The author and the piano student: The transferability of the creative process in practice

Abstract

Sustaining a career in music by pursuing multiple paths, usually performing and teaching, is neither new nor unusual. In this article, I consider another option—the musician-writer—to demonstrate how the process used to create in one’s primary field or career path may be transferrable to the pursuit of new endeavors. Analyzing and comparing the process of writing my book about piano teachers and studying the fourth movement of the Schubert Sonata in A Major, using a framework extrapolated from my experiences as a writer and piano student, reveals similarities between these seemingly different endeavors. Written prior to the pandemic, the message of transferability is even more important now, given the immediate and long-term challenges to performing and teaching music, which demand alternative approaches (e.g., podcasts and music lessons via Zoom). Exploring the questions raised in this article should assist a performer, teacher, or student to identify their personal creative process and facilitate its conscious, deliberate, and systematic transfer to other endeavors and fields to sustain a career in music.