Becoming Creative

Juniper Hill has conducted extensive fieldwork on creativity, improvisation, pedagogy, and intercultural dynamics in South Africa, Finland, the US, and Ecuador. She has been awarded a Marie Curie fellowship, a Humboldt fellowship, and two Fulbright fellowships, and has held positions at the University of California, University of Cambridge, and University College Cork. She is currently Professor and Chair of Ethnomusicology at the University of Würzburg.

Because Hill's book is a phenomenological analysis of working musicians, it's filled with excerpts from her interviews with them, offering diverse and beautifully observed insights from a spectrum of experiences. That is, while her process and conclusions are academic, they're informed by the sensitive realities of artists. Becoming Creative covers a wide range of topics related to creativity ... For those who work in the field of creation, it's likely to find in Hill's work a clear articulation of complex phenomena personally encountered. Ultimately, giving voice to that shared experience delivers balm to creation's spiritual wounds and encouragement to continue.

• Table of Contents AcknowledgmentsList of Figures Chapter One: Interpreting Creative Experience Across Diverse Musical Communities 1.1. Introduction 1.2. What does it mean to be creative? An experiential model of musical creativity Generativity Agency Interaction Nonconformity Recycling Flow Value as a problematic component of creativity 1.3. Creativity as socially undesirable behavior: some theoretical insights Social pressures to conformInternalizing motivations not to be creative 1.4. Common enablers and inhibitors of creativity: an overview of chapters 1.5. Learning from the experiences of musicians: methodology 1.6. Contrasting musical communities: the case studies The allure of Helsinki, Cape Town, and Los Angeles as research sites Urban distinctions Cross-cultural comparisons of classical, jazz, and folk music communities Chapter Two: Developing Creativity Enabling Skills 2.1. Introduction to creativity enabling skills 2.2. Technique The myth of technical mastery as prerequisite for creativity Overemphasis on technique Correct technique as conformativity or toolbox 2.3. Aural skills Building aural skills through oral transmission Lack of aural skills as inhibiting Concerns about oral transmission and imitation 2.4. Vocabulary and memory facility Building vocabulary for idiomatic creative activities Human memory as facilitator of creativity Oral versus written culture Reviving oral culture and unfixing notation A critique of pattern manipulation as (un)creative 2.5. Syntax and the ability to apply music theory 2.6. Decision-making skills Lack of decision-making skills as inhibiting Approaches for fostering decision-making skills 2.7. Self-assessment skills 2.8. Summary of developing creativity enabling skills Chapter Three: Developing Psychological Enablers and Inhibitors of Creativity 3.1. Introduction to psychological enablers and inhibitors of creativity 3.2. Beliefs about talent and potential Western attitudes toward talent and their impacts South African attitudes toward musical and creative potential and their impacts 3.3. Role models Identification with role models and sense of potential Role models as conveyors of norms and permission 3.4. Assessment and feedback Positive feedback Constructive critical assessmentDestructive feedback Anticipating feedback Self-judgment 3.5. Values and attitudes Mistakes and Perfectionism Originality versus recycling 3.6. Summary of psychological enablers and inhibitors Chapter Four: Accessing the Opportunity, Permission, and Authority to be Creative 4.1. Opportunities and barriers in creative development: social inequalities Prejudice and internalized perceptions of limited potential Economic inequalities in music learning 4.2. Opportunities and barriers in creative work: economic pressures Private gigs, corporate sponsorship, and neoliberal policies in Cape Town Working for the music, television, and film industries in Los Angeles State support for the arts in Helsinki Policies, markets, motivation, and education 4.3. Authority, permissions, and prohibitions: who's allowed to create what music? Codifying rules for newcomers and restricting outsiders Stylstic boundaries and the politics of race, class, and cultural imperialism Internalizing musical attitudes and practices as moral values 4.4. Summary of societal enablers and inhibitors of creativity Chapter Five: Overcoming Inhibitors of Creativity 5.1. Mechanisms for overcoming inhibitors of creativity The safe transgression of comfort zones 5.2. Formal methods for enhancing creative agency: courses and programs Safety and emotional support Facilitating composition and improvisation within an idiom Free improvisation, experimentalism, and the breaking of convention Multiple modes of expression: singing, multi-instrumentalism, dance, and theatre Exposure, facilitator expectations, and validation 5.3. Informal strategies for overcoming creative hurdles: individual journeys Tuomas Jackie Kyle Anja Juniper 5.5. Conclusions on increasing creative agency Musicians Interviewed References