Why Should Music be any Different?

Imagine someone who wants to learn how to write a short story. He goes to a teacher who tells him to practice writing sentences and paragraphs of other authors works - but never really learns how to write on his own!

Of course, this is an absurd example but essentially, it's the same thing piano students do when they take the classical route. They are essentially skilled typists clicking out another composers music.

Not very creative and certainly not something you'd ask a beginning writer to do. No. They want to express themselves with the written word. Why should music be any different?