1.1 Personal background 

I am a musician, composer, educator and an artist. I work in both the freelance and the artistic sides of music. The latter is something I cherish, and my goal is to concentrate on that as much as possible. My main instruments currently are acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin and voice, and for the past couple of years I have been learning the kora (a West African harp like instrument).

I studied at Turku Conservatory, where I graduated as a musician in 2015. I am currently studying in the Global Music Department of Sibelius Academy. My main interests are in composing, improvisation and collaborative music making. I spent years being involved in the jazz scene but at some point, I realized that I am more interested in music itself in general, and how it is connected to life. That being said, I understand I shouldn’t try to limit myself to one musical genre, but rather to develop the kind of musicianship where I can bring my input and adapt within diverse musical contexts. My studies in the Global Music Department allow me to go deeper into these skills and build my musical identity during the process. For these reasons, today I consider myself a global musician. 

As an educator, I have taught guitar playing individually for the city of Turku and worked privately as an entrepreneur. I also have experience teaching in schools, and section playing and leading big band. My involvement and observation in the Finnish music education scene, as a student and a teacher, has given me the perspective to teach in a way that supports the values presented in this study. I believe this will positively impact Finnish music education. 

1.0 Introduction 

Creative music-making has always played a central role in my musical journey. When I played the piano as a child (purely by ear), I remember treating combinations of notes as a dialogue between a kind superhero and an evil villain. This kind of child-like mindset where you are simply playing what you feel like or what runs through your mind in a moment, is something I also cherish as an adult. 

The further I headed towards being a professional musician, I noticed that attitudes toward creative music making and even music itself felt narrower, as if there were more and more common rules about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, as well as fixed ideas about how to get ‘better’ at music. Personally, I believe that anyone can create music, and many would if they were given a chance to do so in a non-judgemental (child-like) creative space. In this research, I examine different composition methods and ways to further develop approaches to teaching composition in Finnish upper secondary level music education.  

As a global musician, I hold certain values in my work which acknowledge the importance of intercultural environments where everyone is allowed to be themselves in a non-judgemental space. Based on these values, my project explores the central research question:  

How can Finnish music education further develop approaches to teaching creative music making that value difference, diversity, self-expression, and non-judgmental approaches? 

In the artistic part of this research, I explore different creative music making methods that support the values shown in my research question. Some of the compositions made during this process will be played atmy bachelor concert which will be a part of Global Spring Festival 2022 of Sibelius Academy. 

2.0 CASE STUDY 1: Creative process 

As I mentioned earlier, a part of this study is to examine different creative music making methods. The purpose of this is to go deeper into my own creativity, and to go towards a child-like and non-judgemental space when creating music. These methods can be used in both artistic development and educational purposes. I started asking questions like: What is music? Why do we want to create music in the first place? Looking deeper into these questions have helped me reach the honest way of approaching my own creativity. Paynter and Aston (1970), the authors of Sound and Silence, explain where the music comes from in the following way: 

“When we look closely at nature and are filled with wonder by its intricacies, we are often moved and must find a way of expressing our feelings: it is from here that the arts spring, as do all aspects of language and the need to communicate ideas and emotions.” (Paynter & Aston, 1970, p.2). 

The reason we want to research any subject is in understanding more about the world we live in. Therefore, everything has its roots in nature (Paynter & Aston, 1970). As musicians, we have an ability to transform our experiences and emotions to sound, which is one example of this connection. To be more connected to this phenomenon I have actively formed habits in everyday life, in addition to creative music making.  

In my daily life, I started keeping a diary where I wrote things I was inspired about, for example: sounds, people, weather or dialogue. I paid attention especially to moments where I usually felt boredom. A great example of that is public transportation. I honed my deep listening skills whenever I took the metro in Helsinki. I closed my eyes and tried to hear as many sounds as I could during one metro stop which took about 2 minutes. It was surprising that I could hear over twenty different sounds during one metro stop. R. Murray Schafer (1976) argues that in the western world, we need to retune our ears to the acoustic environment, the soundscape. He claims that the noise pollution problem coming out of loud human machinery has created deafness to the harmonies of nature (Schafer, 1976). Although Schafer wrote this in the 1970’s, I would argue that today the situation has not got any better. In my own experience, the world is filled with distractions that make it more difficult to concentrate on listening to the world around us. 

Another habit I formed, was inspired by Schafer’s soundscape statement mentioned above. I started carrying a zoom recorder on my walks, that I tend to take weekly, and to record the soundscapes of nature and urban environments around me. Instead of just walking I kept my ears open and tried to find interesting sound combinations that I might want to record. Sometimes I listened back to the recordings and tried to imagine myself in the place they were recorded, or I improvised music alongside the soundscape, or used them as compositional framework. I find this method to be an efficient way to make sure you are composing something new and something that is really yours. Even though it is important to find inspiration from music that we like, sometimes there is a danger that we sound similar that the artists we are listening to. 

2.1 Creative music making or composing? 

Finnish researcher Sari Muhonen (2016) found that the words, composing and composition, have their roots in the Latin word ´componere´, which means, ´putting something together´ (p.48.).  To me ´putting something together´ and ´creative music making are exactly the same thing. I choose to use the term ´creative music making´ to avoid any baggage the word ´composing´ might carry. Composing can bring connotations that one must be for example a professional musician or a great classical composer. Anja Rosenbrock (2003) explains an extreme example of some problematic attitudes towards the word composing:  

“The central distinction between western art music and popular music is frequently seen in the quality of composition. While art music composition is expected to be the work of ‘genius’, popular music is often not even considered composed music, but rather a re-arrangement of pre-shaped musical clichés.” (Rosenbrock, 2003, p.34).  

Music-making should not be treated as someone’s prerogative, but it should be accessible to anyone without valuating whose creations are worth a certain title.  

2.3 Heterophony 

Our first experiment in the session was working with heterophony. In the panel discussion, Improvisation, Heterophony, Politics, Composition (2007), Kui Dong, a Chinese composer/musician/teacher, describes heterophony beautifully through her own experience: 

“I witnessed a funeral in a remote village in China. A group of old women was singing and I was moved by the way they sang. Just one woman started singing a particular melody and then the group started to join in. Each one followed the same tune, but with a kind of improvisational shift. It was a very, very personal experience because it was raining and it was late and, I don’t know, something got to me. I think that that sound as a whole is almost oneness, because you combine differences within oneness” (Wolff et al., 2007, p.143-144).  

I find heterophony to be one interesting method to include everyone’s musical input intuitively. One plays a rhythm or a melody and another jumps in with a variation without thinking too much or being too analytical.  

With Tommie, we used rhythmical heterophony to create multiple rhythmical ostinato patterns. The purpose was to create an intensive rhythmic and melodic pattern running under a through-composed main melody. We created the melody first using a ‘question and answer’ method, where one plays a phrase and other replies with an answering phrase and so on.  

Clapping was our foundation for exploring heterophonic rhythms. Tommie clapped a one bar rhythm, and I clapped a variation on top of it. We continued for a while to really feel the groove of the created rhythm pattern and listen the overall sound of it, after which we continued playing the rhythms with our instruments to create a drone for the piece. Using the same process, we created more patterns and added them as notes to different chord functions, playing them on top of each other. My take-away from this session was that we created a colourful rhythmic and harmonic palette that gives a real spark to the main melody. I was also happy with the explorative mindset that we shared in the process.  

2.2 Collaborative creative music making

Collaborative music making brings new aspects to the creative process, which affects one’s creativity. Muhonen (2016) states that: “The collaborative composing process as one form of collaboration and collaborative creation includes exploration of an experimentation with ideas, intertwined with negotiation and decision making, verification and often also sharing and documentation.” (Muhonen, S. 2016, p.51). Simply, the outcome will be different when music is created together versus alone.  

As a part of my own creative music making process, I explored different music making approaches and methods together with accordionist Tommie Black-Roff. We travelled to my family’s cabin located in Hauho (Finland) where we spent a few days focusing on creative music making. I thought that if my purpose is to approach teaching creative music making by holding certain values, we should pay attention to the same values when we make music together. Our central rule was to give ourselves and each other a completely safe and non-judgemental space to explore without spending one second analysing if the other person thinks you are sounding good or not. In other words, there is no right or wrong. We need to have courage to push our creative sides and musical boundaries. I discuss more about non-judgemental and safe-space environments in chapters 2.4, 3.1.2 and 3.3.3. 

In the next few chapters I dive deeper into the methods we explored during our stay in the cabin. 

2.5 Nature Objects 

Going back to Paynter’s and Aston’s (1970) thoughts about music and nature (mentioned in chapter 2.0), I thought that if everything is connected to nature, why not use nature objects as a source of inspiration? We went to a forest to look for objects that we could gather and work with back in the cabin. I was unsure if we could find anything inspiring since everything was covered with snow, but once we got to the woods, I was surprised at all the greenness I could find underneath the piles of snow. It looked almost the same as in the summertime. During my whole life in Finland, I had assumed that when the trees lose their leaves, most of the greenness disappears in the nature. Again, an example of being curious of the things we easily take for granted, might lead to new discoveries and inspirations. Csikszentmihalyi (1997) explains this kind of curiosity in his book, Creativity: The psychology of discovery and invention:  

“Without a good dose of curiosity, wonder and interest in what things are like, and in how they work, it is difficult to recognize an interesting problem. Openness to experience a fluid attention that constantly processes events in the environment is a great advantage for recognizing potential novelty.” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997, p.53).

We easily tend to wait for inspiration to come in order to create new and interesting music, but inspiration can also be found when we are open to treat things as possible sources of inspiration. 

After gathering the objects, we drew their shapes on the pieces of paper and used the drawings as a map for improvisation. We divided the paper into a few sections to help us follow the improvisation and took turns in showing the cue to go on to the next section. This helped us to be roughly in the same spot of the map. Then we used the papers for creating a piece of music. We took a few areas of both of our papers and put numbers to them so we could have a structure of the piece. We used the shapes for example for dynamics, intensity, feel and pitch. This experiment gave us a clear idea of a new composition that we could start working on.  

2.4 Courage and the unexpected 

Our central aims in this session were finding courage to be ourselves when we create music and trying out things in a safe space. Karin Hendricks et al. (2014) state in their research that a music environment which doesn’t promote fear but promotes joy and love of music is the best environment for creativity and expressiveness (p.37.). We wanted to push the feeling of being safe a bit further with the following experiment. 

We began with enjoying silence in the room and having our eyes closed. After a while, one started playing a melody and other started adding a two-chord movement but doing it randomly without thinking about the function or key of the melody. Because we are used to certain harmonic structures that are “right”, our purpose was to open our ears to just any combination of melody and harmony. It took courage to stick with the harmonic pattern when it sounded odd to both of us, but the magical thing was that after playing it a while, it started to make more sense. After a while of listening to one harmonic sound, we started saying random intervals where the two-chord harmony would be transposed to while the melody stayed the same.  

An interesting conversation appeared after this experiment when we were walking on the beautiful frozen lake of Hauhonselkä.  

Tommie: “This is a brave way of working and requires confidence and belief to what you are doing, because there is a possibility of it sounding just...bad. But it’s great how you find out things you wouldn’t find otherwise.” 

Me: “Yes, I agree! Although, when we are in a non-judgemental environment, there is no good or bad right? We should be able to try out anything we feel like trying, and the actual piece of music comes later. When we arrange the music later, we can be as analytical and critical as we want to be. But when we are looking for a creative mindset and the source of inspiration, we need to be trying things out first.” 

Tommie: “Yeah, I completely agree!”  

I find it interesting that when we were experimenting, I remember thinking that the unexpected sounds were great, yet at times there was a small doubt if I made the music sound bad. The conversation reveals that Tommie had similar thoughts. So even though we agreed on giving the safe space to each other beforehand, it felt that the safe space and non-judgemental environment was only properly created when we reflected on the process.   

3.1 Role of creative music making in Finnish basic education 

In the national curriculum of basic education, creative music-making (composing) has been a part of music education since the 1970s (Muhonen, 2016). According to the national curriculum (2004), one of the aims of education is that a student learns how to use different musical elements through composing and other creative processes (POP, 2004). However, it was found in a Finnish study, that music classes had been missing a lot of creative work, and 47% of the students had never experienced making their own music (Laitinen et al., 2011). A partial reason for this is found in the combination of teachers’ autonomy and the lack of mastery in teaching composition. Because of teachers’ autonomy in the Finnish system, there is not much collected data available from music lessons concerning what is taught and how (Juntunen, 2017). That leaves a possibility for a teacher to skip the kind of subjects that they don’t know how to teach. Therefore, the too broad level of teacher autonomy sometimes prevents music education’s development, and it challenges its quality (Juntunen, 2017). 

3.0 CASE STUDY 2: Creative music making in the context of Finnish music education 

I am now going to apply the thinking and approaches discovered in case study 1, within the context of Finnish music education. 

3.1.1 A few thoughts on creativity 

I would argue that in Western culture, mastering already existing knowledge combined with hard work, is often thought to be the “normal” way to operate in the society, whereas creative individuals are often considered as “different”. Csikszentmihalyi (1997) explains in his book, Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention, some common thoughts of creative individuals:  

“...creative individuals are often considered odd -or even arrogant, selfish, and ruthless. It is important to keep in mind that these are not traits of creative people, but traits that the rest of us attribute to them on the basis of our perceptions” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997, p.10).  

For me this attribute manifested when I was about 16 years old. I had a period where I would play the guitar for hours and hours per day. I was creating my own music and was desperate to learn improvisation. What followed, was that everyone would give me an advice that I should treat guitar playing as a hobby and concentrate on the things that are ‘important’. Even the student counsellor in the upper secondary school studies advised me in the following way: “Joni, this music thing is nice, but you need to get yourself an education for a proper job and then you can think about the music.” 

Creativity doesn’t belong only to the arts and artistic people. It is a quality that is needed in multiple domains. Sawyer (2011) argues that schools should prepare students to learn how to think creatively with the knowledge they have learned (p.2). The purpose of that is to have the quality of creativity used in all school subjects. Creativity is needed when we want to create anything new. That’s why it is very false to treat it as “odd”. 

Creativity does not happen only through one person’s act. Csikszentmihalyi (1997) argues that creativity is a systemic phenomenon, not just something that happens in people’s heads (p.23). Because of this interaction between a creative person and the system, creativity should be encouraged. Many of us are naturally creative but without the interaction with the system, the creativity might not come out.  

3.1.2 Safe space, difference and diversity  

I treat the concepts of creating a safe space and valuing of difference and diversity as central topics when approaching music education. 

I would argue that the first step in creating a safe space is that the teacher treats all the pupils as equally competent human beings and learners. Difference should not be treated as a negative feature. After all, who decides what is different and what is normal? Muhonen (2016) states in her research, that all the students can be seen as capable music creators and composers if the teacher supports their creative agency within composition (p.7). I have had my own experiences as a student, where the teacher used a more angry and disappointed tone towards me and other like-minded pupils, in contrast she used more encouraging tone towards the students that fit her teaching model. I felt I was treated as less, which made me think of myself as stupid. It took me years to understand that there are many sorts of intelligence and all of that cannot be measured in basic education system. Anttila (2010) found in his research that in the empirical data collected from upper secondary school music students, some pupils described that they felt the teacher disliked and humiliated them. In the quantitative data, even though 70% of the students said they liked the teacher, only 6% felt that the music teacher liked them (Anttila, 2010).  

Difference and diversity should be celebrated and seen as powerful resources. Thomson (2021) explains embracing of difference and diversity in his research, Resonance: (Re)forming an artistic identity through intercultural dialogue and collaboration, in a following way:  

“... being allowed to be who we are and embracing difference and diversity in all its forms. Furthermore, by Acknowledging, celebrating, and giving equal space to the unique identities of each person, we are inherently stating that each person matters, is valued, and is important” (Thomson, 2021, p.145). 

In education there should be no space for inequality based on cultural background, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other human characteristic.  

 I do believe that the safe space does not mean that there cannot be any criticism involved. A teacher can still encourage pupils to work hard and give them criticism. But the learning should be made possible in the non-judgemental environment where everyone can have the freedom of authentic self-expression. In my former studies, I experienced lessons that were often based on teacher authority, and I felt pressure over the many things I was expected to master, and fear towards the lessons of certain teachers. Hendricks et.al (2014) states in their study, Creating safe space for music learning:  

“Some music students may seem to respond to an authoritarian figure who motivates out of fear of failure or disappointment. However, it may be difficult for such a teacher to create a safe space in which students feel free to express themselves or take musical risks.” (Hendricks et al., 2014, p.37).  

Even though it might seem effective for a teacher to have a strong authority built around fear, I would argue that when we are trying to create music and learn to express ourselves, it does more harm than good (See also chapter 3.2.1).  

3.2 Group teaching in Sibelius lukio 

I got an opportunity to try some creative music-making teaching in a song-writing course at Sibelius lukio, which is an upper secondary level school in Helsinki. The 75 minute sessions were divided into two different days. I thank Nathan Riki Thomson, my supervisor in this project who arranged the contact, and to the open-minded staff of Sibelius lukio.  

“I believe the teacher is primarily a student, and the moment he ceases to be one, the philosophy of education is in trouble” (Schafer, 1979, p.1). 

When we teach in this way where we are willing to learn from the students, we are more likely to have an honest interaction with them.  

3.2.2 What is music and why would we want to create music? 

There was an interesting conversation with the students about music and creative music making. In the creative process of this study (see chapter 2.0) I began asking myself questions which I will now apply in a pedagogical framework.  

Me: “Why would we want to create music?” 

Student: “It helps us to think about things and accept things.” 

Me: Yes! We can bring out emotions of people. Sometimes art can make us feel emotions we didn’t even know existed.” 

Me: “How about music, what is it?” 

Student: “Same thing as said about creativity.” 

Me: “Sure, but how about if we heard a garbage man and his truck right now on the yard?  He is throwing the trash bins back and forth and we hear multiple rhythms and sounds. Is that music?  

Student: “Not really.” 

Other student: “If you want it to be music, it’s music.  

Me: “Right! What if we imitate the garbageman and play the same rhythms with drums that we define as musical instruments? Does that make it music? 

…Silence and wondering faces... 

Student: “Maybe then it’s more intentional whereas garbageman possibly doesn’t intend to make music.” 

Me: “Sure! Good answers! But note, that if we go to a concert and someone is playing say a free improvised drum solo, we might be amazed by what we hear. I mean we came to a concert to enjoy music and we pay attention. But at the same time, we might take for granted the sonic environment around us. I am definitely not saying that it’s not worth it going to a concert, it surely is worth it. But we easily miss the beauty of sounds in our everyday life, and at the same time we might miss the perfectly good sources of inspiration.  

…Students nodding and looking wonderous.  

I continued to clarify this question with a statement of Schafer (1979) from his book, Rhinoceros in the classroom: 

“For the child of five art is life and life is art. Experience for him is a kaleidoscopic and synaesthetic fluid. Look at children playing and try to delimit activities by the categories of the known art-forms. Impossible. Yet as soon as those children enter school, art becomes art and life becomes life. They will then discover that ‘music’ is something which happens in a little bag on Thursday morning while on Friday afternoon there is another little bag called ‘painting’. I suggest this shattering of the total sensorium is the most traumatic experience of a young child’s life” (Schafer, 1979, p.15).  

I treat this statement as a central phenomenon in my pedagogical approach to creative music making. I believe that possible issues towards creative music making and its teaching, are due to systemic issues. If we are able to rebuild some of that child-like wonder that we lost because of societal structures, our creativity is more likely to develop. As a pedagogue, I will build exercises and methodologies that support this process.  

3.3 Exercises in the lessons 

As I mentioned earlier in the case study 1 (see chapter 2.0), the methods explored in my creative process can be used in both artistic development and educational purposes. I explain here how I applied the methods mentioned in case study 1, in the teaching context.  

3.3.1 Heterophony in a teaching context 

The students stood in a row, and I asked the first one to create a simple rhythmical pattern in 4/4 on top of which everyone would come up with a variation. In conclusion, we ended up with a groove formed out of multiple rhythms. Then I divided the students in two separate groups where they transformed the rhythms made of heterophony, to melodic and harmonic lines with their instruments. See the next drawing where this method is further explained.  

3.3.2 Teaching self-expression 

I hold self-expression as a central concept in teaching creative music making. Paynter and Aston (1970) argue that highlighting the creative process in music gives space for individuals to express personal emotions. The teacher shouldn’t control this activity (p.7).  

In this exercise, my aim is for students to find ways to dig deeper into self-examination and through that find more about their creative self. The first step was deep listening. I held an exercise based on the method I invented for my metro trips (see chapter 2.0). I asked the students to close their eyes for few minutes and listen to the sounds in the room while counting the amount of sounds they hear. I participated as well, and once the time was up, I asked them to tell one by one how many different sounds they heard. The majority of students heard from 4 to 10 sounds, I heard 24. It was a good moment to illustrate that deep listening gets better over practise. Now I asked them to close their eyes again and breathe deeply while concentrating on thinking about how their day was until that moment. This connected my introduction to the class where I played out my feelings of the day (see chapter 3.2.1). After this, I asked the pupils to draw an abstract figure of this feeling on a piece of paper. I emphasized it can be completely free, just let your hand draw a line with these thoughts you were having just now. The drawing part of the experiment is inspired by the nature objects method from my creative process (see chapter 2.5).  

I divided the group in two smaller groups where we improvised/created music based on the maps we drew. The purpose is to use the map as a graphic score of our feelings of that day and that moment. It can be there as an inspiration and to be read in any way one likes. This is an exercise, in which improvisation and creative music making (composing) are intertwined. 

4.0 Conclusion 

The idea for this study started forming when I was reflecting on numerous conversationsI have had with musician colleagues about creativity and music education. I felt that most of these conversations included a dilemma between what kind of musician one ‘should’ be and what kind one wants to be. In my experience many teachers told me what I ‘should’ do, and as a result I felt there was no space for my own identity. Many colleagues have said that they spent years deconstructing these attitudes learned in music education in order to find their own voice. These conversations led me to realize the lack of creative music making in Finnish music education. I believe that being creative and true to yourself is the key when developing one’s own voice as a musician.  

My target group was the upper secondary school students, because between 16 to 19 years we are often in some sort of a turning point and under a lot of pressure when it comes to choosing one’s future. I believe that many in that age could use some fresh ideas and approaches towards music. The values I find important in music making and in teaching, formed this research question: 

How can Finnish music education further develop approaches to teaching creative music making that values difference, diversity, self-expression, and non-judgmental approaches? 

This study constructs of two case studies: Creative process (1), and Creative music making in the context of Finnish music education (2). My aim was to examine diverse music making methods and bring them to the classroom. I found this to be an excellent way of working because it puts me first in the position of a learner. I believe that as teachers, it is beneficial if we are constantly learning new things and staying inspired, rather than always teaching the same thing. The world is constantly changing around us and it’s important that we stay open to that change. I will continue this way of working in the future when it comes to teaching music.  

In the creative process (Case study 1), digging deeper into the essence of music and music making made me realize the importance of connecting with nature and the sonic environment around us. This process strengthened my connection to my own emotions, which took me closer to genuine self-expression. In the collaborative part of case study 1, I found that there was still work to be done, specifically in creating a non-judgemental space internally and externally. To deconstruct the idea of what something should sound like instead of just experimenting, was a process we had to work on. Once we created the safe space, I was happy to acknowledge that we did step into a child-like mindset, where everything is allowed, and everything can be treated as inspiration. Learning this helps tremendously in applying creative music making methods to the teaching context. 

I held a song-writing course for case study 2 at Sibelius lukio, a school with music specialization. I would argue that the feedback revealed that the students feel uncertainty and fear towards some lessons they are required to play in. I am not claiming that this is a fault of Sibelius lukio, but that it is rather a social problem. Pedagogical approach has a huge role in this. No matter the possibility for technical improvement, by promoting fear with teacher’s authority, the harm it might cause prevents students from building a healthy and genuine relationship towards music and creativity.  

As an outcome of this study, I would argue that pedagogical methods which create unequal power dynamics should be deconstructed from our education system. I would suggest that the way to get closer to this goal, is by celebrating difference and diversity, creating safe spaces and non-judgemental environments and adding creative music making contents to the lessons so that the students learn their creative skills through self-expression.  

Originally, I was supposed to concentrate particularly on the creative music making in upper secondary school music education, where I did my case study 2. However, I realised it’s likely that the same problems are relevant throughout Finnish music education at every age group. In my further research, I will therefore explore the pedagogical framework of mentorship.  

3.3.3 Implementing safe space concepts  

To create a safe space in the sessions I held in Sibelius lukio, I used a method I learned from one of the Global Music lecturers, Merzi Rajala.In this method students hold their hands behind their back and prepare to show their physical energy level of the day from 1-5 with left hand, and mental energy level from 1-5 with right hand. When the teacher gives a cue, everyone shows their hands (including the teacher). This is an effective way to let everyone show how they feel without having to talk about it openly in the classroom. Subsequently I explained that in this class everyone is allowed to be present completely as themselves. Later in the session, there was a moment where we were improvising as a group, and one of the students went behind a synthesizer and started pounding it and producing loud sounds. Possibly he was trying to disturb the class and gather attention. It was the kind of behaviour where a teacher often enforces discipline and homogeneity. But because this is a class where the aim is to create music by being present as we are, I said that I wanted him to keep going and do exactly what he was doing. I stated that this is what I meant by you being free to be as you are. That was his input to the music in that moment.  

A couple student feedbacks relevant to safe space: 

“I was asked to bring an instrument to the class,and I was terrified for that. But during the lessons I felt easy, and it was nice that I could just play and not be judged by others” 

“There was a relaxing and easy atmosphere. I felt like I could just play like I feel without feeling that I am expected to play in a certain way” 

“It was a lot of fun, and it was very nice that there was like a permission to be free and chaotic if I wanted to, and it usually is not like that.”