Journal 2 - Week of the 21st

With relation to Dr. Bain’s questions of who’s more creative - children or adults - I thought to thinking about a performance I did this week.

Uvic music was fortunate enough to have guest lecturer and performer Velvet Brown. Velvet is the instructor of Tuba at the Pennsylvania State University. She was to perform at Uvic as part of her lecture, and I was chosen to accompany her on the congas.

I was very grateful to have this opportunity. I practiced very hard to learn my part, and did so very well. When it was time to perform, it was just me and her onstage. This of course made me a little nervous. Here I am sitting onstage in front of my peers with a world renowned musician. I’d like to say nerves don’t get to me, but I was indeed a little shaky. This in turn made my performance not what it was in the practice room.

So the question was then sparked - if I was a child, and did not feel the “peer pressure” felt by adults - would my performance have been better and my creative output been stronger because I wouldn’t be as nervous?

I worry this may be the case.

Does modern society create tension between audience and performer and thus diminish the possible emotional impact the performer can give?

Journal 1 - Week of Monday September 14th

For this week’s creative act, I thought focusing on my solo Marimba work as a good way to channel my creative self. As I had mentioned in my “Expectations” paper, I am a third year music student studying percussion. This year I am expected to learn a great deal of music to add to my repertoire. This week I have been digging very deep into “Mexican Dances”, a solo piece for large Marimba. It is typical for most third year percussionists to learn this piece. So now I am expected to get it under my belt, and fast. It will not be an easy semester, for this piece is very challenging. Sometimes my arms allow me to do what is needed - practice for extended periods of time and be intensely focused throughout the practice session. However I have had days where I am unable to play what is needed, or memorize much if any of the piece.

However the technical aspect of learning music such is this has boiled up a question that has been bouncing around in my head ever since I got back to school.

Am I being creative when I play music written by someone else?

Or does the emotion I put into the music when I play it mean I’m creative?

An over powering urge to know if I’m creative even though I don’t write music was sparked by the questions asked by Peter in this weeks class.