The Creative "i" - Variations on a Theme

PART 1: Choose a song and change its lyrics.

You Raise Me Up – Josh Groban

Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJxrX42WcjQ

Verse 1

When I am down and, oh, my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

Chorus
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up to more than I can be.

Verse 2
There is no life - no life without its hunger;
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly;
But when you come and I am filled with wonder,
Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity.

Chorus
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up to more than I can be.

Chorus
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up to more than I can be.

Chorus
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up to more than I can be.

End line
You raise me up to more than I can be.

Altered lyrics: A Father’s Love

Here is a link to a mp3 of me singing this new version.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0gEBWge0OuDbVhKeG1rZzNEY1U&usp=sharing

Verse 1

When I was young and you would hold me closely,

I’d look to you, my eyes were open wide.

And then you’d smile and kiss my forehead softly,

Saying “hush-a-bye. My baby, don’t you cry.”

Chorus 1

You watched me grow, as I became a young man.

You’d hold me up, my arms stretched towards the sky.

Everyday, when I came home to see you.

Your face would grin, a twinkle in your eye.

Verse 2

Now I am old and you are still here with me.

I look to you, my eyes still open wide.

I see you smile and feel you look upon me.

You’ll always be my teacher and my guide.

Chorus 1

You watched me grow, as I became a young man.

You’d hold me up, my arms stretched towards the sky.

Everyday, when I came home to see you.

Your face would grin. I always wondered why.

Chorus 2

You taught me strength when I was at my weakest.

You taught me love when I was all alone.

I followed you, through every day and hour,

When you were here, I knew that I was home.

Chorus 2

You taught me strength when I was at my weakest.

You taught me love when I was all alone.

I followed you, through every day and hour,

When you were here, I knew that I was home.

End line

A father’s love will always lead you home.

PART 2: Summarize in 200 words or less how you see what you have learned about the creative process, through the reading and assignment, that you could apply to your own personal or professional life.

I had never done anything like this assignment before. The only time I re-write lyrics is when I accidentally forget them when I’m singing along with the radio.  At first, I was only seeking out similarities between my new lyrics with the old ones.  I was examining the easy observable qualities: rhyme, rhythm, and content.  Then I tried to separate myself completely from the song (You Raise Me Up) and listen to the music as though I had never heard it before and it functioned as a completely independent art form.  Though I was not 100% focused on this new cognitive process for 100% of the song, I did not expect to be. I simply wanted to attempt to abstract myself from the song that I knew, and I loved it.  When I simplified it, what was left? What did it open up inside of me? Quite a lot.

This newfound freedom led to a surge of creativity.  In the music, I heard something that made me think of my dad.  I cannot write what it was, but it opened a passageway of memory and love in our relationship.  I was soon challenged to then funnel the ideas and feelings that were radiating from this abstraction into the order and structure of a song.  Not only that, I attempted to write words that would “set up an analogous state of being in someone else” (147).  I could sing for hours about my own stories with my dad, but I needed to go deeper.  I practiced internal and external attention (199) and soon realized that if an artist can truly observe, imagine, and feel the thoughts and needs of others, they will unmistakably appeal to their souls and senses.


Additional Thoughts (including the Henriksen and Mishra article)

“Creativity then, is the process of making alterations to, and new combinations with, pre-existing ideas and artifacts, to create something new” (Henriksen and Mishra, pg. 2).  In this project, our mission was to re-write the lyrics of a song that we were familiar with.  It was a great challenge to take a song that we have known and understood, and use the creative tools that we’ve encountered so far (perception, patterning, and abstraction) to build a new, unique work.  The focus was not on the creation of new lyrics, but rather the awareness of the broad foundation that we have to work with: “People with a wider range of knowledge and experience have richer concepts to build on, and hence the potential to see more knobs or possibilities than those with narrower foundations” (3). If the focus was instead only on lyric revision to replace the original words of the song, then the creativity becomes forced: “It is clear that combinatorial thinking cannot be forced or predicted, it must develop organically, determined and constrained by the unique resources that the individual brings to the creative process” (3).

This project allowed me to see more possibilities.  I was able to reflect on my experiences and prior knowledge to construct an individualized product.  The goal, though scary to accept to someone as practical as myself, is to live in a world of the “unpredictable combinations” (1). We cannot teach unpredictability in our world of education, but we can provide broad foundations for our fellow learners to see the “knobs and possibilities” in everything they create: “our task as educators is to provide learners with these diverse experiences to help them develop these broader perspectives. The future demands nothing less” (5).  Creativity is not about finding an answer; it is about discovering the possibilities along the way.

REVISED LYRICS

Verse 1

When I was young, I feared the word creative.

I sought a “spark.” I thought it was easy.

I thought for hours of what I could invent

But then I knew, I could simply be me.

Chorus
And then I learned that I needed to perceive

The world around. There’s always something new.

Everyday, each thing we see and hear

Can lead us to a world that we find true.

Verse 2
As I grew old, I tackled my new fears.

I knew my past would help me everyday.

These memories built on existing ideas

Would give me strength, and help me see new ways.

Chorus
And then I knew that I needed to perceive

The world around. There’s always something new.

Everyday, each thing we see and hear

Can lead us to a world that we find true.

Chorus
And now I see, the possibility

Connecting things within the world around me

I am not scared to think of something different.

In fact, I love the difficulty.

End line
Prepare the mind for creativity.