Mid-day on an August Monday, I said “see ya later” to my family and hopped into my PT Cruiser...
...and sped on down the freeway to a quaint little town in southeast Michigan for my second ever “Retreat at Piano Manor.” (You can read about my first one here.)
Puffy, white clouds floated above in a sunny, blue sky as I tooled down the road. Amazingly, there was NO construction—I know, right?—and the roads were so smooth I wondered if I was in the right universe. There was very little traffic, and when I left the freeway I found myself on a country road flanked on either side by fields of tall, green stalks of corn, punctuated here and there with the occasional farmhouse, surrounded by trees. Eventually, the road passed through a small town and soon I arrived at my destination without any bumps or hiccups.
Pulling into the driveway, I saw two people that I remembered from last year’s retreat. Yay!—I’m in the right place! Our hostess, Joy Morin (ColorInMyPiano) had chosen a large house that is usually used as a get-away for scrap-bookers. Wisely, she had booked the entire house for us. Everyone found their own rooms but also took a tour of the house because, well, let’s just say that it’s a very nice place! Amy Chaplin (Piano Pantry) had lunch all ready and waiting for us, so we dove right in. A couple of us enjoyed our lunch in the backyard on the poolside deck.
First Session:
For an icebreaker, Joy had us each pick a card. Each card had a single question, such as “Why do you like taking piano lessons?” or “If you could shoot a music video of yourself playing a grand piano anywhere on earth, where would it be?” So we told our names and answered as best we could whatever question we had drawn. Many of us had funny experiences to share.
But then, we began in earnest, reflecting on creativity in life. Are “creative teaching” and “teaching creativity” the same thing? In my opinion, they are not. Apparently, others agreed with me, determining that “creative teaching empowers others’ creativity.” Other questions concerned whether creativity in students should be limited or encouraged? If so, how? What are the benefits of being able to compose/improvise?
To explore these ideas further, we examined some books on creativity by authors such as Forrest Kinney, Twyla Tharp, Rick Rubin, Steven Pressfield, Elizabeth Gilbert, and others. Each of us browsed through one of the books and gave a brief review of what it was about, perhaps a quote, and generally how it could be useful for our purposes. We noted that some of the books would be good to share with adult students in need of encouragement about their own creativity.
Before taking a supper break, we all participated in an exercise from Bruce Adolphe’s The Mind’s Ear. This type of exercise was new to us: we imagined an ensemble of musicians—perhaps a chamber trio, an orchestra, a jazz quartet, etc.—and were told to picture them vividly and to “hear” the music they were playing. Then we were instructed to imagine someone practicing on another instrument—backstage but completely audible to the ensemble and their audience—and to imagine the reactions of the original performing ensemble, to “hear” each instrument all playing at once. What did it sound like? We enjoyed sharing with each other what we had imagined and had some good laughs at each other’s creativity.
After supper, we all gathered poolside for a tasty dessert of berries drizzled with white chocolate put together by Amy Chaplin and shared lots of conversation about—you guessed it—music, teaching music, and … modes… Eventually, the sun went down, the bats and mosquitoes came out, and we called it a night and sought the refuge of the indoors and our cozy beds.
