Developing Creativity-Enabling Skills

Abstract

This chapter examines six skill sets for enabling creativity that are important across multiple music cultures: physical technique, aural skills, vocabulary and memory facility, syntax tools, decision-making skills, and self-assessment skills. The extent to which musicians develop and are able to employ these skills correlates with their learning experiences. Social environment, values, and belief systems shape different learning approaches. The natures of human memory and oral culture further interact to facilitate creativity-enabling skill development. Valuable insights are drawn from the experiences of classical, jazz, and traditional musicians in South Africa, Finland, and the United States. Formal and informal music education, authoritarian and learner-directed teaching, emphasis on obedience and student agency, and reliance on notation and playing by ear all have long-term consequences for creative development.