Search

Can we better understand the unique mechanisms of de novo abilities in light of our current knowledge of the psychological and neuroscientific literature on creativity? This review outlines the state‐of‐the‐art in the neuroscience of creativity and points out crucial aspects that still demand further exploration, such as brain plasticity. The progressive development of current neuroscience research on creativity presents a multitude of prospects and potentials for furnishing efficacious therapy in the context of health and illness. Therefore, we discuss directions for future studies, identifying a focus on pinpointing the neglected beneficial practices for creative therapy. We emphasize the neglected neuroscience perspective of creativity on health and disease and how creative therapy could offer limitless possibilities to improve our well‐being and give hope to patients with neurodegenerative diseases to compensate for their brain injuries and cognitive impairments by expressing their hidden creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to research about creativity in education, creativity can be considered an ability that can be fostered through specific teaching strategies. Consequently, future secondary music teachers should be equipped with the knowledge to develop students' musical creativity. A challenge for teacher training lies in providing concepts and strategies to develop this professional knowledge. With the aim of improving a music didactics course, the purpose of this study was to understand how student teachers' conceptions of creative music teaching evolved over one semester. In reference to the concept of creative teaching developed by Beghetto and research about the role of the teacher's body in music education, a specific framework to identify aspects of creative pedagogical knowledge was conceived. A thematic analysis of two semi-structured interviews with five future secondary music teachers provided a detailed picture of the evolution of their conceptions about creative music teaching. Interestingly, student teachers' knowledge of theoretical concepts presented in the course, as well as knowledge about the role of the body in creative music teaching, remained mainly implicit. Knowledge about their professional identities as creative musicians and pedagogues appeared to be relevant for enhancing awareness of how to teach with creativity. In order to describe this dimension more precisely, we develop the concept of creative stance knowledge as an emerging category from the data. Its potential for teacher training will be discussed, including a more embodied vision of creative pedagogical knowledge for music teacher training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WE INTRODUCE A NEW INVENTORY LABELED THE Processes and Relationships in Composers Scale (PRCS). This is a novel inventory developed to selfassess creative and social factors inherent in music composition. The PRCS consists of two separate scales of 12 items each, namely the Composing Processes Scale (CPS) and the Social Relationship Scale (SRS). An exploratory factor analysis revealed that the CPS scale has a single factor structure, while the SRS scale relies on three main factors: loneliness, support, and friendship. The total score of the CPS was found to be highly reliable, whereas the SRS obtained a lower score. The PRCS can contribute new insights into how creative and social processes can be self-assessed by music composers with different backgrounds and levels of musical expertise. Our work aims to deepen understanding of the relationship between musical creativity and social life, contributing to existing scholarship that has explored this connection in musical activities specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Arte, Individuo y Sociedad is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The several editions of Schumann's diaries refer us to at least two drinking styles in his university years, both of them with a flavour of "wine, women and song" fraternities. He plunged headlong into all this for a start, finding it elevating and then considering it self-medicating. He drank to excess for a while but he stopped short, unable to go further to the bitter end because he could not develop a tolerance and mostly because he was afraid of madness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper investigates the transformative potential of computational music analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) in advancing the field of music composition. Specifically, it explores the synergistic roles of pre-analysis and post-analysis techniques in leveraging AI-driven tools to enhance the creative process and quality of musical compositions. The study encompasses a historical overview of music composition, the evolution of computational music analysis, and contemporary AI applications. It delves into pre-analysis, focusing on its role in informing composition, and post-analysis, which evaluates and augments compositions. The paper underscores the significance of these technologies in fostering creativity while addressing challenges and ethical considerations. Through case studies, evaluations, and discussions, this research offers insights into the profound impact of computational music analysis and AI on music composition, paving the way for innovative and inclusive musical expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the place of the musical creativity learning area, which is one of the four learning areas of the Music Curriculum in Turkey, in the music curriculum, the relationship between musical creativity outcomes and skills specific to the area, the scope of the musical creativity subject area, and the distribution of the subject areas covered according to grade levels. Document analysis, one of the qualitative research approaches, was used in the study. It was determined that the rate allocated to the musical creativity learning area in the curriculum needs to be low/insufficient. The outcomes related to the musical creativity learning area are mainly pertinent to "listening-singing, making music with rhythmic activities and expressing oneself through music" among the skills specific to the site. Musical creativity covers the activities of composing, music and dance/moving, dramatization, performing, listening to music, and using music technologies within the subject area. While music and dance/moving are included in all grades in primary and secondary school education, listening to music, performing, and accompaniment with rhythm instruments are primarily included in secondary school education. It was found out that the musical creativity subject areas and scope defined in the curriculum are at the level of "little creativeness." It is thought that pre- and post-service training that follows the nature, practices, and development of musical creativity in creating a harmonious learning environment in schools is essential for musical creativity designs to have meaningful outputs in school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to research about creativity in education, creativity can be considered an ability that can be fostered through specific teaching strategies. Consequently, future secondary music teachers should be equipped with the knowledge to develop students’ musical creativity. A challenge for teacher training lies in providing concepts and strategies to develop this professional knowledge. With the aim of improving a music didactics course, the purpose of this study was to understand how student teachers’ conceptions of creative music teaching evolved over one semester. In reference to the concept of creative teaching developed by Beghetto and research about the role of the teacher’s body in music education, a specific framework to identify aspects of creative pedagogical knowledge was conceived. A thematic analysis of two semi-structured interviews with five future secondary music teachers provided a detailed picture of the evolution of their conceptions about creative music teaching. Interestingly, student teachers’ knowledge of theoretical concepts presented in the course, as well as knowledge about the role of the body in creative music teaching, remained mainly implicit. Knowledge about their professional identities as creative musicians and pedagogues appeared to be relevant for enhancing awareness of how to teach with creativity. In order to describe this dimension more precisely, we develop the concept of creative stance knowledge as an emerging category from the data. Its potential for teacher training will be discussed, including a more embodied vision of creative pedagogical knowledge for music teacher training.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the process of composing educational music. As part of a research project titled Sound Connections: Composing Educational Music Canadian composers completed email interviews, responding to semi-structured questions about the process of composing educational music. Using qualitative data analysis, we sought to understand better this process and found that the composers in this study used a variety of compositional techniques at all stages of the compositional process (conceptualizing, writing, and refining) to promote the development of student musicians. Key findings included the importance of balancing skills review and challenge; the use of form, timbre, and harmony for the development of communication and listening skills specific to the ensemble context; the use of elements from various musical styles to support music appreciation; and the encouragement of student collaboration in the creative process of composition. An unexpected finding was the importance of composer collaboration with teachers and students in the composing process. The knowledge gained in this study adds to the literature on this under-researched topic, and may help composers, student composers, and composition teachers develop a better understanding of and appreciation for educational music, thereby encouraging educational music composition. In addition, the findings of this study may assist teachers in the difficult task of choosing educational music for their students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Musical talent and creativity is an important field of study in gifted education research. Systematic reviews of musical talent and creativity enable researchers to develop a holistic perspective in this field. In this descriptive study, document analysis method which is one of the qualitative research design, was used. The data source of the research consists of postgraduate theses on musical talent and creativity in the field of music in Turkey between the years 2000-2023 in the database of the Turkish National Thesis Center. As a data collection tool, a total of 18 masters' and 6 doctoral theses in the field of musical talent, 7 master's theses and 3 doctoral theses in the field of musical creativity were obtained by searchning the relevant keywords are "Talent, Gifted, Creativity, and Music". In the analysis of data; Content analysis method was used in subjects such as research method and data analysis method. In addition, descriptive analysis method was used in subjects such as the university and year the thesis was written. As a result of the research, it was determined that the highest number of thesis types was the master's thesis and in 2019. It has been determined that the words music education and musical talent exam are mostly used in the keywords of theses on musical talent and creativity. As for the studies on musical talent, the highest number belongs to the master's thesis and they were mostly written at Marmara University, while it was determined that the majority of doctoral theses were written at Gazi University. On musical creativity, it was seen that primarily master's theses were written at Marmara University. According to the data collection method of the graduate theses on musical talent, mostly qualitative method was used, and according to the data collection method of the graduate theses on musical creativity, quantitative method mostly was used. It has been determined that one of the quantitative techniques of the postgraduate studies on musical talent is descriptive statistics and the qualitative techniques is content analysis. It has been determined that non-parametric tests are mostly used in the analysis of quantitative research in theses on musical creativity, while situation and content analysis is used in the analysis of qualitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the main views and perceptions of creativity of a music teacher? By administering an open-ended questionnaire to 11 music teachers, we sought to elicit responses to clarify what are their self-reported understandings of creativity; how they think musical creativity can be facilitated in a teaching setting; and how they can differentiate between individual and collective forms of musical creativity in the classroom. A thematic analysis gave rise to five categories, each addressing one or more of these dimensions from different angles. Findings indicate that our respondents tended to associate the development of a creative musicianship with generally positive concepts, attributing to it several interrelated meanings. In particular, the music teachers who took part in the study mentioned how fostering creative attitude in their students may involve stimulating their curiosity, changing their perspectives, and helping them navigate both personal and social domains; finally, our participants indicated that both individual and collective forms of teaching may display important constraints when creativity is placed at the heart of the lesson. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turkish Studies - Educational Sciences is the property of Electronic Turkish Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article examines the features of constructing David Bowie’s mythology which has a pronounced hybrid character. The content analysis of D. Bowie’s works showed that he often used images that go back to classical mythological plots, and many popular songs and concepts of D. Bowie’s albums were created using mythologization mechanisms. The main creator of the myths was the performer himself, and the special mythological temporality constructed by the musician encompassed all modes of time, each of which could be correlated with a certain complex of myths. The specificity of such temporality in the case of D. Bowie was that it manifested itself in reverse chronological order: at the beginning of a career the future was mythologized, in the middle it was the present and at the end it was the past. Playing on various collisions of myth with reality and using the technique of myth reoccupation, D. Bowie demonstrated to the world all the creative power of “mythological reality”. It is noted that post-truth accompanied the musician’s career from the very beginning, contributing to the genuine disclosure of his talent. It is concluded that in relation to the heritage of D. Bowie, the term “hybrid mythology” acquires positive meaning. The singer manages to bring pop culture to a new level, giving rise to a phenomenon that we can call “bowiemythomania”.

IntroductionThe notion of autonomy in Self-Determination Theory is at the core of intrinsically motivated learning, and fulfilment of the need for autonomy is essential for thriving at school. Therefore teacher-provided autonomy support has grown into a key concern in educational research. In the present study into primary school music education, the notion of creative autonomy support is introduced. Research into autonomy support is typically focused on verbal interaction. However, from an enactive perspective, teachers’ gesturing, bodily movement, facial expression, and musical action form an integral part of the socially situated interaction in music lessons, inherently involving autonomy support. In the present study, a distinction is made between creative verbal autonomy support and creative musical and non-verbal autonomy support.MethodsApplying a process-based time-serial methodology, rooted in a Complex Dynamic Systems and Enactive perspective, the effects of an intervention with Video Feedback Coaching for teachers were investigated. Video data of 105 music lessons of 18 teachers (intervention and control condition) from six primary schools was gathered, to examine teachers’ creative autonomy support at both the individual and group level.ResultsThe findings show that teachers in the intervention condition, compared to the control group, achieved a meaningful increase in their ability to offer creative autonomy support verbally. Teachers also showed development for the non-verbal and musical aspects of offering creative autonomy support. However, particularly for offering higher-level creative autonomy support in the non-verbal and musical mode, significant results were found for less than half of the intervention teachers.DiscussionThese results underline the importance of embracing and studying the bodily dimension as an integral part of teacher autonomy support, aimed at emergence of students’ musical creativity, in primary school music education and in teacher training. We explain how these results might be relevant for autonomy enhancing musical activities in vulnerable groups.

The paper is looking at recent publications on musical abilities suggesting the most promising trends for future research. Musical abilities and talent are the most revealing for the whole agenda of giftedness; therefore, it’s easier to see the most arguable points and accents characterizing scholarly discussion in abilities’ and talent discourse. In the first place, this discussion is the hardest addressing the idea of «deliberate practice» that is now declining but used to be very influential in the end of XXth — beginning of the XXI century. «Deliberate practice» had been invented to deny and reject the very notion of giftedness as an inborn psychological category. Secondly, contemporary psychology of musical giftedness and talent gives the leading role to motivation, inner need in music making and bio-evolutionary psychological resources at the expense of more traditional cognitive abilities like pitch, rhythm and musical memory. The author argues that motivational and emotionally based factors are the clue to the concept of musical talent and creativity. Summarizing contemporary psychology of music research, the author joins the nativist approach to musical abilities’ discourse and suggests finding the new foundation for musical talent’s development beyond cognitive resources of human mind and its traditionally accepted measurements.

Musical creativity is represented through the activity of "creation" in the curricula for music education in both Montenegrin and Slovenian primary schools. Starting from the assumption that this activity is insufficiently realised, a survey of the teaching practice of the specialist music teachers in the two countries was conducted (N = 154). The obtained results show that creative musical activities are moderately represented in teaching practice and that Slovenian teachers achieve programme-defined goals related to the activities through which pupils create their own music to a greater extent. The results also indicate the particular circumstances that, in real school conditions, make it difficult to systematically realise this activity within regular music classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mind wandering is a prevalent and ubiquitous phenomenon. Several studies suggest that mind wandering benefits creativity if it occurs in the incubation period of a creative problem-solving task. However, it could be impairing real-time expression of creative behavior if it occurs during the course of a creative task. This dissociation between incubation and performance suggests that mind wandering poses a double-edged sword to creative cognition. Jazz improvisation provides an ecologically useful framework for studying the effects of mind wandering on creativity. Here we hypothesized that mind wandering during a musical improvisation task would be associated with higher levels of musical creativity, compared with on-task attention. Nine experienced musicians performed several jazz improvisation tasks interleaved with the presentation of random thought probes. The results showed that musical improvisation during unintentional mind wandering was associated with higher musical creativity when compared with improvisation during on-task attention. However, mind wandering did not impact overall improvisational quality. Altogether, these data suggest that the positive relationship between mind wandering and creativity also extends to artistic performance domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a qualitative study, we explored the range of reflections and experiences involved in the composition of score-based music by administering a 15-item, open-ended, questionnaire to seven professional composers from Europe and North America. Adopting a grounded theory approach, we organized six different codes emerging from our data into two higher-order categories (the act of composing and establishing relationships). Our content analysis, inspired by the theoretical resources of 4E cognitive science, points to three overlapping characteristics of creative cognition in music composition: it is largely exploratory, it is grounded in bodily experience, and it emerges from the recursive dialogue of agents and their environment. More generally, such preliminary findings suggest that musical creativity may be advantageously understood as a process of constant adaptation – one in which composers enact their musical styles and identities by exploring novel interactivities hidden in their contingent and historical milieux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the importance of musical creativity in combining existing musical knowledge in novel ways, research suggests that primary school teachers' practices do not adequately stimulate and develop children's musical creativity. In this regard, the purpose of this paper was to investigate teachers' perspectives on the development of imagination and creativity in primary music education. A phenomenological study approach was adopted to better understand how classroom and music teachers experience and ascribe meaning to imagination and creativity, as well as to assess the status of the two phenomena in primary music education. The results demonstrated that classroom and music teachers thought imagination and creativity were important for improving students' learning skills, underlining the importance of these phenomena in music education. Teachers linked product learning to student performances in playing their own instruments, creating rhythms with various materials, and writing poetry and lyrics. While a few music teachers emphasized the creation of melodies and rhythms, no emphasis on structural and intentional composing, and no product descriptions were provided. Teachers' thoughts on what adjustments need to be made within the primary music curriculum to equip students as imaginative and creative thinkers are also covered in this article following the introduction of a creative curriculum in primary music education.

The aspiring composer’s development is commonly described using the metaphor of finding one’s own composer voice. A central goal for teaching composition in higher music education is to guide students toward finding such a voice—toward personal expression and creativity. In order to shed light on the teaching strategies associated with this goal, we analyzed composition teachers’ views on their students’ typical problems and how they deal with them. We conducted semistructured interviews with higher education composition teachers in Germany and Sweden. By means of thematic analysis, we identified two recurring problem situations. First, students might be insecure about what they want to achieve musically. To address this issue, teachers reported engaging students in self-reflection regarding their aesthetic preferences or specific compositional decisions. Second, students’ work might not seem original enough. Teachers reported addressing this problem by providing new perspectives on students’ music, for example, by prompting students to engage with their materials, acquire new experiences, or consider different musical parameters. Despite an ideal of creative freedom, the teachers thus retain authority over the aesthetic learning process by requiring adherence to a second ideal—that of originality. The findings could strengthen pedagogical practitioners’ efforts to foster the creativity of young composers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a newly designed collaborative online music course, four musical novices unknown to each other learned to play the clarinet starting from zero. Over the course of 12 lessons, a special emphasis was placed on creativity, mutual interaction, and bodily movement. Although addressing these dimensions might be particularly challenging in distance learning contexts, a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with the learners revealed how the teaching approach proposed has generally facilitated learning. Qualitative findings highlight the importance of establishing meaningful relationships with the musical instrument as well as with other students to build musicality, and of the interplay between creativity and control in individual and collective music-making activities. We suggest that remote music tuition with a small group can be a valuable resource to start learning music and that a creative, collaborative, and movement-based approach can contribute to musical growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a qualitative study that explored how freedom in music can stimulate creative development in students. A series of musical and pedagogical activities, called Creative Freedom, which involved favourable conditions for autonomy and creative agency, was developed. This study was conducted between 2013 and 2018 in two different universities and involved a total of 72 musical volunteers. The data analysis methodology chosen for this study was grounded theory, with the aim of understanding the social and individual meanings present during the empirical research. The findings showed empirical evidence that freedom can enable creative development through the minimization of dysfunctional beliefs and the promotion of a more positive self-concept, allowing students to glimpse musical abilities that they had not previously noticed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a newly designed collaborative online music course, four musical novices unknown to each other learned to play the clarinet starting from zero. Over the course of 12 lessons, a special emphasis was placed on creativity, mutual interaction, and bodily movement. Although addressing these dimensions might be particularly challenging in distance learning contexts, a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with the learners revealed how the teaching approach proposed has generally facilitated learning. Qualitative findings highlight the importance of establishing meaningful relationships with the musical instrument as well as with other students to build musicality, and of the interplay between creativity and control in individual and collective music-making activities. We suggest that remote music tuition with a small group can be a valuable resource to start learning music and that a creative, collaborative, and movement-based approach can contribute to musical growth.

The purpose of the article is to summarize the issues of modern musical creativity with an emphasis on cultural codes. The methodology of the work is based on the use of scientific research methods, which are dominated by analytics, observation, comparative analysis in accordance and interpretation using a literary source; methods of analysis and synthesis in the selection of culture codes in literary, musical, musical and theatrical interpretation. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time an analysis of culture codes was made in the musical directed by Andrey Bilous, composer Usein Bekirov "The Overcoat"; ballet Maurice Bejart, composer Hugo Le Bar "The Overcoat"; ballet Radu Poklitaru, composer Olexander Rodin "Wii". Conclusions. Based on the theory, the history of scientific research, culture codes are presented as well-known information in literary titles, their author, their style, genres, and means of musical expression. The musical and ballet genres are self-sufficient and are programmed for creative production, the transmission of information, and its preservation under different interpretations. The musical and the ballet "The Overcoat" have a common and different embodiment of the author's literary source. In the musical by A. Belous - U. Bekirov, the ballet by Maurice Bejart - Hugo Le Bar, the ballet "Viy" by R. Poklitaru - O.Rodin, the main events of the author's story are preserved, but conditionally and under the influence of genre features. The music of the works has a stylistic plurality, the composers turn to different intonation-rhythmic layers, but with all the changes, taking into account genre features, the codes of culture remained recognizable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning music has many positive effects on the holistic development of individuals (Cavicchi, 2009; Hallam, 2010; Ilari et al., 2019; Lum, 2016). In addition, it is important to provide students with authentic musical experiences that give meaning to music education and promote lifelong engagement with music in a safe and encouraging environment (Matsunobu, 2021). Research shows that musical creativity activities, as one of the activity areas of music learning and teaching, promote the development of critical thinking (Burnard, 2000) and general creativity (Hallam, 2010). One of the areas of musical creativity is musical improvisation, which refers to the concept of unprepared musical performance (Nettl, 1974). Through a systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis, we aimed to gain insight into the role and importance of musical improvisation in the elementary school music classroom. In accordance with PRISMA guidelines (Page et al., 2021), we conducted a research selection process and analyzed 11 research articles that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria in more detail. Based on the meta-analysis conducted, we concluded that musical improvisation activities play an important role in the elementary school music classroom because they can help build and improve previously acquired musical knowledge, skills, and abilities, promote the development of other musical domains (creative thinking in music, providing authentic musical experiences, expressing one's own musical ideas, developing a deeper attitude toward music), but also have a positive impact on other areas of child development, such as the development of creative skills, critical and divergent thinking, social development, and problem-solving skills. Last but not least, improvisational activities can be a good self-assessment tool for teachers. Due to the above-mentioned positive effects highlighted in the studies reviewed, it is important to promote and nurture musical improvisation activities in elementary school music classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Musical creativity, music performance, creative cognition, music cognition, music neuroscience Keywords: musical creativity; music cognition; music neuroscience; music performance; creative cognition EN musical creativity music cognition music neuroscience music performance creative cognition 1 4 4 11/24/21 20211122 NES 211122 Introduction Creativity is central to human life, and the domain of music is no exception (Boden, [1]; Cook, [2]). Given its complex phenomenology and variety of manifestations, understanding musical creativity remains a crucial, yet difficult goal of current scholarship on the musical mind. [Extracted from the article]

This article presents an analysis of the construction of beliefs/values related to musical creativity. From the perspective of critical discourse analysis, we seek to comprehend how individuals constitute broad and strict senses of creativity and how these senses can influence their perceptions of themselves as creative. Open questionnaires were administered to students in the process of scholarly training and non-scholarly musicians. The results indicate that the presence of both senses of creativity in participants' discourse reflects a social order that qualitatively and quantitatively produces and reproduces those senses. The broad sense of creativity has a smaller incidence rate (about 31%) and tends to allow participants to form a positive self-concept. In contrast, the strict sense appears more frequently (about 69%) and may lead to a negative self-concept when subjects do not reach the assigned values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the development of the individual's musical and creative potential, the individual can express himself musically. Directing these potentials effectively depends on the musical knowledge and skills of the music teachers. Therefore, it is important for music teachers to develop their creative potential and improvisational playing ability during their studies. In this context, the aim of this research is to determine the level of preservice music teachers' creative thinking skills and their improvisation skills through the piano. In this study, mixed-method, convergence model was used. The research group consisted of 4th-grade students (n= 31) studying at Dokuz Eylül University Buca Education Faculty Fine Arts Education Department Music Education Department. Data were obtained through "Sounds and Creative Thinking with Words, the "Sounds and Images IIA" form developed by Torrance and Cunnington, adapted to Turkish by Kaya and Bilen, The Creative Thinking Test "Verbal A" form developed by Torrance, adapted to Turkish by Gifted Education Center. And "Improvisation Skills with Piano Observation Form and Scoring Guideline", "Creativity Based Learning Environment Assessment Scale" and "Semi-Structured Interview Form for Improvisation" were used. According to the findings, the pre-service music teachers' creative thinking levels are below the intermediate level and improvisation skill levels with the piano are low. The correlation between the creative thinking levels and improvisation skill levels with the piano is positive, low, and statistically not significant between the means of the scores obtained. In piano lessons, a learning environment that supports creativity at an average level is provided. They stated that being able to improvise on the piano will provide gains in instrument mastery and accompaniment playing and will contribute to the profession of teaching, musical expression, and free-thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the importance of musical creativity in combining existing musical knowledge in novel ways, research suggests that primary school teachers' practices do not adequately stimulate and develop children's musical creativity. In this regard, the purpose of this paper was to investigate teachers' perspectives on the development of imagination and creativity in primary music education. A phenomenological study approach was adopted to better understand how classroom and music teachers experience and ascribe meaning to imagination and creativity, as well as to assess the status of the two phenomena in primary music education. The results demonstrated that classroom and music teachers thought imagination and creativity were important for improving students' learning skills, underlining the importance of these phenomena in music education. Teachers linked product learning to student performances in playing their own instruments, creating rhythms with various materials, and writing poetry and lyrics. While a few music teachers emphasized the creation of melodies and rhythms, no emphasis on structural and intentional composing, and no product descriptions were provided. Teachers' thoughts on what adjustments need to be made within the primary music curriculum to equip students as imaginative and creative thinkers are also covered in this article following the introduction of a creative curriculum in primary music education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity plays a major role in various musical contexts including composition, performance and education. Although numerous studies have revealed how creativity is involved in processes of listening, improvising and composing, relatively little is known about the particularities of transcultural creative processes in music. In this article, we aim to shed light on the creative musical processes underlying taqsīm performance in Arabic music. To that end, qualitative interviews have been conducted with three Berlin-based oud players from Syria. Results of a thematic content analysis show that taqsīm encompasses multiple components (e.g., a flexible form and dependency on maqam as well as tonal music) and serves various functions such as developing artistic individuality. Moreover, taqsīm is affected by interactions between tradition and novelty. We discuss the interview data within the cross-cultural experiential model of musical creativity developed by Hill (2018), offering a fresh approach to studying taqsīm which goes beyond established concepts such as the improvisation-composition continuum.

In the current study, we investigate the implementation of a musical workshop in an early childhood education setting. The workshop is based on a shared space for musical creativity (the Active Musical Room) comprising six different musically relevant objects, which toddlers were free to explore and play with. Inspired by Delalande's Pedagogie musicale d'éveil, the workshop was facilitated by a teacher who developed strategies to help the toddlers' musical engagement. Data sources for this case study included semistructured interviews with the teacher and school principal, video recordings of each session, field notes and observations made by nonparticipant observers, and questionnaires completed by parents of the toddlers. Categories concerning three interrelated dimensions of interest emerged from our analyses: the decisions of the teacher, the affordances of the objects in the room, and the creative potential of each toddler. Although generalizations cannot be proposed given the nature of the study, our results point to the recursive interplay between the exploratory drive of the toddlers, their sensorimotor ability, and the constraints afforded by the environment in which they are situated (i.e., teachers, objects). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity plays a major role in various musical contexts including composition, performance and education. Although numerous studies have revealed how creativity is involved in processes of listening, improvising and composing, relatively little is known about the particularities of transcultural creative processes in music. In this article, we aim to shed light on the creative musical processes underlying taqsīm performance in Arabic music. To that end, qualitative interviews have been conducted with three Berlin-based oud players from Syria. Results of a thematic content analysis show that taqsīm encompasses multiple components (e.g., a flexible form and dependency on maqam as well as tonal music) and serves various functions such as developing artistic individuality. Moreover, taqsīm is affected by interactions between tradition and novelty. We discuss the interview data within the cross-cultural experiential model of musical creativity developed by Hill (2018), offering a fresh approach to studying taqsīm which goes beyond established concepts such as the improvisation-composition continuum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the specifics of distance musical and pedagogical education, which is perceived by many in a negative connotation – a reduced number of academic disciplines, first of all, individual lessons. And also – the important factor that distance education is often paid and the initial level of students is rather weak. However, there are no clear criteria for the comparative quality of full-time and part-time diplomas. Moreover, in the music profession, where individual training actualizes not only professional knowledge and skills, but also the formation of personal qualities of the future specialist. at the same time, it is necessary to separate two concepts – “correspondence” and “distance” learning. There is practically no research that would deal with the problems of distance musical and pedagogical education. As a rule, those few works that exist on correspondence training of pedagogical specialties do not take into account the specifics of the profession of music teacher, for example, in terms of the creative component of the educational process or the development of performing skills. to date, the most noticeable research gaps are, first of all, the actualization of the contextual approach and the study of the motivational component in distance learning. The author analyzes the data developed by him a detailed questionnaire for part-time students with information about the real and intended place of work of future graduates, their motivation for distance learning, the degree of satisfaction with such training, its advantages and disadvantages, the level of musical training of future teachers, musicians, their specific professional problems, etc. The students’ answers showed that there is a powerful trend in the musical and pedagogical profession associated with the public expression of musical creativity, the actualization of not only education and upbringing, but also the enlightenment component of the educational process. In addition to the performance qualities of a music teacher, those skills that have only recently seemed to be insignificant, such as organizational, directorial, lecturers, and managerial ones, have become extremely popular. According to the author, in the correspondence musical and pedagogical education it is much easier to develop the abilities of teachers in this regard, since, on the one hand, there is a knowledge base, and on the other – a specific professional situation, familiar and close to the correspondence student and teacher in one person. In this contextual paradigm laid a powerful lever of motivation of part-time students to maximize the “whole” of the educational process and, accordingly, the optimal combination and complementarity of study and professional activities.

The need to change the paradigm of music education, which primarily relies on performing and listening to music, implies a more systematic introduction of activities that would enable the direct involvement of children in the exploration of sounds and the creation of their own music. By analysing the curricula and textbooks for music education in Montenegrin primary schools, as well as examining the attitudes of teachers about the realisation of musical creativity in teaching practice, it was found that these activities are not given enough attention. In order to introduce innovations in practice, an action research study was conducted, during 2017/2018 school year with 30 fifth grade pupils in one primary school, belonging to the Southern region of Montenegro. The obtained results, based on the qualitative findings, showed the connection between the categories that make up musical creativity in the classroom: acquiring musical knowledge, developing musical skills, encouraging problem solving, developing critical thinking, supporting collaborative creativity, motivation and integrative teaching. Hopefully, the conducted research will contribute to a wide range of understanding of musical creativity in the classroom context, as one of the leading topics of contemporary music pedagogy.

Creativity is defined as the ability to generate something new and valuable. From a biological point of view this can be seen as an adaptation in response to environmental challenges. Although music is such a diverse phenomenon, all people possess a set of abilities that are claimed to be the products of biological evolution, which allow us to produce and listen to music according to both universal and culture-specific rules. On the one hand, musical creativity is restricted by the tacit rules that reflect the developmental interplay between genetic, epigenetic and cultural information. On the other hand, musical innovations seem to be desirable elements present in every musical culture which suggests some biological importance. If our musical activity is driven by biological needs, then it is important for us to understand the function of musical creativity in satisfying those needs, and also how human beings have become so creative in the domain of music. The aim of this paper is to propose that musical creativity has become an indispensable part of the gene-culture coevolution of our musicality. It is suggested that the two main forces of canalization and plasticity have been crucial in this process. Canalization is an evolutionary process in which phenotypes take relatively constant forms regardless of environmental and genetic perturbations. Plasticity is defined as the ability of a phenotype to generate an adaptive response to environmental challenges. It is proposed that human musicality is composed of evolutionary innovations generated by the gradual canalization of developmental pathways leading to musical behavior. Within this process, the unstable cultural environment serves as the selective pressure for musical creativity. It is hypothesized that the connections between cortical and subcortical areas, which constitute cortico-subcortical circuits involved in music processing, are the products of canalization, whereas plasticity is achieved by the means of neurological variability. This variability is present both at the level of an individual structure’s enlargement in response to practicing (e.g., the planum temporale) and within the involvement of neurological structures that are not music-specific (e.g., the default mode network) in music processing.

Most research on people's conceptions regarding creativity has concerned informal beliefs instead of more complex belief systems represented in scholarly theories of creativity. The relevance of general theories of creativity to the creative domain of music may also be unclear because of the mixed responses these theories have received from music researchers. The aim of the present study was to gain a better comparative understanding of theories of creativity as accounts of musical creativity by allowing students to assess them from a musical perspective. In the study, higher-education music students rated 10 well-known theories of creativity as accounts of four musical target activities—composition, improvisation, performance, and ideation—and argued for the “best theoretical perspectives” in written essays. The results showed that students' theory appraisals were significantly affected by the target activities, but also by the participants' prior musical experiences. Students' argumentative strategies also differed between theories, especially regarding justifications by personal experiences and values. Moreover, theories were most typically problematized when discussing improvisation. The students most often chose to defend the Four-Stage Model, Divergent Thinking, and Systems Theory, while theories emphasizing strategic choices or Darwinian selection mechanisms were rarely found appealing. Overall, students tended toward moderate theory eclecticism, and their theory appraisals were seen to be pragmatic and example-based, instead of aiming for such virtues as broad scope or consistency. The theories were often used as definitions for identifying some phenomena of interest rather than for making stronger explanatory claims about such phenomena. Students' theory appraisals point to some challenges for creativity research, especially regarding the problems of accounting for improvisation, and concerning the significance of theories that find no support in these musically well-informed adults' reasoning.

Among improvisers and composers today there is a resurgence of interest in experimental music (EM) practices that welcome contingency; engaging with unforeseen circumstances as an essential component of the music-making process, and a means to sonic discovery. I propose the Experimental Composition Improvisation Continua (ECIC) as a model with which to better understand these experimental musical works. The historical Experimental Music movement of the 1950s and 60s is briefly revisited, and the jazz tradition included as an essential protagonist; both being important historical movements leading to the formulation of ideas around contingent musical practices. The ECIC model is outlined as providing a means to observe the interactions and continua between composition and improvisation on the one hand and more or less experimentally conceived music on the other. This model is applied as an investigative and comparative tool to three distinctive works in order to illuminate the presence or otherwise of various experimental interactions within them. The works are: “Spiral Staircase” – a composition by written by Satoko Fujii in late 2007, John Cage’s 4′33″, and a performance of “My Favorite Things” by the John Coltrane Quartet. Further possible applications of the ECIC are suggested in the conclusion.

Most research on people's conceptions regarding creativity has concerned informal beliefs instead of more complex belief systems represented in scholarly theories of creativity. The relevance of general theories of creativity to the creative domain of music may also be unclear because of the mixed responses these theories have received from music researchers. The aim of the present study was to gain a better comparative understanding of theories of creativity as accounts of musical creativity by allowing students to assess them from a musical perspective. In the study, higher-education music students rated 10 well-known theories of creativity as accounts of four musical target activities—composition, improvisation, performance, and ideation—and argued for the "best theoretical perspectives" in written essays. The results showed that students' theory appraisals were significantly affected by the target activities, but also by the participants' prior musical experiences. Students' argumentative strategies also differed between theories, especially regarding justifications by personal experiences and values. Moreover, theories were most typically problematized when discussing improvisation. The students most often chose to defend the Four-Stage Model, Divergent Thinking, and Systems Theory, while theories emphasizing strategic choices or Darwinian selection mechanisms were rarely found appealing. Overall, students tended toward moderate theory eclecticism, and their theory appraisals were seen to be pragmatic and example-based, instead of aiming for such virtues as broad scope or consistency. The theories were often used as definitions for identifying some phenomena of interest rather than for making stronger explanatory claims about such phenomena. Students' theory appraisals point to some challenges for creativity research, especially regarding the problems of accounting for improvisation, and concerning the significance of theories that find no support in these musically well-informed adults' reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among improvisers and composers today there is a resurgence of interest in experimental music (EM) practices that welcome contingency; engaging with unforeseen circumstances as an essential component of the music-making process, and a means to sonic discovery. I propose the Experimental Composition Improvisation Continua (ECIC) as a model with which to better understand these experimental musical works. The historical Experimental Music movement of the 1950s and 60s is briefly revisited, and the jazz tradition included as an essential protagonist; both being important historical movements leading to the formulation of ideas around contingent musical practices. The ECIC model is outlined as providing a means to observe the interactions and continua between composition and improvisation on the one hand and more or less experimentally conceived music on the other. This model is applied as an investigative and comparative tool to three distinctive works in order to illuminate the presence or otherwise of various experimental interactions within them. The works are: "Spiral Staircase" – a composition by written by Satoko Fujii in late 2007, John Cage's 4′33″ , and a performance of "My Favorite Things" by the John Coltrane Quartet. Further possible applications of the ECIC are suggested in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity is defined as the ability to generate something new and valuable. From a biological point of view this can be seen as an adaptation in response to environmental challenges. Although music is such a diverse phenomenon, all people possess a set of abilities that are claimed to be the products of biological evolution, which allow us to produce and listen to music according to both universal and culture-specific rules. On the one hand, musical creativity is restricted by the tacit rules that reflect the developmental interplay between genetic, epigenetic and cultural information. On the other hand, musical innovations seem to be desirable elements present in every musical culture which suggests some biological importance. If our musical activity is driven by biological needs, then it is important for us to understand the function of musical creativity in satisfying those needs, and also how human beings have become so creative in the domain of music. The aim of this paper is to propose that musical creativity has become an indispensable part of the gene-culture coevolution of our musicality. It is suggested that the two main forces of canalization and plasticity have been crucial in this process. Canalization is an evolutionary process in which phenotypes take relatively constant forms regardless of environmental and genetic perturbations. Plasticity is defined as the ability of a phenotype to generate an adaptive response to environmental challenges. It is proposed that human musicality is composed of evolutionary innovations generated by the gradual canalization of developmental pathways leading to musical behavior. Within this process, the unstable cultural environment serves as the selective pressure for musical creativity. It is hypothesized that the connections between cortical and subcortical areas, which constitute cortico-subcortical circuits involved in music processing, are the products of canalization, whereas plasticity is achieved by the means of neurological variability. This variability is present both at the level of an individual structure's enlargement in response to practicing (e.g., the planum temporale) and within the involvement of neurological structures that are not music-specific (e.g., the default mode network) in music processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to change the paradigm of music education, which primarily relies on performing and listening to music, implies a more systematic introduction of activities that would enable the direct involvement of children in the exploration of sounds and the creation of their own music. By analysing the curricula and textbooks for music education in Montenegrin primary schools, as well as examining the attitudes of teachers about the realisation of musical creativity in teaching practice, it was found that these activities are not given enough attention. In order to introduce innovations in practice, an action research study was conducted, during 2017/2018 school year with 30 fifth grade pupils in one primary school, belonging to the Southern region of Montenegro. The obtained results, based on the qualitative findings, showed the connection between the categories that make up musical creativity in the classroom: acquiring musical knowledge, developing musical skills, encouraging problem solving, developing critical thinking, supporting collaborative creativity, motivation and integrative teaching. Hopefully, the conducted research will contribute to a wide range of understanding of musical creativity in the classroom context, as one of the leading topics of contemporary music pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]