Exploring and Examining the Creative Process and how what we do and make shapes what we become...
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
North Point's iBand
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
creativefinal2.mov
Monday, December 20, 2010
"BE ENCOURAGED" my final project.
I wrote this song about two years ago and recorded it last year. It's still in the beginning stages. Hope you all enjoy and be encouraged!
Yolanda
Creativity can be produced by patience.(Moon Jung's Final )
Thanks! I enjoyed this class with you.
I registered this class by chance but I learned so many things.
My view for creativity was totally changed.
During this semester tuesday evening was happy time for me.
And I really appreciate of Dr. Gilbert's teaching for creativity.
He gave me infinite possibilities in music education.
I will miss you all...
This video is the short movie about cello pedagogy.
(You can also find it www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm7z3k1Gct0 )
I think creativity in studying instrunents can be produced by indurance of teacher, student.
Please do not give up!
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Sonia's final project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSjVGiusLPw
I wish you happy Christmas and hope to see all of you when I return in January.
Thanks everybody for worrying about creating a love and respect climate in class. Our classtime has been a fresh air breath during this first semester.
Warm hugs,
Sonia
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Creativity...Its Process (final project)
Thanks so much, everyone.
I really enjoyed the class with you.
Have a merry Christmas and happy new year. :)
PS: Special Thanks to Dr. John Gilbert.
This class has definitely opened up my mind and
helped me for creativity in so many indescribable ways.
Also, Dr. Gilbert, you have demonstrated many things to us...
Thanks for your special care and generosity.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Hello from Spain
http://www.rtve.es/radio/20101209/conversacion-sonia-megias/337433.shtml
Hugs for everybody!
Sonia
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
I Hope This Gets To You
Came across this video and it made me think of the story Dr. Gilbert told us in class about the Facebook movie. This guy who is roommates with the band, 'The Daylights' decided to create this video for his girlfriend.
This is article from OK Magazine:
"After Walter C. Mays‘ girlfriend moved from L.A. across the country to go to Duke for graduate school, he wanted to show her that love knows no distance, filming a touching video to prove it. One catch — he’s not telling her about it, and is relying on the Internet getting it to her. Even Katy Perry has Tweeted about it!
Mays, who edits and directs commercials talked to The Village Voice about his secret love letter, “I Hope This Gets to You,” which he hopes will go viral. As of today, the video has over 22,000 hits, and was posted yesterday.
“It got me to thinking about how long distance isn’t really long distance anymore,” he told The Village Voice blog. “It seems like we’re far apart, but we’re living in a very different world these days, and we can feel close without having to be close every day. I wanted to show how we try to make the world a little smaller.”
-I thought it was such a sweet idea and also how technology can be used to show love too! <3 "I hope this gets to her!"
Projects of Class
See, I've never experienced a class where we were free to think and create that it let me realize how much I'm stuck in a bubble at times. I loved being able to witness others in their creative process which has encouraged and inspired me to pursue more on my own. After class, I felt really uplifted and impacted by how our class is so special in growing and learning together over this past semester. I will always remember the experience I've had here and all the wonderful people I have met; it has been a whirlwind, but oh so worth it! :)
Musical Creativty in Context Response
Music making is listening, reacting to what is being heard, played, interpreted, felt, etc. If one is speaking of a pure music making performance; it could require a different form of listening as opposed to one who sits and listens to music being performed before them and not the one making the performance occur. However, both sides of the listener and performer actively participate in this Creating process. Each individual partakes in this sort of movement that travels inside the ear, mind, emotions, heart etc.
I think once exposed to any type of musical art form, the listener is succumbed to pick out and grab what they want to hear, bringing forth selective processes that occur in the brain, experiencing both the past memory and present occurrence all at once. That makes Listening an active participant process that moves forth into the Creating processes of those moments that happen all around us on a daily basis via performance or not.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Class Projects
I also loved watching how the class responded to our own musical storytelling presentation. It was very cool that everyone in class was able to participate at once, either musically, verbally, or both. I loved hearing everyone tell real stories, and it felt like an intimate way to continue getting to know new things about our peers, with the chance to musicalize all the stories we heard.
As I said in class, I think it would be fun to share these projects with others, but if it doesn't work out this semester, I will be very content knowing that these were moments that this particularly special group of people had the opportunity to experience together, and I will reflect fondly on that when I share them with students and collaborators in the future :-)
-Jess Goldberg
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
This Class
The best part is that we each received our very own poem book, I feel so honored and important LOL!!
ytw
My input from Music Matters on Creativity
Waiting Until We Meet Again
Hope you you can see me too
Hope you are proud of me, because
I desire to be like you
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Thank you!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Project
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Project
As Margie noted, the idea for this project came from an acting exercise I did with Nan Smithner in my "Creative Play" class in the educational theatre department. The group really liked the idea of free conversational improvisation, and so we have worked to musicalize it and make it an engaging experience for the class. I don't want to say too much here because I don't want to give away all the fun, but we are very much looking forward to sharing this work with the class, and seeing where it goes!
-jess
Sound Poems

The idea of our project came from a spark: The avant-guard movement called DADA and its will to destroy every previous concept of art and beauty. Its anarchic push, its will to redefine art (therefore creativity?) fascinated us.
We were very much inspired by the poems written by Tzara and the collage idea that lies behind their composition. We ended up with discovering the so-called sound poems and we are still trying to include them in our project.
We'll start with poetry, we will include music, we will be Dada!
The overview on wikipedia explains the purpose of this movement:
"Dada was an informal international movement, with participants in Europe and North America. The beginnings of Dada correspond to the outbreak of World War I. For many participants, the movement was a protest against the bourgeois nationalist and colonialist interests, which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war, and against the cultural and intellectual conformity—in art and more broadly in society—that corresponded to the war.
Many Dadaists believed that the 'reason' and 'logic' of bourgeois capitalist society had led people into war. They expressed their rejection of that ideology in artistic expression that appeared to reject logic and embrace chaos and irrationality. For example, George Grosz later recalled that his Dadaist art was intended as a protest "against this world of mutual destruction.
According to its proponents, Dada was not art, it was "anti-art". Everything for which art stood, Dada represented the opposite. Where art was concerned with traditional aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend. Through their rejection of traditional culture and aesthetics, the Dadaists hoped to destroy traditional culture and aesthetics.
As Hugo Ball expressed it, "For us, art is not an end in itself ... but it is an opportunity for the true perception and criticism of the times we live in."
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The Balance, Creativity vs. Structure
The balance between creativity and structure is one that I encounter (and I assume all teachers encounter) on a daily basis.
As I stated in class before, and I state to my friends often in less constructive contexts, I am deeply unsatisfied by Gymboree Corporation's approach to education in general. As I work there I am finding more reasons to loathe being a teacher for such a misguided corporation. I could rant about their short comings constantly (and I do in my personal blog).
From a creative standpoint, I marvel at how the corporation manages to both harbor and squalsh creativity at the same time. It is a truely facinating phenomenon. On one hand, they do provide opportunities for children to complete activities that are creative within it's lesson plan structure. At the same time, it limits its educators to doing exactly what they say. In more strict Gymborees (not mine) teachers are not allowed to deviate from the lesson plan for any reason. If the online description says your quacking like a duck, you quack like a duck or you are fired. One could argue that in limiting the teachers, we are by extension limiting the education of these children to something that is corporately driven. It is the educational equivilent to eating at McDonalds. The food is satisfying and everyone likes it, but it isn't food that is high in nutrients or organic materials. I can see the benefit of freeplay that is directed, but I struggle with this idea that every class of children world wide in a specified age group will successfully learn from the same lesson plan for a given topic. Teachers who are familiar with their particular groups of kids should be given the opportunity to think out their process for teaching and make it something that reflects their own knowledge of the material.
Now I know that in reality the entire planet doesn't work in a Gymboree, but the fact that this corporation exists and is sucessful is a direct reflection on the direction that education is going. Standardized tests to define ability and national standards are arguably the beginning.
My Video
My video was made by creating a random picture in "paint" and taking a series of snap shots of my progress. I slideshowed all of the pictures and timed them to fit the work of music I wanted to use "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini" by Rachmaninov.
I think that the video describes my creative process in it's entirety. I never know exactly how it is going ot turn out, but I figure out where it is going as a move along. Usually I get too far along in the process, decide I hate the whole thing and start again freshly. After what seems like a million retries, I get it to exactly where I want it to be.
The file saved on my comp as a WIMP file, so I spent a lot of my free time trying to convert it. I failed miserably, so when I figure it out I will post it for all of you to see.
Group Project
My group is planning a fabulous experience for all of you. The collaboration has been easy going, and has developed in it's style and formulation over the last several weeks. Jess(ica Goldberg)brought in an idea from an improvisational activity she had done in another context, and all of us built on that idea from our various perspectives. Sara's theatrical experience helped us to plan the activity in a way that would incorporate everyone at the same time, and also translate the idea from an acting exercise to a musical activity. Cindy's ability to organize details kept us on target with how we would execute the legistics of our idea, down to every possible contingency. My creative process was able to work extremely well with all three of my group members, and I look forward to see our idea implemented in the classroom. I think it is cool how our various personalities added to the idea and have allowed it to grow and change.
Our experience will be defined solely by the creative nature of our class. There is no way to predict a precise outcome. I love that we will be creating and improvising together without much outside assistance. I feel like it is the creative process in it's most organic form.
Group Project

Working on this group project has been really fun. Everything just sort of came together organically. As Nicole mentioned, our idea started as a joke about William's wardrobe video. It sort of snowballed from there pretty quickly into our live-action video game idea, "Super Will: A Creative Adventure". Since we knew pretty quickly what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it, we just needed to work out the technology issues. Since we are using Skype as our medium, it comes with its own challenges which we have had to navigate through. All in all, I think it will be a great experience and I'm looking forward to being part of the final product. Since it is truly a creative journey, there is no way of knowing what the end product will be and I think is one of the most important and exciting thing about these sort of projects.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Fantastic video: day&night
http://www.gamaniak.com/video-5484-day-and-night-pixar.html
it's amazing...
hugs for everyone!!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
g r o u p * p r o j e c t

Saturday, November 6, 2010
Our Group Project
My video
Group work

Friday, November 5, 2010
My creative process
have a wonderful and creative weekend~
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
I feel so excited about our project

I feel so excited about our project.
I believe that it is a great activity that we can observe how differently individual perceives music in different contexts and translates his/her perception in text or visual image. I am "not" going to explain much here on the blog. It's a secret. :) sh~~
I am so excited about the project...
Thanks to my colleagues Kristen and Jessica.
You are awesome!!!
Have a great week and see you all next Tuesday~
Jon Lee
www.jonleemusique.com
PS: congratulation~ Sara~ :)
Schools Kill Our Creativity

I strongly agree with that schools kill our creativity.
Schools are places that frame their children and/or us in a certain context
and stop us thinking out of the context or box. Of course, there are many advantages that some people may argue with; however, I question if those benefits gained from school are somewhat related to developing and exploring our human creativity.
What I have noticed from my experience as both a student and teacher is that schools are places that demand (or obligate) their students to think, talk, and act "uniformly." In other words, our schools are existing for social control and order.
I believe that our human creativity is unlimited. It is indeed unlimited!
Our extremely structured society such as schools and work places stop us thinking in multiple and creative ways. We teachers or educational leaders often say that we are to nurture our students' creativity and potential. Unfortunately, however, it is just a lip-service; in practice, we do not actually care about our students' creative growth or development so much. Do you? Have you? Please tell me how you have done it in our school system. I wanna hear it!
What and how can we do? especially in our super formalized and/or structured school setting. Thanks so much, Dr. Gilbert. This class has led me, at least, to start thinking of and considering how we can nurture our students' creativity including "myself."
____________________________
creativity |ˌkrē-āˈtivitē|noun
the use of the imagination or original ideas, esp. in the production of an artistic work.
Do you agree with the definition?
I do somewhat, but not entirely. Have a great day~
____________________________
Jon Lee
www.jonleemusique.com
My Inspiration explained...

I really enjoyed figuring out how long to extend the photographs and in which direction they were presented all according to the timing of the piece. This experience grew my interests more into filim scoring which I would love to dabble in one day, but I felt very accomplished to go through the process of pretending to be one for a moment :)
creativity through music ..
Monday, November 1, 2010
My video - a "Healing Environment"
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Learning Each Other
-Jess Goldberg
Friday, October 29, 2010
kids
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com
Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com
10 things you didn't know about sound
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/10/10/treasure.sound/index.html
Pat Pat Click Click
and you can make do this in a variety of ways.
1. For 4/4 time
Pat Pat Click Click
Pat Pat (name a thing)
Pat Pat Click Click
(name a thing) Click Click
etc...
2. For 3/4 time
Pat Pat Click
Pat Pat (name a thing)
Pat Click Click
Pat Click (name a thing)
Pat Click Pat
Pat Click (name a thing)
Pat Pat Click
(name a thing) Pat Click.
3. For 2/4 time
4. For 5/4 time
5. For 7/8 time
6. For 11/8 time
any comments on these times? :)
Kids love this Pat Pat Click Click...
Don't forget to give a reward (candy or something)
to those who are still suriving until the last round.
You have a great day.
Jon Lee
www.jonleemusique.com
Monday, October 25, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
This is a What? (Game/ Warm up)
This is a WHAT?
The group sits in a circle. You will need several objects which you can pass from hand to hand around the circle (ball cap, shoe, hackey sac etc.).The leader starts by looking to the person sitting next to him with an object in his hand (lets say a shoe). He says “this is a shoe”. She responds “a what?”, he says ”a shoe”, she says ”a what”, he says ”a shoe”, she takes the shoe and says ”oh, a shoe”.
She then turns to the next person and starts the same interaction with that person. The leader can then add more items into the mix, starting the same way, and joining into to same rhythm already established by the shoe.
The goal would be to have as many items going around as there are people in the circle, so you are turning to one person and saying what an item is, and saying “a what” to the person on your other side, ready to receive their item.
You can also try fewer items, but get them going in opposite directions. Hilarious!
Anger
Anger goes.
Anger hides,
Anger shows.
Anger builds up,
Anger dies down.
Anger starts here,
Anger Spreads around.
Anger turns into hate,
Anger finds love.
Anger burns brightly,
Anger is pale and cold.
Class participation activity
Basically there were rows of number 1-4 in any order for example:
1234
4321
2341
2222
3333
Each number represents an action: 1. You snap 2. you jump 3. Sing 4. Whistle.
This exercise is so versatile because you can break into groups and each person can be assigned a number and whenever there number comes up they have to do the action. It can be like a cannon with other groups of fours. It can also be done where everyone one on the class just read the numbers and do all the required actions at the same time. Also the numbers can be read across or down. It was a very fun activity.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
creativity descends from external inspiration
This is a song that I adore, by my favourite Italian singer and songwriter, Diego Mancino.
Maybe external is just an illusion... isn't everything taking place inside our awareness?
Internet Video: A New Creative Form for Discovery and Reflection
Our next class is about collaborating in creative process. In a sense the movie assignment was also a collaboration,.. a collaboration with yourself.
Those who still need to share your short poem, We need a copy of your poem written in your own hand ASAP, as well as posted on our Blog.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Creativity? "Ideas out of the box"
In this past week I have been thinking that creativity is very important in science discoveries.
Check this video out!
The Real Jersey Shore
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Sonia Megías' creative process
My Creative Youtube Video
Throughout my childhood, I have moved and lived in many different places. Most of it are in chronological order, but not all. Here's a glimpse of all the places I have lived at some point in my life. ~ Jessica Zhu
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
My Creativity YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l1lSN8cYR4
The song "The Spark of Creation" from Stephen Schwartz's musical "Children of Eden" is playing in the background of this video, but I think youtube has recognized that the song is owned by SONY, and may not include audio for much longer. We shall see....
In case audio is removed, here is another video I have posted to youtube of my rehearsal for my senior showcase:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhKu1NZribg
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Two poems before class:
Must have a cautious owner...
No wheels, no seat, no basket.
...or maybe it's just bad luck.
Writing poetry
Sometimes makes me feel silly.
Oh look! I've finished.
Non c'e'
NON C'E'
cerbiatta cerulea con cervice di cera celeste, cela.
Haiku (mediocre)
Let's meet!
My warm-up exercise was the one of the 'natural walk' that the rest of the class was supposed to imitate. I know you remember that... ;)
short rhythmic poem
every beat waters my fingers
from inside,
feeding my twenty pink nails.
Po-pom po-pom po-pom
oh! my cheecks got red.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Andrea Bocelli sings to Elmo
Betty White is Beautiful
The Line
Haiku-Sara Salvatore
The sun sits a little low
Summer how I miss thee...
Notes jumping up down
Music swirling around me
And then silence.
YouTube fun
Just wanted to share my youtube link of the woman playing the trumpet to the Star Wars theme song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh9Mko23JeA
lol, enjoy!
Sara Salvatore
My warm-up game! -Sara Salvatore
Sorry I am a little late on this-I am still figuring out all this technology stuff! My warm-up game was the "singing game," and would work best with middle and high school students:
-Person starts in the middle of a circle, begins with a song, ie: The sun will come out, Tomorrow"...etc.
-Once another person recognizes a word that they could use to start a different song, they jump in and take their place, ie: "Good day, sunshine"...etc.
-Really try to keep it moving and the energy up, so that the students don't start to get embarrassed that they are singing for a long time.
Hope you enjoy!
Sara Salvatore
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Haiku Madness
Time passes by in a blur
Who ate my chicken?
Groggy just woke up
Snooze button a bunch of times
Oh no I am late!
Glue, paint, messy work
Kids in class doing projects
I'm done! Clean up time!
Teaching music class
Babies and moms cry
Moms cry more than babies do.
Bus Bus Bus Bus Bus
Train Train Train Train Train
Sleep Sleep Sleep Sleep Sleep
Weather Warm Up Activity
Teacher says "The weather outside is ----"
This cues children (who are accustomed to this activity) to watch the teacher. The teacher leads children in two body percussion actions/ motions that represent the weather outside.
The children follow motions of teacher. The teacher signals the next student to change the weather in any way they "feel" is appropriate. Class watches student and follows change in action.
Exploring the idea of Haiku
These are several poems I created using the Haiku sequencing approach.
5 A sad hungry dog
5 Looking for some food
7 Found a bag of Scooby snacks
5 Open the chest box
5 Revisit the past
7 Treasure the newest stories
7 Found lots of leaves on the ground
5 Sun shining above
5 All in the forest
10 Ready? It is time to go on a trip.
10 Let’s count together five four three two one
2 Blast off
Show and Tell - videos
The videos I shown in class were both interactive videos which allowed the audience or viewer to click on the video and create any outcome that they preferred.
1) The first video was an interactive piano. This enables the viewer to play this piano as long as they continued clicking different keys in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/
2) The second video was an interactive blend it idea. This video allows the viewer to select two items from the video and have the person blend these in a blender and drink the two selected items.