Creating spaces for songwriters, collaborators and musicians in higher education. -- The Routledge Companion to Creativities

Conservatory schools of music have long favored musicians with specific performance backgrounds in the Western-European art traditions. Historically, they have acted curatorially with a conservationist approach to music teaching and learning. This approach enables a good life for a small and privileged few, but not for many others. A vast population of undergraduate students outside the conservatory exhibit creativity using a range of instruments and musical genres/styles, including electronic, rap, hip-hop and rock music. To provide opportunities for students outside the conservatory to create and perform music with others, an undergraduate college course called Being Musical & Being Human: Musicianship Through Music Making Processes was created at a private liberal arts institution in Upstate New York. The newly formed course centralized student experiences around: (1) creativity, (2) student-led and leaner-centered ideologies, (3) autonomy, (4) vernacular musicianship, (5) peer-based collaborations, and (6) a lifelong appreciation of music. This chapter intentionally contextualizes the course by providing an overview of the student population, their creative processes, offers a glimpse of student perceptions related to the class, and discusses the challenges of popular music making for students in higher education.

Creating spaces for songwriters, collaborators and musicians in higher education. -- The Routledge Companion to Creativities Chapter