New survey finds improvising jazz musicians are the most creative of all.

In some good news for jazz fans, a new studyclaims to show that jazz musicians are more creative, more musically active, and undertake a greater number of creative projects than musicians from a classical or folk background.

The recently published study from Austria sought to compare jazz practitioners with classical and folk musicians, to determine what differences, if any, exist with respect to their musical activities, creativity and personalities. The study involved 99 music students from the University of Music and Arts in Graz, Austria: 52 students of classical music, 25 students of jazz and 21 students of folk.

Questionnaires were used to gather data relating to the participants musical activities, specifically looking at the number of hours practiced per week, number of competitions participated in, and the number of concerts performed in per semester. Divergent thinking tasks were used to assess the student’s creative cognitive potential, testing their ability to conceive of creative outcomes for a given situation. Finally, personality tests were used to gain an insight into the participants attitudes, testing their responses to making mistakes and correcting errors, while also...