Kevin Olson is a natural composer. He started composing at a very young age and creativity seemed inevitable to him. Now, he wants to encourage that in the next generation.

Apart from inspiring our students with wonderful motivating repertoire, Kevin also has some fantastic words of wisdom when it comes to including creativity in our lessons.

By taking it a little bit at a time – we can find more time for creativity. Our students don’t have to be producing complete, fully-notated compositions. Start with including improvisation and drawing from the pieces your students are playing. Then you can see where it goes from there.

Transcript

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In this episode, you’ll learn

• How Kevin started composing at age 5
• The place of composition competitions in Kevin’s studio
• Why external motivation is important for teen music students
• What we can do to foster students’ creativity
• How to integrate creativity with everything else you have to cover
• The music Kevin is most excited about right now
• How he goes about composing a concerto
• Where he starts a new composition

Links Mentioned

• My Kind of Music
• Kevin Olson on FJH

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Just make sure you try out some of the ideas before they get lost in the business of your next lessons!

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Where does creativity fit in your teaching?

Do you find it hard to plan into your lessons? Have you been trying to do too much or jump too far?