Creativity

The principles of creativity and improvisation can be understood, learned, and applied. Some people think you’re either born creative or you’re not, and that you can’t really develop creativity. I firmly believe otherwise: if you want to develop creativity and you learn the creative process, you can definitely be more creative. The issue isn’t whether you’ll become a creative genius, but how well you’ll develop your own creative gift. As you read this chapter, think of how the creative process can apply to your own jazz improvisation.

The Creative Process
Creativity is the art of organizing things or ideas in a useful or unusual way. You can use the creative process to do the following things, for example:
• Make one or more objects from available materials, such as a musical phrase from individual notes.

• Enhance or improve an object or situation, such as doing an extra take on a recorded solo.
• Solve a problem, such as finding notes to play with a given chord.
Notice that these tasks involve making something out of something. It’s not a question of pulling a creation out of “thin air;” it’s a question of organizing and combining existing materials to create what you want.

Steps in the Creative Process
Whether you build something practical, artistic, or both, you can follow these steps in the creative process:
1) Visualize what you want to create.
2) Plan and design your creation.
3) Understand what your building materials and tools are and how to use them.
4) Solve problems that arise in the planning, designing, and building steps.
5) Analyze what you create to find improvements.
Depending on the art form or project, you may execute these steps slowly or quickly, but you should use them in the above order to get the best results.