on building music and creativity one brick at a time When my brother and I were kids we had a Humpty Dumpty game. Big blue plastic blocks and a cheerful, chubby Humpty. Build a wall, place Humpty on top, then take turns removing bricks until he falls off. These days Read more…
how structure helps creativity I teach an engineer who applies everything he’s learnt about structures and systems to playing piano, and it works brilliantly. He feels confident making creative leaps because he knows the structure is sound, and if he falls it won’t be very far. It doesn’t stop him Read more…
How to learn when to let a creative idea grow and when to cut it back Wildflowers as tall as my then three-year-old daughter bloomed everywhere when we moved to Switzerland one spring. After neat English pavements, it felt almost shocking, as if nature had been given full permission to Read more…
Why we should never grow out of creative play My late-night piano sessions aren’t about improving or getting things right. Instead, they’re about playing for pure pleasure, mucking around with melodies stuck in my head. It’s the kind of creative play kids do instinctively, turning learning into games with razor-sharp Read more…
how to create without an agenda My tiny daughter would dive straight in with her paintbrush. I had too many questions rattling around in my head, such as what to paint, how to do it, what colour to choose first. It took having a Very Small Person to entertain for Read more…
How music can help make some space in our heads for creative thinking Do you remember how it felt to be bored when you were a kid? Absolutely nothing to do except weave strands of grass or stare at the clouds. This kind of boredom triggers a state in our Read more…
Why we like to stick to the same songs instead of trying something new (and what this means for creativity) I don’t know about you, but I have songs I keep coming back to, over and over again. I know exactly how they’re going to sound and how they’re going Read more…
How imagining doing something can be (almost) just as good as actually doing it Many moons ago, I was preparing for a piano exam. Reader, I was a wreck, to the point where the morning of the day of the exam I was so anxious I ate an entire pack Read more…
Stretching your creative limits out of your comfort zone can boost your creative confidence and creative skills
When I was a kid, our house had its share of fragile vases just waiting to fall from their perches. And fall they did (some of them), accidentally knocked down by my brother or me. Luckily, my father had a real knack for putting things back together, so the same Read more…
