Featured

What makes a creative musician?

Delving into the deep recesses of what it means to be a creative musician opens up an array of projections and possibilities, a question that is impossible to answer but which I feel needs to be asked. My interest is as a Higher Popular Music Education (HPME) researcher seeking to discover whether university education is supporting current popular musicians to explore their true creative selves. As neoliberalism sweeps through the UK university sectors employability is linked to course design and outputs; I wonder whether HPME can in part replace record company A+R departments who gambled, took risks with young creatives and provided them with the time and mentoring to achieve their maximised music identity. If we are going to mentor musicians then surely it is supporting their creative journey which is vital.

In traversing the slopes of creativity, I pose an open question for exploring what it means to be a creative musician, a conversation which will support the debate and open pathways of exploration. Through jazz, classical, dance, punk, rock and other global music genres are there interconnections which help to define what a creative musician is?

There are many elements of creativity that connect to perceived elements of musicality, which resonate with all elements of the creative arts including flexibility, associative thinking (chance and freedom), collaboration, metaphorical thinking (comparative) and synthesising (mixing conscious and unconscious) (Vaughan, 1977, p.72). It is the interconnection between conscious and unconscious thought processes that help to define creative artists. Richard David James (Aphex Twin) used dreaming as a way of exploring the unconscious state, recalling sounds, motifs and atmospheres which he would create in his waking state. Teaching at the German Bauhaus school in the early 20th century, Johannes Itten, used breathing exercises and movement to help students move into trance-like states, to reduce the impact of considered thought.

Maybe we need to leave musicians alone or press the reboot button located on their person. Engaging with the concept of natural artistic creation, musicologist Michael Spitzer argued that musicality is innate within the human species and the naturalness to perform and create it is stunted through a series of cultural phenomena. Within art, cutting back to the original naturally creative self is achieved through unlearning, where previous education and the creation of a blank slate on which to provide the space and inspiration to explore creative avenues is attained. British ethnomusicologist John Blacking discovered that the Venda people of South Africa believed that music existed as something naturally assumed through the human body and socialised experiences; trance induced states and automated learning from birth assumed an automatic imbibing of musicality, where music is life: life is music.

Correlating to the emotional and cognitive elements of creativity, arriving in the flow, being lost within artistic creation intrigued Hungarian psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. Teaching student artists to recognise when they are in a flow state and techniques on how to get there, should be an ingredient of popular music education. Research psychologist and former partner of Mick Fleetwood (Mac), Jenny Boyd interviewed musicians about their creative experiences discovering numerous recollections about getting lost in music, being in a flow state, reducing the conscious impact on the creative process. Boyd reflected on Carl Jung’s theory that ‘the centre of the total personality lies midway between the unconscious and the conscious,’ with this transference being an important point. Her findings revealed that some musicians used meditation to transcend to ‘no mind’ and ‘referred to a kind of mental ‘stillness’ necessary for the unconscious to make itself known through creative expression’

Alternatives to exhorting technical proficiency, within my own research (Blank Canvas) I explore connections between UK art education and the creative development of popular musicians. Some of the main elements of creativity relate to interdisciplinary features. I argue that musicians and music educators should look away from music specific ideals to develop musicianship, with art schools being one avenue overdue for in depth exploration. Musicians could expand their outlook to include subjects such as philosophy, psychology, culture, politics and science for example to help inform practices.

Inspired by the Bauhaus, Belgian socio-cultural theorist Thierry De Duve believed that the closer someone existed to a newborn state then the greater their natural level of creativity. He also crucially detailed three periods (3 is always the magic number) within the field of visual arts, with the three main elements of the third section of the schema coinciding with key components of popular musicians who exploded through the 1960s and 70s: Attitude – Practice- Deconstruction.

Looking at these independently then: 

Attitude – is a difficult word to define but can be seen as an artist who takes risks with a radical edge, not being a slave to conformity or tradition but aiming towards pure creativity, without allowing anything to stand within their pathway.

Practice – can refer to a few constituents but in general connects to the creative process, letting this evolve and revelling in the journey. It can also be related to the actual physical practice required to assist in the development of enhanced musicality.

Deconstruction – again has meanings which intersect, including deconstructing collective ideas but also deconstructing the music itself into constituent parts. 

Taking these three main elements into consideration could be vital for the nurturing musician who is looking for a framework of creativity, examining the main elements then utilising work that is personal and true to the self alongside an openness to collaboration, whether with other musicians or themselves.

Entering the traditional music realm, key elements of musicianship could be seen as pitch and rhythm but exactness within either doesn’t tell the whole story for a creative musician. I believe that all humans have their own natural pitch and timing capabilities and emphasising or enhancing these is an area of interest for the creative musician. The Velvet Underground’s Mo Tucker drummed with a natural non-linear expression counter to exactness exploited by the lifeless click used by many drummers and rhythm exponents. The random swing of an Akai MPC drum sampler gave a machinic but naturalness to early hip hop programmed beats. 

Art school students such as ambient pioneer Brian Eno and post punk musician Gina Birch invited chance induced and randomisation into their music making, inspired by conceptual art. Bill Drummond of the KLF (alongside managing Echo and the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes) believed in conceptual processes where the idea is of equal or greater importance than technical efficiency or outmoded musicianship. Alice Fox of 80s band The Marine Girls still employs processes of unlearning extended from the Bauhaus, another punk infused artist who saw the value in recalibrating, trying to stop playing the same patterns which define you and reflect your learned traits. Allowing the system to take control as in the artistic science of cybernetics where the process is complexly cross-connected where organism is key, as it is the art piece and everything which exists around it which is where the magic happens.

Alongside the soon to be released Blank Canvas, I have written a couple of journal articles which explore these ideas. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Simon-Strange/publications

Through my research it is simplicity that is an important element, where the concept defines the process of creation. Minimalist music inspired by the four grandees (La Monte Young, Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Phillip Glass) embedded itself into popular music genres, stripping away extraneous parts which masked the bounce or frequencies of music. Minimalism = simplicity, providing space between the notes where the conceptual nature allowed the music room to breathe and the listener the chance to place their own meaning within the music. I believe this is a vital element of dance music genres in particular.

Music writer Simon Reynolds in his opus on dance music (Energy Flash), stated that iconic Detroit house producer Juan Atkins undertook philosophical explorations whilst compiling DJ sets, trying to enter the mind of the creator of a track to work out where the next one should match. As a non-traditional musician, the mind is an important tool for DJ’s and electronic producers. Many musicians aim to mimic but for the artists within the field, being innovative and original is a key goal. Bristol musician Tricky shared his creative philosophy: ‘I wanted to make something that no one’s ever heard before – I wasn’t interested in anything else’ (Fisher, 2014, p.47)

We are in a period within the music industry of saturation, where from 60,000 albums a year in 2002 rising to almost that number a day in 2021. How do you break through this noise, a morass of content waiting to engulf you. Gatekeepers still exist but competition is fierce so originality and innovation might be the only way to break through; surely the music buying public are ready to engage with this. Exploring the past to make judgements on the present – sociocultural theorist Mark Fisher coined the term popular modernism where a modernist avant-garde exploration for future innovation is matched with a populist reach. Fisher saw in post punk, a reworking of the past where the present or the future is unknown creates work which has longevity and depth, a concept where the interconnection of experimental and commercial ideas merge. Surely this is where we need to emerge.

To be conscious of the unconscious is a vital element of creativity, this interplay which defines the connection between known and unknown the learnt and unlearned – musical creativity is a bi-play of numerous elements but maybe it is this intersection which should be concentrated on when supporting musicians to develop their creative selves. Focusing on the development of creative expression in musicians is key.

References

Boyd, J. and George-Warren, H. (2013) It’s not only Rock ’n’ Roll. London: John Blake Publishing.

Fisher, M. (2014) Writings on depression, hauntology and lost futures. Zero Books.

Spitzer, M. (2021) The Musical Human: A history of life on earth. Bloomsbury.

Vaughan, M. (1977) ‘Musical Creativity: Its Cultivation and Measurement’, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, (50), pp. 72-77.

You can order my book Blank Canvas here:

https://www.intellectbooks.com/blank-canvas

Featured

New Year New Start New Book

Here is an excerpt from my book Blank Canvas which helps to define the concepts held within, the idea of starting from a blank slate, which is something I feel most intensely at the start of a new year.

Blank canvas as a concept, a freeze frame within which new creation can occur, also connects with other art forms that time may change. Author David Keenan in an epitaph for beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti described his command of ‘beginners mind’, writing from a place that is pure and fresh, as though viewed for the ‘first time, every time, which really, you know, is the truth. Everything is new and risen up and blushing in its perfect moment’.

Swirling extreme movements can be utilized to support arriving within a trance-like state through dance, as shown by the Sufi whirling dervishes, or through Stanislavski’s physical action acting. Ashtanga or Vinyasa Flow Yoga centres on physicality, realigning the body for transcendental meditation, lifting into the air. Searching for a trance-like condition has also been associated with narcotic drugs, reducing the daily noise which covers a blank mind. Carl Jung’s psychological concept of serendipity relating to chance, breaking away from formalized structures as the randomness of early life creation is apparent within blankness, reflecting conscious and unconscious process decisions. Another element is Buddhism’s Śūnyatā state of no mind, relating to an emptiness or a void arrived at within meditative practice, so it is the stripping away which is important.

As former art student and socio-economist Inez Aponte suggests, ‘the notion of enlightenment is when all that drops away. That construct that we lived with drops away so we can actually see. We can really see. Most of us aren’t really seeing, we are walking around with filters’ . As the young Bill Drummond was told on his first day at Northampton College of Art by life room tutor Mike Little: ‘Everybody can look – only Artists can see. No life drawing no Art’ .

Order Blank Canvas: art school creativity to punk, post punk and new wave here:

https://www.intellectbooks.com/blank-canvas

Featured

What are the main elements of a creative musician?

The Slits pre gig setup – Hornsey art school 1977 (Ana da Silva)

Delving into the deep recesses of what it means to be a creative musician opens up an array of projections and possibilities, a question that is impossible to answer but which I feel needs to be asked. My interest is as a Higher Popular Music Education (HPME) researcher seeking to discover whether university education is supporting current popular musicians to explore their true creative selves. As neoliberalism sweeps through the UK, university sectors employability is linked to course design and outputs; I wonder whether HPME can in part replace record company A+R departments who gambled, took risks with young creatives and provided them with the time and mentoring to achieve their maximised music identity. If we are going to mentor musicians, then surely it is supporting their creative journey which is vital.

In traversing the slopes of creativity, I pose an open question for exploring what it means to be a creative musician, a conversation which will support the debate and open pathways of exploration. Through jazz, classical, dance, punk, rock and other global music genres, are there interconnections which help to define what a creative musician is?

Creativity connects to perceived elements of musicality, which resonate with all elements of the creative arts including flexibility, associative thinking (chance and freedom), collaboration, metaphorical thinking (comparative) and synthesizing (mixing conscious and unconscious) (Vaughan, 1977, p.72). It is the interconnection between conscious and unconscious thought processes that help to define creative artists. Richard David James (Aphex Twin) used dreaming as a way of exploring the unconscious state, recalling sounds, motifs and atmospheres which he would create in his waking state. Teaching at the German Bauhaus school in the early 20th century, Johannes Itten, used breathing exercises and movement to help students move into trance-like states, to reduce the impact of considered thought.

Maybe we need to leave musicians alone, or press the reboot button located on their person. Engaging with the concept of natural artistic creation, musicologist Michael Spitzer argued that musicality is innate within the human species and the naturalness to perform and create it is stunted through a series of cultural phenomena. Within art, cutting back to the original naturally creative self is achieved through unlearning, where previous education and the creation of a blank slate on which to provide the space and inspiration to explore creative avenues is attained. British ethnomusicologist John Blacking, discovered that the Venda people of South Africa believed that music existed as something naturally assumed through the human body and socialised experiences; trance induced states and automated learning from birth assumed an automatic imbibing of musicality, where music is life: life is music.

Correlating to the emotional and cognitive elements of creativity, arriving in the flow, being lost within artistic creation intrigued Hungarian psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. Teaching student artists to recognise when they are in a flow state and techniques on how to get there should be an ingredient of popular music education. Research psychologist and former partner of Mick Fleetwood, Jenny Boyd interviewed musicians about their creative experiences discovering numerous recollections about getting lost in music, being in a flow state, reducing the conscious impact on the creative process. Boyd reflected on Jung’s theory that ‘the centre of the total personality lies midway between the unconscious and the conscious,’ with this transference being an important point. Her findings revealed that some musicians used meditation to transcend to ‘no mind’ and ‘referred to a kind of mental ‘stillness’ necessary for the unconscious to make itself known through creative expression’

Alternatives to exhorting technical proficiency, within my own research (Blank Canvas due for release with Intellect publishing in autumn 2022) I explore connections between UK art education and the creative development of popular musicians. Some of the main elements of creativity relate to interdisciplinary features. I argue that musicians and music educators should look away from music specific ideals to develop musicianship, with art schools being one avenue overdue for in depth exploration. Musicians could expand their outlook to include subjects such as philosophy, psychology, culture, politics and science for example to help inform practices.

Inspired by the Bauhaus, Belgian socio-cultural theorist Thierry De Duve believed that the closer someone existed to a newborn state then the greater their natural level of creativity. He also crucially detailed three periods (3 is always the magic number) within the field of visual arts, with the three main elements of the third section of the schema coinciding with key components of popular musicians who exploded through the 1960s and 70s: Attitude – Practice- Deconstruction.

Looking at these independently then: 

Attitude – is a difficult word to define but can be seen as an artist who takes risks with a radical edge, not being a slave to conformity or tradition but aiming towards pure creativity, without allowing anything to stand within their pathway.

Practice – can refer to a few constituents but in general connects to the creative process, letting this evolve and revelling in the journey. It can also be related to the actual physical practice required to assist in the development of enhanced musiciality.

Deconstruction – again has meanings which intersect, including deconstructing collective ideas but also deconstructing the music itself into constituent parts. 

Taking these three main elements into consideration could be vital for the nurturing musician who is looking for a framework of creativity, examining the main elements then utilising work that is personal and true to the self alongside an openness to collaboration, whether with other musicians or themselves.

Entering the traditional music realm, key elements of musicianship could be seen as pitch and rhythm but exactness within either doesn’t tell the whole story for a creative musician. I believe that all humans have their own natural pitch and timing capabilities and emphasising or enhancing these is an area of interest for the creative musician. The Velvet Underground’s Mo Tucker drummed with a natural non-linear expression counter to exactness exploited by the lifeless click used by many drummers and rhythm exponents. The random swing of an Akai MPC drum sampler gave a machinic but naturalness to early hip hop programmed beats. 

Art school students such as ambient pioneer Brian Eno and post punk musician Gina Birch invited chance induced and randomisation into their music making, inspired by conceptual art. Bill Drummond of the KLF (alongside managing Echo and the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes) believed in conceptual processes where the idea is of equal or greater importance than technical efficiency or outmoded musicianship. Alice Fox of 80s band The Marine Girls still employs processes of unlearning extended from the Bauhaus, another punk infused artist who saw the value in recalibrating, trying to stop playing the same patterns which define you and reflect your learned traits. Allowing the system to take control as in the artistic science of cybernetics where the process is complexly cross-connected where organism is key, as it is the art piece and everything which exists around it which is where the magic happens.

Alongside the soon to be released Blank Canvas, I have written a couple of journal articles which explore these ideas. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Simon-Strange/publications

Through my research it is simplicity that is an important element, where the concept defines the process of creation. Minimalist music inspired by the four grandees (La Monte Young, Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Phillip Glass) embedded itself into popular music genres, stripping away extraneous parts which masked the bounce or frequencies of music. Minimalism = simplicity, providing space between the notes where the conceptual nature allowed the music room to breathe and the listener the chance to place their own meaning within the music. I believe this is a vital element of dance music genres in particular.

Music writer Simon Reynolds in his opus on dance music (Energy Flash), stated that iconic Detroit house producer Juan Atkins undertook philosophical explorations whilst compiling DJ sets, trying to enter the mind of the creator of a track to work out where the next one should match. As a non-traditional musician, the mind is an important tool for DJ’s and electronic producers. Many musicians aim to mimic but for the artists within the field, being innovative and original is a key goal. Bristol musician Tricky shared his creative philosophy: ‘I wanted to make something that no one’s ever heard before – I wasn’t interested in anything else’ (Fisher, 2014, p.47)

We are in a period within the music industry of saturation, where from 60,000 albums a year in 2002 rising to almost that number a day in 2021. How do you break through this noise, a morass of content waiting to engulf you. Gatekeepers still exist but competition is fierce so originality and innovation might be the only way to break through; surely the music buying public are ready to engage with this. Exploring the past to make judgements on the present – sociocultural theorist Mark Fisher coined the term popular modernism where a modernist avant-garde exploration for future innovation is matched with a populist reach. Fisher saw in post punk, a reworking of the past where the present or the future is unknown creates work which has longevity and depth, a concept where the interconnection of experimental and commercial ideas merge. Surely this is where we need to emerge.

To be conscious of the unconscious is a vital element of creativity, this interplay which defines the connection between known and unknown the learnt and unlearned – musical creativity is a bi-play of numerous elements but maybe it is this intersection which should be concentrated on when supporting musicians to develop their creative selves. Focusing on the development of creative expression in musicians is key.

References

Boyd, J. and George-Warren, H. (2013) It’s not only Rock ’n’ Roll. London: John Blake Publishing.

Fisher, M. (2014) Writings on depression, hauntology and lost futures. Zero Books.

Spitzer, M. (2021) The Musical Human: A history of life on earth. Bloomsbury.

Vaughan, M. (1977) ‘Musical Creativity: Its Cultivation and Measurement’, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, (50), pp. 72-77.

Music in the art school

Artistic connections

Any kind of artistic connections are made of a synergy which binds and weaves the two resonant forces together. Think John and Yoko or Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish or any other Liverpudlian duo. Peters and Lee maybe.

It is less common for visual artists to have this same affinity but I love the interconnection between Klimt and Mondrian which is highlighted at their Tate Modern show, open until early September.

We are currently decorating our newly bought bungalow, watching Alan Carr and Michelle Ogundehin’s natural chemistry in the wonderful design masters. Combining textures and styles for the contestants is the most difficult element so the Klimt/ Mondrian double act seems a perfect marriage of colour and form, minimalism and flow, the perfect template for informing our own design decisions.

Bungalow lounge with white walls and sea views. Book by Vivienne Westwood on coffee table.

Jenny loves Jazz (in East Devon)

Organising a jazz and blues festival in the idyllic Devon town of Sidmouth, already home to the iconic Sidmouth Folk Festival. This confuses many thinking we have been running for years rather than this being our second outing, the sophomore fest. Sidmouth Jazz and Blues will be a triumph of sweat over cash, the tireless work of Director Ian Bowden.

My role is to support Ian but also I wanted to look at the demographic of punters and performers. How to get away from groups of blokes, bands of brothers; bring the sisters to the fore. This was surprisingly easy as a call out for female performers garnered a flurry of responses and shows how targeting female musicians is necessary and successful. You need to actively break down the barriers, review the photographs of publicity. There is still more to do but I am pleased that acts such as Hannah and the Affirmations, Alex Clarke, Victoria Klewin, Faye Patton, The Brand New Heavies, Aji Pati etc..are performing.

I’m excited about meeting Roland Gift, a childhood hero. Sunday 28th May 3pm, Blackmore Gardens. Free.

Barriers need to be actively broken, preconceptions smashed. I’m compering the weekend so come and say hi if you are in and around beautiful East Devon this bank holiday weekend. Weather forecast is set fair. The sea looks clean. The flowers are out. Let’s be having you.

Dartington Arts School – the return of Black Mountain College

In an era of neoliberalism and Thatcher dominated landscape in the UK its reassuring to view buds of activism and revitalism in the creative arts education sectors. In Tim Foster’s lovely review of my book Blank Canvas for Echoes and Dust he noted the connection between art schools of the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College (BMC), and the UK with Dartington always an experimental outlier. Both Black Mountain and Dartington existed in stunning rural locations but with an urban experimentalism and social consciousness which aimed for improved human existence, for everyone, through art. Dartington Art School is reborn and offering amazing courses which combine visual and auditory arts with social justice, offering practice which engages with the self and the land. I fancy trying ‘turner’s tides and twilight’ or ‘the labyrinth and the dancing floor’. The prices are good value too.

My studio has a beautiful image of Dartington created by contemporary artist Ant Garratt, whose work is beautifully Turner-esque but with a modern tropical feel. Ant’s work is gaining increasing depth from his earlier beautiful but more minimalist compositions, and artist with visual and auditory sensibility.

Transporting the ideals of BMC and Dartington to the French Pyrenees, Camp.fr offers sonic and nature based courses with experts in their field including Sarah Davachi, Gavin Bryars, Deerhoff and Actress. Mixing minimalist cool with the broad expanse of nature. Black Mountain College was built by students and staff, existing as a breeding ground for the Robert’s Motherwell, Rauschenberg and De Niro: “the school resembled a funhouse hall of mirrors, a space that refracted and distorted anxieties in early Cold War America” (Brigid Cohen, 2012)

Go explore and find yourself.

Dartington College of Art painted by Ant Garratt

BLANK CANVAS : ART SCHOOL CREATIVITY FROM PUNK TO NEW WAV

Cohen, Brigid (2012), Stefan Wolpe and the Avant-Garde Diaspora, Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Fact or Fiction

Do you prefer to read Fiction or non-fiction books? There was a great thread on Twitter about whether you can learn more about philosophy reading fiction rather than reams of philosophical texts. Jean Paul Sartre has both covered for you ad nausea. I tend to veer between reading true or made up stories i.e through my PhD I couldn’t read fiction as my brain was consumed with trying to know everything about global culture from the last 2 centuries.

I think it might be time to dive into some Dostoyevski. Or re-read Zen and the art of motorcycling for the 100th time. Voltaire, Camus, Milan Kundera and the Unbearable Lightness of Being. Or Don DeLillo. Perfect escapism for the seriousness of Eurovision. The weekend starts here.

Eurovision final acts including Sweden, Finland, Austria, UK, Ukraine

Who is going to win tonight?

Size is not important

Buying on Amazon is easy. You’re all set up and ready to go. Unfortunately they are the bad guys and it is much better for the world in general if we buy our books from smaller booksellers. They are starting to bloom across the country with Bookbag in Exeter, Gloucester Rd Books in Bristol and MrB’S Emporium in Bath great examples.

The Bookshop.Org are a great online sources as well for buying great books and not feeding the conglomerate Amazon animal.

God save the……

I’m not sure about you but I really wish I could escape the UK over this weekend. I live in rural Devon, S. England where bunting and royal regalia flaps about everywhere. The site of the union jack makes me slightly queasy, so the uplifted level of bunting and red, white and blue is slightly disturbing even for my colourblind eyes. As an art school inspired academic musician, I was interested in reading Nick Cave’s reply to messages of horror that he was attending the Royal Wedding. What would you do if you had the opportunity? I might be intrigued but then give the invite to my mum instead. Sociocultural author John Higgs discusses how the coronation is steeped in elements of magic and the occult and that Charles is doubling down on this elements, as shown by the use of Green Man imagery. I’ll be ensconced in my garden listening to the punk jardiner podcast instead. Viva la Revolution.

You can buy my book on art school education and punk/ new wave musicians here: https://www.intellectbooks.com/blank-canvas

Which Social Media App do you use for publicising your creativity?

Wordstream.com

Today I am running a session for PhD students on social media use and exploring which are the best apps for developing your online presence. I personally use Twitter for developing academic and music networks then Instagram as the central hub for pushing visual messages to friends and colleagues. Linkedin is my ‘professional space’ and this website my central hub. The publishers website for my book, Blank Canvas, is also a grat central staging post. I have tried Tik Tok this week without great success but can see its potential. I develop more personalised groups within Facebook.

Let me know Which Social Media site do you use for publicising your creative work?