Recent scholarship on the inclusion of creative musical activities (improvising, composing, and arranging) within inservice and preservice music education in the United States has found that most music educators value creativity but do not include creative musical activities (CMAs) within their curricula due to barriers involving a lack of instructional time (e.g., Schopp, 2006) and a lack of preparation to teach CMAs (e.g., Bernhard, 2012). As such, there have been calls for the inclusion of CMAs within instrumental music teacher education curricula (e.g., Bernhard & Stringham, 2016; Piazza & Talbot, 2021). Studies have explored these inclusions from the lenses of self-efficacy development (Hauser, 2012) and the experiences of instrumental music teacher educators as they include CMAs within their curricula (Pellegrino et al., 2019). The purpose of this case study was to explore the experiences of preservice instrumental music educators (PIMEs) and their school band students during creative musical activities within band settings. Research questions include (1) How do PIMEs describe their experiences leading creative musical activities with school band students? (2) How do PIMEs describe their preparation to teach creative musical activities to school band students? (3) How do school band students describe their creative musical experiences working with PIMEs? The “case” was bound by the research site (an elementary school band program for students in grades five-six aged 10-12 years) and the specific CMAs led by PIMEs involving improvising and composing. The phenomenon of interest was the experience of PIMEs and their students during CMAs. Participants included five PIMEs who led CMAs and nine of their students. Data included observations, field notes and artifacts from CMAs led by PIME participants; multiple individual interviews and a focus group interview with PIME participants; and a focus group interview with school band student participants regarding their experiences with musical creativity in lessons and rehearsals. Data analysis followed qualitative coding procedures (Saldaña, 2021) framed by the researcher’s understandings of musical creativity in band settings. Initial findings include: PIME’s discomfort and growing confidence to lead CMAs; the perceived impact of CMAs on band students’ motivation; and the curricular opportunities afforded by focusing on CMAs within band instruction. Implications for music teacher education align with the ISME 2026 conference theme of connection and unity by connecting preservice music education coursework and fieldwork for PIMEs with band students through meaningfully incorporating CMAs so they are better equipped to teach musical creativity throughout their careers.