The way beats are made can range wildly.  On the one end of the spectrum, there seems to be traditional method of digging through crates of old vinyl, of pulling out of one song a break or a sample that can then be used to create another song.  A producer of beats might pull out just two trumpet notes off a Miles Davis album.  Those two notes then, once digitized, can be used in virtually any way the producer wants.  Shock Value opens this way.  Timbaland samples the piano riff from the opening of Nina Simone’s Sinnerman.  He then loops the riff–makes it repeat over and over–and then builds his own hip-hop beat around the sample.  On the other end of things, some producers build beats from scratch using a hodgepodge of sounds, many custom sounds created by the producers themselves.  In this case, samples used might be hardly at all noticable.   In any case, the way in which beats are produced in recording studios fascinates me as an educator.  The production embodies inquiry at its best.

For example, watch this clip of Timbaland making a beat for Busta Rhymes:

Timbaland and Busta in Studio on Youtube

The two artists seem to interact so casually.  Timbaland lounging on a chair, Busta playfully bemoaning his need for a hot beat.  But, it’s out of this seemingly unproductive banter that a beat is uncovered; a moment of artistic insight is born.  This curious moment–the moment of insight–was written about in a recent New Yorker article.  In the article, Jonah Lerher describes how turning the brain “off” might be the key to turning insight on.  He describes the Nobel Prize winning scientist who, in order to trigger insight, visits, of all places, exotic dancing halls.  While the scene with Timbaland and Busta isn’t filmed in a strip club, it does suggest that playful socializing helps create moments of insight.  Recall: Busta jokingly hits a few keys, hears something catchy, and Timbaland takes it from there.  Before you know it, Busta’s writing lyrics and the song is born.

What does this suggest about the way students learn?

Others have explored the way the mind works in nontraditional creative environments.  Those spearheading  inquiry into studio thinking seem to be researchers from art education.  Howard Gardner’s work with Multiple Intelligences and Project Zero, or the work of Graeme Sullivan at Teachers College, are just some examples of education scholars trying to understand and justify less traditional, more imaginative workings of the mind.  The idea that socializing, meandering, bantering as just forms of unfocused minds might be called into question.

In the midst of this Information Age as well, I might say that it’s not acutally information that is prized.  It’s imagination and creativity.  It’s not the acquisition of knowledge; it’s the exploration of possibility.  If our goal is to give students a chance to explore the myriad ways their minds work, to stretch and bend their thinking processes, more time in studio spaces might outweigh a lifetime of study.

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