[Harp-L] Discussion on Creativity Comments- was Harmonica MasterClass

[IcemanLE@xxxxxxx]

First of all, please excuse the time lapse in responding - I just returned  
from a 10 day trip in which my focus was on selling Olive Tapenade, not  
posting to a harmonica list.
 
Here are some of the responses and my comments:
 
<<If they play something original and creative, it 
might not be  any good. Why play second-rate stuff?

Music comes from the soul. You  either have it or your don't. If you don't 
have it (99.9% of musicians) then  it pays to learn from the best and copy 
until you get it right. Once in a  blue moon someone unique, original, and 
inspiring will come along, but the  rest of us can't be that person. Nobody 
has come along that can play with  the feeling of Little Walter, so it makes 
sense to learn what he did. Just  my opinion.>>
 
Everyone has it - the trick is to access it. If you buy into that  "don't 
have it (99.9%)", than you'll fulfill your own prophecy and short change  
yourself. I prefer to live with the "everyone has it" reality. (Disclaimer -  
"everyone has it" is not to be taken LITERALLY AND ETCHED IN STONE. There are  always 
a few - and I do mean a few - that just can't get with the groove).
 
All of my students play with the feeling of Little Walter - they don't play  
like Little Walter, but their attachment to their own feelings, once opened up 
 with a creative encouragement, sounds just as true as Little Walter, since 
they  are being true to themselves. When the students play like this, I always 
tell  them that Kim Wilson would come up to them, shake their hand and tell 
them how  he was moved.


<<Creativity comes from within, and not from  within most people. I think it 
comes easier after the mechanics of playing  the instrument are learned and 
perfected.>>
 
Creativity comes from within everyone. Everyone has the potential.
 

<<> This is the true fast
> track to creativity,  bypassing the years of "learn these solos note
> for note and eventually  you will get it" approach.

Is there a fast track to creativity? If so, is  it teachable?>>
 
Why yes, it is. I teach it all the time. Granted, it is a new and  radical 
approach and seems to rattle some of the "traditional teacher's" (and  some 
player's) cages, but that is merely their own insecurities giving  voice.

<<> Since most of these clinicians took this long route  themselves and/or
> know no other approach, it runs rampant throughout the  industry,
> unfortunately. 

That's a pretty broad brush to splatter  an unspecified group whose
recent teaching you have not  witnessed.>>
 
Agreed, I haven't witnessed the recent teaching of Dave Barrett. I am  guilty 
of assuming that he is still on his heavily academic approach of  learning by 
recreating other's ideas. I do know how Joe Filisko teaches and  he is a big 
proponent of learning solos note for note, one after the other, for  years, 
until one finally "gets it".
 
Open RHETORICAL question to all of you (and you know who you are) who  
disagree and even publicly/privately call me names for speaking out - are you  
afraid, deep down inside, that you are NOT a truly creative person? That you  HAVE 
to learn others' creative ideas by copying them before you can even begin  to 
think that you have the ability to create on your own?
 
Well, I may just be blowing the lid off of a CLOSED MINDSET with what I say  
and how I teach. Unfortunately, CLOSED MINDSETS have a tendency to defend 
their  closed mindsets and even try shooting the messenger, something I never 
could  understand. The proof is in the results. My students are happier and are  
learning to believe in their creative selves much faster than when I used to  
teach the old fashioned way - learn this solo, learn that solo, learn this 
other  solo, and now, learn this solo and these licks note for note.
 
When you learn something note for note, the tendency is to want to perform  
it that way, without the understand beneath it - that's what I did in my  
formative years. Man, talk about anxiousness, sweaty armpits, dry mouth. I would  
start the solo and from the first note, everything was scripted out, whether I  
"felt it" or not. Heaven help me if I fell off the turnip truck and lost the  
thread of notes. The perfection of reproducing what I'd memorized took all of 
my  energy, time and effort. I wasn't even relaxed enough to actually listen 
to  myself or the music happening around me. I missed out on a lot of fun.
 
Not once have I stated that learning solos note for note is bad. However,  to 
make this the main thrust and focus in teaching is misdirected at best and  
too time consuming at worst. Once my students get the confidence to believe in  
their inner creativity and master a few rudimentary harmonica techniques, 
they  are jamming within 6 months of beginning - and holding their own, at least 
for 1  song at a jam session. They don't have stress over what they do. The 
ideas come  to them organically and unfold as a flower blossoms. Of course, 
these are not  virtuoso flights of improvisational genius, but they do hold the 
attention of  the audience and ring true to the player. After this point, a song 
or solo by an  OBDG is encouraged and examined from a different standpoint. 
The student has a  firm understanding of form and content at this point and can 
look at a "turn  around" idea from an Old Master in the midst of a long solo 
and understand it  for what it is. They can pick and choose which aspect of 
the solo they want to  grasp and add to their creative quiver of arrows. Usually 
they won't want to  memorize the whole solo note for note - just add to their 
pool of creativity. It  becomes much easier to understand how the ideas work 
from this standpoint -  getting into the mindset of the creator to create 
rather than trying to find  understanding from years of transcribing solos note 
for note what is going  on.
 
Both approaches are valid. Both paths will lead  to musical creativity - one 
takes years, the other takes  months.
 
You choose which path you prefer. 
 
I happen to like the shorter one.
 
The Iceman
 
 




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