What Does It Mean to "Create" Music? (The Creative Process)

A few months ago, I got into a conversation with a colleague: s/he loves dancing to and playing music, but claims that when it comes to understanding music theory, s/he's clueless. My colleague also says that the creative process of music comes when one plays music. But, if one simply reads sheet music (follows the rules to the dot), is one really CREATING music?

Yet, from a composer's point of view, I came in thinking that creativity comes in the process of putting something together from the ground up (in which case, some knowledge of music theory is necessary). But a piece of sheet music is simply not music - someone has to play it to have it heard. Is there validity in piece of sheet music if it just sits there?

So what exactly does it mean to create music?

This makes me think of cooking as an analogy: a cook could follow a recipe and create a dish (the product) to be shared and enjoyed with others. With enough experience, one could eventually create recipes from scratch (there could DEFINITELY be young recipe writers!). This person is also like a music composer, with the recipe acting like the musical score for another cook/musician to follow (Composers aren't necessarily old/dead European males).

The recipe writer could also be a cook (the composer could also be a musician) - he learns more from DOING the cooking and playing in the kitchen (a composer learns more from actively playing and DOING music) - future compositional choices in cooking and music are based on things learned in the play process.

I would imagine, at some point, the recipe writer could delve into the chemical compositions, reactions, and processes that happen to the food while it is cooking and could create recipes based on theory, just like how a music composer could use musical theory as a basis for musical composition.

What does this imply?

Picture this: when young kids are told to just "cook" without any instructions and guidance, we will probably be left with a mess with all sorts of mistakes here and there leading to an inedible product (half-cooked, filled with egg-shells, etc.). In other words, a beginner initially learns certain techniques from a guide (maybe a parent in the "child cook" scenario. How about a music teacher?) in order to figure out the process of putting something together (a dish, a musical piece, a sentence, a science report, etc.).

Personally speaking: I'm beginning to realize that learning music is not just about learning theory. Kids (especially elementary students) NEED instructions and structures in the context of tangible experiences in order to be successful. They learn music by initially DOING music: singing folksongs, playing musical games, playing known songs on instruments, etc. They eventually ABSORB enough musical experiences and become comfortable enough to play more on their own, riffing and adding variations onto their prior experiences (similar to how a cook who originally follows a recipe eventually adds his own variations to a recipe).

It's a hand-in-hand process: as the music teacher, I ought to provide my elementary students with tangible musical experiences that also play into developing one's ownership of musical decisions. And they should have fun while doing so!