(2nd reply) as an eclectic late bloomer who has play by ear ability and can just noodle and ego aside, probably can build at least a B-list sounding tune in just an hour, i have to tread carefully and not poke a stick at the music theorists who have to build upward the hard way, folks with a music degree etc. I'm just winging in between working a 9-5 job as an old fart :)
Against students who spent all day building their thing note by note, I tend to score in the bottom quartile in the jams so far, yet individually score high on the creativity metric by itself. And that's fine as long as over on Re-Ex/soundcloud the woolly band over there gives me 8.5+ out of 10