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Popular Music: The Creative Process Essay

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The Oxford Dictionary defines creativity as “the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness”. Stemming from this, the creative process is the way in which an individual develops their creative ideas. Under this umbrella is improvisation and, in particular, free improvisation (or free jazz). “Improvisation is about… truthfully responding to changing circumstances, and about…. enjoying the process without straining to get a known result. It is about creation.” Creativity and improvisation come from deep within, almost decided by our subconscious, only to be directed by conscious thought and the happenings around us at the given time. “Even without thinking, [musicians] can make musical gestures that direct the …show more content…

I hold improvising close to me, and use it as a technique for creating original songs, and turning cover songs into my own. When one improvises, they make choices that are unique to them, which leads into the question of where ideas in improvising come from.

Singer-songwriter Matt Corby spoke about the idea that inspiration does not come from you, rather “it’s something that you channel. Song writing, being able to create something new, is a regurgitation of everything that you have experienced musically in your entire life. Your ideas [are] just a product of what you know and what you place value upon musically or artistically”. Though he is speaking more so about song writing, this especially resonates in improvisation, as the process is even more free flowing and spontaneous than creating a song. In improvising, this concept of “the body acting prior to thought” is key, however when taking part in free improvisation, it is often difficult to continue coming up with different ideas and variation, and I feel I am often too similar and somewhat predictable in my improvising. A musician’s “personal conventions [can become] too familiar” and it is often necessary to “search for a wider spectrum of ideas.” I wanted to put myself out of my comfort zone, in order to explore new things, and was able to do so in the workshops.

In one of the first free improvisation workshops I was given an image that looked like a string of

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