Instrument teachers’ practices, beliefs, and barriers regarding musical creativity: Exploring the creative process of interpretation

Stijnen, Jo; NIJS, Luc; Van Petegem, Peter

doi:10.1177/02557614231175777

Article (Scientific journals)

Instrument teachers’ practices, beliefs, and barriers regarding musical creativity: Exploring the creative process of interpretation

Stijnen, Jo; NIJS, Luc; Van Petegem, Peter

2023 • In International Journal of Music Education, p. 025576142311757

Peer reviewed

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https://hdl.handle.net/10993/60170

DOI
10.1177/02557614231175777

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Keywords :

Composition; creativity; improvisation; instrumental music teaching; interpretation; Education; Music

Abstract :

[en] Instrumental music teaching traditionally emphasizes the cognitive, motor, and motivational processes of score reproduction, often at the expense of creative musical activities, such as improvisation or composition. Since today’s international art school curricula prominently include creativity competencies, opportunities to integrate creativity in instrumental lessons must be explored. This study investigates instrument teachers’ conception of musical creativity: its scope, opportunities, and risks. About 273 teachers completed an online questionnaire on their use of creative class time, beliefs, and barriers to creative instrument teaching. Although the majority acknowledged the benefits of creative activities for score-playing, they invested little in improvisation and composition due to a lack of time and training in musical creativity. Teachers considered interpretation a valuable form of musical creativity, next to improvisation and composition, but questioned its feasibility in instrument lessons. Implications for instrument-teacher training are discussed.

Disciplines :

Education & instruction

Author, co-author :

Stijnen, Jo ; University of Antwerp, Belgium

NIJS, Luc ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Education and Social Work (DESW) > Institute of Musicology and Arts

Van Petegem, Peter ; University of Antwerp, Belgium

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

Instrument teachers’ practices, beliefs, and barriers regarding musical creativity: Exploring the creative process of interpretation

Publication date :

2023

Journal title :

International Journal of Music Education

ISSN :

0255-7614

eISSN :

1744-795X

Publisher :

SAGE Publications Ltd

Pages :

025576142311757

Peer reviewed :

Peer reviewed

Additional URL :

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/02557614231175777

Funders :

LUCA School of Arts

Funding text :

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported as an impulse research project by LUCA School of Arts.

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