Inventiveness

Inventiveness is an essential part of growth and learning in every aspect of life. Being creative can lead to the discovery of new horizons; with the people surrounding you, with places, and within yourself. In schools, it is important that we as teachers stick with a relatively ordered classroom, but at the same time, allow for some "exploration" of ideas. Doing this in a music classroom should be quite easy. Music is all about expression of the individuals who are making it. In high school, I was a member of a Vocal Jazz group in which each person had multiple opportunities for "scat" solos; solos that used syllables and a basic chord progression and are completely improvisational. This was a great way to encourage creativity, and the reward was that if you came up with a nice solo, you got to sing it during a concert. Another way in which creativity infiltrates into the classroom is through interpretation of lyrics and/or music. Whenever we sang songs with poetic lyrics or words that could be seen in many ways, we were given the opportunity to describe what they meant to us as individuals. I personally enjoyed these "projects" because they were new and different. Creativity is incredibly important in today's world. Our society is so focused on "the right way" of doing things, which rarely leaves room for new discoveries. Encouraging inventiveness starts with teachers and if we succeed, it will make the world a better, more interesting place to be.