Critical Thinking in the Music Industry

Critical thinking is needed in a lot of ways in the music industry.

Before delving into the facts, I will list my definition of Critical Thinking:

"Critical thinking can be defined as the ability to take all aspects in a scenario or problem into account and analyze the evidence gathered in order to come to a logical conclusion or solution. In order to do so, one needs to find relevant issues related to the main topic, have methods of evidence gathering, and be able to judge the information’s relevance and/or validity. However, they must also be mature enough to take into account the aspects which do not support their original idea and perpetually update their position based on the evidence, whether they personally agree with it or not. In other words, one should not exclude evidence which does not support their original position, but rather use it to form a more solid conclusion." - My paper

For starters, interpretation of music is a task in itself. In order to interpret music, one must be open to ideas and explore various aspects about the music. There are many ways of looking at the music and many alleys of thought up for use, much like there are several ways of analysis for literature. For example, a very infrastructure-oriented view would ask the player to look at the way the music is written and what is actually on the page of music. Those with critical thinking, however would probably explore other areas of study.

For example, asking questions like "What did the composer want by writing it this way?" Or going the step further to say, "What was going on in the composer's life to make him write this?" All of these things give way to figuring out more about the depth of the piece, and thus influence the understanding of the player.

In addition, problem solving is key in the music world, especially with things that happen on and off the job. Be they personal problems, colleague conflicts, things are easier to figure out when you think and explore other aspects of the situation, such as other peoples' feelings and perspectives.

Maturity is an aspect, however, because people have to accept what is told to them. Sometimes, players decide to do it their own way just because they want to, rather than use the evidence in front of them just because they want to stick with what they originally wanted to do / and/or feel.