Activity Resource 4: Thinking for creativity

Enabling pupils to use a wider variety of thinking skills

Throughout this unit there has been an explicit link made between creativity and thinking. This is because both are largely concerned with aspects of problem solving. The range of problems that pupils are asked to solve (i.e. meeting challenges or fulfilling briefs) is very wide, and might include the following.

• How can we make this sound better?
• How can we sing this in time?
• How can I use this keyboard or software to do what I want?
• How do I work out what style that music is in?
• Why do I recognise this style?
• Why does this piece sound different to that one?

The ‘How … ’ and ‘Why … ’ questions are crucial to pupils’ developing an understanding of how things work in music. The hierarchy of thinking most commonly alluded to is based upon Bloom’s taxonomy (Bloom and Krathwohl, 1956), which identifies six levels of thinking and questioning, shown below from lower order to higher order.

Knowledge > Comprehension > Application > Analysis > Synthesis > Evaluation

Research has consistently shown that most questions asked by teachers (and therefore most of the thinking required of pupils to answer them) come from the first two categories, which relate to factual recall and comprehension. However, achievement at level 5 and above requires thinking in Bloom’s higher-order categories of application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. For example, the underlined skills at levels 5 and 6 relate to higher-order thinking:

Level 5: ... analyse and compare musical features ... evaluate how venue, occasion and purpose affects the way music is created, performed and heard.

Level 6: ... analyse, compare and evaluate how music reflects the contexts in which it is created, performed and heard.

As with the questions that teachers ask, the nature of any musical challenge will determine the expectation of pupils’ thinking and responding. It is important to set challenges that focus not only on what the pupils should do, but also on how they can learn in the process. The same basic task can therefore be presented in very different ways.

REGGAE BEAT: basic task (focusing on what to do)
a) Learn to play the following chord sequence: Am | G | F | G | Am | G | G | G :|| Fill Dm | C | Dm | C | Dm | C | E | E :|| Fill b) Make up a melody to fit the chords.

REGGAE BEAT: enriched task (balancing what to do with how to learn)

Learn to play the following chord sequence, on fingered chords: Section A: Am | G | F | G | Am | G | G | G :|| Fill (both repeat and placement of fill are optional) Section B: Dm | C | Dm | C | Dm | C | E | E :|| Fill (both repeat and placement of fill are optional) Thinking challenge 1 What would be an appropriate speed at which to play this reggae sequence ? How many bars do you want each chord to be played for: 1, 2, 4 …? Should the pattern of chords per bar be the same in both sections? Which fill do you want to use – and will it come on the chord or after it? Do you want to repeat either or both of the sections? Now play the sequence using fully fingered chords instead of single fingered. Thinking challenge 2 What voice do you want to use for the chords now? Add a bass line (play the chord root in octaves), and make a rhythmic pattern between it and the chords: will you use ‘standard’ reggae (L RR L R) or something different? Can you vary or decorate the basic pattern within the style? Mix up the chords and play them in a random order. How does it sound? Go back to the original sequence but make the major chords minor, and the minor chords major. What difference does this make? Does it still sound like reggae? If not, why not? Does it sound good? Create your own sequence (using the same chords as the original) that you think maintains the reggae style.

Task 12: Devising thinking challenges (30 minutes)
Take a performing activity similar to the ‘REGGAE BEAT: basic task’ above that you plan to use with a class in the near future. Adapt it so that it is more like the enriched task by adding a series of thinking challenges. Having used the new version with pupils, consider the impact on their motivation and learning.