Episode 20: Teaching and Music

In Episode 20 of the Creative Work Hour podcast, the crew explores teaching creativity and the role of music in creative processes. Alessandra, Devin, Bailey, Shadows Pub, and Greg share insights on the first lessons of a creativity course and how music influences their creativity. Tune in for a lively discussion on self-awareness, observation, and finding the right creative headspace.

Episode 20: Teaching and Music 

Welcome back to another episode of the Creative Work Hour podcast. Today is November 20th, 2024, and in the room we have myself, we have Alessandra, we have Devin, we have Bailey, and we have Shadows Pub. And during the month of November, it's National Podcast Post Month and we are doing an entry. This is our entry today. I will ask a question just to get the conversation going and we will see where it leads. So My question to start today is, if you were to teach a course on creativity, what would the first lesson be? 

Alessandra, I'll go to you.

Well, I would say the first thing about creativity is just coming into yourself, taking note of whatever it is that rises. Is there something you feel compelled to do? Is there something that you feel like you've been tolerating? Sometimes the most creative thing that we can do for ourselves is to quit that shit that makes us crazy or drains us of energy. Like, so sometimes the creative work is to just identify what we've been tolerating. But you've got to come into yourself first and kind of be aware of your body and your breathing and can you feel your own weight on the chair? 

Can you feel your feet on the floor? Where are you in space? Are your shoulders kind of hunched together because you've been over here at the computer all day. Let's just use the breath to guide that along, because it's awareness that drives the creative process. But at least that's what I have found. 

Bailey, what are you thinking?

I was going to say observation, how to observe things, especially in a unique way. I think a lot of creativity is seeing things through your own eyes and not the eyes of someone who taught you or like a predetermined kind of way of seeing things. So I think that observation is 1 of the most important things. And I think it would be that and how to ask questions. I think that would be my first course on creativity. Yeah.

What about you, Devin? Do you have a thought on that? 

I do. And for me, it would be how to get into a creative head space. And most of my creative work is writing. And reading is what often gets me there. I read something and I go, oh, I want to write something like this, or that motivates me to continue this writing. And I imagine, you know, for a visual artist, it might be looking at other visual pieces. For a composer like Bailey, it might be listening to other interesting compositions. So, but I can't begin that process until I move into the right headspace. I've got to have little prompts to get me there to let the creativity start. I really can do a cold open and just start being creative. So I've got to kind of warm up the creative engine first.

I love that it is cold open.

What about you Shadows, if you were teaching?

Well I'm sitting here thinking I don't even in my wildest dreams imagine me is teaching anything. So I guess it'd be so folks what do you want to learn and what do you think creativity is and that'll let them know that I'm just winging this shit.

Never. You're winging it? Uh-uh. I just cannot see that.

And what's so funny is that I feel like everything shadows says is practically some kind of a look, I'm just sharing what I learned and is sharing what you've learned. Is that not teaching sharing stuff?

Shadows knows a thing or 3. If you ever want to know anything about generative art, Shadows Pub is the person to ask without doubt.

What about you, Greg? If you were teaching, where would you start your students?

Take everything that you think you know and throw it out the window. Creativity is something that you do for yourself and should be for yourself. And there are no rules. It used to be a commercial. I forget what it was for. There were no rules just right. And it comes to mind. I forget what the advert was for. Creativity is about a personal journey. I think there are so many creative mediums and flavors of creativity. I don't think there's a wrong or a right and if you get pleasure from it and it puts you in a better mindset I think that's the key. 

You mentioned Alessandro and although the breath works we do that every day with meditation. We do a lot of visuals, angels wings is something that you teach about breathing in, holding the breath. Like Bailey said, no predefined notions getting into the headspace like Devin said and what Shadow said as well. Yeah. I think we have time for maybe 1 more question. How does music and sound influence your creativity, Alessandra?

Well, I would say, well, I was, this is what I shared with Devin and Shadows, is that after being in this flat in Leeds for 8 months, I finally found the charging cord for my Bluetooth speaker. Now, it's not all that, but it's better than the speaker on an iPhone, right? And I have just played the heck out of that thing. And, you know, there are pieces that, classical pieces, that still can trigger me. But this morning I was so appreciative of the quality of the sound that I was hearing, that even though it was Mozart's clarinet concerto, the adagio movement, which is very, very intense and heavy, I didn't freak out. I was like, oh, listen to the sound of that. And then I felt it. I felt that something started to arise somewhere near the belly of, I think I want to play. I think I want to play the clarinet. And all of a sudden, I felt assured that when it came to the time of the day that I could do that, that there would be energy there, and the interest would be there. And it's because I listened. It's in the same way that Devin says that he reads before he writes. I have to listen before I play. 

What about you, Bailey? 

So the first thing that came to mind was a neuroscience thing, actually. It's been proven that mirror neurons, which often kind of activate when we're seeing other people, actually also activate when you listen to music. So oftentimes, when you're listening to sad music, your brain will literally react to how you see the music itself. So I think that even on a kind of biological scale, there is a certain amount of reactivity to what you listen to. So I think that in certain scenarios, you could even use that to increase your productivity, like having a flow playlist or music that can activate specific parts of your brain that are related to creativity, for example. And I think that music is something that has come from our reaction to how we listen to sound as well. So like the sounds of nature, we don't consider that music exactly, but it works in our brain similarly. So I guess that's what first came to my mind.

There's Birdsong, right?

Exactly. Yep. Totally. Like the chicken dance? Chicken Birdsong. Wrong group.

Well done, Greg. Well done.

What about you, Devin? How does music and sound influence creativity?

Well, it's interesting. I cannot listen to music while I'm writing, speaking, or reading. But it's a great hack. Like, if I'm going to write something, like I have a novel I'm struggling with and it's a horror novel and the main character is a singer, like a hard rock singer. And so I could listen, it would help me to listen to some Nickelback or some ACDC. That will put me exactly where I need to be for the mood and the tone that I'm trying to get to with that. And by the same token, I dabble in a bit of poetry, but I'm going to need something entirely different most of the time for that. I might need just a nice bit of Baroque to sort of chill me out and get me into more of a poetry vibe. So it's a great hack, but then I'm going to switch it off when I actually start to create.

Oh, I just, I had a question for Devin. 

Have you experimented with going into the quiet breakout rooms that we offer at Creative Fork Hour?

Yes, yes I have. I've gotten there and hung out before. It's been a minute, but yes I have when the music was like, especially If I hear lyrics in the main room, I'm gonna definitely have to jump over to the quiet work room.

He's out of there, Shadows, he's out of there.

What about you, Shadows? Do you have a thought on that?

So I'll start with a simple little hack to turn the main room into a quiet room. You change the speaker on Zoom and it becomes a quiet room.

Just like that. Take off the earphones.

Oh yeah but I might be listening to something else when I do that.

Ah-ha.

So in my earlier years I used to listen to some classics and big bands in the background, usually played pretty low, but I found as I've got older that I just leave it off completely. So it probably doesn't have much impact on me. Further to what Bailey said, it's also interesting that Alzheimer's and dementia patients will respond to music when they will not respond to people talking to them.

Fascinating, isn't it? How the brain works. 

Yeah. I was thinking yesterday, I'm like, I really like to have a lot of quiet, but I'm experiencing hearing loss. And what's happening with the hearing loss is that there's these pitches and some of them can just be absolutely maddening. So when I listen to music, instead of having to hear those pitches, I can hear the music. But if I want to hear absolute quiet, my brain is filling in for the hearing that I've lost. So I can't actually sit quietly. I have to make an active choice. 

Do I want to listen to these pitches in my head, or do I want to listen to our podcast, or do I want to listen to music, do I want to listen to if I want to listen to a show or something. I'd like to get in front of that and make a decision about what I want to hear because I'm going to be hearing something. Quiet is no longer an option. It'll be interesting to see as I gain an awareness of how that affects my creativity because when I play clarinet, I don't hear those pitches.

That was pitch with a P.

Not the pitches, right? 

I noticed you were playing the clarinet earlier when we were on the Creative Workhouse session, and I was wondering if we were gonna get another rendition of Blue Christmas this year.

Oh my gosh, I think I have to play the recording from last year, because what happens before I do the official Tiny Desk concert is so hilarious, it's so classic, it deserves to be re-heard. But you had something to do with that, Greg. I was like, Is this crazy? I'm thinking about maybe playing Blue Christmas. Like, here, listen to this. And you were like, oh, do it.

Just do it. Just do it.

Can Santa get run over by the reindeer played on the clarinet?

Oh yeah.

I think you should try that.

Oh my God. That would be so good.

Wouldn't it? 

Music is so powerful. 

Following on to what Shadows was talking about earlier, they've done a lot of studies to that concept of people who have Alzheimer's, dementia, people in old persons homes or elderly homes that are catatonic come to life. They found that if you put a set of headphones on them and play music, which they probably would have listened to in whatever their time era would have been in their heyday, they come to life and there's a charity that raises funds just for that purpose. It's not a Sony Walkman anymore, that's a term from the past, but whatever the equivalent would be now an MP3 player, there's a charity that raises funds for that purpose.

Wow, that's cool.

Music is so powerful. 

Well, it's that time again, you've wasted a perfectly few minutes listening to the Creative Workout podcast. When you could have been doing something else, what about you? We'd love to hear if you were going to teach a course on creativity, what would the first lesson be and how does music and sound factor into your creativity? 

Let us know. 

Come back again tomorrow and we'll be here.