chord in a rehearsal of a large concert choir? How would the typical orchestra conductor react to a second violinist improvising “variations on a theme of Kurt Cobain” during the adagio movement of a symphony?

Before you send hate mail, please recognize that I do promote and will continue to promote large ensembles as an irreplaceable part of the school music experience. But when do student get to explore and experiment? Sure, students must “learn the rules”; but how often do we actually give them opportunities to break the rules, even just for the purpose of finding out what that sounds like? Why would we, when every wasted moment during rehearsal just puts us one step further from winning that superior or sweepstakes rating at competition? The truth is that when the music teacher has no time for student experimentation, music becomes just another mandatory class: solve this equation, read this paragraph, run two laps, play this important musical work.

Therefore, I propose that we make a commitment to wasting some rehearsal time every month. Do your saxophones want to know why the tenors can’t just read the alto part? Let them find out the hard way! Do your trombones want to play “Bubba’s Boogie” repeatedly? Stick them in a practice room and let them repeat it until they start making up their own variations. Do your trumpets want to see how high they can play? Show them Maynard Ferguson, then show them the lung capacity machine and the Arban’s book. Let your beginning band learn “Iron Man” by ear, then have your advanced band write it out in parallel-fifth power chords; you’ll be the coolest teacher in school, and you’ll check off some of those hard-to-approach standards and benchmarks in the process. By letting your students ‘waste’ some time regularly, you will stick concepts in your students’ long-term memories while increasing student ownership of the process of creating music.

You might even have a student grow up to be a famous musician and give you all the credit. It could happen…

Entry Filed under: Music Curriculum, Leadership Lab