Creativity Digest
Light but fun composition ideas for summer, 4 mindset shifts for endless inspiration, and much more…
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Every now and then I use this digest to flag up a few interesting articles and useful posts for you. Enjoy!
What I’ve enjoyed recently
How to be more creative (4 mindset shifts for endless inspiration) is an excellent, in-depth article from the Sound + Creativity Newsletter. Of the four mindset shifts listed, I’m currently a particularly big fan of numbers 2 and 3.
This brief but useful post from Amy Chaplin’s excellent Piano Pantry caught my eye. There are some good recommendations in here:
Finally, I love this quote from Philippa Perry’s regular advice column in the Guardian:
A student asked the late David Young MP, how you get started in the career you want.
Young said to him: “Have good ideas.”
The student asked: “How do you have good ideas?”
Young replied, “Experience.”
The student asked “How do you get experience?”
Young answered: “Have bad ideas.”
What I’ve written recently
Using language to cultivate a creative mindset in students, with Prof. Karen Schlimp
A couple of weeks ago I sat down with Professor Karen Schlimp to talk about teaching creativity. Karen is an extremely experienced improvisation teacher with an enormous amount of knowledge and practical experience to share. Over the next days I’ll be posting some of her insights.
A Creative Introduction to Gigue by Melanie Spanswick
Melanie Spanswick is a popular composer, writer and teacher who works all around the world. I’ve used her books many times, especially Play It Again Piano, which is great for adult students who are returning to the piano. I’m also a big fan of her blog
This book is the essential guide to teaching elementary composition
When you’re first getting started at teaching composition and improvisation, it can feel like there are very few good quality resources out there, especially for teaching composition to beginners. But as I’ve dived deeper into publishers’ back catalogues, I’ve come across some wonderful books that were published a decade or more ago. One of the main reas…
How to get students to relax while improvising
Here’s the second in a series of clips from an interview with Professor Karen Schlimp, an improvisation professor from Austria and author of a couple of wonderful books on teaching creativity. It will appeal particularly to those of you who struggle with the relatively common problem of students who get nervous when improvising.
"Little Moods: 15 Easy Pieces for Piano" by Kerstin Strecke
This charming book by Frankfurt, Germany-based piano teacher and artist Kerstin Strecke is part of Breitkopf & Härtel’s Pädagogik series. I came across it thanks to a warm review from Andrew Eales at PianoDao.com. Amongst other praise, Andrew wrote:
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. You can email me at hello@pianocreativity.com or leave a comment below.
Garreth