I once had a phenomenally creative young student. She was ten years old and sang beautifully. She also had a great ear. She could come up with lyrics as good as anything you can find on iTunes today.
But, we had a problem. She didn’t want any structure. She didn’t want to learn any of the rules of music. She didn’t want to learn any music theory. Lesson assignments were rarely completed.
Mom and dad didn’t want to push the issue because they were worried that it would break her creative spirit.
It was clear after a couple of years that she was not interested in learning to read music. I was okay with this, given her great ear and creativity in other areas.
There was resistance to learning other basics, though. Things like keeping steady rhythm. Making sure the entire tune was in 4/4 time without random bars of two-and-a-half beats. Things like that.
Once again, there was resistance. And once again, mom and dad didn’t want to push for fear that she would lose her creative spirit.
Week after week, month after month, it was the same potentially-wonderful original songs with the same problems. I still had her perform them in public. But, we never quite had a moment of, “Wow, you have really leveled up.”
As middle school approached, they decided to take a break from lessons. Sadly, this would become a permanent break. I hope she comes back to it one day.
When it comes to creativity, especially in the younger years, there are many misperceptions. The worst is the misperception that structure will kill creativity. Structure in lessons and structure in practice.
Like my students’ parents, there is a fear that the creative spirit will be squelched. When, in fact, structure is in service of creativity in the bigger picture. There is a great saying.
You need to know the rules before you can break them.
If you look at any creative on the planet, there was a point in time where they had to do the practice. Period.
They had to learn the basics of paint strokes and brushes. They had to learn what sharps and flats are and what it means to be in a key. They had to learn the traditional dance steps.
And then, with the tools in hand, they could bring new understanding and life to their creativity. They could find something new and exciting that would actually resonate with the world.
Structure and creativity. You can’t have one without the other.
