Jonathan Savage

At the end of the tax year here in the UK, it was nice to receive a royalty cheque for two books I have co-written with my colleague Martin Fautley. Both were for the same published and released around about the same time. Can someone explain to me why the book on assessment has sold eight times as many copies as the book for creativity? Same authors. Same publisher. Is it is a sad indictment on the current state of education in our country?

What’s your view on ‘creativity’ and its inclusion in the new National Curriculum for Music? I’m not sure that there is a consensus amongst music educators about what it means and what impact it could/should have on processes of teaching and learning. Can I be bold? I think that one of the challenges for music teachers is to understand that creativity isn’t something that is theirs by default. You can just as easily perform or compose in an uncreative way as a creative way. Creativity as a concept is, to my mind, not subject specific and should, therefore, impact all we do as teachers and learners regardless of what we are trying to teach.

But at least creativity is now a key concept within the curriculum and it should, therefore, dominate all we do as music educators (therefore it’s important we know what we mean by it). I have been stressing to our new students this year that the order of the National Curriculum document implies a hierarchy (i.e. importance statement is the most important thing, key concepts are the second most important, etc). The challenge is to get away from a simplistic understanding of creativity as part of a default element of a musical teaching and learning process, and view it as an overarching/permeating theme which dominates all our thinking (about planning, teaching, learning, assessment, resource choice/use, application of ICT, etc, etc).

Do check out the book that Martin Fautley and I wrote on this topic for more ideas.

I’m doing some writing for NAME/Becta at the moment on ‘imaginative composition’. Basically, it is a short guide for teachers about how to get pupils doing imaginative composition work rather than unimaginative composition work!

As part of this work, I was reminded about the excellent Exchanging Notes resource. Exchanging Notes was an exchange of ideas between teachers and composers designed to strengthen and investigate new strategies for the teaching of composition across the secondary music curriculum. The emphasis of the exchange was to develop practical teaching strategies that could be utilised within any scheme of work, and it took the form of four days of workshops facilitated by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Birmingham LEA.

I highly recommend this resource for any of you out there who want to get your pupils composing imaginatively!

The last cross-curricular dimension is creativity and critical thinking. These can develop pupils’ capacity for original ideas and purposeful action. They allow for activity within subjects that can lead to original, expressive and valuable outcomes. Both creativity and critical thinking need to permeate through all curriculum subjects and the whole life of a school.

The inclusion of creativity as a key concept within the new music curriculum is noteworthy. Defining creativity is always difficult but many musicians and artists would say it is about taking risks. This finds a resonance with other curriculum subjects. For example, one part of the definition for creativity in the new Art and Design Programme of Study reads that creativity is about ‘taking risks and learning from mistakes’. The English Programme of Study encourages creativity through ‘using inventive approaches to making meaning, taking risks, playing with language and using it to create new effects’. In comparison to these statements of creativity, the music statement seems, in some respects, quite bland. The development of musical knowledge through the key processes of performing, composing, listening, reviewing and evaluating contain many elements that could truly inspire pupils’ creativity.

Some very interesting reading here about the need for schools to have a great level of support when it comes to embedding creativity in the curriculum. The BBC report that:

‘The Commons education committee warns that creativity is a “second-order priority” in England’s schools. The MPs say creativity should be a fundamental part of learning and should receive adequate funding. “Successful schools are creative schools,” said the committee chairman, Labour MP Barry Sheerman. Creativity – in the form of the arts, music and thinking more imaginatively about subjects – are an important part of an all-round education, says the select committee report. But there have been fears that schools, under pressure to focus on academic standards, could be neglecting such areas. And the report by MPs concludes that more should be done to protect these areas of creativity.’

A full  report of their deliberations can be downloaded here. It is interesting reading, especially for those of you that have done any work with Creative Partnerships.

We spent a very enjoyable evening yesterday at Sandbach School where their Head of Music, John Barber, had organised an innovative programme of music with Andy Scott. The highlight of the evening for me was Andy’s interpretation of the Roger McGough poem Summer with Monica which featured Richard Ellis as the narrator, Andy playing tenor sax, Dave Hassall on percussion and a wonderful collection of images created and managed by Gary Abbott. This was a riveting 30 minutes of music, prose and art which held the whole audience captive with a wonderful blend of humour, poignancy, sadness, delight and, of course, admiration for the innvative musical improvisations provided by Andy and Dave. Do catch it if you can. There are a couple more dates in Andy’s diary, notably the 14th November at 1pm at the University of Salford and the 24th November at Liverpool University. Superb!

Creative Partnerships are running the Exciting Minds conference on the 27th and 28th November in Manchester. It is their first ever National Conference and should be a blast! UCan.tv are hoping to have a hands-on type session in the arena at some point during the two days. Look forward to seeing you there!