All That Jazz: What bloggers can learn from musicians, poets

"If a tree falls in the woods and nobody blogs about it, does it matter?"

Thursday, I had the privilege of being on a panel at the Teaching Creativity conference held on the University of Wyoming campus. The panel topic was Virtual Creativity, and I talked about my experiences with blogging in the classroom.

The day before, I attended a panel with two jazz musicians, Shabda Noor and Eddie Henderson, and poet Evie Shockley. A couple things during their talk stuck in my mind. One was Evie and Eddie discussing the differences between white and black audiences. Black audiences tend to be spontaneously responsive to artistic performances, they agreed, which harkens back to the old call-and response type of communication between black field workers. The jazz musician calls with his instrument and the audience responds with applause and shouts.

Blogging also offers a unique relationship between writer and audience similar to the call-and-response communication between artist and fan, preacher and congregation, etc. The response function of blogs allows readers to post their reaction to the blog, offering praise, criticism, corrections, clarifications, expansion. The blog writer can them respond to those comments, creating a give-and-take relationship with his readers.

Shab talked about how jazz artists will transcribe the solos of other musicians and learn to play them note for note. But, for example, playing an Eddie Henderson trumpet solo doesn't make you Eddie Henderson, he said. You can use that solo as a starting point, but you need to find your own voice, your own sound, to truly be a musician.

It's the same with blogging or any other form of writing, I think. If a student finds a writer she enjoys, there's nothing wrong with emulating that writing style or form of writing. But once a student masters that form, she needs to move beyond that and find her own style, her own way of expression in order to develop as a writer.

For instance, the writer who got me interested in journalism was Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. As an undergraduate, I probably made some feeble attempts to imitate him. But eventually I moved on and tried to find my own path.

As I noted in my presentation at the conference, jazz musicians and poets are about as cool as you can get. But blogging is cool, too, as the 100 million blogs out there can attest. The blogosphere, I added, has become the clogosphere.

But what can make your blog stand out is finding that unique voice that shows your personality and character, as well as making your postings provocative enough that the audience cares to respond.

"Q: How many bloggers does it take to change a lightbulb?"
"A: None. Bloggers don't change lightbulbs. They're too busy changing the world."