Improvisation,

music and learning: an

Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis


Simon Rose
Doctor of Philosophy



Glasgow Caledonian University
2012

Abstract

This thesis explores the creative process of improvisation in music with a specific

emphasis on investigating its potential for learning. The widespread practice of

improvisation in music is relatively absent from education and there is an urgent

need to more fully understand improvisation’s processes.

A broad body of knowledge of improvisation in music has developed within the

international community of musicians whose practice is centred on improvisation

and an understanding of this knowledge could become highly relevant for a variety

of educational contexts. Ten highly experienced, world leading improvisers from

Europe and North America took part in semi-structured interviews and were asked

the over-arching question: What is the place of improvisation in your practice?

Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis was the chosen method for the enquiry.

Chapter 1 describes the background for the research into the potential of

improvisation. It explains the development of thinking leading to the research

project in the context of reflexivity and reflective practice. Chapter 2 describes the

terms of reference and background to developments in improvisation and free

improvisation in music in the Europe and North America. In Chapter 3 the practice

of improvisation is discussed in relation to kinds of knowledge, creativity and

pedagogy, and includes reference to pertinent literature. In Chapter 4 the qualitative

research approach of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is described

together with its particular theoretical features. The improvisational practices of the

participants’ lifeworld are explored by means of a hermeneutic approach within the

eidetic process.

Research findings are presented in Chapters 5,6,7,8 and 9 through analysis and

interpretations of the super-ordinate themes of free improvisation. The first half of

each of these chapters develops the hermeneutic idiographic and interpretation of

the analysis. The second half of each chapter further contextualises the themes

through discussion that includes reference to, and discussion of literature from

different disciplines. In Chapter 5, ‘Describing the free improvisation phenomenon,’

the socio-musical context of improvisation is explored, and the way this relates to

inclusive education is discussed. The practice of improvisation as composition and

the improviser as composer are also discussed. Free improvisation was found to

form connections to the theme of environment in a number of ways and the agency

of free improvisation is explored in relation to the concept of being-in-the-world.

Free improvisation’s relationship with language and specifically metaphor is also

explored. In Chapter 6, ‘Free improvisation and learning,’ formal and non-formal

learning, and academic practices are discussed. The special significance of ‘live’

performance for learning is described. Participation in free improvisation is

interpreted as providing an opportunity for autonomous creative expression, within

a democratised educational setting. The role of the teacher in improvisation is

explored and free improvisation is seen to form clear connections to understandings

of knowledge and theories of teaching and learning. In Chapter 7, ‘Process,’ the

process of improvisation is identified as contributing towards self-determination.

Willingness to risk and trust are seen as enabling of the process of free

improvisation. The improvisation process is described as interdisciplinary and,

moreover, as a human capability. Processes found in nature and in improvisation

are also compared and discussed. Chapter 8, ‘Body,’ explores embodied knowledge

in free improvisation. The phenomenological precept: ‘to return to the thing itself,’

for improvisation, leads to the body as the site of free improvisation. Listening was

seen as reflecting the central importance of the body for understanding

improvisation. Awareness of the importance of physicality in performance is

described and kinaesthetic learning in improvisation and learning by doing are

explored. The unmediated form of imaginative free improvisation, creating music at

the point of performance, through the body, is interpreted as an intervolving with

the world. Inter-subjectivity and inter-corporeality are discussed as ways of

describing the importance of group activity and ‘flesh’ in improvisation contexts. In

Chapter 9, ‘Strategies,’ autodidactism is seen as an important feature in the

development of free improvisation, and inter-related with group practice. The

ability to develop skills for working collaboratively with others is highlighted.

Interpretations of technique are discussed in the context of developing the creative

practice of free improvisation. Music training and improvisation practice for the

developing musician is also discussed and experiences of formal and informal

education in music are interpreted in relation to developing free improvisation in

which assessment is interpreted as playing a valuable role.

Chapter 10, Conclusions, provides a detailed summary of the findings and describes

how the phenomenon of free improvisation takes place through the ‘unity’ of the

super-ordinate and sub-themes, ‘Difference’ is also considered a significant aspect of

improvisation’s particular agency in relationship to changing social contexts

through its flexibility and adaptability. While the continued process of interpretive

analysis has involved a separation of concepts in identifying themes, leading to a

dividing within the phenomenon of free improvisation, the super-ordinate themes

are also understood as simultaneous, working together: in the embodied act of free

improvisation strategies, the process, and learning become realised. The creation of

music without pre-determined structure exists in the act of doing, and in no other

way. The co-presence of the super-ordinate themes is interpreted as centrally

important to understanding creative improvisation in music: in the act of free

improvisation these themes co-exist. The correlation between the overarching,

super-ordinate themes becomes important for educational contexts as the act of free

improvisation is understood as a process of learning. Chapter 11 then evaluates the

research project and recommendations are made.

Key words: Free improvisation, learning, body, process, strategies, Interpretive

Phenomenological Analysis, unity, difference.

Contents



Chapter1:Introduction………..……………………………………………………………………………...11

1.1 Developing reflexivity………………………………………………………………………………….. 11
1.2 Professional practice in music and education…………………………………………………14
1.3 Development of reflexive professional practice in music/education………………..16
1.4 Research and reflexivity………………………………………………………………………………..18
1.5 Improvisation and pedagogy…………………………………………………………………………19
1.6 Professional music experience and processes in education…………………………….20
1.7 The thesis……………………………………………………………………………………………………..22
1.8 Literature……………………………………………………………………………………………………..24
1.9 The chapters………………………………………………………………………………………………...25

Chapter 2: The development of practice in free improvisation in music........................27

2.1 Improvisation and free improvisation in music……………………………………………...27
2.2 The development of practice in free improvisation in music…………………………...30
2.3 Development in composition………………………………………………………………………...38


Chapter 3: Theoretical setting of free improvisation………………………………………….…42

3.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………42
3.2 Creativity in music and education………………………………………………………………….44
3.3 Kinds of knowledge………………………………………………………………………………………46
3.3.1 Ex-nomination and the division of musical practice……………………………………..47
3.3.2 The Tri-Axium Writings……………………………………………………………………………...48
3.3.3 Subjugated knowledge………………………………………………………….…………………....51
3.4. Education…………………………………………………………………………………...………...……..52
3.4.1 Education, improvisation and text…………………………………………………………...….52
3.4.2 Pedagogy…………………………………………………………………………………………...………54
3.4.3 Recognising creativity……………………………………………………………………...………...55
3.4.4 Reproduction……………………………………………………………………………..……………...57
3.4.5 Critical pedagogy……………………………………...…………………….………………………….58


Chapter 4: Methods…………………………………………………………………………………………….61

4.1 Background………………………………………………………………………………………...………..61
4.2 Theory and methods…………………………………………………………………………………..…62
4.3 Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis……………………………………………………..…64
4.3.1 Phenomenology……………………………………………………………………………………...….65
4.3.2 Hermeneutics…………………………………………………………………………………………….68

4.3.3 Hermeneutic circle……………………………………………………………………………………..69

4.3.4 Idiography……………………………………………………………………………………………...….70
4.4 Other methods……………………………………………………………………………………...……70
4.4.1 Thematic analysis and qualitative approaches………………………………………....….70
4.4.2 Grounded Theory……………………………………………………………………………………….71
4.4.3 Discourse analysis………………………………………………………………………………...……72
4.4.4 Ethnographic research approaches……………………………………………………………..73
4.4.5 Other phenomenological research……………………………………………………………....75
4.5 Implementing Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis……………………………….75
4. 5.1 Rationale………………………………………………………………………………………………..…75
4.5.2 Why Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis?..............................................................75
4.5.3 Role of researcher……………………………………………………………………………………...78
4.6 Research design……………………………………………………………………………………………79
4.6.1 Research aim……………………………………………………………………………………………..79
4.6.2 Research scope…………………………………………………………………………………………..79
4.6.3 Recruitment………………………………………………………………………………………………81
4.6.4 Participants……………………………………………………………………………………………….82
4.6.5 Ethical issues……………………………………………………………………………………………..82
4.7 Data collection……………………………………………………………………………………………...83
4.8 Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………………..84
4.8.1 Transcribing……………………………………………………………………………………………...85
4.8.2 Reading……………………………………………………………………………………………………..85
4.8.3 Noting……………………………………………………………………………………………………….86
4.8.4 Emergent themes……………………………………………………………………………………….86
4.8.5 Super-ordinate themes……………………………………………………………………………….88
4.8.6 Group themes…………………………………………………………………………………………….91
4.9 Writing…………………………………………………………………………………………………..…….94
4.10 Summary………………………………………………………………………………………………...….95


Chapter 5: Describing the free improvisation phenomenon………………………………….96

5.1 Introduction to findings……………………………………………………………………………...96
5.1.1 Free improvisation as socio-musical location………………………………………..…….98
5.1.2 ‘Everyone’s creative, no negotiation.’……………….………………………………………..101
5.1.3 Improvisation: ‘music is only one domain’…………,…………………………………..…106
5.1.4 Free improvisation and language……………………….……………………………………..111
5.2 Further contextualisation of ‘Describing the free improvisation phenomenon’
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..114
5.2.1 Environment……………………………………………………………………………………………115
5.2.2 Socio-political arts………………………………………………………………………..………….117
5.2.3 Large group improvisation…………………………………………………………………….....120
5.2.4 Inclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………….122
5.2.5 Being……………………………………………………………………………………………………….123
5.2.6 Improvisation: real time composition…………………………………………………….....126
5.2.7 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………………130

Chapter 6: Free improvisation and learning…………………………………………………...….131

6.1.0 Introduction………………………………………………………………..………………………….131
6.1.1 Free improvisation and learning……………………………………………..………...........131
6.1.2 The ‘music business’ and learning in improvisation………………………………....135
6.1.3 Current practice – the question of improvisation in academia/assessment
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..137
6.1.4 Educational free improvisation……………………………………………………………….139
6.1.5 Teaching free improvisation history and the question of canon………………..141
6.1.6 The potential of learning from ‘live’ performance…………………………………….143
6.2 Further contextualisation of ‘Free improvisation and learning’……………...….147
6.2.1 Educational comparison: music improvisation, visual art and drama……….145
6.2.2 Improvisation and hegemonic power structures………………………………..……147
6.2.3 Participation………………………………………………………………………………………….150
6.2.4 The role of the teacher in improvisation……………………………………………….....153
6.2.5 Free improvisation and the discourse of intelligence………………………………..156
6.2.6 Summary………………………………………………………………………………………………..159


Chapter 7: Process……………………………………………………………………………………….…..160

7.1 1 Improvisation in music: human interaction………………………………………………160
7.1.2 Self-determination and the process of free improvisation…………………………164
7.1.3 Trust and improvisation process…………………………………………………………...….165
7.1.4 Interdisciplinary improvisation process………………………………………………..….168
7.1.5 Risk………………………………………………………………………………………………………....172
7.2 Further contextualisation of ‘Process’………………………………………..………………176
7.2.1 The process of improvisation as a human capability……………………………….....176
7.2.2 The improvisation process and political assertion……………………………………..178
7.2.3 Improvisation process and processes in nature……………………………………...….179
7.2.4 Process of improvisation and real time composition………………………………….183
7.2.5 Summary……………………………………...………………………………………………………….184


Chapter 8: Body……………………………………………..…………………………………………………186

8.1.0 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………….186
8.1.1 Embodied knowledge……………………………………………………………………………….187
8.1.2 Holism………………………………………………………………………………………………..……188
8.1.3 Kinaesthetic learning………………………………………………………………………………..190
8.1.4Listening……………………………………………………………..…………………………………....192
8.1.5 Physical performance and free improvisation………………………………………..….193

8.1.6 The relationship between free improvisation and discussion……………………..196

8.2 Further contextualisation of ‘Body’………………………………………………...……...…200
8.2.1 Return to things themselves……………………………………………..………………………201
8.2.2 Unity……………………………………………………………………………………………………….202
8.2.3 Inter-subjectivity, inter-corporeality and free improvisation……………………..203
8.2.4 Embodied music and composition…………………………………………………………….206
8.2.5 Embodied metaphor………………………………………………………………………………...207
8.2.6 Intervolving…………………………………………………………………………………………..…209
8.2.7 ‘Myth of the mind’…………………………………………………………………………………….210
8.2.8 Summary……………………………………………………………………...………………………….211


Chapter 9:Strategies…………………………………………………………………………………..…….213

9.1.1 Spontaneity and free improvisation……………………………………………...…………..214
9.1.2 Strategies and the social setting……………………………………………………..…………221
9.1.3 Free improvisation and formal/informal education………………………...…………224
9.1.4 Technique and free improvisation………………………………………...…………………..228
9.2 Further contextualisation of ‘Strategies’……………………………………………...…….234
9.2.1 Spontaneity: a further contextualisation……………………………………………..…….238
9.2.2 Others…………………………………………..…………………………………………………………237
9.2.3 Autodidactism………………………………………………………………………………………….239
9.2.4 Music training……………………………………………………..…………………………………...240
9.2.5 Practise…………………………………..……………………………………………………………….241
9.2.6 Assessment………………………………………...……………………………………………………243
9.2.7 Summary…………………………………………………………………………...…………………….244


Chapter 10: Conclusion……………………………………...……………………………………………..246

10.0 Introduction…………………………………….……………………………………………………….246
10.1 Thesis summary……………………………………………………...………………………………..251
10.1.1 Describing free improvisation………………………...………………………………………247
10.1.2 Learning…………………………………..……………………………………………………………248
10.1.3 Process………………………………………………………………………………………………….249
10.1.4 Body……………………………...………………………………………………………………………249
10.1.5 Strategies……………………………...……………………………………………………………….250
10.2 The unity of the themes of improvisation………………………………………………..…251
10.2.2 Co-presence………………………………...…………………………………………………………252
10.2.3 Being-in-the world and unity…………………………………………...……………………..254
10.2.4 ‘Unity of the themes’ for teaching and learning………………………………...……...256
10.3 Difference…………………………………………………………………..………………………….257
10.3.1 Improvisation in music, difference and repetition…………………..……………….257
10.3.2 Improvisation, difference and education…………………………………………………258
10.3.2.1 Improvisation, difference, diversity and inclusion………………………………...259
10.3.3 Difference and method…………………………………………………………………………...261

10.3.4 Difference and the agency of improvisation…………………………………………….261

10.3 Summary to the conclusion………………………………………...……………………………..262


Chapter 11: Evaluation and recommendations…………………………………………..………264

11.0 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………..264
11.1 Research limitations………………………………………………………………………………....264
11.2 Evaluation…………………………………………………………………………………………..……266
11.2.1 Methodological approach……………………………………………………………………….266
11.2.2 Research validity………….……………………………………………………………………..….267
11.2.3 Contribution to music and education research……………………………………...…270
11.3 Research implications………………………...……………………………………………………..271
11.4 Further research……………………………………..………………………………………………..272
11.5 Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………………….273

Appendices

Appendix 1: Interview invitation………………………………………………………………………275
Appendix 2: Information sheet…………………………………………………………………….……276
Appendix 3: Consent form……………………………………...…………………………………………277
Appendix 4: Supporting questions…………………………………………………………...………..278
Appendix 5: Interviewees identification for research analysis………………………..…..279
Appendix 6: 10 Interview extracts……………………………………….……………………………281
Appendix 7: Extract from ‘Diary of analysis process’……………………………………...…..295
Appendix 8: Emergent themes…………………………………….……………………………………298
Appendix 9: Super-ordinate themes……………………………………………………...…………..319
Appendix 10: Group themes (structured)……………………………………………………...…..333

References……………………………………….………………………………………………………………335

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Acknowledgements

During the process of undertaking this project I have been in a number of locations

and I wish to thank the great many people who have contributed to the

development of my thinking in a variety of ways. In particular I wish to acknowledge

the following: Simon H Fell, Steve Noble, Roscoe Mitchell, George Lewis, Adam

Bohman, Pauline Oliveros, Sven-Aka Johanson, Fred Frith, Tristan Honsinger, Evan

Parker, Mick Beck, Bob Ostertag, Maggie Nichols, Alan Tomlinson, John Butcher,

Mark Sanders, Oluyemi Thomas, Andrea Lowe, Chris Chafe, Peter Pilbeam and Paul

Stapleton. In addition I want to thank those at Banff Arts Centre; the Improvisation

as Community and Social Practice (ICASP) project in Canada; those in the Bay Area

improvised music scene in California with whom I’ve collaborated; also the

members of the London Improvisers Orchestra. Specifically I wish to express my

gratitude to those who participated in the interviews for this project by sharing

their experience of improvisation in music. I want to thank Professor Raymond

MacDonald for his insight, incisiveness and patience throughout the development of

the project, I have been very fortunate that his supervision of this research project

became possible following the crossing of our musical paths. I particularly wish to

thank my wife, artist Julie Myers who has been consistently supportive throughout

this lengthy process, she remains inspirational about the idea of research, and also

my daughter Lydia who has been generous about my lack of availability while

writing, and has also successfully attended schools in London, San Francisco, Banff

and Berlin since this project began.

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Chapter 1

Introduction

Introduction

The thesis explores free improvisation in music with a specific emphasis on its

potential for learning. In Chapter 1 the background to the research project is

described and in the process issues of subjectivity and reflexivity in qualitative

research are discussed. The thesis is then described chapter by chapter.

1.1 Developing reflexivity

This qualitative research project is concerned with the making of meaning through

interpretations of interviewees’ descriptions of their ’lived-world’ by means of

Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). As such the interviewees’

subjectivity is centrally important. The researcher’s job of interpreting the

interviewees’ responses through analysis, equally subjective, requires an approach

that overtly acknowledges the agency of, and supports such interpretation. Data

analysis in qualitative research is informed by the researcher’s ontology and

epistemology, and reflexivity and reflective practice are centrally important to this

research project as a means of establishing clarity in developing analysis and

valuing the inherently subjective processes involved. The ways in which both of

these, at times overlapping processes have been understood and utilized is

described in this chapter within the context of the researcher’s professional

12


experience. The following descriptions of reflexivity and reflective practice are clear

explanations of the process and its purpose.

‘… reflexivity can be operationalized… in terms of the personal, interpersonal,
institutional, pragmatic, emotional, theoretical, epistemological and
ontological influences on our research and data analysis processes… data
analysis methods are not just neutral techniques. They reflect and are imbued
with, theoretical, epistemological and ontological assumptions – including
conceptions of subjects and subjectivities, and understandings of how
knowledge is constructured and produced. ‘ Mauthner and Doucet (2003, p.
413)

‘Critical reflection is about challenging and testing out what you do as a
teacher and being prepared to act on the results. ‘ Crawley (2005, p. 167)

‘Reflection in action concerns thinking about something whilst engaged in
doing it, having a feeling about something and practicing according to that
feeling.’ Schon (1983, p. 68)

Knowledge of reflexivity and reflective practice processes have been developed

through: teaching (1978 -) counselling in education (RSA, 1992) and research

experience (2002, 2008, 2011). Reflexivity allows us to acknowledge and utilise our

emotional and intuitive selves within the project through recording valuable

responses in the research process, material that may be developed through the

analysis process. Developing awareness of how the researchers’s interpretations

interact with those of interviewees, through reflexivity, has contributed towards the

integrity of the findings as well as their validity and generalisability. Reflexivity and

reflective practice have been extensively explored through education, (Schon 1983,)

ethnography, (Atkinson and Hammersley 1983,) sociology, (Bourdieu, 1977;

Holmes, 2011; Mauthner and Doucet, 2003) psychology and philosophy, (Merleau

Ponty, 1962; Husserl, 2001) etc. Reflective practice has particular agency in

13


experiential learning (Kolb, 1984) and as such holds further relevance for the study

of the practice of improvisation and education.

‘How have my objects of knowledge and the questions I address to them been
produced.’ Macey on Foucault (2001 p. 134)

While the research explores the experiences of others, not personal experience, and

in the process adopts the academic convention of leaving ‘I’ and ‘me’ to one side, the

more fully we acknowledge how understandings have been constructed,

acknowledging our role and choice of research project, the more value may be

attributed to the findings. A picture can become described without doubt about the

‘unseen’ contributing factors behind such findings, and questions of validity and

generalisability become readily addressed. I have necessarily needed to examine my

professional experience in order to be clear about how I am going about the job of

interpretation. To this end keeping diaries has been an ongoing process across the

research and these have been specifically reflective tools. Year on year diaries have

been kept recording progress as well as diaries reflecting specific research

processes, for example, ‘Diary of analysis and writing processes,’ and ‘Diary of

research methods’. The purpose of the diary is to have a means of articulating ideas

and concepts in the present as well as to be able to reflect back to particular stages

of a process. For diaries to have meaning and continuity they need to be limited,

manageable tools: fit for purpose. The diary is a reflective tool and in practice it

takes on a number of functions in recording research and keeping an account of the

research processes.

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1.2 Professional practice in music and education

In order to explain the reflexive approach to the research, and thereby illustrate its

agency, I will describe the background in education and music. These descriptions

contribute towards explaining the ontology and epistemology that informs the

choice of research topic and the approach. Having studied drama (Dartington

College of Arts, (1975-77) I gained qualified teacher status in Exeter University,

(1978) and subsequently worked in theatre-in-education, toured in prisons, taught

in colleges of further education, secondary schools, special education, universities as

visiting lecturer, throughout this time I also worked as a professional musician (in

practice theatre and music work often overlapped). For a period of eight years

(1995-2003) I taught in a pupil referral unit (PRU,) in East London, created to

provide education for secondary aged students who have been permanently

excluded from mainstream schools. I have chosen to describe this example in order

to illustrate the use of reflexivity, reflective practice and the relationship of

improvisation to education. It is not intended that improvisation’s relationship with

education becomes defined by the educational setting described (exclusion), rather

that this setting, in which real solutions to educational shortcomings become fore

grounded, suggests the potential of improvisation in education. The example of the

pupil referral unit vividly illustrates the theme of the potential of improvisation as

necessity informed effective teaching practice.

In this East London pupil referral unit, I taught Music, Drama and additionally

English and Citizenship. The cohort, while reflecting the local community’s ethnic

15


diversity, was largely Black British of Afro-Caribbean decent. There are a highly

disproportionate number of black excluded pupils in the UK: approximately 10:1.

This reflects a disparity between the way in which mainstream education is

constructed and the actuality of the population; social inclusion and approaches to

education being a pertinent theme for this study. In educational parlance, the

student intake were largely characterised as having emotional, behavioural and

social difficulties (EBSD). The 2002 Education Act deemed it necessary that all

pupils, including those permanently excluded from mainstream schools, attend full

time education (nationally, at that time, approximately 60% of day time crime was

attributed to young people not in school according to government statistics

reported in the press). This led to increased pressure on the educational provision,

usually in the form of pupil referral units, to meet such a legal obligation.

The intake was typically disaffected, alienated from central concerns of mainstream

education, routinely hostile and there was sometimes violent behaviour. No music

was on offer and there were no music resources, however pupils were often curious

to discover if musical engagement was possible. Over the course of several years I

developed music teaching in the pupil referral unit leading to it becoming a

celebrated, successful activity. A number of funding bids for resources were made,

students took public exams in music, gave performances and Ofsted (government

inspection of schools) praised the teaching of music as excellent, highlighting its role

in the development of whole school practice in meeting the educational aims for

16


these excluded pupils. Students’ progress was very good and music was taught to all

the students in the school each week, and for some, twice per week.

1.3 Development of reflexive professional practice in music/education

The students in the PRU invariably had very negative previous experiences of

education, low expectations, were challenging and many routinely presented

behaviour that undermined educational norms: commonly experienced through a

‘de-skilling’ of teachers. In general they had not ‘bought into’ the culture of

education and were antagonistic towards it. In order to maintain and develop

teaching within such a continuously challenging environment I adopted a reflective

practice and the work, while very challenging, became increasingly rewarding

through the development of such an approach. Part of the dynamic of the challenge

being that when you ‘got it right’ these young people were highly motivated in

experiential lessons, energetically and fearlessly engaging in performing, driven to

creative expression and providing a very stimulating learning environment for a

teacher to be in!

I had previously undertaken a Counselling in Education training (RSA, 1992) from

which I had learned to value and embed reflective practice through writing that

became a daily practice. Recording the experience of what had taken place in

lessons, as well as the way in which I perceived aspects of this in relation to the

students’ engagement, became an effective tool that informed teaching and learning.

Reflective practice had begun previously in teaching pupils with special educational

17


needs in mainstream school (1989-1995). Reflexivity is additionally a specific tool in

the area of conflict resolution (Rothman 1997,) and conflict management was

ongoing in the work in the PRU. Such a reflexive approach, applied to the challenges

presented by excluded young people, informed the development of music and the

choices regarding approaches to its implementation: I identified student’s

enthusiasm and determination in engagement in music as centrally important.

Students’ alienation from mainstream education, and culture, was countered by a

strong desire to express, creatively through engagement in music and drama. Rather

than create a ‘top-down’ lesson, that wouldn’t have succeeded, I worked knowingly

with students’ motivation. Students’ clear musical choices influenced the planning of

schemes of work that valued immediacy. As with the drama teaching, experiential

and performance centred musical activity became the way of proceeding in lessons.

Recording activity became integral: listening and viewing performances in lessons,

provided opportunities for analysis of musical elements, assessment, record

keeping, and crucially for this setting, clear evidence of successful, ongoing

engagement and progress. The pupils developed an owned, positive culture of

education, which carried into other lessons. Attendance improved, students came in

to experience music and in the process attended the rest of the curriculum, through

which they discovered other positive experiences. One example indicates the extent

of engagement: one student who had been previously particularly challenging

returned after the end of the school day to ask if he could bring his ‘mates’ in, not

members of the school, to have a music lesson. This small incident reflected the way

that alienation was being replaced by an unbounded motivation to be included in

18


educational activity. Over time the PRU developed a reputation as a place to become

involved in, and develop, strong music of your own making, and through that

experience, achieve educational legitimacy (e.g. good exam results). As music

teaching contributed towards inclusion the culture within the school environment

became increasingly positive.

1.4 Research and reflexivity

The experience of teaching in this educational context led to an interest in

researching aspects of the education practice and I undertook a Best Practice

Research Scholarship (DfES, 2001). The resulting Action Research project

investigated the uses of digital video recording in the teaching and learning contexts

of music and drama at the pupil referral unit: investigating the pedagogical role of

recording performance. ‘Performance’ is a loaded term for discussing educational

practice: here it refers to enacted rather than training for ‘the stage’; ‘performance,’

also relates strongly to the students’ EBSD characteristics that very often sought an

outlet or ‘stage’. ‘Performance’ is also commonly used to describe students’

educational formal achievement. All of these thematic connotations became

embodied in activities in music and drama. Recording contributed towards

inclusion, for example: students would perform, take home a video copy of their

performance to show family members and thereby create a cycle of positive

affirmation, introducing a profile of a culture of education for those involved. Such

recording also, usefully in this educational context, displaced the continuous

emphasis upon the teacher as the focus of control within the classroom. Students

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actively recorded each other’s work, requiring collective co-operation, which

became effectively organised through the group engagement. This addressed the

fundamental educational question of how to successfully manage challenging

behaviour. The action research project, its methods, (including the research cycle,)

and findings were developed reflexively, the over-arching aim being to improve the

experience, within this teaching and learning setting, for all of those involved. As

lessons and planning became informed by the research aims, and increased

attention was given to detail within the teaching, the effectiveness of the research

was evident, and lessons had added value through the quality of experience.

1.5 Improvisation and pedagogy

The practice of teaching and learning in music and drama in the pupil referral unit

utilised improvisation as a centrally important element. Understanding of this

approach in lessons meant that we were able to work responsively and flexibly with

those involved. Working with ‘what was going on’ (EBSD) with students utilised

improvisation as a method that could recognise and incorporate students’ emotional

lives and had particular agency in this educational context. For example: in drama,

young people were often very excited on Monday mornings after events at the

weekend. Allowing students to explore aspects of their experience in words, and

subsequently through role play and dramatic action, transformed what could

otherwise quickly become a source of conflict in the lesson within more

conventional methods, to a positive approach to the uses of drama in a manner that

the students gained value from. While such an approach in an educational context

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may suggest mere appeasement, the experiential nature of ‘doing’ drama meant that

the skills of communication, creatively expressing emotion, accurately reflecting

events etc. were not compromised and learning about the self and the world around

was effective. More than that the students valued the experiential approach to

education in which their life-world was not denied by the educational construct they

happen to have found themselves in. In music teaching, the ability to respond to and

welcome the continually changing group dynamics (personnel and behaviour,)

through a range of adaptable activity became significant for effective teaching. While

Ofsted assessed that the teaching was excellent and advocated the status of

Advanced Skills Teacher (advisory role,) there was no acknowledgment of the ways

in which improvisation was central to the successful processes in both music and

drama. This suggested the need for further understanding of the agency of such

improvisation processes within practice, the purpose of this thesis (Chapters 5-10).

1.6 Professional music experience and processes in education

Work in education has been influenced by my professional work as a musician.

While formally studying drama, I have equally developed practice in professional

music (performing, recording etc.) a thematic difference being that my music

‘training,’ since the age of eleven (guitar), has been largely non-formal (and

autodidactic). Over the course of several decades I became increasingly interested in

the role of improvisation in music and free improvisation in particular, this led to

playing saxophones in the London improvised music scene, touring with an

established trio, sessions for the BBC, performances ranging from solo to

21


improvising orchestras in Europe and North America and CD releases on a number

of labels. The knowledge and skills gained through becoming immersed in the

practice of creating music in the act of performance, improvising, influenced

approaches in teaching work. In the educational context of the pupil referral unit

teachers would understandably draw on all available knowledge in attempting to

meet the challenge of the under-chartered pedagogical territory of exclusion. A key

aspect of the approach, reflecting music practice, was to be able to respond to

individuals on the terms that they presented. To maintain a clear, authoritative

presence while at the same time communicating that individuals’ concerns were not

going to be overridden by the need to control the lesson. In other words, to value the

identities of those present through an ability to incorporate their creative

expression, in this case through music and drama. This reflects practice in free

improvisation: the music is created by the group, but in order to achieve this we

have to explicitly acknowledge the others, and through action suggest positive ways

in which we will work together. This may be an aspect of teaching that some

teachers intuitively engage with, and at the same time don’t conceptualise or

acknowledge within formal planning. Through reflective practice I was able to

interpret this improvisational aspect as a potent process within the

teaching/learning relationship and while the discussed Ofsted inspection (1.5) was

unable to identify the use of improvisation, the enthusiasm for the outcomes

developed by such practice, utilising improvisation processes, was encouraging of

the pedagogical method. This lack of overt acknowledgement may reflect the

required formality of the inspection process and its choice of language: the term

22


improvisation may have been interpreted as counter to such intended formality,

expressed by the concern for the maintenance of structure, assessment, monitoring,

accountability, measurability etc. Significantly, the improvisation process was able

to lead effectively and successfully towards all of these requisites, although, without

being identified as such.

Reflecting on the relationship between improvisation in music and its under-

acknowledged potential in education led me to undertake a second research project

‘Investigating perspectives of free improvisation for education’ (MA, Middlesex

University, 2008). Once again reflexivity was central to the development of the

research project in which views of improvisation were interrogated using a

Grounded Theory approach (Straus and Corbin). The findings of that research

project advocated being (Chapter 5.2.5) as an encapsulating term describing the

agency of improvisation in music for education. Within the encapsulation the four

characteristics of social, awareness, unknown and play were seen as major themes.

The complexity of the relationship between improvisation and educational practice

has led to the need for further in depth study of improvisation practice.

1.7 The thesis

What does this thesis address? There remains a gap between the widespread

practice of improvisation in music throughout the world (Bailey, 1992) and its

potential for creativity across education. The aim of this research is to explore the

creative process of improvisation in music with a specific emphasis on investigating

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its potential for learning. A method has been sought that values a reflective and

reflexive approach (Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, Chapter 4.3). The

researcher’s orientation of music and education is seen as a strength/asset for this

project: knowledge in these two areas has facilitated the project that crosses the two

areas. Advanced skills and knowledge in improvisation in music in combination

with knowledge and extensive experience of different educational contexts is

unusual. There is an urgent need for better understanding of improvisation,

particularly with a view to educational potential, and a body of knowledge exists

concerning improvisation practice in music that has not been documented: there are

highly experienced, professional musicians who work internationally, whose

practice is based upon improvisation, having spent much of their lives developing

knowledge and skills of improvisation. This project collates a body of knowledge by

interviewing ten world-leading musicians in the field of improvisation and analysing

responses (Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis), with a particular emphasis

upon the utility of improvisation for education.

Interview emphasis is with where participants choose to take the interview and as

such they are semi-structured. There is one over-arching question: What is the place

of improvisation in your practice? There are also a number of supporting questions

and prompts that are designed to enable the interview process, as appropriate

(Appendix 4). Individual interviews with a culturally diverse cohort of musicians

have taken place in the US; Canada; UK and Germany. An extensive account of the

research stages and method is found in Chapter 4.

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1.8 Literature

The manner in which literature has been addressed in the thesis has been informed

by the inductive method of inquiry (Chapter 4.3: Interpretive Phenomenological

Analysis, IPA) together with the way in which improvisation cannot be said to fit

easily within a single domain or academic discipline (Chapters: 5.1.3, 7.1.4). The

overarching question of the research: What is the place of improvisation in your

practice? addresses the fundamental nature of the subject and in order that

participants’ interpretations may be faithfully represented by the thesis this has not

been preconceived by a literature review that anticipates the study’s theoretical

boundaries. While Chapter 3 describes the ‘Theoretical setting of free

improvisation,’ that informs the choice of method described in Chapter 4, it also

does not aim to define the boundaries of improvisation. The themes of

improvisation are described, interpreted and further contextualised through other

literature and discussion in the findings presented in Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. While

it is common for a literature review to be a self contained chapter, (often prior to a

description of methods), such a structure does not adequately allow for the

inductive approach (IPA) that leads to the breadth of improvisation and possible

interpretations through which we subsequently review and discuss other literature

within discrete chapters. Specifically chapters 1, 2, and 3 include literature relevant

to reflexivity, reflective practice, the development of improvisation in music,

creativity, pedagogy and musical practice. Chapter 4 discusses studies from

different disciplines that have employed IPA as well as phenomenology,

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hermeneutics and other research approaches. In the findings, Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8 and

9, the second half of each chapter (Chapters 5.2, 6.2, etc.) super-ordinate themes of

the study are further contextualised through discussion that includes a wide ranging

and interdisciplinary review and reference of other literature. Texts by practitioners

have been of particular interest, and cited throughout the thesis, informed as they

are by the ‘lived-experience’ of improvisation.

1.9 The chapters

Chapter 1, ‘Introduction,’ describes the background leading to the research project

into the potential of improvisation. It orientates the development of thinking leading

to the research project and describes reflexivity and reflective practice. Chapter 2,

‘The development and practice of free improvisation in music,’ describes the terms

of reference and background to developments in improvisation and free

improvisation in music, in the Europe and North America. Chapter 3, ‘Theoretical

setting of improvisation,’ explores kinds of knowledge, creativity, pedagogy and

improvisation and includes reference to relevant literature for the themes of

research: improvisation and its educational potential.

Chapter 4, ‘Methods,’ describes the approach taken in the implementation of

Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). It includes comparison to other

methods and description of the implementation of research processes that have

been undertaken previously. Descriptions of formulating the questions, aim and

research design, the ethical process, decisions concerning whom to invite for

26


interview, the method of approaching interviewees and conducting interviews are

included. The method from transcription, noting, development of emerging and

super-ordinate themes through to findings describes the stages of analysis together

with the particular, theoretical features of IPA.

The findings in Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 present analysis and interpretations of the

super-ordinate themes of free improvisation. Chapter 5, ‘Describing the free

improvisation phenomenon’, gives voice to and interprets interviewee’s

descriptions of the practice of free improvisation. Within Chapter 6: ‘Free

improvisation and learning,’ Chapter 7: ‘Process,’ Chapter 8: ‘Body,’ and Chapter 9:

‘Strategies,’ the interviewees’ voice and researcher’s interpretation is situated

centrally, retaining the idiographic theme of the method (see Chapter 4) and this is

further contextualised and conceptualised in the second half of each of these

chapters. Chapter 10, Conclusions, provides a detailed summary of the findings, it

then describes how the phenomenon of free improvisation takes place through the

‘unity’ of the super-ordinate and sub-themes. In Chapter 11 the research process is

evaluated and this is followed by recommendations. The appendices to the thesis

are intended to further illustrate the research and provide a source of transparency

to the development of the research process.

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Chapter 2

The development of practice in free improvisation in music

Introduction

In this chapter the development of free improvisation practice is discussed by first

examining the terms improvisation and free improvisation. We then explore

developments in free improvisation in the UK, Europe and the US. Understanding of

composition practice in relation to the development of improvisation is also

discussed.

2.1 Improvisation and free improvisation in music

The terms improvisation and free improvisation can lead to misunderstandings

stemming from assumptions regarding different intended meaning. The focus of this

research project is with what has become known as free improvisation and taking

time to ‘unpack’ the way the terms are used in music contexts, the nuances, and how

we intend to use them in this thesis becomes important.

There is no universally agreed definition of improvisation in music but writers often

highlight the development of musical ideas in the act of performance (Nettl and

Russel, 1998; MacDonald, Wilson and Miell, 2012; Kenny and Gellrich, 2002) and

while this is helpful, for this study, we need to explain further. For someone whose

knowledge of music is in the area of, for example, baroque organ music or rock

music their experience and interpretation of improvisation is as a specific strategy

28


within a clearly demarked style or form of music (for example: playing an electric

guitar solo or extemporising on the church organ within strict harmonic rules) the

term improvisation has a specific inference for musicians within those idioms. Free

improvisation differs significantly. While it remains true that free improvised music

is the creation of music in the act of performance, for free improvisation, it is the act

of improvisation that leads to the form. In other words, while improvisation is

commonly understood as an aspect of a form, most often illustrated by the kind of

jazz where a melody is played, such as ‘Autumn Leaves,’ followed by an

improvisation based upon the harmonic structure, chord ‘changes,’ found in the

piece (AABA form), free improvisation has no such fixed framework for creating

music in the act of performance.

Derek Bailey (1992) is most often cited in helping to re-define improvisation

through the aid of the terms idiomatic improvisation, non-idiomatic improvisation

and not-pre-determined. While it can be argued that a kind of generic free

improvisation has developed, leaving doubt about the validity of the term non-

idiomatic improvisation, nevertheless, the non-idiomatic setting suggested by the

term free improvisation is a useful indication of improvised music with a

characteristically open form. For this thesis improvisation is used as an

encapsulating term while free improvisation also makes it clear that the creativity is

open and not dependant upon a pre-determined structure or form. This is further

delineated through Bailey’s preference for the term playing to performance. Much of

Bailey’s project can be interpreted as effectively questioning of musical conventions:

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recognising how his musical aims did not rely upon assumed, musical constructs.

Emphasising ‘playing’ rather than ‘performance’ as the basis of music suggests a

shift of focus towards the act of creating music in real time.

Opinions vary on the term free improvisation that may include: ‘nothing is free,’ to ‘if

it’s free why is it often the same’. The incorporation of the term free carries

particular associations to the period in which the music developed, the 1960s and

1970s, and reflects popular, political activity of the time. Most vivid examples of

which are ‘black consciousness’, Black Power and the associated ‘free jazz’ largely in

the USA. An iconic political phenomenon of the period was the Vietnam War, viewed

by a global counter-culture as imperialist oppression and, put simply, opposition to

freedom, as demonstrations against the war took place throughout the developed

world. The overt political attitude of founding, influential figures in free

improvisation abounds (John Stevens, Paul Rutherford, the members of AMM,

Maggie Nichols etc.) reflecting the period, becoming indistinguishable from the

foundations of the music and as well as indicating openness to musical exploration,

the word free, in free improvisation, reflects this mood. Within this thesis the term

free improvisation (FI) is used to distinguish from improvisation that may infer a

particular style or idiom in music. It suggests the creation of music in real time

without the expectation of pre-conceived structure.

The terms coined relating to such practice vary according to location and are wide

and varied: free jazz, experimental music, spontaneous music, chance, instant

30


music, conduction, sound painting, jazz, jamming, non-idiomatic improvisation,

open form improvisation, contemporary improvisation, creative music,

reductionism, noise, electronic, onkyo, lower case, and others. While the aesthetic

concerns within these approaches may differ, we contend that these terms and

others rely upon the centrality of generating music through the act of performing.

Most of the terms are relatively new but it is important to acknowledge that

improvisation is also an ancient musical practice, as Anthony Braxton (1985)

suggests: ‘… Improvisatory music has always been around, it just hasn’t been

documented.’ Thinking of improvisation as solely ‘jazz’ is very misleading. A

‘stylised’ form of ‘jazz,’ (Braxton, 1985) became institutionally colonized within

education and, unfortunately, tends to be accepted as the extent of understanding of

improvisation. The result being that the potential of improvisatory practice has

become misinterpreted within educational practice. ‘Jazz’ teaching may foreshorten

the potential of improvisation for education, which is a great deal broader, and can

involve a wider range of strategies (as is explored in Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9).

2.2 The development of practice in free improvisation in music

Within the field, relatively well-known figures are usually identified with the

development of free improvisation. Narratives focussing upon a few individuals can

be balanced by acknowledging an ‘unofficial’ history of the music, music without

pre-determined structure was being explored in different ways, for example: in

amateur music sessions; through professional jazz practice (Joe Harriet etc.);

exploring contemporary compositional approaches (Frank Denyer etc.); through

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clear intercultural exchange (Blue Notes etc.); through rock music experimentation

(Amon Duul etc.); finding ways of creating with the newer paradigms suggested by

electronically produced music (BBC Radiophonic Workshop etc.); through built

instruments (Hugh Davies, Francois and Bernard Baschet etc.); and through the

combinations of these activities. (As an extension of this, comparisons of the creative

processeses of, for example: Karlheinz Stockhausen, Ornette Coleman, Cornelius

Cardew, John Coltrane, John Cage and Charlie Parker etc. is potentially rich although

beyond the scope of this thesis). Creative processes are evolutionary, shared,

necessarily complex and interdisciplinary and while significant figures within a

movement become rightfully acknowledged, it is within such an evolving

environment.

There was a revolution in thinking about music, in some quarters during the 1960s

and 1970s that coalesced around the practice that has become known as

improvisation, or free improvisation. Musical activity overtly identified as

improvisation, with some public profile, developed at that time simultaneously, in

parts of the developed world (e.g. in Germany, USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Holland,

Italy) although, as already mentioned, the phenomenon of improvisation has always

been present. An important swathe of activity occurred in the UK and the writings of

notable musicians Derek Bailey, John Stevens and Cornelius Cardew have become

important in revealing different aspects of these musical developments. Bailey’s

‘Improvisation: its nature and practice in music,’ (1992) surveys improvisation from

a personal, musician’s perspective and is a seminal guide to improvisation. It

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became serialised for Channel 4 television, UK, in the early 1980s. Bailey sets out to

unpack the term and the activity of improvisation in an attempt at redefinition. The

introduction of the terms idiomatic and non-idiomatic improvisation, in spite of the

semantic shortcomings, have helped draw attention to improvisation as a

freestanding musical activity (or non-idiomatic. Chapter 2.1). Bailey’s professional

choice to commit to the area of free improvisation lent credibility to the

establishment of the form. Prior to this move he was active as a guitarist in radio,

television, theatre, jazz and elsewhere, playing with many well-known jazz

musicians as well as backing ‘show-business names’ of the period (Watson, 2004).

The decision to follow a path towards creative music was at the cost of his regular

source of work. Bailey’s commitment to the free improvised form was clear and he

subsequently played with a huge range of established performers from different

musical disciplines, as well as dancers, using and encouraging a free improvisation

approach. Bailey’s ‘Company’ concerts in which diverse, international musicians,

with or without experience in improvised music, would meet and perform for a

number of consecutive days, ran annually across two decades. ‘Company Weeks,’

became a central focus for the development of emerging free improvisation. Often in

London but also held in other parts of the UK, as well as New York, Marseille and

Japan, the event was famous for its not pre-determined structure: an evening’s

schedule, without rehearsal, was deliberately arranged often only minutes prior to

the performance. Performances would explore the possible configurations that may

include unusual combinations: rock guitar, ‘classical’ violin, tap dance, voice,

electronics as well saxophone, trombone, trumpet, double bass, drums etc.

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‘Company’ was celebrated for outstanding levels of musicianship, representing a

wide range of musical backgrounds and the adventurousness of its programming in

the not-pre-determined, free improvisation context.

John Stevens emerged as a centrally important musician in the development of free

improvisation. His drive, ideas and skill influenced the way in which the groups he

was a part of developed as well as the subsequent development of those musicians.

Free improvised music coalesced for a period of about two years (1966-68) in late

night performances at The Little Theatre Club in St Martin’s Lane, in London’s West

End, a place where The Spontaneous Music Ensemble (SME) began as a collective,

becoming Stevens’ ongoing project for the realisation of concepts of improvisation

in practice through to his death in 1994. Early members included Dave Holland,

Kenny Wheeler, Evan Parker, Paul Rutherford, Derek Bailey, Barry Guy and others.

From the recordings of SME can be traced the move from ‘free jazz’ (the influence of

Ornette Coleman’s approach is clear on early recordings) to something new: free

improvisation. Conventional instrumental roles become much diminished, the

collective sense of ‘time’ becomes more open to interpretation, there is no sense of

the solo and turn taking, and the music is being generated through the act of

interactive playing rather than pre-composed frameworks. Stevens not only

influenced and encouraged others: ‘He opened the door for me when I wasn’t ready,’

(Evan Parker, 2010) and persuaded a reluctant Kenny Wheeler to participate having

never played free jazz before. Stevens’ group of that period also included Dave

Holland immediately prior to joining Miles Davis’ group in his ‘Bitches Brew’ (1970)

34


period. Although descriptions of Davis’ group of this time usually focus heavily on

the ‘electric’ turn (including Holland’s move to electric bass,) as far as the musical

process is concerned, a significant portion of the playing becomes collective, free

improvisation.

Stevens’ influence and commitment to realising ideas in music extended to

passionately informed teaching, reflecting his belief in music as social practice, and

an often cited text for implementing free improvisation is his ‘Search and Reflect,’

(1985) a manual format, compiled by associate musicians at Community Music.

Here Stevens’ collated exercises developed during his involvement with Community

Music, London in the 1970s/80s. ‘Search and Reflect,’ provides exercises that

identify elements of creative musical interaction as improvisation is focussed by

simple yet precise instructions. Views of ‘Search and Reflect’ vary widely and while

it provides a useful way into improvised musical activity, and is regarded well by

some established improvisers, its limitations are the manual style format that may

lead to a restricted impression of free improvisation practice, and therefore its use

is best interpreted by experienced improvisers for group activity.

During the same period (1960s and 1970s) in the UK the development of free

improvisation took place elsewhere. Composer, Cornelius Cardew’s influence

became most noticeable through work with the group AMM (what these initials

stands for remains undisclosed). AMM developed their ‘laminal,’ improvisational

approach to music making, establishing a lasting, influential group identity, through

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improvisation practice. AMM’s musical approach differed from SME’s: while

similarly coming from jazz, their music developed to become more concerned with

the possibilities of sound as sound (John Cage,) as different sounds/playing became

juxtaposed and layered. SME’s practice retained the play and response interaction

associated with jazz contexts while AMM’s approach led to the incorporation of, for

example, the sound of a radio tuning, and a more overt focus upon objects chosen

for their sound producing possibilities.

The musical developments in the UK described above, during the 1960s and after,

are generally acknowledged as seminally important to the development of free

improvisation practice. We can also acknowledge the development of free

improvisation as gradual, overlapping and simultaneously occurring in different

countries around the world at this time. Within the UK the early improvising group

Joseph Holbrooke (Bailey, Oxley and Bryars) from Sheffield are significant, similarly

The Music Improvisation Ensemble (Bailey, Parker, Davies and Muir) as is the

under-acknowledged work of Frank Denyer (new forms of composition, informed

by ethnomusicology, self designed instruments). In Italy the Gruppo di

Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanze (Bertoncini, Branchi, Evangelisti, Kayn, Macchi,

Morricone, Vandor) a group of composers who performed using free improvisation

practice, exploring instruments for their sound producing possibilities were

exploring similar territory to that of AMM. In Germany the influential developments

of Stockhausen in electronics extended to an approach called Intuitive Composition,

effectively indistinguishable from some free improvisation. Simultaneously in

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Germany Brotzmann, Kowald and Johanson were exploring the extreme

energy/sound possibilities of instruments associated with jazz: saxophones, double

bass and drums in a high energy, free jazz/exploration of sound. Elsewhere in

Germany pianist Alex von Schlippenbach began to move from ‘club jazz’ music into

concert settings, where extended improvisational structures could be performed

with, for example, the Globe Unity Orchestra. In Holland the group The Instant

Composers Pool, begun by Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg, conflated ideas of

composition and improvisation through various strategies that were shared within

the group whilst retaining a clear jazz character, often with the inclusion of musical

and visual humour. In the former USSR, and Russia in particular, creative,

improvised music became a celebratory opportunity to express identity and

freedom (Ganelin Trio etc.) in the context of the restrictions imposed by the Soviet

regime. In Japan there was a clear influence of free jazz on players such as Kaoru

Abe and Masayuki Takayanagi as they developed a distinct form of improvisation

based music, often characterised by the intensity familiar in later ’noise’ music from

Japan and elsewhere.

The relationship of free improvisation to musical developments in the United States

is complex and it is inaccurate to simply describe music from the US at this time as

jazz and free improvisation as distinctly European. In some ways the developments

in UK free improvisation can be seen as a way of dealing with an American jazz

legacy in the cultural context of the UK: seeking to employ an improvisatory music

and developing a distinct musical identity. The free improvised music scene in the

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UK was initiated by some leading jazz players, and those without jazz backgrounds

who wished to improvise needed to be sufficiently musically confident and self-

sufficient to ‘hold their own’ in such technically formidable company. Perhaps one of

the clear distinctions in UK developments rather than in Holland or Germany, were

the overt attempts to move away from such a US influenced jazz legacy (AMM, SME).

This is however a complex, intercultural picture and improvisation practice is

certainly unbounded by statehood as examples of improvisation unrelated to jazz

can equally be also found in the US (for example: San Francisco Tape Music Centre,

1964, Improvisation Chamber Ensemble 1957 etc.). The history of improvisation in

music in the United States has become globally influential and at the same time its

multiplicity challenges easy categorisation, even the term jazz is so loaded with

diverse associations that its utility becomes dubious and in Chapter 3 we explore

the theoretical aspects of this history that become significant for the background

and development of free improvisation. The largely African-American tradition of

improvised music from the US in the 1950s and 60s was hugely influential upon the

first wave of free improvisers in the UK, and the rest of Europe. Examples of key

influences include: Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Eric

Dolphy, Max Roach, Ed Blackwell, Elvin Jones, Thelonius Monk, Sun Ra, Charlie

Mingus, Lennie Tristano, Gunter Schuller and Albert Ayler amongst others. While

the influence of black music is pervasive, The Jimmy Giuffre Trio (Giuffre, Swallow,

Bley: ‘Free Fall,’ 1962) also clearly influenced UK developments in free

improvisation: much of the instrumental playing and realigning of the

composition/improvisation relationship for-shadows later developments in free

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improvisation. At the same time it has to be noted that atonality and serialism, and

particularly the work of Webern, have equally been cited as influential upon the

early development of free improvisation in the UK.

2.3 Development in composition

As developments in improvisation were taking place during the 1950/60s and

processes in music making were becoming increasingly reconsidered, so too

approaches to written composition were simultaneously being re-examined. While

improvisation is described as the generation of music in the act of playing or

performance, composition most often infers composing through a process of

writing, to such an extent that the use of the term ‘music’ can be used synonymously

to mean the music score, (this theme is further explored in Chapter 3.) Some

developments in compositional approaches began to incorporate improvisation,

although, curiously, often without naming it e.g. ‘indeterminacy,’ ‘aleatoric,’ ‘chance,’

(the practice of not naming is also explored in Chapter 3). Citing the composer of a

piece of music identifies legal ownership; foregrounding improvisation within a

piece of music problematises the role of ‘composer’. There is a tension between the

cultural status afforded to the composer and that of improvising musician. The

emergence, principally in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s of what is generically

referred to as the ‘graphic score,’ highlights the improvising and writing

relationship in composition. Graphic scores attempt to represent sound/music

through visual representation other than by conventional notation alone (of course

conventional notation can equally be viewed as a graphic score). The move towards

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alternative ‘graphic scores’ was an acknowledgement of how the process of musical

making is not necessarily best served by traditions of the composer/performer

relationship, represented by the dots on a page: the extent of the musician’s role

being to interpret the composers wishes. As John Cage described:

‘When you get right down to it, a composer is simply someone who tells
other people what to do. I find this an unattractive way of getting things
done. I’d like our activities to be more social – and anarchisticly so.’
(Cage, 1969)

While it is not the purpose here to explore the variety of graphic scores, examples of

such work can be found by the following: Morton Feldman, Micheal Nyman, Gordon

Mumma, Christian Marclay, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Steve Roden, Terry Riley,

Christian Wolf, Gavin Bryars, Barry Guy, Gyorgy Ligeti, and many others. Graphic

scores often foreground indeterminacy and decision making on the part of the

player or performer, resultantly the player’s ‘palette,’ or chosen ‘language’ become

essentially important to the piece. These graphic scores can be seen as a move

towards an increasing acknowledgement of improvisatory practice, as the

performer’s unique voice becomes a compositional component.

Prior to working with AMM, Cornelius Cardew’s work in composition included

collaboration with Stockhausen. His political and philosophical commitments

became realized in such work as the graphic score ‘Treatise’ (1963-67) in which the

composer/performer relationship is realigned. Such a graphic score can be

interpreted as an important stage in development towards a fuller understanding of

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improvisation’s potential in forming real time composition: a turn from dependency

upon the written score towards realisation of human potential for creating real time

composition by means of improvisation. The performer is required to make

decisions about every musical aspect of the performance, through interpretation of

the 193 pages of shapes and contours that invite an openly subjective

interpretation. There is no indication of the number of performers, instrumentation

etc. and the piece was purposefully written and presented as free standing, without

notes of guidance or instructions (text reflecting upon the piece was published some

years later). While we identify Cardew as the composer, ‘Treatise’s,’ realisation is, in

practice, dealing explicitly with the performers’ improvisation. Cardew’s intention

was very precisely directed at drawing upon the responses of individuals and

groups of musicians. The graphic score’s softening of the boundaries between

performer and composer, as these roles became less rigid, equally led to a more

aesthetically rich, interdisciplinary relationship suggested by the visual score,

creating more fundamental questions regarding the nature of the relationship

between the visual and the aural. The graphic score has become a means by which

visual artists may intersect with sound and equally musicians work with ideas

derived from art practice. This kind of exchange has been well illustrated by the way

in which John Cage influenced the Fluxus movement, conceptually, in visual art.

Whilst graphic scores created new ways to present compositional ideas, other ways

of guiding musicians, utilising improvisation, have been developed. Lawrence D

‘Butch’ Morris developed a method of working with hand signals/gestures,

conducting musicians without a written score known as ‘Conduction,’ that has

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become adopted and adapted often for its utility with large improvising ensembles.

Similarly ‘Sound Painting’ developed by Walter Thompson employs signals to the

same end and has been employed in much the same way. Idiosyncratic hand signals

have unsurprisingly been widely used by bandleaders in different fields, for example

Count Basie and Frank Zappa. Zappa employed extensive, precise personalised ways

of communicating the direction of the music through detailed visual signals with the

band Mothers of Invention. Similarly, John Zorn developed his ‘game pieces’ (e.g.

‘Cobra,’ 1984) in which rules cued through signals guide players through unfolding

sets of dynamic improvisations as they compete to play in different formations.

Summary

In this chapter we have considered the terms free improvisation and improvisation,

the ubiquitous character of improvisation, and explored the development of free

improvisation practice. We have discussed developments in the music practice of

free improvising in different parts of the world as well as the relationship between

developments in compositional approaches and the practice of improvisation. In

Chapter 3 we discuss some important theoretical aspects of free improvisation’s

development and its potential for education.

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Chapter 3

Theoretical setting of free improvisation

‘… there’s way too large a gap between the world and the artists. I feel like we
live in two parallel universes and there’s really very few instances where a
bridge is offered to cross that divide.’
John Zorn, Jazz Times, May 2009

3.1 Introduction

This chapter bridges Chapter 2, in which the development of free improvisation has

been described, with Chapter 4 in which the choice of methods are explained. While

other literature is addressed in the contextualisation of the findings (Chapters 5-9),

considering the theoretical context for the study, at this stage, contributes to the

orientation of the research: embedding the development of practice, discussed in

Chapter 2, within a theoretical context, informs the development of the

methodological approach described in Chapter 4.

Something of a sub-text running throughout the thesis is the divide of practice

(musician’s practice) and theory (the academic setting, Chapter 1.8), as such

theory derived from musician/practitioners holds potential interest and is

included in this chapter (Bailey, Braxton, Thomas, Lewis, Turetsky, Cardew)

together with other literature. The ongoing marginalisation/exclusion of

improvisation practice within mainstream education has additionally

suggested that texts by practitioners should receive particular attention in this

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study, contributing as they may to insight regarding the nature of such a

theory/practice division. Related to such division are the themes of ex-

nomination, or not-naming (Chapter 3.3.1,) and subjugated knowledge

(Chapter 3.3.3) and the inclusion of discussion of Braxton’s ‘Triaxium writings’

(Chapter 3.3.2) explicitly addresses these themes. Musician/scholar George E

Lewis’ (2008) book ‘A power stronger than itself: The AACM and American

Experimental Music,’ becomes a consistently referenced source in Chapter 3

through which the themes of improvisation practice and learning are

considered. The method for this study needs to be suited to addressing the

potential of improvisation practice in music, and to this end the relationship of

improvisation to pedagogy, critical pedagogy, social and musical reproduction

and the place of text are discussed in laying the ground from which the choice

of method and research design become informed.

‘Improvisation enjoys the curious distinction of being the most widely
practised of all musical activities and the least acknowledged and
understood.’ (Bailey, 1992 p. ix)

Bailey’s increasingly referenced quotation carries a double significance for this

thesis and the theoretical setting of improvisation, it is a comment upon

improvisation in music and also a reflection upon the ways in which we construct

and acquire knowledge. If, as Bailey suggests, improvisation is ubiquitous, why is it

so little acknowledged? While a number of texts exist regarding improvisation and

education (Lewis, 2000; Hickey, 2009; Borgo, 2007; Sawyer, 2008; Ford, 1995;

Allen, 2002; Bailey, 1992; Oliveros, 2005; Rose, 2008; Schlicht, 2008; Stevens, 1985)

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in this chapter we explicitly focus upon the ongoing dilemma created through the

ways in which education and improvisation inter-relate. The lack of

acknowledgement of improvisation within formal education and elsewhere, has

contributed to the lack of understanding. This research will address this dilemma by

exploring what free improvisation is for highly experienced professionals whose

careers have developed through involvement in improvisation practice in music: a

body of knowledge gathered from ten interviewees concerning practice in free

improvisation has been analysed with a specific focus on educational potential

(Chapters 4-9). Korsyn (2003, p.42) points out: ‘music is always already post-

disciplinary, it forms its objects with the aid of other disciplines which themselves

are in flux.’ This is clearly reflected by the relationship between education and

improvisation, as this ‘flux’ becomes compounded by improvisation’s challenges to

disciplinary boundaries. The focus of examining free improvisation through an

educational lens offers clarity in determining the nature of improvisation and

thereby uncovering potential for education. Conversely, the characteristics of

creative, improvisation practice also create a lens by which we can reflect upon

educational practice.

3.2 Creativity in music and education

The highly influential double bassist and professor, Bertram Turetsky, (2008) with

over 300 compositions written for him, defines creativity in music as: ‘not accepting

the status quo’. Participation in free improvisation is not dependant upon ‘the status

quo’ and frameworks suggested by organised free improvisation activity suggest

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ways that such creative practice in music may become embedded within the

curriculum. But why is creativity essentially important for education? This question

is bound up with notions of knowledge, education and pedagogy that are addressed

in this chapter, and in this section we will focus on creativity and education.

Robinson (2011) explores how industries experience a deficit in aptitude for

creative thinking in human resources and describes how this seriously impacts

negatively at the broader level of the economy. He points to inherited, hierarchical

and outmoded structures within education as inappropriate and ineffective in

meeting contemporary educational needs. One particular example embodies many

of the themes that become relevant for the improvisation/education discussion and

merits reflection. Robinson describes the experience of a girl who was experienced

at school as having behavioural difficulties, and was before an educational board

whose job was to find a suitable alternative educational placement. By chance, one

of the board’s members noticed how the girl was dancing outside the room while

she waited. She was successfully placed in a dance school and went on to become

one of the world’s best known and financially successful choreographers: ‘She was

not bad: she needed to dance.’ While this unusual story evokes a ‘Cinderella’ like

theme, it nevertheless successfully illustrates how mainstream education can fail to

recognise and celebrate creativity, and in the process fail people by inaccurately

positioning them as problematic (Chapter 1.2, 1.3). The story has a happy ending,

but there is also a common tendency in discussions of creativity; by overly focusing

on the extremely successful, for example the child prodigy, the inordinately

‘talented’ etc, we contribute to the myth that creativity is for a ‘chosen few,’ those

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with extraordinary talent rather than importantly recognizing everyone’s creative

potential (Chapter 5.1.2). This theme is also echoed by the ways in which education

tends to value the achievement of the individual over the group (see Chapter 8.2.3).

There can be an overly narrow perception of the nature of creativity, as Anthony

Braxton puts it: ‘There has long been an inability on the part of Western culture to

deal with the realness of ‘form’ in non-western creativity and the actualness of what

that form celebrates.’ (Lock, 1999) Acknowledging forms of creativity within

education that are developed through group activity contributes towards

understanding the potential of improvisation for education. The lack of

identification of the creative process of improvisation (see Chapter 3.3) and

resultant denial of the benefits offered through engagement in such a process (Rose,

2008) is a part of accepted institutional practice in education that needs to be

challenged. Exploring the practice of experts in improvisation in this thesis is

intended to contribute to this need by furthering knowledge of improvisation. In

the following section, ‘Kinds of knowledge,’ different interpretations of knowledge

are discussed.

3.3 Kinds of knowledge

‘If you have a road map that tells you how to get somewhere then fine,
when you get there leave the map and go and do your business – why I’m
going there is for some kind of relationship whether with nature or with
some people, now that’s the heart business. Leave the map we’re going to do
the heart to heart. That’s the difference between African and European
culture – see we work from the heart, European culture works from the
theory – so you take theory and you apply it to everything and you clamp it

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down – if it don’t fit then they say it ain’t valid.’ Oleyumi Thomas (Rose,
2008)

How does free improvisation relate to different ideas of knowledge? Inherited

educational hierarchies privilege cerebral, academic activity while activities

involving making or doing are traditionally assigned to the lower end of the

hierarchy. Engagement with intuitive abilities through improvisation in music is

experiential and De Certeau’s (1984) reference to, ‘…the map is not the territory…’ is

a helpful analogy for beginning to understanding free improvisation: if the score is

the map, improvisation becomes the territory in creative music making. Oleyumi

Thomas ties the same theme to African and European cultures: ‘…leave the map…

why I’m going there is for some kind of relationship whether with nature or with

some people’. This has particular, additional resonance for developing

understanding of improvisation as there is a clear connection to African and African-

American culture in the development of improvised music, in what we can refer to

as the post-colonial context, and this significant aspect is developed further in the

following sections of this chapter (see Chapter 1.2).

3.3.1 Ex-nomination and the division of musical practice

Returning to improvisation as: ‘…the most widely practised of all musical

activities…’ (Bailey, 1992) the absence from discussion in formal contexts is at odds

with its pervasiveness. Improvisation is often not named, and is under-

acknowledged within musical practice, notably so in Western culture and the

reasons why it should be so are complex. This section refers to the way the practice

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of improvisation is often not identified per se, and how such ex-nomination (not

naming) can be associated with the retention of hegemonic power, the section is

informed by the themes of Lewis’ (1996): ‘Improvised Music after 1950: Afrological

and Eurological Perspectives’.

Examples of this latter form of ex-nomination are the middle class’ use of ‘common

sense,’ leading to the imposition of a particular set of unchallenged values (Barthes,

1972) and what has been described as the way in which: ‘whiteness is everywhere,

but very hard to see,’ in contemporary USA culture (Lipsitz, 1998 p. 1). Fiske’s

(1994) use of the term ex-nomination is as follows: ‘the means by which whiteness

avoids being named and thus keeps itself out of the field of interrogation and

therefore off the agenda for change… One practice of ex-nomination is the avoidance

of self-recognition and self-definition. Defining, for whites, is the process that is

always directed towards multiple ‘others’ but never inward upon the definer.’ Lewis

(1996) discusses the unwillingness to acknowledge the place of improvisation

within ‘white’ developments in the field of experimental music, as a feature of what

he calls the ‘investment in racism’. He challenges the dividing of ‘black’ and ‘white’

experimental music practice indicating the way improvisation has become distanced

over the last hundred years or more within ideas of musical development,

particularly identifiably in the USA. The lack of acknowledgment of improvisation

practice is reflected in different ways, for example, The ‘Routledge guide:

Musicology: the key concepts,’ (Beard and Gloag, 2005,) while rightly reflecting such

developments as post structural, feminist, post modern and other theory

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understood to be relevant for the study of music, contains no entry for

improvisation.

3.3.2 ‘The Tri-Axium Writings’

The status of Anthony Braxton’s three volumes of exploration into creativity, ‘The

Tri-Axium Writings,’ can be seen as emblematic of the previously discussed dividing

of musical practice, its scope and size far outweighs any other texts exploring

contemporary creativity and music, and yet it is only published in a limited manner

(Frog Peak, 1985) and remains very difficult to access. For these reasons, it is of

particular relevance to the theoretical setting of improvisation discussed in this

chapter. Additionally, as mentioned previously, texts concerning improvisation by

practitioners are of particular interest for this thesis. In ‘Forces in Motion,’ (1992)

Graham Locke’s profile of musician, composer and author Anthony Braxton and his

work, Braxton vividly recounts how, at the age of 30 he became aware that all of his

contemporaries from school were either in prison or dead. However, Braxton’s

work in music can be interpreted as a kind of super-creativity. As well as regularly

performing with highly esteemed jazz musicians in the United States and Europe he

has, for example, made the first ever entirely solo saxophone record: ‘For Alto’

(1968), written operas and has a compositional output numbered in the hundreds.

Additionally, Braxton’s ‘Tri-Axium Writings,’ (1985) can be seen as an equally

prolific and energetic response to his circumstances, and one that became largely

misunderstood by the establishment judging by its lack of dissemination.

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The three volumes are clearly influenced by the political momentum associated with

the 1970s, and particularly by ‘black consciousness’. However his arguments don’t

stop at the assertion of black identity: ‘…what I hope will be a massive body of

alternative literature on creative music.’ The study’s significance goes beyond the

boundaries signified by identity politics, concerned, as it is, with the nature of

creativity and human potential. With the laudable and ambitious aim of not

misrepresenting the global multiplicity of creativity, Braxton re-invents language to

critique the phenomenon, leading to the rather infamous use of idiosyncratic terms

of which the ambitious three volumes are loaded, for example: ‘physical and

vibrational universe,’ ‘affinity postulation,’ ‘multiple develification,’ ‘progressional

transfer cycles,’ etc (the glossary of such terminology is thirty pages in length).

Braxton’s aim is to reveal the significance of what he terms the ‘reality of creativity’

and its implications for humanity. The challenge for the reader is, for example, to

constantly go from the cosmic, to the detail of bebop, to the history of the western

canon in music, and meantime to relate all of this to ‘different time zones’ by means

of the non-linear format of the three volumes’ cross-referenced lay-out. Braxton

draws attention to the way in which improvisation has offered individuals a voice of

expression while at the same time the advancement of western classical tradition

has become stifling. He advocates discourse about creativity that moves away from

what he sees as addressing superficial aspects, principally related to marketability.

His purpose is in viewing the music’s history, future, forms, functions and qualities

as ‘dangerously neglected,’ he seeks to reassert the potential of creative music,

across the world. In so doing he evokes a utopian alternative through black history,

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and describes the addressing of contemporary, global issues through a reassertion

of creativity.

Connections to other notable commentaries can be made. At times Braxton’s schema

connects to Attali’s (1977) by describing the potential of creativity in music that

Western cultural developments have marginalised, eroded, undervalued, becoming

bereft in the process. And, Braxton’s notion of ‘The Spectacle Diversion Syndrome’

clearly relates to Guy Dubord’s ‘Society of the Spectacle’ (1967) although, Dubord

was more concerned with an overarching concept of ‘the spectacle,’ an

omnipresent, controlling, denial of truth, resulting from the later stages of

capitalism’s evolution rather than what Braxton describes as simply: ‘America’s

bizarre understanding of entertainment without spiritual or functional (living)

intent…’ The difficult ‘Tri-Axium Writings,’ is a neglected but important contribution

to the discourse of creativity that also contributes towards the re-situating of

improvisation.

3.3.3 Subjugated knowledge

‘I don’t want a book that academics read.’

Muhal Richard Abrams on the documentation of the AACM, in Lewis
(2008, p. xxiv)

Part of educations’ failure to embrace improvisation in music, to acknowledge all

the form it can represent, may be to do with assumptions regarding the ‘field’ of

education (Bourdieu, 1984). Those who practice improvisation will not necessarily

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share the same values as those propagating education (see Chapter 1.1, 1.2:

educational exclusion and improvisation; Chapter 6.8: hegemonic power) mistrust

of institutional power may be deep seated. We cannot assume that simply

demonstrating ‘acknowledgement and understanding,’ within acceptable

educational paradigms, will lead to the inclusion of improvisation. Musical

improvisation has famously shown itself as an expression of resistance through, for

example, the African-American experience. Formal educational structures may

represent the antithesis of a conducive forum for such creative practice and there

may be resistance to its inclusion.

‘Power is not simply repressive; it is also productive… Power subjects bodies

not to render them passive, but to render them active. The forces of the body
are trained and developed with a view to making them productive. The
power of the body corresponds to the exercise of power over it. Hence the
possibility of a reversal of that power.’ (Sheridan, on Foucault, 1980 p. 218)

Education is unequivocally empowered by state legislation, for example the law

states that all young people under the age of sixteen in the UK attend full time

education, and this informs the tenor of the teacher/learner relationship. But it is

helpful to acknowledge how power may be asserted in response. Improvisation may

provide a creative forum through which such assertion may be expressed (Chapter

1.1, 1.2). Free improvisation, is an open form, in which participants may engage on

their own terms, it is an opportunity through which other, subjugated kinds of

knowledge (Foucault, 1970) may become legitimised.

3.4. Education

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3.4.1 Education, improvisation and text

In education the primacy of textually orientated traditions of teaching and learning

is generally unquestioned. The hierarchical privileging of text is readily identified:

learning that emphasises text towards the top, learning that emphasises action

towards the bottom (Chapter 3.2), for example ‘core curriculum’ subjects: English,

Maths, Science take a proportionately large percentage of the curriculum time; the

arts, crafts and sports are considered flexible. This theme extends to written

composition’s cultural dominance of music (Chapter 2.3). Improvisation, creating

music through doing, is not dependant upon a written score and while we are

acculturated towards the idea that music is synonymous with writing, knowledge in

musical improvisation is expressed through action rather than in written form. The

dominance of text in the culture of education, or textocentrism, (Conquergood

2002,) contributes to the lack of acknowledgement of how improvisation in music is

enacted knowledge.

Paradoxically, the dearth of written work on improvisation has, in the past,

contributed to such a lack of ‘acknowledgement and understanding’ of

improvisation. Comparisons to developments in drama can be made. Drama is

currently well placed in education and utilises improvisation centrally as an

educational process. The development of improvisatory drama in education

(Chapter 6.2.1) developed in the UK from a range of professional, experimental

work in theatre and drama, for example: Grotowski (1968), Brooke (1968),

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Littlewood (described in Goorney 1981), Artuard (1958) etc. The development of

drama as an experiential, educational process grew from the grounding created by

such a body of knowledge. The current growth of diverse research interest in

improvisation and music may contribute to better understanding and further the

development of improvisation in education.

3.4.2 Pedagogy

‘I am not so much interested in constructing a building, as in having a
perspicuous view of the foundations of possible buildings.’
Wittgenstein (1981 p. 458)

For pedagogy, this research project seeks to create a ‘view of the foundations of

possible buildings,’ through the interpretation of experienced improviser’s accounts

of improvisation practice (Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9) to reveal and interpret what is

understood within a body of knowledge rather than prescribe a way of teaching

improvisation.

In theorising improvisation it is easy to lose sight of the significance of the human

urge to play music, this foundation, is a powerful motivation, regardless of possible

limitations presented by academic conventions.

‘… while it is true to say that the aims and philosophies of individual

musicians differ, one common factor emerges from conversation. That is the
almost overwhelming need to actually play. It can be more integrated – more
natural, more human, more reflective, less about extracting and being
exacting, more in touch with the fragility of human experience. Less of a
blunt tool.’ (Wilmer 1977, p. 257)

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For the educational setting this is potent. Free improvisation is an invitation to play

(Rose, 2008) addressing this ‘almost overwhelming need’. Acknowledgement of this,

in the planning for sessions, informs possible structuring for particular groups, and

is suggestive of how progression may be made. What is played is instigated by those

present and determined by the act of playing, the choices are communicative and

social. Responsibility for what happens is developed through participation.

‘My attitude is that the musical and the real worlds are one. Musicality is a
dimension of perfectly ordinary reality,’ Cardew in Tilbury (2008, p. 312)

Pedagogical awareness of situating playing as communicatively social forms a

schema for free improvisation in which the music becomes an output of decisions

made in the social contexts. Within the playing, continuous negotiation takes place,

improvisation is a bridging activity between people (Rose, 2008). This accords with

John Steven’s project in free improvisation, where he would re-focus music making

towards the interaction between people through devised exercises (‘Search and

Reflect’ 1985; Chapter 6: Free improvisation and learning).

3.4.3 Recognising creativity

A challenge in good teaching practice is to find ways to work practically with

awareness of the cultural contexts (Chapters 3.3.1, 1.2) as pedagogy that only

reflects the dominant cultural orientation and preference may become imposed. In

this respect education’s ability to become responsive to others can be seen as some

indication of its success, or otherwise. As the expression of creativity is culturally

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located, it is not abstract, it may need nurturing: working at recognising and thereby

legitimising creativity is important. Lewis’ example reflects this in referring to

AACM member El’ Zabar on ‘the black bourgeoisie’:

‘The ostensible restrictions on self expression, performed in apparent

imitation of how white middle-class families were thought to be behaving,
were perhaps even more chafing... at variance with fundamental aspects of
African American history and culture. ‘I always danced wild…played
basketball loud, a lot of things that were about a certain emotional
physicality that didn’t seem to get appreciated in the same way as a more
delicate, controlled sense of expression… I ain’t going to let go of this
gutbucket energy.’ Lewis (2008, p. 317)

Free improvisation’s open form is an opportunity to celebrate energetic, assertive

creativity rather than repress it. Pedagogically, ongoing planning can also seek to

uncover and provide a space for creative cultural expression that may be less forth

coming, requiring acknowledgement through strategies that aim to additionally

support no less valid, quieter voices that may be less noticeable.

For pedagogy, creative expression through free improvisation is ‘extra-linguistic,’

occurring through music rather than language. The bridging, negotiating character

of free improvisation in the intercultural setting is a means of communication.

‘The state of emergency under which many people live demands we pay
attention to messages that are coded and encrypted; to indirect, non-verbal,
and extra-linguistic modes of communication where subversive meanings
and utopian yearnings can be sheltered and shielded from surveillance.’
Conquergood (2002, p. 148)

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The permission and encouragement to express such ‘meanings’ and ‘yearnings’ in

the music setting is a legitimizing acknowledgement.

3.4.4 Reproduction

‘You have the original and then there’s a constant desire to recreate the
original…the AACM was more aimed at creating an individual than an
assembly line.’ Roscoe Mitchell in Lewis (2008, p. 498)

This thesis is concerned with the creation of music through improvisation, creating

in the act of performance questions the practice of reproduction in music. This

section is concerned with two separate but nevertheless intersecting concepts of

reproduction: social reproduction and reproduction in music and the relationship to

education.

The insightful practice of the AACM (Lewis, 2008) sought to encourage individuals

to present ‘their music’ in the way they wished to rather than reproduce a style.

Examples of the success of this strategy being the range of distinctive saxophone

‘voices’: Mitchell, Threadgill, Braxton, Anderson, Jarman, Stubblefield etc., who, at

the same time as becoming distinctly individual, also worked collaboratively with

each other in their formative years. Although teachers may not necessarily be aware

of the roles they play in such processes, social reproduction is continuously enacted

in education leading to the question of whose social values are being reproduced,

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and for whom? (Chapter 3.3.3) The question of reproduction is also an increasingly

important contemporary theme in music, and art in general (Benjamin, 1936). The

music industry and the culture of music are almost entirely focussed on

reproduction. Seeking to create something new in performance (improvisation) is

not generally prioritised and educational practice has largely adopted the music

industry’s aim in, similarly, emphasising reproduction. This is illustrated by

education’s tendency in the interpretation of jazz. Education has drawn from this

distinct African-American creative practice in music, and tended to reduce it to a

particular, reproducible style. Jazz education generally favours a period of jazz

history, 1950s and 1960s, in which bebop, modes and blues became formalised in a

popularised style. The tendency is to sideline what came previously, as well as after

this period, characterising jazz as music from a narrow period for its academic

reproducibility. This is not to denigrate the great music of that period, although

doubtless it was not the intention of the creative musicians of that period to be

endlessly copied by subsequent generations. Improvisation, and free improvisation,

challenges this picture, highlighting creativity and individual voice: there is a focus

on creating music at the point of playing in performance, rather than reproducing

and creative practice in music becomes highlighted in improvisation.

3.4.5 Critical pedagogy

The approach to developing music described in Chapter 3.4.3 (recognising

creativity,) and Chapter 3.4.4 (questioning reproduction,) and the socio-political

setting become indivisible. Too often the practice of school and education is

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considered in isolation from the wider community, and such artificial separation can

be seen as a source of further division between education’s expectations and

expectations in communities (Chapter 1.3). Closing this gap is foundational for

developing a pedagogical approach and the practice of improvisation in music has a

role to play in this (Chapter 1.3). The development of the AACM can be interpreted

as the development of a critical pedagogy (Giroux 1983, Freire1982) through a

community practice in music (Chapters 1.2, 1.3). Maurice MacIntyre in ‘New

Regime’: ‘We are trying to balance an unbalanced situation that is prevalent in this

society.’ (Lewis 2008, p. 190) And Lester Bowie: ‘our music… is the tool with which

the burden of oppression can be lifted from the backs of our people.’ (Lewis 2008,

p.190) And from an interview with Abrams from the same source: ‘Does the AACM

have anything to do with Black Power?’ Abrams: ‘It does in the sense that we intend

to take over our own destinies, to be our own agents, to play our own music.’

Lewis’ (2008) history of the AACM provides a case study for the theme of education

and improvisation that becomes relevant for a variety of contexts as the act of

creating music in improvisation becomes an assertion of identity (Samson 2007;

MacDonald, Hargreaves & Miell, 2002). Music making, or ‘musicking,’ (Small, 1998)

is not only representative but defining of groups of people, this is reflected by

Cardew’s view: ‘… the musical and the real worlds are one.’ (Cardew). A pedagogical

appraisal of the cultural and social, teaching and learning environment, can become

assisted through the agency of improvisation in music.

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Summary

In this chapter the theoretical setting of free improvisation has been considered

with a particular view of the potential relationship of improvisation with education.

Improvisation and creativity; kinds of knowledge; and education and pedagogy have

been discussed. In the following chapter the choice and implementation of research

methods is described.

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Chapter 4

Methodology

Introduction

This chapter describes the methodological choice and procedure adopted for the

study. Possible research approaches for this particular study are also discussed. The

rationale for adopting Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers and

Larkin, 2009) is explored and the research design and stages of analysis are

described in detail, leading to the writing of results and subsequent discussion.

4.1 Background

This study is concerned with understanding the lived experience of practice in

improvisation in music and its potential. The study records, interprets and analyses

experience and to this end a qualitative approach has been appropriate. A specific

route has led towards the decision to use Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis

(IPA) for this study. Previously, in the study Articulating perspectives of free

improvisation for education, (Rose, 2008, using a Grounded Theory approach, Straus

and Corbin, 1998) findings cited ‘being’ as an encapsulation of the characteristics of

free improvisation for education. In so doing, that research suggests thematic

connections between improvisation practice and phenomenology: being, and

understanding the nature of experience, as central tenets. The theme of ‘being,’ for

describing free improvisation, has led towards a further interest in the work of

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Martin Heidegger and especially ‘Being and Time’ (1962) and Maurice Merleau-

Ponty’s the ‘Phenomenology of Perception’ (1962); Edmund Husserl (1901) and

Franz Brentano (1995).(see Chapter 4.2). Hubert Dreyfus (1991); Charles B

Guignon, (1983) and Dermot Moran (2000) have been important aids for

interpretation of these major works. Within the broader, academic picture these

writers are situated within a ‘school’ of phenomenology ‘inaugurated’ (Moran,

2000) by Edmund Husserl (1901).

4.2 Theory and methods

In considering the contemporary themes found in free improvisation in music and

the potential for education (Chapter 3), the other area of influence towards

developing the method and research design has been Critical Theory. This is an ill-

defined area that can be said to include a variety of developments and movements in

contemporary thought, covering the last century: structuralism, post structuralism,

post modernism, feminist theory, post-colonial theory etc. Michel Foucault’s (1970,

1977) work on the relationship between, and construction of power and knowledge

has been particularly influential on the development of thinking about methods as

has Jean-Francois Lyotard’s (1984) work on knowledge and meta-narratives,

(Chapters 5-10). These influences, together with others, have become directly

relevant for the contextualisation of results (Chapters 5-9). While it is important to

acknowledge the differences between post-structural developments and a

phenomenological approach, for the purposes of this study’s aim of addressing

improvisation practice in music and also education, both areas are understood as

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theoretically relevant. Phenomenology and critical theory may be set out as

different areas for convenience of study, however there is significant overlap, for

example, Lyotard’s first major work (1991) was a study of phenomenology and

Foucault was greatly influenced by Heidegger (1962) and a consistently influential

figure both in terms of thought and method is Frederick Nietzsche (genealogy)

across these areas.

Thinking for this study has not been bounded by a single discipline: ‘music is always

post-disciplinary,’ (Korsyn 2004, p42). This draws attention to an additional theme

influencing the choice of method: the relationship between art in general and

academic study (Chapter 3.3, Kinds of knowledge). In developing methods, the

nature of music has not been pre-conceived or assumed, a method and design has

been sought that can accommodate this. For this topic of research, improvisation

and education, not prefacing interpretation with a single philosophical perspective

or narrative, has been seen as beneficial. Korsyn’s ‘De-centering music,’ (2004) has

been influential in this regard, in which modes of musicology are described and

critiqued in full light of the academic legacy they may seek to uphold and the tropes

they may reflect. The interdisciplinary aspect of researching improvisation has been

informed by awareness of the development of research across the arts (Biggs and

Karlsson, 2010) as well as the implications for research design created by research

into a potentially interdisciplinary subject (Stuart, 2005).

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Ideas of social justice and education based as participatory leading to action

research found in Jurgen Habermas’s work (1975, Frankfurt School) has been

influential in considering the nature of improvisation and education. As has Henry

Giroux’s (1983) radical pedagogy: the belief in human agency’s ability to affect

resistance, contest, express cultural struggle, and challenge hegemony. Pierre

Bourdieu’s work on ‘reflexive sociology’ (see Chapter 1) and the concept of social

strategies as conscious as well as unconscious has also been influential for thinking

on improvisation and education:

‘… it is because agents never know completely what they’re doing that what
they do has more sense than they know.’ (Bourdieu 1992 p.69)

Chapters 5 to 9, findings, contain discussion that includes reference to theory arising

from this section. While there has been an interdisciplinary contextualisation for the

methodology, a clear method has been sought that allows for flexibility and at the

same time is epistemologically rigorous. The full rationale for the adoption of

Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a suitable method for his study is

described below.

4.3 Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis

IPA is a qualitative research approach that is appropriate for studies that attempt to

understand and communicate experience: to ‘go back to the thing itself,’ (Husserl,

1973) without assuming the nature of a phenomenon. The method is understood as

lending commitment to the subject of research through a flexibility that aids enquiry

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and this reflects the interdisciplinary thinking discussed in Chapter 4.2: IPA offers

an integral openness to the subject of study, improvisation.

Previously IPA has been used in studies of the psychology of health care e.g. Smith

and Osborn (2007); Brocki and Weardon, (2006); Arrol and Senior, (2008);

Thompson, Kent and Smith, (2002) etc. It has also been used in studies of sexuality:

Lavie and Willig, (2005); Flowers, Duncan and Knussen, (2003); Ruben, (2004).

IPA’s application for the interpretation of experience suggests its agency in

examining experience of music and improvisation. There have been a number of

studies of music that have employed IPA, including: Holmes, (2005); Faulkener and

Davidson (2006, 2004); Bailey and Davidson, (2005, 2002); Davidson and

Borthwick (2002); Burland and Davidson (2002); Oakland (2010). Samson (2005),

in particular, has focussed on the construction of identity and free improvising duos.

IPA has often been used to examine ‘major events,’ for example, that may involve

psychological distress associated with a medical procedure (Brocki and Weardon,

2006) or the specific effects upon the self, for example redundancy, (Oakland, 2010)

in psychology contexts, it has also been used, although less so, to study broader

experience, for example, music and identity (Samson, 2005). In the following section

we will consider phenomenology in relation to this study of improvisation in music.

4.3.1 Phenomenology

Husserl identified phenomenology as occurring when we are self-consciously

reflecting upon experience. In going ‘back to the thing itself,’ Husserl is referring to

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the experiential content of consciousness (Smith, Flowers and Larkin, 2009). He

describes phenomenology as moving from a ‘natural attitude’ to a

‘phenomenological attitude’: moving towards a reflection of our perception of the

world, rather than an experience of the world itself. Husserl uses the term

intentionality to describe the relationship of consciousness to things, in the sense

that consciousness is always of something: this is the intentionality. Husserl’s

‘phenomenological method’ includes ‘bracketing’ or leaving the ‘every day world’ in

order to focus on the perception of that world. ‘Eidetic reduction’ is the process of

reducing, by a number of stages, through which an ‘essence’ of an experience may be

understood. Husserl described science as a second order knowledge system, always

dependent upon first order knowledge: personal experience (Smith et al; 2009).

Heidegger continues Husserl’s phenomenological project while departing from his

approach. Heidegger’s central concern becomes the question of being, through

which ‘being-in-the-world’ forms a central tenet: the view that we are not separated

from, but part of the world we perceive, the world only exists in our being ‘thrown’

into the world. Although Heidegger’s identity as an existentialist is uncertain, the

move from Husserl’s transcendental aims is towards existentialism (a philosophy

giving primacy to lived human experience) through his work in ‘Being and Time’.

For IPA Heidegger’s central idea of human being as always ‘in-relation-to’ leads to

the significance of interpretation in phenomenology. ‘The centrality of people’s

meaning making is central to phenomenological enquiry…’ (Smith et al., 2009 p. 24).

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As mentioned previously in Chapter 4.1 being was found to be encapsulating for

conceptualising free improvisation (Rose, 2008) and Heidegger’s questioning of

being carries ongoing potential in interpreting the phenomenon of free

improvisation. Merleau-Ponty’s (1962) situating of the body as central within

phenomenological understanding of the world suggests a further dimension for

interpreting enacted free improvisation. Merleau-Ponty extends Heidegger’s

emphasis on being-in-the-world by introducing embodiment to situate our

experience of the world. In addition Jean Paul Satre is seen as important for IPA in

developing Heidegger’s concept of ‘being-in-the-world’ in more personal, social

contexts.

Phenomenology is a broad term and there is divergence within it. For example,

Hubert Dreyfus comments that Satre’s ‘Being and Nothingness’ (1984) was based

upon a Cartesian misinterpretation of Heidegger’s ‘Being and Time’ and Huserl and

Heidegger disagreed about how phenomenology should be pursued. The diversity

within phenomenology is illustrated by the breadth of significant figures in its

development that includes: Jacques Derrida (1992); Emmanuel Levinas (1987);

Hannah Arendt (1977); Hans-George Gadamer (1994); Franz Brentano (1988). For

the purposes of being employed as a method, the researcher adopts a

phenomenological attitude in seeking to understand experience.

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4.3.2 Hermeneutics

IPA’s interpretive character reflects Heideggarian phenomenology: the view that we

are ‘thrown’ into the world and our existence and experience is by means of

interpretation. The study of interpretation, hermeneutics, and phenomenology meet

in Heidegger’s work. Schleiermacher (1977), Gadamer (1990) are key figures in

understanding the development of hermeneutics (Smith, 2007). The theoretical

underpinnings of interpretation, hermeneutics, give rise to the way in which the IPA

research method becomes realised in practice, through interpreting text by means

of analysis. Within the hermeneutics of IPA we are addressing notions of

appearance, fore structure, preconception and bracketing in seeking to go ‘back to

the thing itself’. Gadamer describes the process of interpreting as one in which we

are constantly projecting meaning in our attempt to understand and this becomes

revised as textual meaning is understood. He describes engaging with a text as a

process in which we introduce ‘fore-meanings and prejudices’ at the same time ‘a

person engaging with a text is prepared for it to tell him something… the important

thing is to be aware of one’s own bias, so that the text can present itself in all its

otherness and thus assert its truth against one’s own fore-meanings.’ (Gadamer

1990, p 269) While recognising that we need to leave our pre-conceptions to one

side, the process of interpreting is complex and we project in searching for meaning.

The process may be understood by means of reflexivity through which we can

better understand how we are conceiving of an object.

‘Phenomenology is seeking after a meaning which is perhaps hidden by the

entity’s mode of appearing. In that case the proper model for seeking

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meaning is the interpretation of a text and for this reason Heidegger links
phenomenology with hermeneutics. How things appear or are covered up
must be explicitly studied. The things themselves always present themselves
in a manner which is at the same time self concealing.’ (Moran 2000 p 229)

Heidegger’s interpretation of phenomenology leads to the need to address meaning

that readily presents itself, ‘appearance,’ as well as additional meaning that may be

hidden. The hidden and the present are interconnected.

4.3.3 Hermeneutic Circle

Implementing an interpretative process in IPA makes use of a hermeneutic circle

that reflects the understandings and processes described in the previous section.

The hermeneutic circle is explained as interpretively moving back and forth

between the part of a text and the developing understanding of the whole (Schon,

1983; Smith et al., 2009). This iterative process allows, for example, the meaning

taken from an extract to be reflected upon the entire set of interview transcripts and

visa versa. Within this continuum of cross-referencing in the development of

meaning, the hermeneutic circle and reflexivity are synergetic, as it becomes

possible to monitor ways in which interpretation is developed in the course of

analysis. The hermeneutic circle can function at a number of levels, lending itself to

the formation of different relationships between understandings in the process of

analysis. The process can additionally be described as a ‘double hermeneutic,’ as the

researcher is making sense of the participant making sense (Giddens, 1987).

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4.3.4 Idiography

IPA is an idiographic approach: it is concerned with particular, specific, subjective

phenomenon. It seeks to ‘go deep’ in establishing meaning in research by detailed,

thorough analysis of a relatively small sample. Understanding of the particular may

lead to understanding of the universal (Warnock, 1987) through which

generalisations can be established. The idiographic approach is suited for

understanding experiential phenomena of particular individuals. The ‘particular’

may lie with an individual’s experience but may equally reflect experience’s

relational quality, reflecting Dasien (Heidegger, 1962) as embedded in the world of

things and others. This contrasts with a nomothetic approach, commonly used in

psychology, in which ‘aggregation and inferential statistics’ (Smith et al., 2009) lead

to generalisation based upon averages rather than individual experience. The focus

of this study is with the particularity of lived experience.

4.4 Other methods

In this section a number of other qualitative research methods are considered and

compared.

4.4.1 Thematic analysis and qualitative approaches

Braun and Clarke (2006) have framed different approaches found in the developing

area of qualitative methods by identifying those within a broad theoretical

framework and those that are essentially independent of theory and epistemology.

In the former they place Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, Discourse

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Analysis, Conversation Analysis, Narrative Analysis and Grounded Theory. In the

latter they place Thematic Analysis. However, the researcher’s epistemology

informs the themes and as such analysis is, in practice, never without an

epistemological framework. The relationship between the researcher and the

research is reflexive (Chapter 1.1) and as such constituted through epistemological

and theoretical understanding. In practice commonality exists between qualitative

methods that seek to establish themes. Thematic Analysis is generally less clearly

defined than many other qualitative research methods and has been used as

interchangeable for generic qualitative research that establishes themes. Unlike IPA

and Grounded Theory (GT) in particular, themes are not necessarily developed

through a coding process, or positioned in relation to super-ordinate themes, as the

manner in which themes are developed is flexible.

4.4.2 Grounded Theory

Grounded Theory (GT) and IPA have been cited for similarities (Smith, Flowers and

Larkin, 2009) that relate to the shared inductive approach: research does not begin

with a hypothesis and theory is developed through the process of analysis. IPA’s

emphasis upon a relatively small sample (idiographic) is not found in GT and there

is not a shared situating of the role of interpretation (although versions of GT will

differ on this point: Charmez 2000).

GT’s well prescribed coding process, in which a series of categories and their

demarcation define the method of analysis, also differs from IPA in which the

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relatively flexible framework allows emphasis on the researcher’s relationship to

the idiographic data through the interpretive development of themes. GT’s advocacy

of such systematic coding stages in ‘necessary data reduction,’ may well reflect a

concern to assert qualitative methodology as a credible alternative to accepted

quantitative methods in the scientific field of the period (1960s) in which it became

developed. Grounded Theory’s emphasis is to work towards a theoretical,

conceptual account drawing on a large quantity of data that may occur in different

forms. As has been discussed (Chapters 1.6, 4.1) a GT approach was employed in the

previous study: Articulating perspectives of free improvisation for education (Rose,

2008) and GT’s initial openness to the field of enquiry can be seen as a strength: in

that study participant observation, interviews and diaries were all used in the

acquisition of data. Other music research that has used GT includes: Kokotsaki

(2007) ensemble playing research; Magee and Davidson (2004); Edwards and Kenelly

(2004) music therapy research. GT is a comparatively old form of qualitative research

method and there are a number of interpretations of the form that are used widely,

mainly in the area of social sciences. Glaser and Strauss (1965) first developed GT

through a study of experiences of dying. Subsequently there was a split in views of

the method (Glaser, 1987; Strauss and Corbin, 1990). GT’s elaborate coding process

became the site of contestation between Glaser and Strauss and currently a

constructivist interpretation of GT is best known in psychology (Charmez, 2006).

4.4.3 Discourse analysis

Discourse Analysis (DA) is a broad term that describes a method of research that

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involves analysing the written or spoken that has been used across social sciences.

Foucauldian discourse analysis is an approach to developing understanding of how

knowledge is constituted through language while Garfinkel and Sacks’ discourse

analysis relates more to interaction, both are based in social constructionism

(Smith, Flowers and Larkin, 2009). MacDonald and Wilson (2005) have employed

discourse analysis in researching identity and music: jazz musicians’ language, used

to discuss music, was seen to contribute to constructing self-identity. Other research

employing discourse analysis has included Burr (1995) in a study of the social

construction of personality, and Barker (2003) in a study of youth construction of

sub-culture and self-identity. DA’s focus is with the way in which language may give

insight into social and psychological characteristics and this contrasts with IPA’s

commitment to interpreting individual, experiential, phenomenological experience.

4.4.4 Ethnographic research approaches

Ethnography is concerned with understanding cultural phenomenon and

ethnographic research methodology has extended to musicology, cultural theory

and social sciences.

‘… the best writing on jazz has to involve a rather tricky balancing act, a complex
set of negotiations between on the one hand the teachings of critical theory—
especially its dismantling of socially produced assumptions about meaning,
identity, and knowledge—and, on the other, a recognition of the value and
importance of documenting insider perspectives.’ (Ajay Heble 2000, p 91)

From this notion of ‘documenting of insider perspectives’ the ethnographic method

has become developed within critical theory in which there may be a distancing

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from other forms of ‘scientific methodology’. Disciplinary boundaries become

maintained through the positioning of the methods: those who ally themselves

within a critical theory framework may not choose to be identified with social

sciences and the reverse may be true. However, experience of this research project

has demonstrated how they may, in fact, be covering the same ground, for example

in discerning meaning making within the socio-cultural field of music and

improvisation in particular (Improvisation, Community and Social Practice,

University of Guelph, 2010). Methodological choices can become usefully informed

by awareness of disciplinary boundaries, and this in itself suggests the agency of an

interdisciplinary outlook.

Examples of ethnographic music research abound and include Ingrid Monson’s:

Sayin’ Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction (1996) in which she seeks a

‘more cultural musical theory and a more musical cultural theory,’ through

interviews with New York jazz musicians, and Georgina Born’s Rationalizing

Culture: IRCAM, Boulez, and the Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde

(1995). Here Born employed ethnography to explore institutionalization of music at

IRCAM, France. Born carried out a similar ethnographic, more recently, at Sonic Arts

Research Centre (SARC 2010). The ethnographic approach clearly relates to a

sociological perspective and Born in particular has been influenced by Pierre

Bourdieu’s work on cultural capital and social strategy.

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4.4.5 Other phenomenological research

IPA shares Amadeo Giorgi’s approach to phenomenology in the concern with

transferring its philosophical basis into a method within psychology. The

approaches differ in that Giorgi (2008) is concerned with ‘staying close’ to Huserl’s

phenomenology while IPA takes a broader perspective (Heidegger) that includes the

additional emphasis upon interpretation: hermeneutics (Gadamer). While IPA is

concerned with divergence and convergence within an idiographic framework,

Giorgi is more focussed upon commonality in experience to describe a phenomenon.

Unlike Giorgi, Van Manen’s work using phenomenology in education research

includes a hermeneutic approach:

‘1. turning to a phenomenon which seriously interests us and commits us to the

world;
2. investigating experience as we live it rather than as we conceptualize it;
3. reflecting on the essential themes which characterize the phenomenon;
4. describing the phenomenon through the art of writing and rewriting;
5. maintaining a strong and oriented pedagogical relation to the phenomenon;
6. balancing the research context by considering parts and whole.’
Van Manen, (1990 p 30-31)

Many of the aims of IPA overlap with the research activities described here. Van

Manen also extends the ideas discussed in IPA of the part and the whole of the text

to the entire research context. While IPA offers flexibility within the approach, an

invitation to ‘inhabit’ a theoretical constellation of phenomenology and

hermeneutics and the application of thinking towards the particularities of the

researcher’s aim, Van Manen’s emphasis is more prescribed towards seeking the

‘essential’ through research. For this study IPA has been seen as a way in which it

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may be possible to establish and contextualise the particular without the tendency

towards ‘essentialising’ the subject.

4.5 Implementing Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis

4.5.1 Rationale

In order to explain the rationale for employing IPA the research aim is described.

The aim is to explore the creative process of improvisation in music with a specific

emphasis on investigating its educational potential. Although there is an increasing

amount of research in the emergent field of improvisation (see Chapter 3) there

remains an urgent need to further understand the educational potential of

improvisation. Improvisation is both widespread and at the same time relatively

absent from education, signalling a deficit between what is taught and wider

practice in music. A broad body of knowledge of improvisation in music has

developed within the international community of musicians whose practice is

centred on improvisation. This research project seeks to access and interpret this

body of knowledge in order to recognise, interpret and clarify the practice of

improvisation in music.

4.5.2 Why Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis?

The features of IPA that make it appropriate for this research project are described

as follows. The overarching question for the research project is: What is the place of

free improvisation in your practice? This question was addressed to those with high

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levels of experience in the field of free improvisation: individuals whose

professional lives in music practice had been spent in utilising improvisation

processes. The qualitative, idiographic approach addressed the need to record such

a body of knowledge. As discussed in 4.1, the findings of the research project:

Articulating perspectives of free improvisation for education (Rose, 2008) drew

attention to the potential relationship between phenomenology and improvisation

for developing fuller understanding of improvisation practice. The continued lack of

acknowledgment and understanding of improvisation (Chapters 1, 2, 3) has

suggested that a research method with a particular agency to allow for the

complexity of improvisation was required: the range of human experience in

improvisation practice could be accessed through the idiographic method in which

it would be possible to focus upon the particular, in depth, and then to generalise

the findings. Assumptions regarding how we may explain the nature of

improvisation could be usefully put to one side through the adoption of a

phenomenological attitude. Importantly, the flexibility of the not overly prescribed

IPA approach supports the need for openness to possible meanings in researching

improvisation. This flexibility is matched by the phenomenological aim of ‘going

deep,’ or beyond the ‘appearance’ of a thing, to attain understanding (bracketing,

fore-structures, and preconception in 4.3.2).

IPA as a method that integrates the interpretive aspect of research is of benefit in

developing rich accounts of improvisation. This aspect is suited to the

understanding of the reflexive and reflective practice described in Chapter 1.

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The hermeneutic, interpretive aspect of IPA clearly defines the researcher’s role in

the development of the project and the ways in which interpretation is developed in

the course of research become transparent (Appendices 6-11). The hermeneutic

circle becomes a central mechanism towards developing data and analysis in a

retrievable form.

4.5.3 Role of researcher

Being a practitioner/researcher (musician, teacher, researcher) has contributed to

accessing the community of musicians this study is concerned with and as such the

study is privileged by ‘insider’ status. At the same time it has been necessary to

delineate between my role as researcher and that of musician. To this end it has

been seen as desirable to include musicians in the study who are not previously well

known to me in a professional or personal context. It has been considered that such

‘distance’ contributes to the aim of achieving a ‘phenomenological attitude,’ and aids

the avoidance of bias. An additional benefit of having the perspective of ‘insider’

researcher has been the ongoing awareness of how research is being perceived by

individual musicians as well as the broader community of musicians. This is not

unconnected from the background to the subject in which the theme of lack of

acknowledgement of improvisation has been cited (Bailey, 1992), musicians have a

real interest in the course and outcomes of research in improvisation. Possible

wariness towards the constructs of academic research may be unsurprising from

within a community of musicians whose practice remains largely underrepresented

by academia (Chapter 10.7). The role of researcher/participant, has involved a

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sensitivity towards such issues that is reflected by the choice of a method that

values and fore grounds musicians’ individual perspectives. The role of researcher

in relation to reflexivity, reflective practice and the situating of subjectivity,

stemming from the researcher’s epistemology and ontology is discussed at length in

Chapter 1 (1.1, 1.3, 1.4).

4.6 Research design

4.6.1 Research aim

The research aim is to explore the creative process of improvisation in music with a

specific emphasis of investigating its educational potential.

4.6.2 Research scope

In seeking to develop understanding by means of analysing the phenomenon of

improvisation in music, interviews were chosen as the best means of recording a

body of knowledge among experts in the field. The criteria for participation being

that interviewees should have high levels of experience of professional practice in

improvisation and that improvisation form a central part of their practice. In order

to benefit from a range of perspectives, diversity among the cohort of interviewees

was also sought in the study that encompassed interviews in the USA, Canada, UK

and Germany. The study included male and female, African-American, European and

American participants.

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The cohort of interviews was set at 10, a relatively large number for an IPA study,

the theoretical framework of which suggests that in ‘seeking the particular’ a

smaller number is usual in order to ‘go deep,’ at the same time there is not a single

answer to the size of a group for an IPA study. As Smith, Flowers and Larkin (2009,

p 106) point out: ‘what makes the analysis IPA is that the group level themes are

illustrated with particular examples taken from individuals’ and this remains true

for a larger group. IPA has predominantly been primarily advocated for health care

settings where a study of one person’s experience may be deemed appropriate. The

complex phenomenon of improvisation in music is culturally located, and it has

been possible to investigate in a way that, to some extent, reflects practice that may

differ in the US, Canada, UK and Germany and in this way establish meaning that

may be confidently interpreted beyond the very local. While there is a commitment

to the idiographic approach it has been of benefit to include a range within the

relatively large cohort of ten interviewees that represents the possible variety and

variation within improvisation practice. For example, is improvisation practice in

North America the same as in Europe? Is the experience of improvisation in

experimental, electronic music the same as for those with a ‘jazz’ background? Does

the African-American experience of improvisation concur with those in Europe? It

was therefore of benefit to the research to include individuals from a range of

backgrounds. This contributes to addressing the lack of understanding of

improvisation, a phenomenon that is cultural and at the same time not necessarily

culturally bounded. The individuals’ experience within the practice of improvisation

means that the cohort represents a homogenous group within an international

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community of musicians identified through the shared practice of improvisation.

For these reasons the size of the group was set at 10.

Including and interpreting diverse voices from both Europe and North America has

contributed to the breadth of the study. The inclusion of 10 participants has meant a

relatively large amount of data and consequently a comparatively lengthy process of

analysis. As this thesis has a single rather than multiple studies the larger scope of

the research project is considered appropriate.

4.6.3 Recruitment

A list was compiled of recognised, leading figures in the field of improvisation in

music that included musicians in Europe and North America, with the aim of

undertaking 10 interviews. The nature of working in music is such that individuals

are often travelling in an ongoing manner: these experts, recognised figures in the

field, were an inherently mobile cohort. I established contact with individuals by

electronic mail: given the distances involved and different locations this became an

efficient method for making initial contact and contact details were obtained via the

network of professional musicians (section 4.5.3). This initial approach included a

formal letter of invitation and an information sheet containing details of the

research project (Appendices 1 and 2). The main obstacle to the interview process

became arranging mutually convenient times in which to carry the interviews out.

Patience and sensitivity were required as the path of the research project, covering

the USA, Canada, UK and Germany, did not always converge with potential

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interviewees’ schedules. Employing a strategy of contingency and patience in order

to achieve the aim of interviewing these experts was successful. When individuals

had agreed to participate, arrangements for meeting etc. were done by further

email, telephone, or in face-to-face discussion.

4.6.4 Participants

Reflecting the intention to include those with high degrees of professional

experience in improvisation, the 10 participants ranged from early 50s to 81 years

of age. There were 2 white women participants, 2 African-Americans males, and 6

white males. 4 participants lived in the US, 4 lived in the UK and 2 in Germany.

Anonymity was agreed upon for the study and initials have been chosen, not their

own, for use in the analysis (Appendix 5).

4.6.5 Ethical issues

A consent form was signed by participants that explained details of anonymity and

the opportunity to withdraw from the interview at any time as well as consent for

the material to be used in the development of the thesis and any subsequent

academic publication (Appendix 3). A detailed proposal for the research project was

subject to ethical procedures and committee approval at Glasgow Caledonian

University (2010).

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4.7 Data collection

There were 10 semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. The semi-structured

interview was seen as the best way to allow the participants to respond to the topic

in the way in which they chose and there was one overarching question: What is the

place of improvisation in your practice? Interest was in where the interviewees’

would choose to take the interview in terms of their individual response to the

question, rather than preconceiving the nature of their experience with further fixed

questions. However, a series of sub-questions was also on hand, which could be

drawn upon in the manner of prompts, if appropriate, in the course of the interview

(Appendix 4). The likely interview length was discussed in arranging the schedule

and interviews lasted between forty-five minutes and one and a half hours. The

interviews were recorded using a digital Dictaphone and took place between March

and October 2010 in university offices, a musician’s studio, a music venue and an

arts centre, and environments were chosen for convenience and suitability.

Examples of interview transcripts can be found in Appendix 6. Approaching each

interview with openness to the individual was important and helpful, demonstrating

empathy (Chapter 1.1) and interest in individual’s particular experience of

improvisation supported the interview process. Other possibilities for establishing

data were considered for example, one eminent musician, a potential interviewee,

suggested responding by email as a solution to unavailability however face-to-face

interviews were seen to be the most suitable, consistent means of establishing the

data for this study.

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There has been debate between researchers employing IPA regarding returning to

participants in order to follow up issues raised by the data and its interpretation

(Smith, Flowers and Larkin, 2009. http://www.ipa.bbk.ac.uk/references). This is

viewed as valid within the design of certain IPA studies, particularly where there

may a very small number of local participants. However within the demarcated

parameters of this larger study, employing ten interviews across two continents and

four countries, it has not been viewed as appropriate for the design. Clearly defining

the parameters of the study equally for all participants has been important and

returning to participants, if indeed feasible, would have additionally led to a

significant increase in data leading to further questions of the studies’ manageability

within the comparatively large, international group.

4.8 Analysis

The focus of analysis in IPA is with participants’ interpretations of their lifeworld

experience. Importance is with retaining the analytic focus on the particular and the

flexible procedures are an outcome of this focus. The process of analysing

transcripts is also non linear, and employing the hermeneutic circle and double

hermeneutic with the ten transcripts was necessarily a complex as well as

demanding, iterative and inductive process. In the following sections the work done

in analysis will be described in detail and the steps of IPA analysis are outlined.

Documentation representing the entire process of analysis is set out in the Appendix

section.

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4.8.1 Transcribing

The process of transcribing the ten interviews contributed to the analysis: paying

close attention to words, phrases and sentences in order to accurately record what

is being communicated. Extracts from the ten interviews are included in Appendix 6.

4.8.2 Reading

Reading and re-reading transcripts, involved reflective activity. It could be seen how

the relationship between the interviewer and interviewee contributed to the

developing overall structure of the interview. Re-listening to the transcript while

reading also contributed to understanding of the way in which the interviewee may

have been, for example, emphasising a view through stressing words, or

demonstrating ambivalence through tone, pace etc. This facilitated recall of the

exchange and the entirety of the experience of the interview. Notes were made

during the reading and re-reading and kept to one side as inevitable associations

and themes presented themselves: in this way ‘bracketing’ was initially

implemented by identifying responses and associations that may include pre-

conceptions, and creating a mechanism in order to leave them to one side, notes

could become reconsidered at a later stage (Appendix 7). Reading and re-reading,

prior to noting, contributed towards developing awareness of possible narratives

stemming from the transcripts.

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4.8.3 Noting

The noting represented responses to idiographic concerns in which interviewees

described experiences of improvisation, relationships, processes and events and

their interpretation of these. Noting was developed using a hard copy of the

interview transcripts, with which it was possible to interact with the material in an

immediate manner as thoughts occurred and simultaneously connections to other

parts of the transcript was made possible. Underlining of anything that seemed

important was done at the early stage and explanatory notes were subsequently

added. Noting on the transcripts became elaborate and detailed, initiating material

that was used in the further interpretive development of emergent and subsequent

super-ordinate themes. Noting explored the text through focussing upon the use of

language: comments were considered as descriptive, linguistic and conceptual with

attention to the use of metaphor as a means of constructing meaning. Questioning of

the texts’ conceptual content extended the thinking within the noting. Interpretation

was tied to the life world presented in the text rather than projected onto or

imported from outside (bracketing).

4.8.4 Emergent themes

The complete document of ‘Emergent Themes’ may be read at Appendix 8, page 298.

This section describes how a process of noting becomes developed towards the

establishment of emergent themes. In order to develop emergent themes, line-by-

line analysis was carried out employing descriptive, linguistic, and conceptual

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strategies together with initial underlining of phrases and words. The following

approach, using hard copies, was employed:

• Underlining of experiential claims, concerns and understandings followed by

extensive line-by-line commenting for each transcript.

• Re-reading and paying attention to comments already made as well as areas

of text that had no comments (hermeneutic circle), adding further comments

and adjusting comments already made. Re-reading and paying attention to

the interviewees’ positing of the subject in light of line-by-line noting

together with further attention to linguistic content: metaphor, tense,

repetition etc. suggesting what is interpreted as significant for the

interviewee. Themes began to emerge.

• For some transcripts Emergent themes were readily suggested and appeared

at the line-by-line stage, for other interviews the emergent themes required

more examination of the line-by-line commenting. In all cases a third stage of

going through the transcripts and noting aided the establishing of Emergent

themes.

Emergent themes of all transcripts were transferred to a single document. A

necessary flexibility within the application of the strategies outlined above, in which

it was possible to respond without too rigid an intention, contributed to the

one interview and could be carried over or amended by the material in another

transcript. Engaging deeply in each interview’s unique idiographic way of

articulating perceptions provided a natural aid to avoiding the projection of

previously discovered themes. The depth of experience, in relation to improvisation,

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of the interviewees was an asset in this respect as they readily offered their own

distinct engaging interpretations of the subject. Through the process of noting in the

development of emergent themes it became possible to monitor possible projection

of meaning within the interpretation moving from one case to the next.

A workable procedure incorporating the key elements of IPA: idiographic,

hermeneutic, iterative, hermeneutic circle, reflective, flexibility and bracketing was

established. By means of moving between parts of the text, and those parts to the

whole, in an iterative manner, the utility of the hermeneutic circle became apparent

through the reading, noting and re-reading.

Emergent themes were established for each transcript (Appendix 8) leading to

reduction of the increased data created by noting. The emergent themes represent

the important idiographic ideas and concepts for understanding improvisation. This

process became increasingly interpretive, moving away from the narrative context

of the individual transcripts: the emergent themes are a combination of participants’

words and researcher’s interpretation.

4.8.5 Super-ordinate themes

The complete document ‘Super-ordinate themes’ may be read at Appendix 9, page

319. This section describes how emergent themes were developed towards the

establishment of super-ordinate themes within each single case. The following

examples illustrate the way in which emergent themes became grouped into super-

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ordinate themes. Connections between themes in single cases were established

through a number of strategies: abstraction, subsumption, repetition, narrative

themes, numeration and polarization. Different strategies were employed within

each single set of emergent themes in the development of super-ordinate themes.

Connections were sought across emergent themes within each case, for example

LM’s ‘Emergent themes,’ Appendix 8, page 298: ‘Narrative of an only woman and the

predominance of the male perspective. P8 L 12’ became grouped with ‘Woman’s

theme P9 L15’. At the same time care was taken not to artificially distance other

emergent themes such as: ‘Linguistic theme: using voice, beyond words, in

communication, P9 L16’ that in the context of musical expression connects in terms

of self expression and identity to the previous theme. Together with other emergent

themes, by means of this process of abstraction, these formed the super-ordinate

theme: ‘Self-development and improvisation’ (page 323).

In the example of SG the super-ordinate theme of: ‘Free improvisation as a socio-

political environment: (SG, page 321) was established using subsumption: the

emergent theme usefully encapsulated a number of related emergent themes for

example: ‘You form an environment by being in it. P1 L6’ and ‘music practice as social

practice. P1 L21’ and as such became a super-ordinate theme.

Within GB’s interview polarisation became a useful strategy in establishing super-

ordinate themes as the transcript gave over conflicting messages regarding the

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experience of improvisation within music practice. As such ‘Challenging free

improvisation assumptions/orthodoxy’ (page 320) became a super-ordinate theme

within which emergent themes such as ‘The professional musician as non-academic

(resistance to research) P9 L1’ and ‘Difficulty with the term P1 L30’ became grouped.

GB’s themes: ‘The idealised and your own path: polarised perspective of

improvisation’ (page 321) further illustrates the somewhat conflicted nature of the

transcript. This aspect, however, contributed to a further depth of interpretation in

the development of meaning by means of the choice of language.

It was possible to view UP’s themes in a contextual, narrative manner. The theme of

embodiment and listening ran through the interview transcript resulting in the

super-ordinate themes of: Body, Creative consciousness, Listening and

Interdisciplinary improvisation. The course of UP’s interview illustrated a life-world

and practice informed and imbued with these themes across more than half a

century.

While these four examples illustrate the uses of strategies in developing super-

ordinate themes, the emergent themes were approached flexibly, with an open

mind, so that more than one strategy may become employed in a single case if

desirable. For example within KM’s super-ordinate themes can be found strategies

of subsumption: ‘Improvisation/experimenting as new life ’ and ‘The free

improvisation experience: ‘oneness’ (page 325) and abstraction within the super-

ordinate theme of: ‘Strategies in free improvising’ (page 326). The frequency of

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occurrence of a theme was not the guide to its importance although it was noted

when thematic repetition occurred: for example in the case of UP where the body

and listening were repeatedly referenced. In line with the idiographic approach,

seeking the particular, the themes were developed from that which was interpreted

as significant for the individual participant and this may have become reflected by a

theme’s repeated occurrence.

Having emergent themes for all 10 participants (Appendix 8), super-ordinate

themes were developed for each individual case employing the strategies illustrated

above. As clear themes were established for each case that may influence the

interpretation of another case the need for bracketing became clear. Adhering to the

process described above while approaching each set of emergent themes enabled

individual’s super-ordinate themes to become clearly established through a flexible

yet rigorous process (Appendix 9).

4.8.6 Group themes

The next stage of analysis involved moving from the super-ordinate themes within

single cases to seeking connections across cases in the establishment of Group

Themes. This was achieved using hard copies through which possible connections

could readily be sought. The aim here was to find if and how the idiographic themes

may become coherently shared themes. This process of analysis effectively

continued into the writing of chapters 5-9 where the first half of each chapter

continues to explore the super-ordinate group themes. (The latter half of each

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chapter, 5-9, further contextualises the themes through a broader theoretical

discussion.)

IPA’s method of seeking the universal through the particular becomes highlighted in

developing the Group Themes as Smith, Flowers and Larkin (2009 p. 107) point out:

‘… negotiating this relationship between convergence and divergence, commonality

and individuality,’ is important in interpreting themes for large numbers of

participants. With a large group within an IPA study there may be a tendency

towards consensus that leads away from the idiographic commitment (Chapter

4.3.4). However it has been possible to identify ‘the particular’ as significant across

cases as well as within single cases. While the analysis of the large group data

extended the projected schedule for analysis and writing, commitment to ‘going

deep,’ not foreshortening the in-depth approach, has supported the validity of the

findings.

‘Group Themes’ were established by creating a series of ‘working documents’ in the

following manner. Firstly a single document was created of all the super-ordinate

themes from individual cases (‘S.O. theme titles’). Secondly, a document was

developed sorting these themes under two broad groupings: ‘Describing the FI

phenomenon’ and ‘FI and learning’ (‘Themes of the Group’). Super-ordinate themes

were subsequently organised through further categorisation under eight headings

in the document: ‘Group Themes (structured)’ (see Appendix 10). This process

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enabled the development of a structure for the super-ordinate themes within this

comparatively large number of ‘cases, (10) and the inherently large amount of data.

In order to approach the subsequent writing a 28 page ‘Quote bank’ was created

structured from the super-ordinate group themes.

The hermeneutic circle continued through to the writing as themes from, and

across, individual cases became further interpreted. The themes may be tracked

back to the ‘Super-ordinate master document’ with page/line numbers referring to

the transcripts. The ‘Group Themes (structured)’ led to the structure for the writing

of the findings chapters: Chapter 5 ‘Describing the free improvisation phenomenon’;

Chapter 6 Free improvisation and learning’; Chapter 7 ‘Process’; Chapter 8 ‘Body’

and Chapter 9 ‘Strategies’. In Appendix 10: ‘Group themes (structured)’ it is possible

to see how items 1, 2, and 3 became grouped together leading to the writing of

Chapter 5: ‘Describing the free improvisation phenomenon.’ Item 5 of ‘Group

themes’ ‘Free improvisation and learning’ led to the writing of Chapter 6 and items

6, 7 and 8 similarly led to the writing of the findings chapters: ‘Learning’ ‘Body’

‘Process’ and ‘Strategies’. Item 4 has been included within the broader theme of

‘Strategies’ Chapter 9. Through this gradual process the manner in which the themes

worked simultaneously became acknowledged (see Chapter 10.2) and this was

reflected in the manner in which the themes became categorised.

Smith, Flowers and Larkin (2009, page 101) describe how: ‘… super-ordinate

themes which are particular to individual cases also represent instances of higher

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order concepts which the cases therefore shared… pointing to ways in which

participants represent unique idiosyncratic instances but also shared higher order

qualities.’ An example of a shared theme carrying such a dual quality of being both

particular and higher order is ‘Improvisation: music is only one domain’ (Appendix

10). This group theme becomes further interpreted at a number of levels (Chapters

5.1.2; 7.1.1; 7.1.4; 7.2.1) it is theoretically contextualised and contributes

significantly to the conclusion (Chapter 10.2.4). Similarly, while the question of

language and improvisation in music (Appendix 10) occurred at the level of the

particular for several interviewees, it also becomes a significantly higher-level

shared theme through extended discussion in Chapters 5.1.4 and 8.1.6.

4.9 Writing

The results section of this IPA study, Chapters 5-9, continues the analysis as

interpretation is further developed in the process of writing: drafting and re-

drafting, developing depth of analysis through the narrative account. To this end the

planning for writing leading from the analysis was taken up directly from the

establishment the group themes, leading to the drafting of Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

Concern over dividing the themes of improvisation (section 4.8.6) has influenced

the way in which the central chapters have been structured. Clearly, strategies, body,

process and learning are not only related but embedded within one another

(Chapter 10: Conclusion). To develop understanding of the whole it has been

necessary to identify components although ultimately these parts are recognized as

not existing in isolation but within the whole picture of improvisation practice. This

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aspect is addressed by the structure of Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. The first half of each

chapter remains purposely close to the interviewees’ text and becomes a dialogue

between participant and researcher’s interpretation. The second half of each

chapter (5, 6, 7, 8 and 9) broadens the discussion of themes in the first half and

includes other literature. In this way it is intended that the themes remain

ideographically tied to participants’ experience and therefore not overly

fragmented, as well as being further contextualised in the latter half of each chapter

where themes are revisited.

4.10 Summary

In this chapter the methodology of this study has been described. The

interdisciplinary aspect of improvisation has been discussed in relation to decision-

making regarding methods. The key ingredients of IPA have been described and

comparisons made to other methods in relation to the study’s aim. The rationale and

implementation of IPA has been explained in detail together with the research

design. An account of the analysis process has also been described through to the

development of writing results and discussion that follows in Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8 and

9.

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Chapter 5

Describing the free improvisation phenomenon

5.1 Introduction to findings

Findings described as the themes of free improvisation, arising from the interviews,

are fully explored in the following chapters. Chapter 5: Describing the free

improvisation phenomenon; Chapter 6: Free improvisation and learning; Chapter 7:

Process; Chapter 8: Body; Chapter 9: Strategies. The chapters have been structured

in a manner that reflects the aim to identify the particular in analysis through

valuing the idiographic interpretations of improvisation expressed by participants.

The first part of each of these chapters is a dialogue between the themes expressed

by participants and the researcher’s interpretation. The second part of each of these

chapters broadens the interpretation and discussion through the form of further

contextualisation that includes other literature. In order to retain the integrity of the

super-ordinate themes in these central chapters there is a fine balance between

representing concepts within a thematic framework and research interpretation

and this is reflected by the chapters’ organisation. As well as being aware of the

necessity to avoid reductionism, the structuring of the chapters is designed to avoid

fragmentation through over categorisation. To these ends Chapter 5 takes a ‘wide

angle’ view of participants’ interpretations of improvisation and its utility for

education in ‘Describing the free improvisation phenomenon’. Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9

then take a closer look at free improvisations’ super-ordinate themes of learning,

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process, body and strategies. The super-ordinate theme of ‘Free improvisation and

learning,’ in Chapter 6 explores the ways in which learning becomes fundamental in

the act of free improvisation: the range of participants’ emergent themes within the

super-ordinate theme of free improvisation and learning indicated the importance

of this as a central theme and as such this chapter follows Chapter 5’s describing of

free improvisation. Chapters 7, 8 and 9: ‘Process,’ ‘Body,’ and ‘Strategies,’ are

interpreted as no less important and the order of these central chapters, findings, is

not intended to create a hierarchy of significance. The themes coexist, representing

a multiplicity through which the connections between the themes are found in the

act of free improvisation and this important aspect of the findings is fully explored

in Chapter 10.2, ‘The unity of the themes of improvisation’. The findings in the

central chapters become a resource that may be referenced by those interested in

free improvisation and its applications. It is possible to take a single chapter, for

example ‘Strategies,’ ‘Process,’ or ‘Body,’ and apply it in the variety of different

learning/educational contexts, this can, in turn, inform the choice of further

reference in the application of the other chapters. This structure, that invites

explorative reading, is understood as preferable to a handbook or ‘how to’ manual,

that foreshortens the improvisation phenomenon and would not represent the

complexity and inter-relatedness of the themes.

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5.1.1 Free improvisation as socio-musical location

… you’re creating an environment, you’re also interacting with one - so you have to pay

attention. SG P1 L6

Participants in free improvisation compose the music. The focus is not with

negotiating a preferred interpretation of a written score. Improvisers therefore

share responsibility in the creation of composition in performance. SG encapsulates

this shared theme in ‘socio-musical location’. This is a major shift in generally

accepted understanding of how music is created and benefits from reorientation:

describing free improvisation in terms of environment is encompassing. Situating

ourselves as components of the environment rather than commentating upon it

implicitly at a distance, suggests an important theme.

‘… I call it a socio-musical location… ‘ SG P19 L32

The ‘socio-musical location’ term allows us to map FI onto fresh and varied

situations: the agency of the idea is broader for learning than may be suggested by

reference to descriptions of its history alone (Chapter 2). The potential of the ‘socio-

musical location’ offers a basis for interpreting FI potential in a variety of contexts.

But what are the implications of the idea?

… there are bigger fish to fry in improvisation than aesthetics. SG P8 L40

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These larger issues are to do with questions of collective experience, the quality of

communication and personal development and such issues become reflected by the

aesthetic qualities of the musical outcomes.

… what you’re hearing is the flow of intelligence and thinking… in these improvised

music things, you’re always hearing the intelligence and the intention regardless of

what they’re doing, you’re always hearing it, but I sort of wanted to hear a lot of

different variations for that. SG P12 L20

With free improvisation as a setting of communicative exchange through music, the

experiential understanding developed in the group leads to personal development.

The ‘variations for that’ develops through self-determined social orchestration;

developing the expressive possibilities that individuals and groups are capable of.

… nobody felt the need to chime in or add a little bit or adornment and all those things

you know, people didn’t do that and so as a result you could hear that, it opened up the

space, you could hear people play. Everybody likes the idea that they were being

listened to and some people felt they were being listened to for the first time since

they’d been in the group, that people were listening to them in a new way. SG P11

L24

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The activity of FI becomes a question of collective interactions. This is reflected by

the relatively recent growth of ‘improvising orchestras’ (in the UK and elsewhere,)

and the way in which some have performed regularly, often without financial

support, for over a decade.

‘… those musicians themselves who are extraordinary… they’ve been together for a

long time, they are a community, they come out of the community, they’re very

generous with each other, their music was the place where you’re supposed to have

these generosities.’ SG P14 L5

‘Increasingly I find the same structures are active all the time. And so I can learn just

as much from that process of walking down the street as I can playing with some

certified person or even a not so certified person or group of people. And that’s what

comes from paying attention (pause, big laugh). You know you are much more alive to

possibilities for growth or change or interventions of different kinds - you’re engaged

in a continual kind of analysis of what’s going on, what other people are doing, what

the environment is doing.’ SG P2 L8

A major theme, across interviews, is the development of learning in improvisation

(Chapter 6). Engagement with FI becomes a process of continuous learning

regardless of experience, but why should this be emphasised for FI in particular?

The not-pre-determined character of FI leads to continuing engagement with

something not fixed and therefore it becomes inadequate to rely on a stock set of

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materials and responses, if we do we foreshorten the possibilities offered by the

particular group situation. We can ‘pay attention’ to the shifting, emerging

opportunities and how we contribute towards and affect this collective musical

continuum. One interviewee, LR now in his 70s, described in detail how musical

improvisation leads to continuous learning (6.1).

5.1.2 ‘Everyone’s creative – no negotiation’

I come from jazz but also soul, blues and also cabaret, theatre and you know we have

both learnt the new language of the more abstract free improvisation but also can

integrate the different roots and histories, our own personal musical histories as well,

so I do feel it is a beautiful contradiction, you embrace what’s gone before and replace

it. LM P5 L18

Aligning different personal and collective experience forms a source of creativity in

free improvisation, and it is clear within the interview that this view applies to those

regardless of previous musical orientation. With a willingness to engage and the

development of trust, recognition and acknowledgement of differences occurs at a

musical and social level that contributes to a process of development. ‘A beautiful

contradiction’ suggests a utopian idealizing of free improvisation, (not uncommon,)

however, values within the description are revealed by a grounded connection to

socio-political commitment:

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‘Everyone’s creative – no negotiation’ LM P10 L3

This succinct phrase significantly contributes to understanding the potential of FI as

the form’s openness enables the possibility of realizing aims of inclusivity.

‘… you become virtuosic in different ways but there is such a thing that I really love

which I call social virtuosity , it’s a collective virtuosity which is multi… you know, not

streamed. And again John (John Stevens, Chapter 2) was a master of that. Mixed

ability virtuosity. That has its own particular power. There is something phenomenal

about a group of different experiences, making really strong performance in music. LM

P10 L14

FI is envisaged as providing the setting for ‘social virtuosity,’ in other words the

development of social intelligence. This can be seen as activity within the previously

discussed ‘socio-musical location’ (Chapter 5.1). Particularly when aligned with a

detailed conceptualization of the potential of listening (Chapter 8.4), we can

understand ways in which the musical tied to the social may become explored

through FI activity.

But how can this be developed, particularly in a large group? There may be a tension

between the possibilities and freedom of small group and solo improvisation and

that of the larger group. Within the former there is clearly the space and

opportunity for the radical individual expression free improvisation is identified

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with and celebrated for. But how is individuality retained within the ‘beautiful

contradiction’ of large group activity in FI? In the following extract we can see a

particular skill in identifying how the need of any given individual may be

reconciled with overall group activity, that may be potentially quite different in

character. The extract addresses this difficult, key point in a clear manner and is

worth quoting at length:

‘I remember this saxophone player who used to come, he’s a crane driver, he used to

drive these cranes, and he’d come into the London one (open-door, free improvised

music session) at about half past ten at night. And we had an L shaped room and he’d

creep into the back of the L shape – and suddenly there’d be this absolute blast!!!

Absolutely deafening sound. And then of course what would happen is everyone would

have a knee jerk reaction, so the drummers if they were there they would start

hammering away – and then there was no space. And I remember we were talking

about this and I thought well how would it be if we didn’t change what we were doing,

when he started, what would happen and we tried that, and do you know something,

the actual way he was playing was that he would do this blast and then he would leave

this enormous space. So in actual fact he wasn’t the problem, it was everybody else

thinking Oh, right, we’ll all pile in now even though they didn’t want to. So it’s that

thing of being authentic, if you’re truly authentic, I do believe that sooner or later it

creates a space for everybody, so even somebody… he needed, he needed to play like

that but he was also incredibly sensitive because he would play like that and we’d all,

we wouldn’t change what we were doing if we didn’t feel like that – there’d be these

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huge spaces, where there were lots of little gentle things happening and then he would

steam in again. So that was a real lesson for me… Being strong in your own centre,

being really totally committed energetically to what you’re doing. And then whatever

anyone else is doing won’t throw you off balance. And that’s a lifetimes practice…’ LM

P 13 L25

This description illustrates a successful approach to creating the conditions for

heterogeneity as a valued ingredient of FI. There is a challenge in finding ways to

incorporate and value others who may need to play differently and this requires

commitment to the social context and insight in influencing the group. Furthermore,

this process of inclusion was understood as a necessary part of development in large

group FI interaction.

‘… you’d get a period where it would be the same people and it would get incredibly

coherent, almost insular, almost to the point where it was stagnating. It was so perfect,

it was so beautiful everybody knew each other so well. And then somebody would come

that would just completely disrupt just everything…’ LM P17 L3

Disruption of the ‘so perfect… so beautiful’ may appear as counter to the group’s aim

however within the commitment to ‘Everyone’s creative – no negotiation,’ there is an

awareness of the need to respond to difference and recognition of individual

expression. This can also be further understood in terms of homogeneity and

heterogeneity: histories of FI have demonstrated its creative foundations in

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heterogeneity (Chapter 2.2). Realising FI as social practice is effectively focused

upon: ‘Mixed ability virtuosity. That has its own particular power.’ (LM). The

heterogeneous character of FI can reflect diversity. Being true to heterogeneity also

suggests that attempting to too closely prescribe FI is undesirable, as an imposition

of limitations may occur in the process, as SG puts it there is an ‘agility in the term’

that is useful. Lyotard (1984) describes: ‘consensus is only a particular state of

discussion, not its end. Its end, on the contrary, is paralogy.’

Not-pre-determined improvisational performance occurs in radically differing

circumstances and this extract is from GB’s interview.

‘The way we started the concerts were sort of composed because the Pope had just put

out a record. Pope John Paul, I don’t know if you know that? The Pope made a record it

was on Sony. It was him reading psalms and giving homilies over this sort of ambient,

world beat grooves… I immediately thought OK, so we need to sample the Pope. I

mean we’re (name removed). I wanted to put out another CD entitled ’(name

removed): the Pope remix’ (laughs). The way the concert started was that (name

removed) and I went on stage first and made this big noise, blaaaa, and it gradually

sort of settled down into a drone, it became quieter and quieter and the lights would

go down until the stage was dark and there was just this drone and then we’d have this

white down spot come on, with nobody in and then you’d hear the Pope’s voice say (it

was from the record) – ‘the man who does bad things avoids the light, for fear that his

bad deeds will be exposed. But the man who does good things walks into the light.’

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And(name removed) walks into the light where he just sort of has a grouchy

schoolteacher outfit on looking very angry with a cocktail. Walks up to the mike and

says ‘welcome to Bitter Mummy’s Club Ariola’ (laughs) and that’s how the concert

began and from there on it was improvised, no idea what was going to happen. GB P10

L3

On the face of it this is a radically different setting in which the description is of a

composed introduction to a concert performance. The group comprises a drag artist

from the US: voice, an improviser from Japan: electronics, and GB also from the US:

sampler. Beyond the introduction, the entire set was freely improvised and the

themes of creating music through heterogeneity remain constant. Improvisation, by

allowing for different approaches, provides the method for creating intercultural

and radical performing experiences.

5.1.3 Improvisation: ‘music is only one domain’

Interviewees expressed, in a variety of ways, specific connections to theatre, dance,

fine art, comedy as well as crossing musical genres. The interviewees’ citing of

improvisation’s interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary nature is a significant

feature of describing the phenomenon and furthermore, at a broader level, its

fundamentally pervasive character suggests improvisation as embedded throughout

experience (5.11).

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Music is just one domain of the improvisative experience, you know, and as you start to

find out how vast that experience is, how many levels it has, you don’t want to privilege

music over all the others, which ends up making a limitation on it. SG P15 L22

The flexibility of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis allows us to acknowledge

the unbounded character of ‘improvisative experience’, rather than presupposing to

isolate such experience within music. However, in order to better understand the

nature of the experience we can explore the particular within the free improvisation

phenomenon in music. Improvisation seems to not only raise questions to do with

disciplinary boundaries but also to ask questions within the individually

constructed disciplines: for example, what is the role of the teacher for free

improvisation in music? (9.3) And separations between notions of movement and

music may be particularly challenged, reflecting the way in which within some

cultures there is no separate word for dance and music (Levitin 2007).

When I discovered improvisation I also saw a retrospect of Buster Keaton. I was living

in Montreal at the time. I went to see all of his films. I saw many short films – and I’m

absolutely sure that he influenced me completely in the fact that I’m in front of people.

It’s kind of like a fake thing, it’s pretentious, and fake.

SR: What is, the situation?

Yes the situation is very unnatural, people are here and you are here… from the

beginning I was influenced by the theatre. And also reading Becket for the first time.

RT P5 L12

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For many, reference to these other ‘disciplines’ remains in evidence within their

performance. NJ’s entire successful yet enigmatic approach to musical performance

may be better understood in the knowledge of it having developed alongside a

conceptual art practice. For others their incorporation of for example dance (LM)

and comedy (NA) is an obviously integrated part of their performance.

I normally bring a theatrical element to my playing, something a bit visual. I mean I

don’t overdo it but, I mean, I don’t stand there like a statue and play and 20 minutes

later step from the spot when I’ve finished. I don’t play like that. I try to use the space.

NA P6 L1

What is elsewhere described in this interview as ‘a bit of drama’ and ‘coming and

going’, is reminiscent of the visual, comedic feature commonly associated with the

Dutch improvised music scene, a recognised characteristic feature in the

development of such music since the late 1960s.

NJ’s work involves music that is influenced by conceptual art practice:

SR You mentioned an ‘art sound’. I don’t think (name removed) or (name removed)

had come from music training background. I think it was art school and languages.

NJ ... (name removed) was a languages man. He studies (removed) and he worked as a

translator in the court. And (name removed) was graphics, art.

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SR There were some Fluxus ideas?

S Yes… he was impressed by some of the people who were with the Fluxus… (S) P3 L14

Elsewhere in the interview NJ describes this trio’s playing in the late 1960s as ‘not

music’ (NJ P2 L15) but a: ‘way to explore the instruments together. It was to find out

what the instrument can do.’ (NJ P2 L16). Such a ‘conceptual’ approach is now

commonplace within fine art practice and for NJ the practice of art and music seem

indivisible. Given the cultural ramifications of such an idea and the need to further

professional aims, the presentation of this idea becomes complex.

I work as a visual artist and my scores and papers, it goes in the directions of scores

and drawings, is integrated in the visual art scene. I am in the (name removed) here I

also have a concert on the 21st but mainly I am invited as a visual artist, in the biggest

house in (name removed) but I also have a concert (date removed) at the (name

removed) a solo presentation. So I am also an artist, special musician. And also

qualities from the visual art scene come into my work as a musician. So it’s not from

the academic school.

SR I’ve read that you use theatricality in relation to your work. Would you agree with

this?

NJ No. People see me moving from one to another they might see (inaudible word) but

it’s just music stuff, playing this and the other. A piano player has to stick to his

instrument but my instrument is here, there and everywhere, more or less, so I have to

move a bit, and they say it is theatre but it is, I have nothing against it but… I do visual

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acts but for me it is also music. I have a rubber cymbal. And people hear a big cymbal

in their heads, sometimes and they see the cymbal. Not hearing, but they see the sound.

I play with this seeing and hearing and turn it sometimes backwards round.

SR You play with the visual side which inevitably accompanies musical performance?

NJ Yes. Expectations or the visualization of musical sound. In some parts. NJ P8 L1

There are a wide selection of extracts from the interviews in which connections to

other forms are clear, suggesting free improvisation as inter-disciplinary and trans-

disciplinary. At the same time it needs to be acknowledged that a common stance

among those wishing to be identified as professional musicians is that of

‘workmanlike’ and ‘craftsman’ and in seeking to maintain credibility for ideas of

professionalism may be intolerant of association with ideas such as theatricality etc.

within their performance. Some of this complexity may be reflected in NJ’s

distancing himself from the notion of theatricality in spite of the deliberate intention

to play with audiences’ visual and sound expectations. The presentation of the

personal and professional self in the differing contexts (Goffman, 1990) can be

important to the understanding of FI in different social contexts. As a neglected area

of study, improvisation benefits through openness to inter-disciplinary enquiry.

Free improvisation appears to develop and thrive through trans-disciplinary

interactions.

LR This was 61 I guess, so I was 21. I was 21 years old then, but we explored all kinds of

things. All kinds of things. We’d go to art museums and maybe spend the whole day

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looking at different art, all these different things. It was kind of like a total world of

learning.

SR That’s a very particular cultural understanding. Was that unusual?

LR Well, what I’ve seen of people that are particularly talented, they usually can do

almost anything in art, they have to decide which way they’re going to want to go.

Because out of that group of people we had (name removed) who is a very talented

artist, although he still plays, you know, art became his real focus. So, like I said it was

a whole pool of learning, I mean you could learn things from all these different people

and certainly the compositional process was very interesting. Each person has their

own take on it, the concerts were all different because each person would have their

own take on that, I mean you were inspired. LR P4 L32

Improvisation’s particular relationship to the cross cultural is facilitated by the

form’s ‘openness’. For creative imagination and improvisation there is no obvious

limitation for the individual’s interpretation and through the ‘whole pool of

learning’ individuals become empowered to have ‘their own take’. Understandings

of improvisation/composition are further discussed in Chapter 9.

5.1.4 Free improvisation and language

For RT descriptions of the experience of free improvisation became particularly rich

in metaphor and free improvisation itself was described as a language. The

interview response is interpreted as a deliberate play between what we presume to

understand by means of language and do not understand in relation to music and

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free improvisation. The limitations of language are shown up suggesting that for RT

language is insufficient to describe what is taking place. The interviewee cited

Buster Keaton and Samuel Becket as significantly influential at the formative stages

of becoming a professional improvising musician. Themes found in Becket’s work,

(associated with Theatre of the Absurd) are reflected in the following extracts in

which language is used while at the same time suggesting inadequacies in

addressing fundamental understandings, additionally Keaton was a specialist in

communication without words.

It’s… it’s… like the theory of gravity, the gravita… that we are here… so, improvisation

is up or down – in direction… This is an example of improvisation – the moment

surprises you, but at the point of deciding to go down or up can be very important in

the whole spectrum of the thing – it’s kind of like catching something that is in

movement – for me this is what improvisation is, the moment of change can be totally

important to what comes. RT P2 L21

And:

We’re talking about… well, I’ll bring water into the discussion, because water is

undividable, you can’t divide water, water is one of the elements that you can’t divide,

alright air as well, these very important things that benefit us but are totally, these

words, what is the word, water is of a consistency but it doesn’t care about our

practice of dividing. And I think something happens in music where the connection

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becomes one, then we’re in the way of water and this would also be another way of

saying its anti-gravitational in a certain way… When we become one, we are flying

together and I think, yes I think music has this, we have made this language I think for

some of these reasons – reasons to become one and to float I would say. RT P3 L18

Although the mixed metaphors may at first be confusing, they draw attention to a

serious idea. Grappling with articulating the phenomenon of free improvisation, RT

switches frequently between metaphors, the effect being to emphasise the way in

which meaning here cannot be readily pinned down to a single idea, definition,

model or analogy. The last sentence is thematically potent as there are 3 strong

ideas, conveyed through mixed metaphors. Firstly the idea of ‘flying together’ as

‘one’ is reminiscent of the experience explored by Csikszentmihalyi (1991)

described as ‘flow’ (Chapter 8.2). And improvisation described as ‘this language’,

developed so that we: ‘become one and to float…’ brings together two of RT’s

themes. Improvisation, as a ‘made’ language, exists for a unique collective

experience. Although, we are examining free improvisation through the medium of

words, employing a double hermeneutic in analysis, it is also essential to

acknowledge that perceptual engagement in the FI process (Chapters 7, 8.1) is not

linguistic. RT’s description of improvisation as language and the use of mixed

metaphor effectively draw attention to this. Steve Paxton, known for his work in the

development of Contact Improvisation dance, has referred to improvisation as ‘a

word for something that can’t keep a name,’ (1997) and improvisation seems to

resist models of thought and categorization as reducing aspects of the phenomenon

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to single entities creates a misleading impression, foreshortening the entirety of the

experience (Chapters 5.3, 4.9). As improvisation exists in different ways,

simultaneously, thinking about this is in terms of co-presence relieves the tendency

to overly ‘pin down’ and foreshorten understanding of the phenomenon.

5.2 Further contextualisation of ‘Describing the free improvisation

phenomenon’

So far in this chapter ‘Free improvisation as socio-musical location,’ (section 5.1.1)

has included the potent description of ‘creating environment’ through improvisation

and the implications of this will be further explored in section 5.2.1 with a specific

discussion of the role of silence and improvisation in drawing attention to the

environment. The ‘socio-musical’ theme is further developed through discussion of

the background of improvisation/art as socio-political, emerging as it has in theatre,

performance art, music as well as interdisciplinary practice. This also continues the

discussion of the theme of section 5.1.3, ‘Improvisation: music is only one domain’.

The theme of improvisation as egalitarian practice discussed in 5.1.2 is further

explored through the discussion of ‘Large group improvisation,’ 5.2.3, and

‘Inclusion,’ 5.2.4. ‘Improvisation: ‘music is only one domain,’ 5.1.3, becomes

developed through the discussion of ‘Being,’ 5.2.5, in which Heidegger’s and

Merleau-Ponty’s development of the question of being-in-the-world are discussed in

relation to the act of improvisation. Chapter 5 closes with a discussion of

‘Improvisation: real time composition,’ 5.2.6, in which ‘evolving’ composition and

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‘mutual composers’ are discussed and the separation of the roles of composer and

improviser becomes questioned.

5.2.1 Environment

‘… you’re creating an environment, you’re also interacting with one - so you have to

pay attention.’ SG P1 L6 (5.1)

A shift in thinking towards imagining ‘creating an environment,’ through

improvisation is not aided by the kinds of school environments that still reflect an

industrial model (Robinson 2011, 3.2) with: lessons timed by bells, groups

processed by age group, product ‘turned out’ etc. Notwithstanding this

contradiction, FI as ‘environmental,’ is further supported by John Cage’s famous

reference to silence, or drawing attention to the environmental connection through

the idea of all sound as potentially musical and Murray Schaffer’s (1992) work in

music education has situated music as specifically environmental.

Increased awareness of the urgent need to move away from outmoded educational

practice, (stemming from the 18th and 19th century) can also look to how high levels

of learning, ‘expert performance,’ are attained through: deep conceptual

understanding, integrated knowledge, adaptive expertise and collaborative skills

(Sawyer, 2008). The ways in which these are addressed, at a broad level, are within

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frameworks that acknowledge improvisation practice not only as a form of music

making but as understanding within effective pedagogy (6.1.4).

Free improvisation is embedded within the contemporary theme of environment in

a number of ways. The key to the notion of ‘creating an environment’ (SG P1 L6)

through FI is the ‘not-pre-determined’ potential of the free improvisation form:

individuals and groups are responsible for how they create music and thereby

determining the music/sound environment. Decisions of how to create sound

environments (through free improvisation) contribute to thinking about how we

choose to exist and co-exist with one another (9.7).

Our relationship to sound and silence is very often not considered in discussions of

environment although sound is an ever-present feature of teaching in schools that is

continuously negotiated.

‘… like some old, forgotten animal from the beginning of time, silence towers
above all the puny world of noise; but as a living animal, not an extinct
species, it lies in wait, and we can still see its broad back sinking ever deeper
among the briers and bushes of the world of noise. It is as though this pre-
historic creature were gradually sinking into the depths of its own silence.
And yet sometimes all of the world today seems like the mere buzzing of
insects on the broad back of silence.’ Max Picard (1989 p. 6)

Autonomous, creative engagement in improvisation is seen as contributing towards

‘creating an environment’ (SG,) a sense of being a part of the environment rather

than commenting upon it, once removed, contributing to a holistic broadening of

awareness.

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5.2.2 Socio-political arts

‘there are bigger fish to fry in improvisation than aesthetics’ SG P8 L40 (5.1)

Describing and interpreting free improvisation as social and also environmental

connects to a groundswell of activity, emerging particularly during the 1960s and

1970s, that may be described as socio-political arts. This focus became common in

practice within the arts at this time and such work became widely apparent across

western cultures. Examples abound in different countries at local and national

levels. It is not possible to illustrate the extent of the range here, but these examples,

taken from different disciplines, are intended to indicate the breadth of activity.

The pioneering work of John Stevens (1940-1994), in London, developed music as

socio-political through improvisation music practice (‘Search and Reflect,’ Chapter

2.1). An established professional drummer, Stevens’ conviction led him to become

equally involved in music as facilitator and teacher in Community Music, London.

Paul Burwell (1949-2007), a pioneer of free improvisation, also resituated music

through the development of the performance group Bow Gamelan Ensemble where

the distinction between music and performance art became blurred in spectacular,

site-specific work.

John gave up a lot to become involved in Community Music, consequently a lot of

Europeans don’t know about John and just how crucial he was to the history of

improvised music. Because he put his heart and soul into sharing that in community...

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John created excellence; he believed that everybody could achieve that kind of

excellence. LM P10 L36

An exemplar of improvisation as social practice is found in the Chicago, USA based

AACM (Lewis 2008, Chapter 3). Lewis’ account of the AACM is made compelling by

descriptions in which the agency of improvisation as social practice contributes to

self-determination through self-expression.

Interdisciplinary, socio-political arts practice developed in different areas during

this period. Oval House in South London, UK, was something of a home of fringe and

political theatre in the 1970s for such groups as People’s Show, Welfare State, Pip

Simmons Theatre Group and Lumier and Son, and devising theatre within

community was central to this activity. Such work included young people’s theatre

and theatre in education. Through performance art, in the US, Allan Kaprow and the

Fluxus movement developed and resituated art practice through a focus on

participation, often away from art gallery based work. Such practice is reflected in

the work of Marina Abramvic, Yoko Ono, Dan Graham and Vito Aconchi.

While not wishing to suggest a linear chronological connection between the

diversity of socio-political art practice, involvement formed part of an emerging

picture that encompassed direct political engagement. In France, formulating

practice in art as political challenge became the raison d’être for the Situationist

International (1957-1972) who reclaimed the act of creating art as political action

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in, for example, psycho-geography (improvised walks) in which cityscapes were re-

interpreted and re-imagined through personal mapping in the act of derive (walking

following an instinctive path). The extent of such socio-political practice was vividly

realised as Guy Debord’s Situationist activity became centrally important to the

Paris 1968 uprising. (Famously, the graffiti that appeared around the city that came

to characterise this period, is attributed to the Situationist manifesto, for example:

‘Beneath the streets, the beach.’)

Socio-political arts, including improvisation, are affected by the broader, changing

political times and it is worth acknowledging how this has impacted upon arts

activity. The changing economic and political climate in the UK during the 1980s

characterised by Thatcherism: monetarism, boom influenced consumerism together

with a concerted campaign in the UK to diminish the power and influence of the

trade union movement, all contributed towards an environment that was

increasingly hostile to arts as socio-political practice. Such groups, in the main,

found they could not survive within such an economic climate and art as socio-

political practice became the antithesis of the privatising goals championed in the

new political environment. (For example the Arts Council of England cut funding to

over 40 ‘fringe’ theatre groups in one exercise in the early 1980s.) Paradoxically,

free improvisation’s infamous lack of financial support has meant it has always been

un-reliant upon arts infrastructures for its existence. As previously mentioned, fully

illustrating the breadth and history of art as socio-political is beyond the scope of

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this thesis, these examples only act as an indication of the range of work in the

further contextualisation of free improvisation practice.

5.2.3 Large group improvisation

‘… what you’re hearing is the flow of intelligence and thinking… in these improvised

music things, you’re always hearing the intelligence and the intention regardless of

what they’re doing, you’re always hearing it, but I sort of wanted to hear a lot of

different variations for that.’ SG P12 L20

For some musicians the large free improvising group, beyond about six musicians,

becomes unmanageable and unsatisfactory, while for others the large group form is

celebrated and at the ‘cutting edge’ of the improvised music form. As SG comments,

when participating in one of Derek Bailey’s ‘Company’ performances, and it was

suggested that, ‘everyone play together,’ Bailey’s response being, ‘Oh, that never

works.’ While jazz and free improvising big bands/orchestras approach

performance differently, there are noteworthy similarities in practice. Referencing

the famous jazz orchestras, for example those of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and

Stan Kenton, LR describes how ‘those groups learnt how to play together… finding

their sound together’ as essential to their success, regardless of the individual

virtuosity on hand.

Developments in the large group improvisation form have been significantly

influenced by the work of Lawrence D ‘Butch’ Morris’ ‘Conduction’. Conduction uses

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a system of hand signals with which to guide improvising orchestras. The use of

hand signals is found in groups across settings and large improvising groups have

developed their own systems, reflecting the nature of autonomous improvising

activity. Walter Thompson’s ‘Sound Painting’ is in many ways a similar approach in

which a language of signs has been developed for group improvisation and this has

made a strong connection to educational settings in the US. Similarly, John Zorn’s

game pieces (Cobra, 1984 etc.) involving instructions and signs, effectively co-

ordinates group improvising with a dynamic, playful emphasis on the different

possible combinations. For some, the use of signs with an improvising orchestra or

group detracts from allowing individuals to make decisions about how to musically

interact within an ongoing process (Chapter 7.2; ‘Improvisations for George Rusque’

PSI 2009). Whilst different compositional approaches and concepts may hold their

own worth, the particular agency of improvisation lies with individual decision

making within the group context.

In theorising the nuances between different interpretations of large group

improvisation we can also acknowledge the fundamental attraction and power of

large group music making, (evidenced by use in organised religions, sports events

etc).

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5.2.4 Inclusion

‘Everyone’s creative – no negotiation’ LM P10 L3

Underlying the educational aim of interpreting ‘equality of opportunity,’ is the

broader theme of social inclusion: acknowledging diversity may begin to address

equality and there is a role for improvisation within this picture (Chapter 1.3).

The riots in England, UK (2011) vividly illustrated social division in public

exhibitions of disaffection and alienation expressed through the violent, direct

challenge to authority. Highly territorial gangs united in forming unprecedented

allegiances against the police. Although some, politicians in particular, view such

riots as more straightforward, misguided criminality, the history of rioting across

many decades, suggests there are deeper, longer term issues that politicians are

reluctant to address, seeing no short term political gain. The challenge of providing

social inclusion in areas of high unemployment and associated poverty is real and

ongoing and has been grappled with by many working in those areas for a great

many years. Genuine attempts at working towards social inclusion will emphasise

education. Improvisation carries a number of themes that directly address the issue

of inclusion (Rose 2008, Chapter 1), principally improvisation’s characteristic of

requiring autonomous participation. This significantly reverses and challenges

assumed ‘top down’ models, embodied throughout education, and in the process has

the capacity to directly address social alienation. Improvisation, or free

improvisation, in music (as well as in drama and elsewhere) seeks the individual’s

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contribution and therefore implicitly values the voice, leading to a process of what

can be described as autonomous learning (6.9; Rose 2008).

5.2.5 Being

Music is just one domain of the improvisative experience, you know, and as you start to

find out how vast that experience is, how many levels it has, you don’t want to privilege

music over all the others, which ends up making a limitation on it. SG P15 L22

The question of ‘… how vast that experience is, how many levels it has…’ in

improvisation remains highly relevant for understanding of the improvisation

phenomenon in music. As discussed in section 5.1.3, improvisation certainly goes

across domains and disciplines. Findings of the study Rose (2008) ‘Articulating

perspectives of improvisation for education,’ discussed being as an effective way of

encompassing the characteristics of improvisation for education. (Findings were

established through a Grounded Theory process of analysis, Straus and Corbin,

1998.)

The features that arise from engagement with free improvisation all point in the

direction, to a greater or lesser extent, to what can most usefully be described as being.

It has been possible to divide this concept further, but this continued analysis and

further fragmentation has not been of use as it ignores the central unifying capability

of the subject… (Rose, 2008)

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As improvisation is widespread and inextricably woven within human activity, the

description of improvisation as being, can benefit from further discussion. In

Heidegger’s concept of ‘being-in-the-world,’ (1962) being is described through our

integrated experience of the world of one another and things, not as divided subject

and object. It is an importantly holistic picture. The real-time composing dimension

of improvisation creates a particular, special connection to the question of being-in-

the-world: as individuals commit to creating music in real time, the experience is

not repeatable, and is made special through creative expression, engaging in making

something new within that given time. In the process of ‘holistically’ composing in

real time we create the environment, or world, through our being/improvisation. In

the creative process of improvisation, being is highlighted, as UP describes when

discussing listening:

If you talk about being it’s right in there, having awareness up-front. UP P6 L10

Merleau-Ponty continues Heidegger’s theme of the question of being by describing

perception and the body in ‘The phenomenology of perception,’ (1962) through

which the connection to the act of free improvisation can be further explored

(Chapter 8, ‘Body’).

In ‘Imaginative listening and the reverberations of the world,’ Jeffrey Ediger (1993)

explores the ways in which Merleau-Ponty (1962) and Bachelard (1958) describe

the process of realising being-in-the-world through two kinds of artistic activity:

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Merleau-Ponty through the act of the painter and for Bachelard the poet: ‘Through

the activity of the artist, drawing on powers of the imagination, the natural world

undergoes a transformation by means of which the human world comes into being.’

While poetry is privileged by means of its special relationship to language ‘the house

of being,’ (Heidegger 1968 p. 64) it also seems that improvisation in music’s

relationship to the embodied, real time, creative, collective experience provides a

vivid example of ‘… the human world coming into being’ through artistic practice

(Chapter 8: Body). The real time composition aspect of improvisation marks it out

through the need for: ‘… awareness upfront.’ (UP).

RJ chose to highlight the special character of creativity in improvisation

performance/participation that is not dependant upon reproduction (3.4.4).

… this unrepeatable experience. RJ P19 L16

… a moment of time you’ve chosen to share attention RJ P19 L21

… a sensory experience which is only going to happen in that moment is very unusual.
RJ P19 L39

The act of improvisation forms a special connection to being-in-the-world, as the

human world is realised through playing. In the face of music as mass media

reproduction there is a particular, contemporary resonance for improvisation

resulting from this special characteristic of the shared experience, existing in an

‘unrepeatable experience’.

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5.2.6 Improvisation: real time composition.

Interviewees made reference to themselves as composers and the practice of

improvisation as composition in a variety of ways.

They’re effectively three mutual composers going out and creating their music, which

is a continually evolving body of music through the practice of improvisation.

RJ P4 L1, on the long-standing group: The Schlippenbach Trio (Alexander von

Schlippenback piano, Paul Lovens drums, Evan Parker saxophones.)

The idea of ‘mutual composers’ is important. Improvisation is a challenge to the split

between the performer and composer roles, as separated activities. The negation of

the splitting of roles results in ‘mutual composers’: composition is embodied in the

act of improvisation. A characteristic of such real time composition is that of a

continually ‘evolving’ music, evidenced well by this trio’s 40 year history of activity.

Composing takes place through the way in which individuals contribute their

particular voice, in musical choices, giving rise to the relationships within the group,

and the way in which the music collectively develops at different times can be well

described as ‘evolving.’

There’s often the claim with composers that we, and I include myself in that… SG P15

L30

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Additionally, interviewees’ descriptions of themselves as composers were nuanced.

Some referred to the act of improvisation as composition (RJ, LM, SG) – improvising

music forming real time composition, for some musical practice encompassed

careers in which they were known for commissioned written scores (LR, UP,RJ),

while equally, they pursued careers through the practice of improvisation. Between

the open form of free improvisation and the written score that uses traditional

notation there is a panoply of variations of pre-determined and not-pre-determined

music: some examples of this being ‘Conduction,’ (Morris), instruction pieces,

(Stockhausen), game pieces, (Zorn) and the range of graphic scores (Chapters 5.7,

2.2, 2.3). Specifically, in relation to the notion of improvisation as real time

composition the Instant Composers Pool (ICP, Holland) and the Spontaneous Music

Ensemble (SME, UK) can be acknowledged as highlighting improvisation as

composition. Within the ill defined area of jazz music, composers such as John

Coltrane, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk’s pieces become vehicles for

improvising compositions while retaining difference at each performance.

RJ describes a particular section of younger contemporary improvising musician’s

practice:

‘… they’re actually making music in a way which is more akin to a composed process…

and they’re aiming for a particular kind of music and they’re filling in the details

through improvisation…’ RJ P2 L 15

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The circularity within composition and improvisation gives rise to a music process

(Chapter 7.9). Musicians refer to ‘finding things’ while improvising, these musical

ideas then contribute to personal musical ‘vocabulary’ also described as

‘ingredients’ (RJ) or ‘grab-bag of ideas’ (GB) and in turn become options in the

compositional choices made during future improvisations. This reiterates the

evolving character of real time composition.

… it’s a very important thread throughout and I’ve always improvised. When I was

composing music with conventional notation, if I got stuck I could improvise. So my

composition teacher, (name removed) encouraged me to improvise and we were all

encouraged by (name removed) to improvise… it’s a very important thread

throughout and I’ve always improvised. UP P1 L7

In this description improvisation is also employed as a specific device to aid the

development of composition that becomes represented through recording or

written form.

LR highlighted a unified approach to composition and improvisation:

I think that I study composition and improvisation as a parallel because what I’m

striving for is to be able to create spontaneous composition. And I think that this helps

me know how composition works and then you can apply these principles during an

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improvisation… if you look around at the great composers, I mean they all improvised.

So I just feel it’s important, for me, to study music as a whole. LR P1 L6

For LR ‘spontaneous composition’ is a goal and improvisation and composition are

studied ‘in parallel’: suggesting equality and at the same time some conceptual

distance. In discussions of improvisation and composition, often one becomes set

against the other and an oppositional picture, composition versus improvisation,

obscures the creative relationship between improvisation and composition, and in

particular improvisation’s forming of composition, in real time. As historical and

contemporary evidence for the mutual benefits of these separated activities

abounds, ‘… the great composers… all improvised’ such a separation seems to be

acculturated rather than pragmatic and needs to be challenged.

‘… I’m interested in being the performer as well as, if you like, the composer. And I do

consider myself to be a composer it’s just that most of my compositions are realised

through comparatively spontaneous performance.’ RJ P6 L 37

Composition often infers written composition, and the presumption that the

experience of sound can be faithfully, best represented by the ‘grid paradigm’, on

paper, is left largely unchallenged. It is the notion of written composition that tends

to be regarded as the bedrock of ‘serious music’ however improvisation and

recording musical ideas, by different means, both contribute to the creative process

of composition. It is the respective cultural connotations suggested by composition

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and improvisation that are often strongly evoked within this false binary. In the

West, written composition is often aligned with ‘high art’ sensibilities and

aspirations and part of the defining of such an identity includes a distancing from

other forms, for example improvisation. Paradoxically, classical music’s

estrangement from improvisation is relatively new, in terms of that music’s history,

as many of the highly esteemed composers of classical music were well known for

their skill in improvising. In practice composition and improvisation become

indivisible.

5.2.7 Summary

Understandings of improvisation as a human capability and as creating an

environment both contribute to over-arching ways of interpreting the act of

improvisation. We have seen how describing the ‘socio-musical location’ situates the

agency of improvisation in music, we have also seen how improvisation as a human

capability is reflected by interdisciplinary activity in music, other arts and across

areas of human activity. The value of heterogeneity becomes a distinct feature of

improvisation, contributing towards development and renewal, and in the process

questioning orthodoxy. Creating music in performance, improvising, was seen as a

practice of real time composition that may question other understandings of

composition. We have also seen how the creation of music in real time forms a

special relationship to being-in-the-world: holistically creating the environment in

‘an unrepeatable moment,’ in the act of improvising, becoming a heightened

expression of being-in-the-world.

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Chapter 6

Free improvisation and learning

6.1.0 Introduction

Across the interview transcripts the theme of ‘Free improvisation and learning,’ was

recurrently embedded in interviewees’ accounts of improvisation and aspects of

learning and improvisation articulated in a variety a ways. In 6.1.2 improvisation

and learning is considered in relation to developing professional practice and the

‘music business’ and in 6.1.3 the question of improvisation and

academia/assessment is discussed. The characteristics of improvisation as an

educational method are explored in 6.1.4 and in 6.1.5 free improvisation’s history

and its relative importance for education is considered. This is followed by a

discussion of the importance of ‘live’ performance for learning in 6.1.6. In the second

part of Chapter 6 themes of improvisation for learning are further contextualised.

6.1.1 Free improvisation and learning

… what I’ve done, and continue to do, is try to improve, all the time, so that I’m able to

speak in any kind of situation… because it’s also a thinker’s game. So you want to be

able to have the long-range thinking. LR P6 L27

Within FI’s ‘open form,’ stylistic boundaries and musical language are not static.

Flexibility combined with developing knowledge of other’s forms become integral to

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successful group activity. Consequently, developing learning becomes integrally tied

with free improvisation. A super-objective for the improviser is to be ‘able to speak

in any kind of situation’, or to be able to play in a wide variety of contexts. This

reflects what has elsewhere been described as the practice of ‘code switching’

(Lewis, 2008) understanding of different idioms and techniques and developing the

musical ability to relate to them, although the phrase ‘code switching,’ suggests

something automated rather than the more likely mutual, adaptive development in

improvisation.

LR, now in his 70s, a world leader in the art of improvisation in music, speaks of

‘what I’ve done, and continue to do… is try to improve, all the time’. As well as this

being individually noteworthy, it seems that throughout the interviews such an

ongoing process of learning in free improvisation was being acknowledged and

expressed in particular ways. What is expressed above as ‘long range thinking’ can

be interpreted as developing ability to not only listen and respond ‘in the moment’

but also to retain an overview of a possible structure, and how momentary decision-

making contributes to structural, compositional possibilities.

I study composition and improvisation as a parallel because what I’m striving for is to

be able to create spontaneous composition. LR P1 L6

For LR the manner in which knowledge of composition and improvisation are

developed is ‘in parallel’. Knowledge of compositional possibilities contributing to

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the capacity for improvisation, the aim here is directed towards ‘spontaneous

composition’. The life decision to develop as a musician, as improviser/composer, is

also very clearly tied to the commitment to a life of learning in music.

… I realised that if I didn’t make it in music I wasn’t going to make it…

What I found is the only things that help you with music are the things that you really

learn, the things that you don’t really learn they’re already out there haunting you,

until you really decide to really learn them. LR P7 L18

The theme of commitment to learning in free improvisation is also embedded in

LM’s interview. She emphasizes the importance of the role of John Stevens (Chapter

2.2) in the development of free improvisation and learning. Stevens’ life work and

influence was not just as a groundbreaking drummer, influential musical innovator

but also in community education as facilitator and teacher (Stevens, 1985).

John… was one of the founding pioneers of free improvisation in Europe. You could

almost look at anybody in the European improvised music scene and they’ve been

influenced by John, if not directly by playing with him then by playing with people who

did play with him. And all the musicians played with him – Evan, Derek (Evan Parker,

Derek Bailey)… he was just phenomenal, he really was. He took rhythm in particular

to a whole new area. Previous to that you would hear drummers who had fantastic

time, you know playing metrically, and they’d throw it all over the place, but as soon as

you took the meter away they’d often sound like beached whales, you know

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floundering about on dry land and John devised ways to keep that (sings: bip, ba, bip,

bap, clap, bap) that thing that you hear that is so kind of… people take for granted

that kind of, that rhythmic feel in free improvisation, but really it was not that usual…

LM P3 L14

Stevens’ free improvisation ideas influenced musician colleagues and those who, in

turn, played with those musicians. But his influence also extended as a facilitator in,

for example, Community Music sessions in London, open for the public to enrol in.

Stevens embodied two kinds of approaches in relation to free improvisation and

learning. One as the traditional, peer mentor: informally sharing information,

encouraging and influencing others, often found in jazz and other music as a kind of

apprentice model, learning ‘on the job,’ the other as facilitator/teacher in organized

sessions for those beyond the circle of professional musicians, extending the same

ideas and philosophy, motivated by a further commitment to music as a socio-

political phenomenon. LM describes a central aspect of Stevens’ groundbreaking

approach, concerning understanding of time in music.

… if you think of Ornette, (Ornette Coleman) time/no changes, that whole thing of

taking away the harmonic and exploring what it would be like to play free, with time,

but still keeping an actual pulse, then John and people like John saying, OK well what

would it be like to take everything away, it’s an evolutionary process and I suppose

classical music has its own evolutionary process. Free improvisation, coming from the

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jazz tradition, is a natural evolution coming from the different periods in the history of

jazz. LM P4 L16

In the time-based art form of music, developments in free improvisation contribute

to understandings of approaching time beyond reference to the metronome alone

(kronos). This can be described as interpreting time as kairos, (qualitative time),

contributing to greater possibilities in music created through, and related to, human

impulses and interactions in sound. This in turn is suggestive for group activity

through, for example, creating/exploring with sound.

6.1.2 The ‘music business’ and learning in improvisation

Why should those who wish to be professional musicians learn to improvise?

Pragmatic, vocational concerns come understandably to the fore in discussions

concerning the developing musician, and these may become sharpened in

economically uncertain times. However improvising ability contributes towards

essentially extending the musician’s prospects.

… in the last say 50 years of popular music making, improvisation has been an

important element. What that’s been used for through rehearsal, studio work to

develop a finished product which doesn’t contain much improvisation. But the process

of making it from The Beatles up to hip-hop music, improvisation will be a part of

arriving at the end result. RJ P5 L42

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Improvisation forms a very significant part of music making, as Derek Bailey (1992)

suggests it is: ‘… the most widely practiced of all musical activities and the least

acknowledged and understood.’ Although improvisation is central to creating music,

the ethos embodied in the music business remains so intransigently tied to music as

consumer product that the process of improvisation, although it may lead to such

product, is given little credence. RJ, however, clearly illustrates the way in which

improvisation has been ‘a part of arriving at the end result’ in commercial pop

music. The ability to ‘find parts,’ adapt, contribute an essentially individual ‘voice,’

play well and fluidly without depending upon given parts, find ways to work with

diverse others and music, and overall musical creativity are all necessary

requirements of, for example, playing in a rock band or creating dance music.

As perceptions of music may be dominated by a pervasive music industry, it is

helpful to unpack the complex relationship of music business to improvisation.

As has been well documented, ‘all the great composers improvised’ (LR), which

leads to the question: What has happened? Why is improvisation now sidelined, and

so little understood? While it is true that some of the ‘great composers’ were known

as improvisers in their day (and that this aspect is often now disregarded), it was

developments towards what we now have as copyright and the wider control of

music, as a saleable, reproducible, consumable product that has led to the legacy in

which improvisation has become regarded as culturally unimportant. In spite, or

because of the displacement, or suppression of improvisation, close ties to ‘struggle’

and the challenge of hegemonic power have developed: e.g. Black Power and free

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jazz developments, the Women’s Movement and the Feminist Improvisation Group,

Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and African-American self

determination, ‘jam bands’ and the Hippie Movement in the USA, Amon Duul and

German post-war counterculture and search for new identity, the Dutch improvisers

and clashes with the music establishment, and so on. As a site of ‘other’ voices

improvisation has provided a central, potent agency for the expression and

assertion of subjugated groups and individuals. Improvisation in Western music was

almost completely disregarded prior to interest in developments in Afro-American

music that began to flourish from the early/mid 1900s. This has led to the

beginnings of a more fundamental re-assessment of improvisation’s role, in music

and elsewhere.

6.1.3 Current practice – the question of improvisation in

academia/assessment

Some years ago I was asked to give a sort of lecture demonstration to the (name

removed) for their new Improvised Music module. That was run by (name removed)

not an improviser, of course, they usually aren’t. And they were interested students and

they knew a bit, but what I found amusing was that to get their credit for the module

they had to write a graphic score, which was then assessed by the tutor, you know this

was the improvisation module… So that puts your finger on certain aspects of the

problems of dealing with, what we would understand as improvisation within an

academic situation, is so inaccessible to objective criteria of any sort. That if you’re

having to assess things this presents problems. RJ P14 L19

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Students without the benefit of appropriately skilled and experienced faculty may,

unsurprisingly, continue to marginalize improvisation, through wariness and

inexperience of improvisation within their own practice. The idea that the

improvisation module is assessed by means of the creation of a graphic score, while

tautological, also points towards what is perceived as the greater difficulty of

assessment of improvisation in education. This touches on three themes for the

analysis of improvisation that hold potential for further research into the

application of improvisation in education: textocentricity, experiential learning, and

group learning. ‘Texocentricity,’ or the over-riding, privileging of text within

academia together with the mistrust or undervaluing of experiential learning is

discussed in Chapter 8. Education’s emphasis upon individual achievement, over

group achievement is often unquestioned, free improvisation is largely a

group/performance centred activity and as such this needs to contribute to the

framework for assessment, drawing upon understandings of group-orientated

pedagogical practice may contribute to alleviating this picture (Chapter 6.2.3).

So when I left my home town and went to school, went to (name removed) they had a

music improvisation class, and that was the first time I encountered the notion that

there was a thing called improvisation that you could study, in a systematic way and

the class was utterly dreary and boring and it immediately became the class that it

was hard to drag yourself to and then Anthony Braxton came and taught a workshop

and it was a revelation and I thought OK this is what I want to do – my first encounter

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with improvisation in any rigorous or systematic way was this horrible class, where

the guy who taught it never improvised at all. GB P12 L1

Experienced practitioners teaching in academia have the capacity to transform

perceptions of improvisation. Although these two accounts of academia in the USA

and UK represent experiences that are decades apart they both illustrate how

institutions recognize the need for improvisation within the conservatoire but how

there is a deficit between such recognized need for experiential learning in

improvisation and the necessary skills and experience within the faculties for its

implementation.

6.1.4 Educational free improvisation

The description of free improvisation as a socio-musical location (Chapter 5.1)

situates the activity for educational contexts. SG’s descriptions, in particular, are

richly suggestive of educational purpose as he explores the ethical underpinnings of

improvised music activity. The activity is based within community (socio-musical)

and concerned with self-development.

… those musicians themselves who are extraordinary – extraordinary not for the usual

reasons, or in addition to the ordinary reasons; they’ve been together for a long time,

they are a community, they come out of the community, they’re very generous with

each other… their music was the place where you’re supposed to have these

generosities. SG P14 L5

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This extract describes an improvising orchestra and FI as an opportunity to share

through music (Chapter 5.7, 5.6). SG identifies the interaction within FI as: ‘these

generosities’.

The next step here was to realize that it was about personal transformation - you

would have to come to the improvisation as a changed individual and that you

transformed yourself as the kind of human being who can operate in a large space and

a lot of that was quite prosaic and obviously, if everyone’s playing all the time the

textures are not going to be that diverse. So that means, realistically, in a large group

you’re going to spend most of your time listening. SG P10 L2

SG is unequivocal that FI is concerned with self-development or ‘personal

transformation’ within the group setting. The potential of free improvisation for the

group and the individual voice within that offers a seemingly unique model of

human communication. Newer models of cognition have located learning as

importantly social (Vygotsky, 1987) while much of education tends to focus upon

individual success, although not necessarily for pedagogical reasons that benefit the

individual, or the group (Chapter 6.1.3, 6.2.3). Free improvisation, as a ‘socio-

musical location,’ (Chapter 5.1) problematises the way in which educational practice

tends to emphasize individual achievement over possibilities of group achievement

and learning.

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In acknowledging the group as the locus for improvisation activity, exploring the

character of such group activity naturally develops while self-development becomes

an educational purpose within the music activity.

6.1.5 Teaching the history of free improvisation and the question of canon

As free improvisation comes of age how will its past influence contemporary

developing improvisers? A common criticism of jazz music among improvisers is

that its institutionalisation has contributed to its becoming ‘sanitised’ (LM).

Institutions tend to focus upon aspects of the music that can be utilised within pre-

existing academic contexts (section 6.1.3). A challenge for FI and education is that

improvisation doesn’t become a homogenised form, that it is able to retain its

heterogeneous character. In order to do that a perspective of the history is

necessary that includes understanding of the essential value of individuality, or

voice.

(name removed) an improvisation course at music school and they were playing FMP

and Incus and that’s how he first encountered it and it was part of their course of

instruction… I heard his first record, which was him with a tenor player and a

drummer and it sounded like Tony Oxley, Derek Bailey and Evan Parker. It’s really odd

putting out your first record sounding so much like other people. Because in our day

that’s the last thing you’d attempt to do. You’d be mortified to think that anybody

would think you sounded like anybody else. For them it was kind of an aim. RJ P16 L17

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Some would say that FI has already become generic and others that nothing is new.

As we become more knowledgeable of ‘who did what when,’ connections between

player’s approaches, as well as approaches drawn from different kinds of music,

become increasingly transparent. Effectively, instrumental techniques and playing

approaches can be traced across communities and cultures. Musician’s personalised

approaches to improvisation tend to be an ongoing amalgam, developing over

decades with multiple, continuing influences. As with invention in all spheres, it is

more likely to be the result of simultaneous and collective creative activity (Sawyer,

2007, Chapter 2.2), although copyright’s insistence upon individual, legal

ownership, would lead us to believe otherwise. To avoid the kind of ossification or

‘stylisation’ (Braxton, 1988) found in jazz education, free improvisation needs to be

educationally embedded in a framework that is more grounded in cultural

understanding than that which simply leads towards emulating the ‘masters’ or

copying a style: ‘… there are bigger fish to fry in improvisation than aesthetics.’ (SG P8

L40) The innately explorative character of FI, and the attraction of that kind of

comparative freedom, counters the possibility of FI becoming predominantly

concerned with reproduction and stylisation.

6.1.6 The potential of learning from ‘live’ performance

I learnt so much from going to gigs. You know I was free improvising before I knew

there was a scene. There was just something in the air. You know I was trying to copy

the weird bits off ‘Mothers of Invention’ records with my brother. Or copying bits of

Stockhausen electronic music. What I realized I was kind of doing was free

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improvising. I’m talking about when you’re 16, 17, 18 this sort of thing. And then

through listening to jazz in London - I listened to people like Derek (Derek Bailey) and

realised there were people who dealt with these issues in a very profound way. And it

all came through gigs. RJ P17 L23

RJ acknowledged that an important part of developing as a professional improvising

musician was through attending live performances. The visceral, embodied quality

of FI in ‘live’ performance is often referred to as notable of the music. As the music is

created ‘in the moment’, sharing an ‘unrepeatable moment’ can be seen as a special

experience for performers and audience alike. In the early days of FI the notion of

recording the music was hotly debated and there were those who believed

vehemently that recording was entirely inappropriate and a denial of the extent and

possibilities offered by the form’s unique commitment to ‘the moment’. Although

learning about any music is enhanced by the experience of witnessing musicians

play in real time, it seems that witnessing experienced musicians create the music at

the point of performance provides further benefits and leads to deeper

understanding of the process, as RJ puts it: ‘… it all came through gigs.’

6.2 Further contextualisation of ‘Free improvisation and learning’

This second part of Chapter 6 further contextualises the super-ordinate theme of

‘Free improvisation and learning’. In order to develop understanding of the

complicated relationship between improvisation and formal education,

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comparisons are made between the histories of formal educational practices

relating to visual art, drama and music, 6.2.1. Examining improvisation in the

context of hegemonic power structures, 6.2.2, further contributes to explaining the

relationship of improvisation to practice in formal education. The potential of

participation through improvisation in music is explored in 6.2.3 and specifically

individual and/or group learning. The fundamental pedagogical question of the role

of the teacher in improvisation is further contextualised for free improvisation and

learning, 6.2.4, through a discussion of approaches. ‘Free improvisation and the

discourse of intelligence,’ 6.2.5, continues the theme of 6.1.1 by examining

improvisation and learning-by-doing in the context of further theory and literature.

As the social process of improvisation within music is found across cultures, idioms

and styles throughout the world, this, in itself, suggests a process with far reaching

implications for education. If as Bailey suggests: ‘Improvisation (is)… the most

widely practiced of all musical activities and the least acknowledged and

understood,’ (1992 p. ix) why is improvisation not a celebrated centrepiece, why

does it remain so little understood? There is a disparity between what is practiced

in music and what is taught and, of course, what we practice will be greatly affected

by what we are taught. Such a cycle continues, often stemming from unquestioned,

underlying assumptions about ‘what is best’.

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6.2.1 Educational comparison: music improvisation, visual art and drama

Music improvisation in education has been described in a number of texts since the

1970s: John Stevens devised structures to initiate and explore group playing in

‘Search and Reflect’ (1985) Maude Hickey (2009) has advocated improvisation in

schools, Charles Ford (1995) George Lewis (2000) and Susan Allen (2002) have

described personal perspectives of teaching improvisation in higher education

settings. David Borgo (2007) has explored ‘free jazz in the classroom’ from multi-

disciplinary perspectives and Keith Sawyer (2007) has extended his work in

psychology, in which he has explored improvisation in music and drama as a model,

particularly for business, and identified improvisation as an appropriate pedagogy

through which high-level learning may take place. However, there are complex,

underlying questions concerning the challenging relationship between

improvisation and education (Chapters 1,3,4) that need to be acknowledged and

these have influenced the design of this research project. For the purposes of

understanding the potential of improvisation in education we can additionally

reflect on practice in different areas in which creativity and education meet. The

histories of arts practice in education, with regard to changing practice, are

illuminating.

Within UK education, drama is found extensively and the use of improvisation as a

method goes hand in glove with the subject in schools, where drama is

pedagogically employed to ‘look at ourselves and the world around us’. The

correlation with music here being where a process derived from an art form has

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been interrogated, developed and utilized for its educational potential. As with

drama, the educational agency of improvisation in music is pedagogically realized

via practical, social engagement with an improvisation process. The reasons why

drama found such a place within UK education are numerous. By the 1960s and 70s,

the period in which drama became broadly established in education, (beyond being

solely identified in terms of texts and stagecraft,) a canon of influential,

experimental work was available: for example Stanislavski (1936), Grotowski

(1968), Artuard (1958) and Brook (1968). Such work pointed towards theatre that

transcended the cultural limitations typified by the evening theatre performance

experience. There has been no such canon of work from which to reflect upon

improvisation in music, although a written body of work is becoming established

(Critical Studies in Improvisation, etc). In the 1960s/70s experimental and political

theatre flourished and the first UK theatre-in-education (TIE) company was

established at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry (1965,) followed by a blossoming of

such activity across the country. A clear relationship between educational practice

and flourishing drama activity can be seen.

Fine art’s relationship to education is a noteworthy comparison. Contemporary art

practice has become extraordinarily successful in the UK, it is characterized by

experiment, innovation and radical expression that reflect the personal and the

political. Contemporary art practice is regarded as somewhat characteristic of UK

culture and its relationship to education can be traced to developments within art

schools in the 1960s and 70s. Influential, major art schools, mainly in London,

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employed practicing, contemporary artists who in turn regarded the intake more as

artists than students. The characteristic acculturated self-determination of students

since that time contributed to the kind of practices that we are aware of today, made

visible in galleries such as Tate Modern.

Although music from the UK is clearly celebrated throughout the world, the

relationship between such creative music practice and education is dissimilar to the

experience in art and education. The examples of drama and fine art education have

shown highly significant developments in the last fifty years or more and this has

involved innovation and experimentation. Music has not been characterised by such

a correlation between education and broader musical practice that involves the

celebration of creative, experimental diversity.

6.2.2 Improvisation and hegemonic structures

‘We are necessarily working against myths that deform us. As we confront
such myths we also face the dominant power because those myths are
nothing but the expression of that power, of its ideology.’ Friere (1982 p. 26)

As music does not exist in a socio-political vacuum, engagement with improvisation

in music brings with it awareness of how improvisation is situated within

hegemonic power structures. In spite of its ubiquity, the notion of improvisation, or

democratised real time composition (Chapter 5.2.6) may be a challenge to the

convention of ‘the composer’ and the cultural capital associated with that term. It

also challenges the cultural dependency upon the notion of ‘the score’. Additionally

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improvisation questions the idea of ownership of music within the market, in terms

of the need to identify the ‘writer’ within real time composition practice

(improvisers are obliged to identify/register the ‘writer’ of works in order to receive

royalty payments etc).

Through these numerous challenges presented by improvisation it becomes

possible to develop a picture of how such practice relates to existing structures.

Musical practice reflects society’s socio-political orientation and Attali (1985)

describes music importantly as a ‘herald’ of developing societies. While simplistic

comparisons between orchestral hierarchical structures and hegemonic power

structures found elsewhere, (army, education, health care etc.) across society’s

institutions, are easy to point out, and figures and movements in popular music can

be readily cited as heralding, or reflecting, change (Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, John

Lennon, Sex Pistols etc), improvisation’s relationship to politics is both profound

and complex. Improvisation as a means of expression in contexts ‘other’ than where

mainstream ideas and norms flourish forms strong connections to theories of

‘subjugated knowledge,’ (Foucault, 1969) in other words understanding that

abounds and at the same time is not recognised as part of ‘legitimate’ knowledge

(section 6.11). At the same time the fluidity of improvisation, ‘the agility of the term’

(SG), is enabling: lending itself to the capability and need for human expression,

improvisation leads to developing form through, for example, intercultural

improvisation (Stanyeck, 2004). As John Litweiler (1995) suggests, the freedom in

free jazz is the freedom to create form.

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The socio-political dynamics of the relationship between improvisation and

composition are explored in George Lewis’ ‘Improvised Music after 1950:

Afrological and Eurological Perspectives’ (1996, p. 93):

‘…the AACM’s revision of the relationship between composition and

improvisation lies on an unstable fault line between the new black music and
the new white music.’

The constructed cultural demarcation between improvisation and composition is

discussed through accounts of Charlie Parker and John Cage as Lewis explores the

manner in which the social and institutional positioning of improvisation and

composition perpetuates inequality through prejudice. As Lewis puts it: ‘New white

music’ has been historically assigned as ‘serious,’ ‘art,’ etc. while ‘new black music’

has been situated as ‘jazz’. This theme is echoed by Anthony Braxton’s reflections on

negative criticism of his citing European influences, such as Stockhausen, in his

music: while it remains unquestioned that white musicians may, for example, be

influenced by John Coltrane: ‘I see it as racism.’ (Lock 1984). The forty-year history

of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM, with the

motto: ‘great black music,’) provides an exemplar of commitment to collective music

practice (Chapter 3) and Lewis’ (2008) ‘A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM

and American Experimental Music,’ extensively documents this history of self

assertion in the face of oppression, as Muhal Richard Abrams explains:

‘…we intend to take over our own destinies, to be our own agents, to play our

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own music.’ (2008)

Improvisation’s, or real time composition’s, capability and significant history of

representing the ‘other’ voice, made most clear through the Afro-American music of

the 20th century, has contributed to improvisation’s re-emergence, as non-

academic: remaining un-reliant, as it is, upon the academic preoccupation and

privileging of text, (textocentrism, Chapter 3.4.1). As well as the all but forgotten

forms of improvisation found in classical music, the practice of improvisation can be

found throughout different cultures: within court music, folk music, experimental

music, rock music, jazz, old music and new music, as well as in the growing area of

music specifically delineated as improvised music or free improvisation, in which

musicians commit to a relatively open form of not predetermined musical

performance. The continued development of such music practice suggests the extent

of the agency of improvisation that may be engaged for education.

6.2.3 Participation

While participation in large group activities is instrumental in structuring school

life, for example daily school assemblies or swearing allegiance to the flag etc.,

participation in free improvisation provides an opportunity for autonomous

creative expression and thereby contributes to the possibility of a more

democratised educational setting. In theorizing free improvisation for education

students become participants in rather than recipients of curriculum ‘delivery’.

Participation in free improvisation may contribute to a wider sphere of

understanding of education, through which students gain appreciation of the

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broader educational setting (Chapter 1.3). Such educational practice employing

improvisation participation, includes the teacher (section 6.2.4) as part of that

picture, they too participate through facilitation and interactive awareness of the

developing process.

Improvisation raises a fundamental question for education regarding the focus upon

individual and group achievement (section 6.4). While a focus upon individual

success is taken as a given aim, the reasons for such an emphasis tend to be

unquestioned. Michael W Apple encourages us to scrutinize how schools encourage

individual success:

‘freedom in a democracy is no longer defined as participating in building the

common good, but in living in an unfettered commercial market, in which the
educational system must be integrated into that market’s mechanisms.’
Apple (1998 p.146)

Individual rather than group success is always the goal and similarly, emphasis is on

the school and not on the larger framework of social relations. One of the ways in

which individual success is prioritised and perpetuated is through continuous

pressure on schools to respond to economic and policy requirements, for example,

through ongoing published competition. The overall picture is also reinforced by

means of reward for ‘good schools’ (already economically/demographically

advantaged). Responses to pressure on poorer performing schools tend towards a

narrowing of aims in their attempt to ‘drive up standards’, increased testing and

implementation of ‘good old fashioned’ methodologies.

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The pedagogical application of participatory free improvisation provides a

methodology with an opportunity to highlight group potential, and a framework for

autonomous learning. An inability to apply assessment criteria to interpretations of

group improvisation in performance is cited as a difficulty of improvisation in

academic/learning settings (section 6.1.3). However, evolving models of assessment

of participatory performance practice are readily found in drama, and assessment

within visual art routinely employs assessment criteria to evaluate students who

may present dissimilar creative outcomes. As such assessment of improvisation is

not an obstacle to the inclusion of improvisation in education (9.2.6). Objections to

the assessment of improvisation per se, raises no particular issues that cannot be

applied generally to other areas of the curriculum, and arts in particular. Obviously,

assessment in improvisation needs to be appropriately handled, particularly in an

educational environment that increasingly furthers market values: ‘grade-chasing,’

runs counter to experiential group learning. Methods of assessment that involve a

means of recording personal progress, for example through a diary, reflection, as

well as self and peer assessment not only provide the means for developing formal

assessment in order to meet institutional requirements but provide the opportunity

for ongoing dialogue and reflection about engagement and progress with free

improvisation. Assessment of improvisation is necessarily informed by the

understanding of the nature of such a participatory educational activity. Well-

handled forms of ongoing, embedded assessment hold the capability of developing

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and contributing to the development of participatory improvisation activity in

education.

6.2.4 The role of the teacher in improvisation

Free improvisation in education questions the role of the teacher in a way that may

reflect beyond music teaching as it addresses fundamental pedagogical concerns.

As discussed in 6.2.3, FI activity is participatory and as an autonomous learning

process (not-pre-determined), the focus for teaching is with creating the conditions

for such learning activity to occur rather than prescribing the content. Clearly,

within such a framework issues of ‘control’ and accomplishment exist in balance

with the need for creative participation through which musical decisions are taken

about the content and trajectory of developing sessions (Chapter 1.5). The nature of

free improvisation activity creates a shift in educational dynamics, certainly away

from a ‘top down’ idea of curriculum ‘delivery,’ and benefits from a coterminous

awareness of how the teaching role relates to such improvisation activity (Chapter

1.3).

A number of schemas and accounts of developing improvisation in education have

been described: (Stevens, 1985; Ford, 1995; Allen, 2002; Lewis, 2005) and some will

become more applicable to particular settings than others. Questions regarding how

to proceed in free improvisation and education are best addressed within the

context of the individual’s relationship with a particular group and Stevens’, ‘Search

and Reflect’ (1985) may provide suggestions for initiating activity. Importantly,

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mirroring the autonomous improvisation activity of the group, the teacher in free

improvisation finds their own way within the teacher/learner relationship (Chapter

1.3), as Murray Schafer (1977) has suggested, ‘don’t try to shape a philosophy of

music education for others, shape one for yourself.’ The individual teacher develops

their way of understanding and developing improvisation through relationships

with those who are there to learn.

The specific ‘openness’ (Chapter 8.1.2) required in not relying on pre-prescribed

formula, may be the biggest challenge to the role of the teacher in free

improvisation. In relation to improvisation pedagogy Heidegger’s (1968) ‘let learn’

and concern with the ‘authentic self’ finds resonance in the autonomous learning

possibilities of an approach to improvisation in education. Similarly Rogers’ (1983)

move towards a pedagogy in which the teacher becomes more a facilitator of

learning provides a strategy for allowing the necessary contingency of

improvisation activity in education.

The context for autonomous learning in FI is the group activity: reflecting upon the

nature of group learning informs the teacher’s role. Vygotsky’s (1994)

understanding of social processes as originators of mental processes maps onto the

social encounter of free improvisation and further suggests the potential of

improvisation’s educational agency. Vygotsky’s importance for improvisation in

education lies in the acknowledgement of the group as the central component of

development in learning. The challenge of forming collective music making through

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free improvisation demands engagement with an inter-subjective process where the

inter-mental is internalised by the individual. The not-pre-determined character of

the form provides a pedagogical axis through which inter-subjective learning

becomes intrinsic. The role of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in

relation to the autonomous learning possibilities offered by free improvisation may

help, for example, in grounding the role of teacher in free improvisation. Working in

the ‘space between’ the student’s developmental and potential developmental level,

by means of assessment, can inform how lessons may progress and become guided.

Such a process contributes to how the teaching role may be interpreted. Pedagogical

theory for free improvisation may be further explored though the related Activity

Theory and Active Learning and Discovery Learning.

Improvisation’s questioning of the teacher role initiates a deepening of

understanding of the teacher/pupil power relationship (Chapter 1.2). It takes an

effective teacher to make use of, for example, silence and discover how students

create in that silence: willingness to allow for the unknown informs a process that

engenders trust (Chapter 7.3).

The evolving character of the teaching/learning relationship in free improvisation,

the ability to respond, knowing when to contribute to an autonomous learning

process and when to remain quiet, to ‘let learn,’ also points to the improvisatory

character of the teaching activity. Sawyer (2007) describes the characteristics of

learning, by those who have become experts, as improvisatory: the development of

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expert skills/knowledge across professional domains employs learning

environments (inquiry, problem and project based) that are improvisational in

character. Sawyer describes the four areas of common knowledge found in experts

as: deep conceptual understanding, integrated knowledge, adaptive expertise and

collaborative skills, and identifies these descriptors for learning as improvisatory in

character. While our focus here is with improvisation in music and the role of the

teacher, the implications created by this extend beyond the teaching of

improvisation in music.

6.2.5 Free improvisation and the discourse of intelligence

Analysis of the interviews in Chapter 6 contributes to a picture of the ways in which

free improvisation forms an educative process of continuous learning through

creative music making in performance (6.1). Analysis also explores the many

connections interviewees made to learning processes in the descriptions of their

experiences and practice (6.2, 6.1.6). In order to further understand the relationship

between improvisation and learning we will explore improvisation and theories of

intelligence. For education, free improvisation in music involves learning by doing

and forms connections to theories of embodied knowledge (8.1).

The development of knowledge through practice, learning by doing, remains in

general a challenge to academic constructs and such ways of learning are far from

generally accepted. Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligence contributes to

understanding free improvisation as learning by doing by suggesting ways that

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people are capable of demonstrating intelligence differently and that: ‘People have a

wide range of capacities. A person’s strength in one area does not predict any

comparable strengths in other areas.’ (Gardner, 1983 p.31) While Gardner’s findings

are contested, the debate offered by Multiple Intelligence theory (MI) implicitly

questions the reliance upon inherited, hierarchical, academic structures of much

education, and questions presumptions regarding the nature of intelligence.

Gardner recognised that, for example, intelligence of a performing musician differed

from the intelligence of a scientist. For pedagogy the significance of MI theory may

lie less in the specificity of Gardner’s contested eight delineated ‘intelligences’ than

in drawing attention to the fact that we understand less than we believed of the

nature of intelligence. Additionally, acknowledging the potential of different types of

intelligence contributes to educational inclusion, by offering different ways in which

students may achieve, in this case through improvisation activity (Chapter 1.3).

Kinaesthetic learning is discussed in Chapter 8.1.3, ‘Body’.

Creating real time composition through free improvisation requires the human

facility for immediacy in processing information and simultaneously responding,

drawing on abilities for ‘in the moment’ decision making in inter-subjective

interaction and draws upon developing musical skills. The disconnect between

some human capability and education’s common interpretation of knowledge is

described by Margaret Donaldson:

‘… some of the skills which we most value in our education system are
thoroughly alien to the spontaneous modes of functioning of the human
mind.’ (1978 p. 15)

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Acknowledgment of the ‘spontaneous modes of functioning’ embedded in free

improvisation activity addresses this issue directly.

During the last hundred years or so the intellectual development of children has

become better understood as intimately connected with emotional development:

(Freud, 1975; Kleine, 1993; Rogers, 1988; Winnicott, 1982) however the manner in

which understanding has been transferred into good pedagogical practice at an

institutional level has been inconsistent (Chapter 1.3). We can reflect on how the

curriculum is acknowledging intuitive abilities, and the question of what is

happening to these abilities when they are not acknowledged. Active involvement of

the whole self through embodied learning in group improvisation in music (and

drama) addresses issues associated with the relationship of the

intellectual/emotional development (Chapter 1.3). The theme of

intellectual/emotional development in education is further addressed by

Heidegger’s (1968) holistic, educational open space in which the learner’s

engagement is prioritised over pre-specified teaching (section 6.1.4). Learning as

unified experience also relates to descriptions of Flow, Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990)

theory of an optimal state of high level functioning through immersion, the ‘quality

of experience as a function of the relationship between challenges and skill’. There

are a number of studies in which Flow has been explored as a feature of jazz

improvisation: Hytonen 2010, MacDonald, Byrne and Carlton 2006. What is referred

to as the ‘unifying experience’ (high level functioning without separation of mind

and body) has now become better understood and Flow contributes to this.

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Intellectual and emotional activity may become acknowledged and unified in

educational contexts through the agency of improvisation in music.

6.2.6 Summary

Learning was seen to be embedded throughout participants’ descriptions of the

practice of improvisation. Autodidactism and non-formal learning are

acknowledged as centrally important to the practice of improvisation.

Improvisation’s relationship to both formal and non-formal educational contexts

was further explored through the discussion of knowledge. The relative absence of

improvisation from mainstream education led to a discussion of the relationship

between academic practices and improvisation in music. Improvisation’s inherently

participatory character was seen as of importance for educational aims.

Understanding the role of the teacher for improvisation was seen to contribute

larger questions for teaching about the nature of learning and specifically facilitating

learning that is autonomous. Improvisation’s unique temporal character, creating in

the act of performance, led to the experience of ‘live’ performance, as audience and

performer, becoming especially significant for learning in improvisation.

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Chapter 7

Process

Interviewees’ accounts of their development of practice in free improvisation each

carried descriptions and philosophies of free improvisation stemming from many

decades, and in some cases more than half a century, of engagement with the

improvisation process in music. Analysis and interpretation has identified the

process of improvisation as a super-ordinate theme. 7.1.1 identifies the process of

improvisation as human interaction in different spheres of activity and describes

the implications of this for ways of learning and teaching. In 7.1.2 the candid

expression of personal history illustrates the agency within the improvisation

process that provides for self-determination. 7.1.3 interprets the interviewees’

understandings of the importance of developing trust within the process of

improvisation. In 7.1.4 we examine the way the process of improvisation leads to

the crossing of disciplinary boundaries. The element of risk in the improvisation

process and its contribution to creative performance is discussed in 7.1.5. In the

second part of Chapter 7 the theme of Process is further contextualised through

extended discussion.

7.1.1 Improvisation in music: human interaction

… this guy Phil Jackson… he’s the coach of the Lakers, and he had this book right, and

the book is all about improvisation, in basketball… it’s based on this theoretical book

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written by his assistant coach in the 50’s… he would say this funny thing like, the team

would be loosing, and usually the thing is, you got somebody saying ‘the team is

loosing take out person X and put in person Y’ but his thing was ‘well the team is

loosing, we’ll let them work it out’ (laughs)… that’s why it’s so entertaining to watch,

even though I’m not a big basketball fan, you can see them working it out

improvisationally how to do things, it was an expression of trust in their ability to

work it out for themselves. And I learnt a lot from that for improvised music. SG P6

L21

The basketball analogy points towards the utility of an improvisational process

within human interactions. The point at which the team is losing becomes an

opportunity for the development of group learning: ‘… we’ll let them work it out’.

This may sound overly simplistic, however, planning for allowing content and

method that is not overly directed or determined by a teacher (coach) may require a

big shift in understanding, as discussed in 6.2.5: ‘The specific ‘openness’ required in

not relying on pre-prescribed formula, may be the biggest challenge to the role of

the teacher in free improvisation (Chapter 6.2.4).’ Such an approach, requires

thinking that is both subtle in ‘allowing’ learning to occur and sophisticated in

drawing on awareness of inter-subjective learning processes (Chapter 6.1.4, 6.2.4).

Perhaps the way in which this is approached is to: ‘… trust that they are going to do

the right thing and that you don’t really have to do anything…’ (SG P6 L16). For

some not intervening may be counter-intuitive and SG’s: ‘you don’t really have to do

anything,’ comment can be further interpreted for different contexts: the absence of

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intervention is determined by an active awareness of the trajectory and progress in

a session on the part of the facilitator. Importantly, activity utilising improvisation

involves an: ‘expression of trust in their ability to work it out for themselves.’ The

theme of trust became a central one and is explored more fully later in this chapter

(7.1.3).

‘…we should be drawing larger lessons from improvisation...’ SG P20 L12

Adopting the stance of ‘we’ll let them work it out… enjoy other people and what they

are doing and trust…’ opens the way for the autonomous creative experience and

interaction offered through the process of improvisation. SG presents improvisation

as much more than simply an alternative to a more traditional composed structure

for players, rather, opening up a world of possible relationships with ‘infinite

possibilities’ for exploration expressed in the extract below. This is music as social

practice and can be interpreted as improvisatory interaction taking place at multiple

perceptual and inter-subjective human levels simultaneously while in the process of

collectively creating music at the point of performance.

So you felt good and you got a good outcome for your piece and everyone liked it, so

what, you know. I mean did you learn anything about the nature of… the things that

you can learn from improvised music – the nature of consciousness or the nature of

communication, things that really matter, things that you can really learn from

improvisation, that you can learn all the time. And I thought that’s why they were on

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stage but I guess what they really, what some of them were really on stage for was to

create a nice commodity, that they could package in some way and that they could get

a repeatable outcome from. That’s a different problem, that’s not my issue – not now,

maybe it was a long time ago. SG P12 L30

Moving towards deeper understanding of the value within the process of free

improvisation for SG involves intrinsically stepping away from the focus of creating

music as product whilst aiming to learn about: ‘the nature of consciousness or the

nature of communication, things that really matter, things that you can really learn

from improvisation.’ SG P12 L 35

… what we draw from the lessons in life seem to me to be the most exciting to me. I

don’t know about the rest, so you may learn a lot from someone who has a particular

viewpoint that they articulate, that they play. But then that person is maybe trying to

learn too – again it hinges on the personal transformation thing, how open are you?

How vulnerable can you make yourself, how open to change, how malleable, mutable

as I think Evan (Evan Parker) used to say … maybe that kind of value system is what

you could use, because there are a lot of ways to go about things you know. SG P20

L24

What is ‘most exciting’ for SG, within the process of FI (and elsewhere,) is the

possibilities ‘we draw from the lessons’ and what others, with other viewpoints, are

simultaneously trying to learn. SG identifies this learning process in FI as being

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‘open to change,’ as a ‘value system,’ the value in the process of free improvisation,

for SG is continuous learning (6.1). The musical process and the social dimension

become indivisible.

7.1.2 Self-determination and the process of free improvisation

SG’s theme of ‘drawing larger lessons from improvisation’ is further illuminated by

the experience of other interviewees. LM’s experience, at times stark and painful,

clearly informed personal development and a life’s work with the improvisation

process.

… thanks to people like Dennis Rose and John (John Stevens) who didn’t take

advantage of me, and who genuinely mentored me – because I mean there were men

there who used me like an unpaid prostitute in many ways, you know. Because it

wasn’t like the casting couch, where you give me a favour… no it was literally you just

service me, so that’s um, quite a, quite a wound really in a way, and probably why,

that’s another reason why I worked, again not thinking about it consciously – why I,

for me I was so driven to develop my voice as an equal instrument, with any male

instrumentalist. That wasn’t conscious, it really wasn’t, but I know that I felt I had to

prove that I deserved to exist, on that scene… LM P22 L19

For LM the process of self-assertion goes hand-in-glove with improvisation. LM

identifies the capability offered by the open improvisation form as capable of

providing for a human need: ‘I know I felt I had to prove that I deserved to exist.’

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The process of development through free improvisation became expressed, in this

case, through a binding relationship with the Women’s Liberation Movement: ‘… I

was so driven to develop my voice as an equal instrument, with any male

instrumentalist.’ LM is also clear that for her the ongoing process of improvisation is

an encompassing means of being and expression. LM’s descriptions are candid:

there is no shying away from difficult, formative experience. Determinedly,

repeatedly expressing the personal as political leads to a celebratory account of a

life world embedded and enriched in social improvisatory practice.

… it just became more and more of who I was, or who I am, and just felt more and

more convinced that that’s what improvising for me was, it was just a totality of

whatever, of the history, the now, the other musicians, the environment, what’s going

on in the world, politically, all those things and… it varies all the time as well. LM P7

L8

7.1.3 Trust and improvisation process

A comparison for SG for the process of free improvisation in music is found in

basketball (section 7.1.1). In both music and basketball we find instantaneous non-

verbal communication, relying upon creativity/inventiveness, understanding the

collective aim and the individual contribution within that etc. albeit, in the case of

basketball, overshadowed by the emphasis upon overt competition against another

team, however there seems to be an overlap of the process involved for both

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basketball and FI (section 7.2.1). LM similarly shares a comparison for the process

of improvisation:

There’s an organisation called Perma-culture… It’s all about learning from nature,

observing nature, which is what people did before, you know, before capitalism broke.

Anyway, it’s about minimum input and maximum output. You’re learning about how

nature functions and they have these different zones, and zone 1 is maybe your herb

garden, it’s close to the kitchen, zone 2 might be your vegetables and so on, bee

keeping might be a certain… and then right to zone 6 which you leave alone, you don’t

actually interfere with, you just let nature do its thing. And so I often feel the Gathering

(open-door improvisation group/sessions) is probably, it’s not exactly a 6 because we

are in there energetically influencing things but it’s probably zone 5. Just let it be self

regulating, however chaotic that might be and trust that out of that chaos will come

the clearings, will come the new growth, will come the coherence. And it does, when

you trust it and if enough people trust it then of course that affects the whole thing.

LM P15 L1

At the centre of this environmental (Chapter 5.1.1) comparison for free

improvisation is the importance of ‘trust’; trust that ‘out of the chaos will come new

growth.’ LM’s description refers to long standing (21 years) ‘open door’ sessions

where all are welcome to participate in undirected collective free improvisation,

there is no entry requirement relating to experience and the session is for those of

all abilities. Elsewhere LM emphasises her ‘love’ and faith in the potential of mixed

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ability creativity. LM has been able to sustain activity in open sessions through

commitment to the potential of the improvisation process, understood through

personal experience. The longevity of this group activity demonstrates the viability

and validity of: ‘… let it be self regulating, however chaotic that might be, and trust

that out of that chaos will come the clearings, will come the new growth, will come

the coherence.’ This mirrors SG’s ‘let them work it out’, and highlights the

autonomous agency of free improvisation. As an environmental analogy, taken from

nature (section 7.2.3), and applied to the collective process of free improvisation,

Perma-culture suggests the possibility of organically developing structures for

music, and agency of the group as a democratised, inter-subjective, creative music

ensemble.

Understanding of trust within the process of improvisation was also highlighted by

UP:

You have to trust the situation, you have to make it safe. UP P2 L26

For UP there was a belief in the necessity to not discuss improvisation before

playing took place (‘you’re going to kill it if you do’ P2 L16) hence: ‘trust the

situation.’ The relationship between talk and improvisation in music is further

explored in 8.1.6. In drama contexts, in which improvisation has a central

educational role, the theme of trust is highlighted, similarly within improvisation in

music trust is interpreted as significantly enabling of the process.

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7.1.4 Interdisciplinary improvisation process

While the way in which improvisation goes across domains has been explored in

Chapter 5.1.3 this theme additionally informs the process of free improvisation. In

visual art practice, theatre, multi-media, film, dance, comedy and elsewhere the

process of improvisation seems to disregard ‘disciplinary boundaries’. This was

occurring at a foundational level in the development of the process and can be

interpreted as a result of the form’s open character together with participant’s

interest and willingness to experiment. Conventional ‘boundaries’ are crossed

through the process of improvisation. These may be stylistic musical boundaries

where those with different backgrounds meet and negotiation takes place through

improvisation, additionally boundaries between artistic disciplines can become less

rigid as conventions relating to performance and participation become lessened. LM

describes an aspect of her performance process in improvisation:

… my favourite, definitely, is when I trust and when I trust and just let things, you know

whatever happens – if there’s a baby, or if there’s a bird, just be open to whatever’s

there in that moment, in those unfolding moments, yes. LM P7 L41

Once more, trust is directly referred to as significant (7.3). The rich possibilities of

what is often referred to as ‘the moment’ where improvisation occurs, extend

beyond the performer’s immediate musical concerns to simultaneously include the

environment (5.1) as part of the music/performance. ‘… if there’s a baby, or if there’s

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a bird…’ can be acknowledged and incorporated within the improvisational flow of

the performance. This aspect of the process leads the performance to becoming

interdisciplinary. The following 7 interview extracts illustrate the extent to which

the other disciplines have been referenced within the process of improvisation in

music and how improvisation activity relates to other forms for the interviewees.

The extracts create an impression of the breadth of interdisciplinary activity and

thinking within individual’s practice.

Theatre:

I normally bring a theatrical element to my playing, something a bit visual. I mean I

don’t overdo it but I mean I don’t stand there like a statue and play and 20 minutes

later step from the spot when I’ve finished. I don’t play like that. I try to use the space.

NA P6 L1

Theatre/drama:

So from the beginning I was influenced by the theatre. And also reading Becket for the

first time. RT P5 L28

Visual art, written stories, written music:

… we did written stuff, we did improvised stuff, it was lovely in a way and lots of

different women came through that: Sylvia Hallet and all different women, women

who were experienced, women who weren’t. Wonderful, wonderful stuff we did and

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Annalisa Colombara who’s a visual artist who did the most amazing slides as well and

wrote story that we did.’ LM 24 L6

Film:

And (name removed) got a commission to write a piece for a film, a 5 minute film… he

didn’t have the time to write the music so (name removed) and I went into the studio

and we recorded 5 minute tracks for(name removed), we improvised the music. That

was my first improvisation in that way. And (name removed) took a track and used it

for the film, and it was quite successful and I remember saying, hey this is fun, we

should do this. UP P1 L 21

Visual art:

… So I am also an artist, special musician. And also qualities from the visual art scene

come into my work as a musician. NJ P8 L9

Crossing musical boundaries:

… there’s a change going on there. A lot of classical trained musicians are becoming

more interested in improvising. People from all different fields of music are stepping

out of the category, I mean. Charlie Parker wanted to study with Varese and someone

else too, but who knows what Charlie Parker would be doing today if he was alive. LR

P10 L14

Rock music, drag artist performance:

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… these (name removed) fans came to see their hero. The first set was hard enough for

them because they had no idea it was going to be this noise thing and that (name

removed) wasn’t going to sing any words and they had no idea that (name removed)

wasn’t going to be in the second set so (laughs), when (name removed) wouldn’t

appear and this guy in a women’s bathing suite appeared in his place and started

getting a tan with her tanning lotion. I think people were absolutely dumbfounded.

People were like, what the fuck. I half expected that chairs were going to start flying.

(laughs) GB P9 L30

The process of free improvisation seems to provide an invitation to other disciplines

(‘the flexibility in the term’ SG,). The interdisciplinary nature of the process of FI

may be viewed as surprising, in one way, given that the demands of free

improvisation have also been described as a self-punishing form, a kind of ‘hair

shirt’ (Ben Watson, 2004) suggesting that nothing is required outside of the

essential interactions of a paired down music, existing in the moment. However,

while improvising guitarist Derek Bailey’s approach to playing is certainly, at times,

stringent and devoid of the now standard array of effects pedals (enhancements)

employed by electric guitarists, Bailey’s broader project in improvisation (Company

Ensemble; Bailey, 1992) is full of interest in performing across disciplines, such as

working with dancers: Min Tanaka, Butoh and Will Gaines, tap; with musicians from

the variety of backgrounds and genres. Such an open approach is less surprising

given the cultural context of the 1960s and 70s from which free improvisation

developed: experimentation and questioning of form across culture in the West

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occurred throughout the arts, creating a legacy of intercultural, interdisciplinary

activity and interviewees’ comments reflect this in their descriptions of the process.

Moreover, given the variety of interdisciplinary activity indicated by the

interviewees, improvising seems to hold a particular facility for transcending

boundaries.

7.1.5 Risk

The importance of trust can be seen as tied to the need for a willingness to risk in

the process of improvising in order to create music in the act of performance.

… then that person is maybe trying to learn too – again it hinges on the personal

transformation thing, how open are you? How vulnerable can you make yourself, how

open to change, how malleable, mutable as I think Evan (Evan Parker) used to say …

SG P20 L29

For those with no experience of free improvisation, the notion of involving

themselves with music that is composed in performance may seem perplexing and

precarious. Within interviewees’ descriptions of the process of free improvisation,

the element of risk is implicitly present in the various kinds of FI experiences. There

seems to be a particular link to risk within the free improvisation/learning

relationship. The challenge of FI, producing music in the moment, seems to attract

those who are motivated perhaps to some extent by the excitement created by the

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challenging activity that presents its risks in creating something new. SG’s notion of

‘open to change’ and ‘How vulnerable can you make yourself?’ immediately suggests

an approach for education within the free improvising setting described and the

idea of risk can be situated within the broader framework of developing trust. ‘You

have to trust the situation, you have to make it safe.’ UP P2 L26.

GB identified finding the ‘new’, or a willingness to seek the unknown as an

important aspect that may implicitly involve risk of failure in improvisation: this

ability for ‘taking a really fresh look’ was seen as an exemplary characteristic of

‘inspiring improvisers’.

When I think of improvisers that really come to mind, who are really inspiring

improvisers in that sense. The first one would be Monk, who every time he sat down

somehow conveyed the sense that he was taking a really fresh look at the piano; ‘look

here’s an E over here… how can I use that…’ And when you compare his various

recordings he never plays the same tune the same way twice. And he always conveys

the sense that he is discovering, genuinely discovering new things, every time he sits

down to play. GB P12 L32

In finding ‘new things,’ ‘taking a fresh look,’ there is an ongoing tension in the

process between known materials and creating fresh settings for the material as

musicians seek to create in real time (Chapter 9.1).

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At an extreme the theme of risk can become more overt, relished and built into the

structure of performance. This becomes reminiscent of aspects of some rock and roll

bravura or some ‘contemporary’ art’s aim to shock.

… and they had no idea that (name removed) wasn’t going to be in the second set so

(laughs) when (name removed) wouldn’t appear and this guy in a women’s bathing

suit appeared in his place and started getting a tan with her tanning lotion. I think

people were absolutely dumbfounded. People were like, what the fuck. I half expected

that chairs were going to start flying. (laughs) B P9 L30

With an essentially free improvisation approach at the core of this intercultural

performance, risk is present in a number of ways. There is the challenge to audience

expectations when the ‘star’ they have come to see engages with distinctly other

material. There is the challenge created by the fact that, unannounced, he does not

appear in the second set. There is the challenge created by the drag performance

within a largely rock music audience. There is also the challenge created by the trio

not sharing a common language. As GB put it finally: ‘this was not an easy band to

book.’

In LM’s description, risk is implicit in the challenge to male hegemony through the

formation of an all women’s improvisation ensemble. In the following extract the

choice of interdisciplinary performance style, including comedy, forms a challenge

to commonly understood boundaries of performance practice of the late 1970s.

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Because you had musicians of phenomenal technique like (name removed) and (name

removed) and others who didn’t have such a strong technique but were amazing

performers and again that was really open and I loved the openness of that. What

happened to (name removed) which was very interesting was, different male groups,

there was the Henry Cow lot. And they’d say well we like (name removed) and (name

removed) but we think they’re too theatrical. And then there’d be the jazzers like Keith

and people going – Oh, we like you and (name removed), you know, and there was a bit

of divide and rule went on, because I think we were quite threatening and other

musicians loved us like Lol, Lol Coxhill, Eugene Chadborn, Martin Altina there were lots

of male musicians who were big fans but there were other men who really, really were

threatened in fact (name removed), we did the (name removed) and he actually

complained about us. He said why did they book us, because we couldn’t play our

instruments. Well this is insane – you’ve got women like (name removed) and, you

know, I could use my voice. And it was a huge hit as well. The audience loved us but we

were accused of being novelty – you have no idea of the vitriol we got. LM P21 L13

Within the feminist theme of the extract risk is strongly present and characterises

activity as the group becomes criticised on a number of fundamental levels.

In discussing risk within the process of free improvisation, as a discreet topic, it is

possible to become overly fragmented. While acknowledging risk as an important

part of the creative process it can also be interpreted as contributing towards free

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improvisation as a learning process (Chapter 6.1). NJ does not refer to risk directly

but simply explains a desire to discover the ‘new’ as a fundamental impulse to his

practice in performance, within this aim the importance of embracing risk can be

understood.

…if new communication, a new experience doesn’t happen then there is no reason to go

on stage. NJ P9 L46

7.2 Further contextualisation of ‘Process’

In this second part of Chapter 7 the super-ordinate theme of Process is further

contextualised. Leading from the discussion of improvisation as human interaction,

7.1.1, the theme of ‘The process of improvisation as a human capability,’ is

developed in 7.2.1. The broader implications of ‘improvisation as a human

capability’ are expanded in 7.2.2: ‘The improvisation process and political assertion,’

in which new technology and mass interaction provide examples of the range of the

improvisation process. In 7.2.3, ‘Improvisation and processes in nature,’ self-

organisation, feedback, evolution and environment are discussed in relation to the

process of improvisation. 7.2.4 explores the process of improvisation as

composition in real time.

7.2.1 The process of improvisation as a human capability

In ‘Interdisciplinary improvisation process,’ 7.1.4, the ways in which improvisation

in music formed connections to other disciplines such as theatre, dance, film, visual

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art as well as other musical forms was discussed. While interdisciplinary is an

increasingly common description within academia, it also may detract from what

may be a more important feature of improvisation, the process of improvisation

may be interpreted as a human capability. In other words the innate range of which

is shown up through interdisciplinary activity that is symptomatic of the process of

improvisation reflecting a human capability. Within music the process of

improvisation comes sharply into focus through performance (Chapter 1.4): as the

performance is experienced, so too are the processes that enable performance.

While we understandably highlight improvisation within music and other arts

practice involving performance, it may also be that improvisation is present within

the range of human activity.

Increasingly I find the same structures are active all the time… you’re engaged in a

continual kind of analysis of what’s going on, what other people are doing, what the

environment is doing. SG P2 L8

And, from the same interviewee:

Music is just one domain of the improvisative experience, you know, and as you start to

find out how vast that experience is, how many levels it has, you don’t want to privilege

music over all the others, which ends up making a limitation on it.

SG P15 L22

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Descriptions such as: ‘music is just one domain’ and, ‘the same structures are active

all the time,’ suggest that as well as looking at musical activity to describe the nature

of improvisation we can look across human activity to further understand the

process of improvisation.

This quotation is from an interview conducted in 2007 (Rose, 2008).

To me free improvisation is a paradigm for your life because your life is freely
improvised and nothing else but free improvised. You think of it as having
routine and so on but in fact it’s freely improvised from the beginning to the
end, your life is one long free improvisation… you are actually freely
improvising without being aware of it. When you’re in some critical situation
you sometimes become aware of it… I think it’s good… you can either go down
and sink or I can rise up… Roger Parry 2008

It seems the process of improvisation is present within the range of activity: arts,

communication, travel, domestic activity, professional activity, sports, play etc. and

can be acknowledged as a human capability. Confining the activity within one or

more areas, or disciplines, ‘ends up making a limitation’ on understanding.

Specifically, this innately human capability can become engaged through the

approaches to the use of improvisation in music and learning.

7.2.2 The improvisation process and political assertion

As has already been described in 5.2.1, 5.2.2 and 6.2.2, improvisation in music has

an association with self-assertion. Considering improvisation as an essential human

process, not limited to disciplines, or musical activity, we can consider the scope of

improvisatory practice and, for example, reflect upon how the contingency of the

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process of improvisation has agency for those in unstable political environments.

The uprisings during the ‘Arab Spring’ (2011) may be viewed as reflecting

improvisatory process in practice. The ways in which large numbers of people

participated, prepared to act spontaneously, while adapting to circumstances,

through the employment of new media, was highly improvisatory. There is an

emerging relationship between digital media/technology and its potential use

through what is improvisation process in practice. The extent of this has been

signalled by government responses, where attempts have been made to directly

prevent such improvised activity facilitated through new media, for example by

shutting down the internet and blocking mobile phone networks (Egypt, 2011;

Myanmar, 2007; China, 2009). The UK government have also explored ways to

control social media that has been used to initiate spontaneous mass activity (UK

Riots, 2011). Improvisation processes can be usefully further explored in relation to

the developing engagement with social media.

7.2.3 The process of improvisation and processes in nature

Comparisons can be made between the process of improvisation and processes

found in the natural world. In this section we will discuss the processes in nature of

self-organisation, feedback and evolution and how this may aid understanding of

the process of improvisation in music. In comparatively recent times there have

been revolutionary developments in understanding of the way life develops (Darwin

1859, Turing 1952, Belusov 1959, Mandelbrot 1975). Self-organising systems,

without an external designer (‘composer’), are found everywhere in the natural

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world and in this section we will make comparisons to the process of improvisation

in music. LM’s reference to Perma-culture (section 7.1.3) has been central to

developing thinking in this section as has Evan Parker’s reference to the utility of

bio-feedback systems in developing improvisation practice and in particular David

Borgo’s ‘Synch or Swarm’ (2005). Borgo’s research interest in ‘new science’ forms

the basis for his far reaching explorations of improvisation, in particular his work on

fractals in studies of Evan Parker’s solo saxophone improvisations, and the groups

of Sam Rivers and Peter Brotzmann has contributed to the development of thinking

towards the writing of this section.

Appreciation of the ways structures are produced, in this case in music, is

fundamental to understanding the world, particularly as descriptions of music in

language are represented largely at a metaphorical level. The utility of metaphors in

particular contributes greatly to conceptualising and extending understanding of

music. Finding language that accurately represents the process of improvisation

furthers understanding. The Newtonian metaphor of the universe was of a

mechanical, mathematically reliable system and random behaviour was seen as an

outside influence impacting upon it: that patterns could exist without an external

designer was inconceivable.

The development of Chaos Theory demonstrated how simple equations, that have

nothing random in them, can have outcomes that are entirely unpredictable: that

there is an unexpected relationship between order and chaos. Similarly within

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improvised music, for example three musicians may begin to play, without a pre-

determined structure, each listens to the others and themselves, the relative

simplicity of, say, simple sounds or notes can very quickly, if not immediately

develop into extremely complex configurations, through what we can refer to as

controlled and chance musical events. While this is not replicating ‘chaos theory’ the

source of creativity within improvisation is inextricably bound to the unexpected

and has more in common with such thinking than precepts suggested by a

traditional score which can viewed as aligning with the, what we now understand as

a false, Newtonian view of reliable order. In improvisation, as in the natural world, a

feedback system is in operation: the output from one player becomes the input for

another creating a musical continuum of real time composition. This lends itself to

becoming highly complex as there is the opportunity for feedback to occur at

multiple levels: within the individual’s own playing, within the group, between pairs

of individuals, between an individual and the entirety of the group sound, the group

in its environmental setting, and so on. While part of the job of the improvising

musicians may be to contribute to controlling developing complexity while playing,

engaging in such a process of improvisation that includes the element of instability

is essential for the process to develop. This involves acceptance of the unknown

outcome and unpredictability within the process. Understanding through

experience in improvisation leads to an acknowledgement of the unknown element

as an essential source of creativity within the process of improvisation. Once again

the comparison to a feedback system is found within the unexpected aspect in

improvisation. SG has described how in improvisation:

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you’re creating an environment, you’re also interacting with one - so you have to pay

attention. SG P1 L6

This ‘interacting with’ an environment through improvisation evokes a comparison

with evolution, (development as an environmental response) and elsewhere RJ

similarly describes improvisation as ‘evolving’. While comparisons to evolution are

in common usage in many spheres of activity, there seems to be a specific

application for describing improvisation’s close relationship to self-organisation and

feedback: evolution is itself a self-organising system. Evolution in the natural world

builds on self-organising patterns, and adapts systems to the environment.

Evolution is creative and based on simple rules and feedback, from which

complexity spontaneously emerges, for evolution the feedback comes from the

environment, favouring the mutations that are best suited to it, resulting in ever

increasing complexity without an external designer all of which is apposite for

improvisation in music: creative processes in the natural world and improvised

music are feedback systems.

Leaving the Newtonian vision of a world functioning like clock work and, instead,

increasing understanding of the importance of creative self organising systems as

the basis of life, so too, the validity and potential of music created through self

organisation, improvisation, valuing the possibilities created through unexpected

events within developing socially based structures, becomes highlighted.

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7.2.4 Process of improvisation as real time composition

While real time composition is also discussed in Chapter 5.2.6, this section focuses

on the process of real time composition. Traditions in Western music have

developed to regard ‘the score’ as significantly intertwined with high culture in

music, attached as it is to those most historically, highly esteemed as composers

although the trajectory towards such a picture is curious. Many of those composers

were well known in their time as improvisers (JS Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc) and

improvisation was accepted in their day as important in music. While these

composers are held in high regard for the legacy of their scores their extensive use

of improvisation has been ignored leading to an altered picture of their creativity.

Copyright and the emphasis upon reproduction together with institutional

hegemonic power structures has led towards a current picture in which

improvisation has become sidelined (Chapter 6.2.2). Reclamation of improvisation

as real time composition has not come from the ‘classical’ music world but from

other forms of music making throughout the world that reflect improvisation’s

ubiquity. Free improvisation, music created with a lack of prearranged structure,

has particularly drawn attention to the possibilities of improvisation as real time

composition.

The process of improvisation as real time composition links to a particularly

contemporary theme expressed through the focus on real time media and

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computing systems (section 7.2.2). The process of improvisation in music, real time

composition, reflects human capability and connects to investigating real time

capability in different spheres (Sawyer, 2008; Boudrieu and Robey, 2005; Ciborra,

1996). Conversely, the ways in which human beings make use of the opportunities

presented by new media (section 7.2.2) is improvisatory. There is a need to better

understand how people use and behave with such new media in real time. As a

greater need for understanding of the nature of our engagement with new media

emerges, the process and practice of improvisation in music offers insights that may

inform other areas of human activity (Sawyer, 2008).

7.2.5 Summary

In 7.1.1 of this chapter the process of improvisation was discussed in terms of

human interaction that becomes manifest in different domains. This theme was

further explored in 7.2.1 in which improvisation was contextualised as a human

capability, the process of improvisation as inter-disciplinary, 7.1.4, also contributed

to understanding of improvisation as a human capability. The agency found within

the process of improvisation was described as enabling of self-determination in

7.1.2 and the theme was contextualised at a broader level, extending to political

assertion in 7.2.2. Trust, 7.1.3, was identified as importantly contributing to the

process of improvisation in music and the element of Risk in improvisation, 7.1.5,

was understood as contributing towards the creative process. Comparisons were

made between the process of improvisation and processes in the natural world in

7.2.3 and such natural processes were seen as helpfully describing how

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improvisation in music is formed. The significant real time aspect of improvisation

was discussed in 7.2.4 as a contemporary theme that crosses domains.

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Chapter 8

Body

8.1.0 Introduction

For some interviewees the theme of the body in improvisation becomes overt

through reference to embodiment and the nature of listening, whilst for others it

was suggested by reference to the physicality of playing, movement, the use of

space, ‘oneness’ and questions leading from the performance aspect of playing.

These features suggest a range of implications for the relationship between the body

and free improvisation. For practice, separating the ‘body’ from the ‘process’ or

other aspects of free improvisation runs counter to the way in which the

phenomenon of FI exists (Chapter 10.2), however, for the purpose of gaining

understanding of the significance of the body in free improvisation it is beneficial to

interpret how interviewees situate the shared theme. In 8.1.1, ‘Embodied

knowledge,’ discusses how the practice of improvisation is experienced by means of

privileging doing, leading to knowledge gained through embodied action. In 8.1.2,

‘Holism,’ the experience described as ‘oneness’ is interpreted as unifying of mind,

body and group through the experience of playing. This leads to a discussion of

improvisation in relation to kinaesthetic learning, learning styles, multiple-

intelligence theory and the nature of ‘attentional processes’ in 8.1.3. A discussion of

the nature of listening and improvisation follows in 8.1.4 in the context of

developing perceptual, embodied knowledge. Pragmatic interpretations of the body

are described in ‘Physical performance and free improvisation,’ 8.1.5, these include

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the tendency towards unbounded, or inter-disciplinary, performance. Consideration

of improvisation, the body and embodied knowledge leads to a discussion of

interviewees’ interpretations of ‘The relationship between free improvisation and

discussion,’ 8.1.6, that informs understanding of different kinds of knowledge and

improvisation. A further contextualisation of the theme of the body follows in the

second part of Chapter 8.

8.1.1 Embodied knowledge

The body knows what to do… this is a very important aspect to improvisation…

allowing the body to lead. UP P5 L1

… really essential, it’s really important. It’s what is. If you talk about being, it’s right in

there and having awareness upfront. UP P6 L10

UP’s ‘the body knows’ becomes a significant theme for the interpretation of free

improvisation. This also has particular connections to the phenomenological

method of this study: perception and the body being centrally important for

phenomenology (8.7). The ‘body knows’ and ‘allowing the body to lead’ is a common

idea in physically located expressive arts such as dance and drama. The challenge of

creating music in the act of performance leads to the need for greater insight

regarding the processes involved in order to effectively develop practice, and in so

doing the centrality of the body becomes apparent.

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Among experienced improvisers it is usual for there to be assumed understanding

that decisions about the music take place in the process of playing: through

embodiment. Equally musicians who share no common spoken language may play

together and produce music at a profound level through improvisation,

demonstrating sophisticated understanding of the other’s music (5.2): music can

thrive independently from discussion. These aspects indicate how the music results

from knowledge in the act of doing: embodied knowledge. This embodiment in

practice can be seen as characteristic of free improvisation: the music is not usefully

pre-described and agency is with the individual’s approach at the point of embodied

performance.

8.1.2 Holism

… the other bit of metaphor or idealism is what it felt like to be in a group where a

sense of musical oneness which can go beyond music… a oneness was being created.

So the feeling of being on a creative high and losing one’s self in that creative process

rather than intellectualizing or making it into an abstract where I’m saying to myself,

‘Oh this is going on now, I think I ought to do this.’ So it’s stepping aside from that

logico deductive space into more emotional fields I suppose. KM P3 L17

KM describes the possibilities within the experience of playing as unifying of mind,

body and group, as ‘oneness,’ a ‘stepping aside’ from the dominance of cerebral

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rationality. As such ‘oneness’ draws attention to the significance of the body, or

bodies, as the site of free improvisation, where such unified experience takes place.

Importantly for KB this is a group experience, suggesting inter-subjective, embodied

experience that is encapsulated for KB by the term ‘oneness’. The paradoxical use of

the ‘stepping aside’ metaphor (when referring to ‘oneness’) is indicative of the

challenge notions of the body or embodied knowledge may face. Although the mind/

body (Cartesian) split is commonly challenged in academic discussion, its legacy is

widespread, for example throughout academic approaches to learning favouring

cerebral orientated structuring. (In many ways the mind/ body split has itself

become embodied, accepted unconsciously.) There is an uncertainty about what

‘stepping aside’ means, expressed through the idea of ‘more emotional fields I

suppose.’ KM P5 L12 The ‘I suppose,’ reflecting a wariness about something other

than that which may be cerebrally controlled (an idea found elsewhere in the

interview) despite the reference to ‘being on a creative high and losing one’s self in

that creative process.’ KM P5 L5 It seems that there would be resistance to some of

the notions of the body espoused by UP, such as: ‘The body knows what to do…

allowing the body to lead.’ UP P5 L1. Resistance to ideas associated with the body in

learning are common, for example reflected in the hierarchy of relative importance

placed on subjects in the National Curriculum in the UK: subjects with a cerebral

emphasis prioritised, those that involve the physical are often optional (Chapter

3.2). There are marked cultural differences between UP and KB, contrasting, broadly

speaking, traditional, British, male traits in which emotions may be viewed as

weakness, with Californian experimentalism in combination with lesbian-feminist

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activism. Given these differences, the point at which their respective positions

overlap, ‘oneness,’ becomes significant. KM goes on to describe his experience of

playing as unequivocally physical.

Because I’m a wind player it’s something that is going to be quite naturally centred in

the diaphragm area. So there’s going to be feeling coming from that centre of my body,

there’s sort of, of a grrrrr! (makes sound), that really gets me and that’s really what I

want to do. KM P6 L27

8.1.3 Kinaesthetic learning

While ‘Free improvisation and learning,’ is described in Chapter 6, kinaesthetic

learning is described in this section, emerging as it does within the theme of the

‘Body,’ and the manner in which all of the themes of improvisation interrelate is

explored in 10.2. KM’s previous extract (KM P6 L27) presents a precise description

of the relationship between the experience of the body and the impetus for

producing the music: ‘that really gets me and that’s really what I want to do.’ It is

strongly suggestive for understanding of learning through the body. Although views

vary of what has become known as ‘learning styles’ (Visual, Audio, Kinaesthetic,)

and ‘multiple intelligences’ (Gardner, 1993) kinaesthetic learning, or learning by

doing, is probably widely under acknowledged as traditions in education and the

development of knowledge remain heavily focused upon textually orientated

teaching and learning employing a largely visual bias. As well as clearly identifying

the physical location for the activity of FI, the extract above describes this physical

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basis as significantly motivational: ‘… That’s really what I want to do.’ The joy arising

from engaging physically is easily overlooked, in this case the joy derived from the

act of playing free improvisation is clearly expressed.

…It’s the speed and the speed is part of the excitement. To be able to do things almost

ahead of your self, that’s really fucking exciting. I love that. KB P7 L19

Typically, experienced improvising musicians have an intuitive understanding of the

benefits of not allowing the music/playing to become overly analysed before it has

taken place and there is a close link between the not-pre-determined form and

allowing the body to lead (section 8.1.0). UP’s practice is further informed by an

advanced understanding of how the body perceives and responds before the

thought has taken place.

In any sensory experience the body takes one tenth of a second. If you take part in

highly specialized training, it can be reduced to one eightieth of a second.

SR Is that to do with Lester Ingber and ‘attentional processes’?

Yes, Lester Ingber was my teacher for some time… It’s really essential, it’s really

important. It’s what is. UP P6 L6

… you’re sounding before you know what you’re sounding – there is delay… about half

a second. UP P4 L40

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Interest in understanding the physics of auditory processes and the characteristics

of human response inform UP’s emphasis on the primacy of the body in

improvisation. This understanding of the body’s listening and responding leads to a

personal, systematic approach for developing such abilities.

8.1.4 Listening

As we sit here there’s a lot of sound going on. It’s about modes of attention: inclusive

attention and exclusive attention and being able to negotiate both at once. Your focal

attention is only momentary, it’s only brief but then it can be sequential. But the

sequence of focused attention, we’re getting waveforms but we’re also getting

packets…. You have a kind of smooth analogue way of processing and you have digital

packets. But exclusive attention when you are trying to narrowly focus on some detail,

to understand speech for example, your attention is focussed on the speech, in order to

detect it, understand it, interpret it, all of those things. But sometimes we are focusing

in that way and also it can be expanded to include whatever else is happening around.

UP P6 L36

While listening and producing sound are the parameters of playing music and there

exists all kinds of accepted language for describing sound or playing, ways of

listening may be underexplored. Describing different kinds of listening, for example

‘modes of attention,’ contributes to understanding the body’s central importance in

improvisation. UP develops the theme of listening and response to include questions

concerning consciousness.

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Creative consciousness – but it’s not necessarily from the conscious mode that it comes.

Different modes of consciousness: body consciousness is faster than thinking

consciousness. UP P5 L19

Here UP’s description: ‘body consciousness is faster’ reflects a common experience

found in free improvisation in which there may not be an articulated certainty about

how the music has been created together. This may occur in groups that have been

together over long periods. Understanding between players exists at an intuitive,

embodied level. UP’s view is that in improvisation individuals and groups of players

are able to create through the body faster than the thought and to do so as part of a

continuum, this can be understood in terms of embodied knowledge.

8.1.5 Physical performance and free improvisation

Understandings of the body in free improvisation were also present in the

transcripts at a pragmatic, workaday level in descriptions of performing.

I’m trying to create something that’s of interest to the people sat in front of me,

basically, and myself. If I see a bunch of, a load of bored faces, I’ve failed, you know. I

normally bring a theatrical element to my playing, something a bit visual. I mean I

don’t overdo it but I mean I don’t stand there like a statue and play and 20 minutes

later step from the spot when I’ve finished, I don’t play like that, I try to use the space.

NA P5 L46

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For NA the music performance is also interpreted in physical and visual terms and

the reference to ‘ a theatrical element’ is unabashed in the communication of the

performance. The activity of free improvisation for NA’s individual approach,

naturally extends towards a ‘theatrical element’. While UP’s and NA’s articulation of

the free improvisation process are quite dissimilar, they nonetheless both make

clear reference the body in the realisation of FI, albeit from very different

perspectives. UP’s perspective is highly conceptualised while NA’s directly reflects

decisions regarding the development of professional performance practice.

Reference to the physical body and space was similarly present in RT’s description

of the process of developing as an improviser:

I do open my mouth and do very odd things. He’s immobile, he was (Derek Bailey). I’m

very mobile in the sense of that’s who I am, what I am. RT P4 L27

People were laughing. And I don’t remember what I was doing but I’m sure it wasn’t

Derek (Derek Bailey) they were laughing at – but it was just what I was doing in my

movement that cracked them up… When I discovered improvisation I also saw a

retrospect of Buster Keaton. I was living in Montreal at the time. I went to see all of his

films. I saw many short films – and I’m absolutely sure that he influenced me

completely in the fact that I’m in front of people. It’s kind of like a fake thing, it’s

pretentious and fake… from the beginning I was influenced by the theatre. RT P5 L5

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For RT free improvisation brings with it the opportunity to express individuality: ‘…

that’s who I am, what I am.’ In the process RT questions assumptions about the

nature of the performer/audience relationship: physically asserting individuality in

performance through movement , voice and simultaneously through the physicality

of his instrument. Physicality for NA and RT is demonstrated in the use of

movement, aspects of theatre and use of space apparent in their music performance.

However, this is a quite different situating of the body from that of UP. The body for

NA and RT can be viewed as implicit, for UP it is also explicitly, conceptually

developed.

NJ’s performance practice presents a knowing ambiguousness regarding the

intrinsic physical aspect of performance with sound. Interrogating the sound leads

to investigating the source of the sound within the given space: enhancing the

physical, visual act for an audience. The knowing physicality of NJ’s performance

creates a kind of visual music.

NJ: A piano player has to stick to his instrument but my instrument is here, there and

everywhere, more or less so I have to move a bit, and they say it is theatre but it is, I

have nothing against it but… I do visual acts but for me it is also music. I have a rubber

cymbal. And people hear a big cymbal in their heads, sometimes and they see the

cymbal. Not hearing, but they see the sound. I play with this seeing and hearing and

turn it sometimes backwards round.

SR You play with the visual side which inevitably accompanies musical performance?

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NJ Yes. Expectations or the visualization of musical sound. In some parts. NJ P8 L18

The strange or comic effect of this additional level of communication plays into

audience expectations, leading to a commonly asked question: Is it theatre or is it

something else? While there is a knowing exploration of the physical aspect intrinsic

to music, the ‘visualisation of musical sound’ does not exist in a cultural vacuum as

NJ engages audience expectations. Although the rationale differs there are

nevertheless similarities with RT’s reference to movement and doing ‘strange

things,’ together with his reference to the performer/audience relationship as ‘fake,

pretentious.’ Both have entirely logical responses to the performing situation

created using free improvisation as they experiment with physical, visual and

movement elements in addition to their instrumentalist roles.

8.1.6 The relationship between free improvisation and discussion

Interviewees’ descriptions of how discussion is perceived in the free improvising

process inform the theme of the body through understandings of different kinds of

knowledge.

… working methods: first play, listen to it, then talk about it. Translating something

that is embodiment, embodied sound making, then translate it into spoken word after

the fact, which is really the right order. UP P2 L1

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UP’s delineation of the relationship between music and discussion is significant. In

making a clear separation between the two different activities UP highlights the

body as the locus of activity for FI. Introducing the term ‘translate’ suggests going

from one spoken language to another, but clearly music and words are different

phenomenon. We may have a verbal or textual response to sound or music but the

description or analysis of music, however clear, is not the experience of music.

Embodied sound first and spoken word second is a potent articulation regarding the

theme of the body in free improvisation.

…we discovered something very important… if we talked about improvisation before

we did it, it usually fell flat, but if we sat down and improvised and then recorded it,

and then talked, then it was interesting and we advanced our practice. … you’re

communicating with one another directly…spoken conversations don’t have to happen

before you play… UP P1 L43

… we understand that we mustn’t talk about it (before playing)… you’re going to kill it

if you do. UP P2 L15

It is important for UP to lucidly articulate characteristics of the perceived

relationship between talk and improvising and the way in which discussion may

influence the creation of music. Discussion was situated differently for SG, the

extract below holds a different emphasis of the place and purpose of discussion in

relation to free improvisation.

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Oh and I forgot to mention an important part of the process – we had some extensive

discussions, we actually did more discussing than playing... But for us we did have time

– so we’d play and then we’d talk about it and critique what we were doing…

We’re playing, we’re critiquing. At first people, people would say things like ‘I can’t just

stop what I’m doing and start talking’ and I’d say well why not? You’re already talking

(laughs) – of course you can. It’s just that they had a self-conception of this is my

playing and this, my other life. This is my heightened consciousness… awareness… and

this is about my conscious life and so to mix those up and break up that romantic

conception of the improviser made it easier… SG P14 l9

While emphasising the central importance of discussion for the process, SG concurs

with UP’s point: ‘… we’d play and we’d talk about it…’. Where SG appears to differ is

in encountering a reluctance to discuss playing and his response being to ‘… break

up that romantic conception of the improviser’. While it may be true that there exists

a ‘romantic conception of the improviser’, music communicates in a different way

than in words and the relationship between speaking and producing music can be

overtly acknowledged, (particularly with a view to providing equal opportunity in

education, through other kinds of learning where a student may excel in an area

other than the spoken or the written). Successful articulation in one area may not

lead to successful articulation in the other and as UP points out, however good the

communication, talk first can ‘kill it’. Discussion forms a central part of the process

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and can form a symbiotic relationship with the embodied process employed in free

improvisation, the views of how this occurs differ for SG and UP.

… we’re self teaching, we’re learning from each other... We do an autodidact process,

with the outcome of which we don’t even know (laughs). So we’re teaching ourselves to

do something that we don’t really know what it is. We’re just looking for an outcome

and we’ll know it when we see it, and that’s a part of improvisation too. SG P14 l9

The ‘extensive discussions’ in SG’s extract are part of a methodology in the

development of the learning process while working with an improvising orchestra.

In the following extract SG stresses the need not to separate intuitive knowledge

from other knowledge. Intuition is often regarded as something beyond discussion

and resultantly marginalised. For SG there is also a clear connection between the

situating of academic knowledge (legitimate) and intuitive knowledge (illegitimate)

in relation to the development of Afro-American music. Commonly the famous

figures in jazz have been referred to as basing their achievements upon a kind of

intuition rather than acknowledging that there exists an array of high-level

knowledge and skill within the practice and that intuition within improvisation

forms a part of that. To summarise, SG emphasises not separating the processes

involved in improvisation in musical activity from understandings of any other

human activity:

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I spent the last 20 years stripping a lot of that out of my practice – the idea that there

is some big difference in going on the stage and doing something and you know that

thing you said about walking down the street. Increasingly I find the same structures

are active all the time. And so I can learn just as much from that process of walking

down the street as I can playing with some certified person or even a not so certified

person or group of people. And that’s what comes from paying attention… SG P2 L3

SG is re-situating bodily activity by endeavouring to make no great separation

between talking and playing in the ‘socio-musical location’ (Chapter 5.1): recognising

intuitive knowledge and cerebral understanding by bringing them together, as they

are in every day life. For UP improvisation is led by the body and talk first can ‘kill it,’

the view is informed by developed understandings of embodiment: re-situating and

acknowledging intuitive/embodied knowledge by separating it. This practice has led

to an expansion of diverse cross-cultural activity in which embodied knowledge is a

corner stone. While these two compelling positions hold aspects that differ, they are

both hugely significant for understanding and encouraging unified, intuitive,

embodied activity in free improvisation.

8.2 Further contextualisation of ‘Body’

The theme of the ‘Body’ in improvisation is further contextualised in the following

sections of this chapter. 8.2.1, ‘Return to things themselves,’ discusses how

improvisation intersects with the phenomenological method of this study through

the shared theme of the body. Continuing the theme of ‘Holism,’ and

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phenomenology, ‘Unity,’ 8.2.2, discusses Merleau-Ponty’s and Heidegger’s

diminishing of the subject/object model and the relevance for improvisation. ‘Inter-

subjectivity, inter-corporeality and free improvisation,’ is explored in 8.2.3 through

which further aspects of embodiment, the body and collectivity are discussed.

Embodiment and improvisation is then considered by means of a different

theoretical perspective, that of ‘Embodied metaphor,’ 8.2.5, in which embodied

cognition is discussed in relation to improvisation, specifically describing how the

use of spatial metaphors reflect the embodiment of music. ‘Intervolving,’ 8.2.6,

compares other embodied creative practice with improvisation and discusses

listening, silence and ‘feedback’ in improvisation as an intervolving with the world.

8.2.7, ‘Myth of the mind,’ borrows Hubert Dreyfus’ (1992) term (where he describes

models used to develop artificial intelligence) in interpreting improvisation as

embodied knowledge freed from the dominance of the pre-conceived.

8.2.1 Return to things themselves

The theme of the body in improvisation intersects with embodiment as a central

tenet of phenomenology, the methodology employed for this study. Merleau-Ponty’s

(1962) work in particular is centrally important to this and can be seen, in some

respects, as leading from Heidegger’s work on ‘Being and Time’ (1962). In turn,

Heidegger had developed his major work from the influence of Husserl’s

development of phenomenology. Heidegger explores the ‘background’ to what we

are, our being, in his development of the idea of inderweltsein, being-in-the-world.

While ‘Being and Time’ has become a highly influential work, Heidegger did not

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address the body or perception directly, Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological writing

takes perception as the starting point of ‘Phenomenology of Perception’.

‘To return to things themselves is to return to that world which precedes

knowledge, of which knowledge always speaks, and in relation to which
every scientific schematisation is an abstract and derivative sign-language, as
is geography in relation to the country-side in which we have learnt
beforehand what a forest, a prairie or a river is.’ (PP p ix)

This ‘return to things themselves’ is central to phenomenology and understandings

of the body as the site and means of perception becomes central. Phenomenology

and free improvisation share a common theme of the body, as UP describes in the

interview:

the body knows what to do… this is a really important aspect to improvisation…

allowing the body to lead. UP P5 L1

‘Returning to the thing itself’ in free improvisation takes us to the body being-in-the-

world.

8.2.2 Unity

‘Oneness,’ 8.1.2, was used by KM in describing practical engagement in free

improvisation, with less emphasis upon a cerebral conceptualisation, through

physical engagement. The term may also carry unintended mystical connotations,

however the interviewee’s reference is with his own body in the context of the

group improvising. The descriptions of ‘oneness’ in 8.1.2, as a theme for free

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improvisation, for example: ‘… stepping aside from that logico deductive space…’

(KM P3 L17) suggest diminishing of the subject/object model of existence (Merleau-

Ponty, Heidegger). In ‘Being and Time,’ Heidegger describes being as an ‘openness’

to the world already there, and the development of this central, influential idea

leaves behind the idea of the object/subject as a plausible model of being. In KM’s

description of ‘oneness,’ the mind/body split is negated by the act of free

improvisation: ‘… to be in a group where a sense of musical oneness which can go

beyond music…’ We can further reflect on the term ‘oneness’ by means of Merleau-

Ponty’s use of the term ‘unity’:

‘We have seen in the body a unity distinct from that of scientific object. We
have just discovered, even in its ‘sexual function’, intentionality and sense-
giving powers. In trying to describe the phenomenon of speech and the
specific act of meaning, we shall have the opportunity to leave behind us,
once and for all, the traditional subject-object dichotomy.’ (1962 p. 202)

Accepting oneness, or unity, presented through the body in the act of free

improvisation, is also implicitly challenging the notion of music as a disembodied

object of study. The music comes into existence through the ‘unity’ of embodied

expression: the music becomes inseparable from its embodied creation.

8.2.3 Inter-subjectivity, inter-corporeality and free improvisation

KM describes the experience of oneness, interpreted as unity, as tied to the group.

Our being-in-the-world is a simultaneous being with others being-in-the-world,

experienced here through participation in the act of free improvisation. Two

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important terms to convey this are inter-subjectivity (Huserl) and inter-corporeality

(Merleau-Ponty).

The agency of inter-subjectivity works together with embodied practice in free

improvisation. Inter-subjectivity is a useful descriptor as it moves us towards

acknowledging the complexity involved in free improvising interaction, as a number

of subjectivities co-exist and the experience of creating real time composition is

shared. In Chapter 6: ‘Free improvisation and learning,’ we described how this

aspect suggests particular potential for education as the process of free

improvisation, in which a group is bound by the act of creating music, inherently

engages social cognition. Embodiment and learning have a significant relationship

that may challenge formal traditions of understanding that exclusively privilege

cerebrally based reasoning activities as the sole site of worthy educational activity.

Learning with others in free improvisation results from engagement with the

embodied mind and the inter-subjective mode. The demands of creating group

music in real time highlights the need for developed awareness of the inter-

subjective possibilities of the process. The extent of importance of the inter-

subjective aspect of free improvisation is suggested by the already discussed

relationship between the place of discussion and playing music (section 8.1.6):

improvisation groups may choose to exist successfully without recourse to

discussion regarding the content of the performance, the absence of discussion may

be viewed as an acknowledgement of the inter-subjective/embodied processes in

improvisation. The music exists in the playing, and post-performance discussion for

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some experienced professional musicians is also seen as having questionable value.

Although such an attitude can appear to be unhelpful, it may also reflect

understanding, (perhaps unconscious), of the potential of the inter-subjective

agency within the process. Some professional musicians having learnt the value of

trusting in such a process may not choose to attempt to articulate this complicated,

analytical aspect within discussion.

We can also employ the idea of inter-corporeality to help describe the body in free

improvisation. While inter-subjectivity reflects social, psychological processes

between people, inter-corporeality, associated largely with Merleau-Ponty (1962),

describes the actuality of the body’s presence, in space, as well as its processes:

collective, embodied perception. As with inter-subjectivity, inter-corporeality is a

fundamental of lived existence, in free improvisation inter-corporeality comes to the

fore through the theme of the body. Through ‘flesh’ (Merleau-Ponty, 1962) we

perceive and interact with the world and each other. Our bodies not only represent

our physical selves as we perceive through our bodies, without which there is no

world, flesh both defines our physical presence in the world and defines the world

for us. Creating a not-pre-determined autonomous music, without focus upon a

score, leads us back to the inescapable aspect that our means of contributing and

communicating is through the flesh of others and ourselves, through inter-

corporeality. The unmediated experience of performing improvised music draws

attention to ‘the thing itself’ being our bodies, in real time, in an environment, all

else follows on from that. Similarly, inter-corporeality’s centrality in free

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improvisation underpins the heterogeneous diversity explored in Chapter 5.2:

‘returning to the thing itself’ in improvisation brings us to embodiment, inter-

corporeality and inter-subjectivity.

8.2.4 Embodied music and composition

The realisation or composition of music through embodied improvisation leads to a

questioning of the nature of accepted notions of composition (Chapters 5.2.6, 7.2.4)

and the attendant social relationships that become constructed around that idea:

leaving the pre-determined is loaded with signification. Most often leaving the pre-

determined is treated as a matter of choice/preference, a nuance of the free

improvised form of music, however, the act of leaving behind the pre-determined is

a giant step. Much of Western music can be characterised as pre-composed,

repeatable product, and this is the cultural, social construct through which we have

come to experience what we understand as music. The act of playing music without

pre-determined structure, free improvisation, immediately challenges this. The

challenge is directed towards music as an object, controlled through intellectual,

cerebral processes, best represented through printing on paper, existing and

governed within market rules etc. The reliance upon a pre-determined musical

order that demands the musician full-fill a specified role of interpreting the

composers wishes leads to conditioning in which the parameters of music have

become defined by the aim of reproduction in performance (Benjamin 1936, Gould

1963). The realisation of embodied music, or real time composition, rather than the

interpretation of music in a score, leads to a questioning of the nature of

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composition and the social relationships that are constructed upon that idea (5.2.6).

As awareness of the autonomous agency of free improvisation develops, so too does

awareness that improvisation only exists in the act of doing, and the act of doing is

physically located: free improvisation as real time composition in music only exists

through embodied action.

8.2.5 Embodied metaphor

Embodiment in improvisation can be further contextualised through a different

route, that of the way we conceptualise our being and world through spatial

metaphors. Metaphor has also been an important part of analysis of interview

transcripts (5.4, 4.8.4,) the use of metaphor has created meaning, illuminating the

subject in an idiographic mode.

We use metaphors in perceiving the world we live in from an intrinsically embodied

perspective (Lakoff and Johnson 1980,) reflecting this our understandings of the

experience of music and improvisation are embedded in metaphors of spatiality: up,

down, high, middle, low, groove, dense, top, bridge, foreground, background, over,

etc. We are so reliant upon spatial metaphors in music that we employ the same

word for multiple meanings, for example, up in music can mean to raise the pitch,

fast, happiness, increased volume (itself a spatial metaphor,) or increased energy.

Embodiment and spatiality are part of the same experience of being, our bodies are

spatial, and the language used in describing music in metaphor further illustrates

how music is an embodied experience. Lakoff and Johnson (1999) citing Reigier

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(1996), Bailey (1997), Narayanan (1997) describe how metaphor is not only simply

taken from different domains and applied as an essential means of conceptualising

the world, but how the ways in which understanding is constructed are themselves

embodied through neural processes in the body. The research on neural

mechanisms by Reiger, Bailey and Narayanan suggests that perception and

conception are formulated not necessarily as separated actions (mind/body) but as

a unified, embodied process. Lakoff and Johnson also propose how this drastically

alters accepted understanding of reason, and the bases for study across philosophy.

The Cartesian mind/body divide, that has formed the foundation of understandings

of reason, is once more fundamentally challenged (Merleau-Ponty 1962, Heidegger

1962).

The ways in which musicians have developed practise methods and are coached by

experienced practitioners demonstrates intuitive acknowledgement of embodiment

cognition in music: ideas of repetition, ‘getting it in your fingers’ and attention to the

body’s relationship to the instrument through for example posture, are

commonplace in music teaching although the understanding of the nature of playing

and learning music may not be generally conceptualised as embodied. As discussed

in 8.2.4, with no score to rely upon, improvisation is not the interpretation of an

outsider’s idea. Left with the body and sound, the embodied processes of perception

and conception, through the creation of music in real time, are unmediated by

outside constructs or concerns for interpretation. Free improvisation provides a

special opportunity to realise the extent of embodied creativity.

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The schema offered by the act of free improvisation, situating of the body’s

expressing through sound, also connects directly to what Lakoff and Johnson

describe as the ‘cognitive unconscious’. By this they refer not to Freud’s notion of

unconscious but to the ways in which most of our thought processes are happening

at such a rate that they are not consciously apparent to us. Unmediated free

improvisation directly engages ‘unconscious cognition’. Inclusion of the cognitive

unconscious in music making may also reflect the ambiguous attitudes towards the

place of discussion in musicians’ practice (8.1.6): music is filled with

understandings, perspectives, nuances, emotions, thoughts, ideas, conceptions and

emotions, and words in day-to-day usage may become inadequate for describing

possible meanings that have already been expressed in the more abstract form of

sound that is informed by unconscious cognition.

8.2.6 Intervolving

Other areas of creativity can further illuminate the relationship of embodiment and

free improvisation, and how the body realises the world particularly through

creative, artistic activity. Merleau-Ponty focuses on the painter’s ‘style’, the point at

which the hand and the painting meet demonstrates/illustrates for him the nature

of existence: where being-in-the-world, both in the world and part of it, realising

through imagination is expressed as ‘intervolved’ with the world. Intervolved

describes the nature of the connectedness of our embodied selves with the world.

The unmediated form of imaginative free improvisation, creating rather than

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interpreting music, is an intervolving with the world. Intervolving draws attention

to the centrality of listening (Chapter 8.1.4). The theme of listening (Fiumura, 1990;

Ihda, 1976; and Oliveros, 2005) is twinned with the theme of silence (Picard, 2008;

Cage, 1961; Jaworski ed., 1997). The act of listening and playing in improvisation

can be seen as the equivalent of the painter’s eye, perceiving and realising the world

through imagination. As sound enters our bodies, the relationship of playing (being)

and listening (to the world,) in turn, suggests feedback systems, (Chapter 7.2.3): in

playing we respond to sound in our chosen way through sound, simultaneously with

others, our output is processed as input by others, and the output of others is

simultaneously processed as input by ourselves.

8.2.7 ‘Myth of the mind’

Attempting to go ‘back to the thing itself’ (section 8.2.1) in understanding free

improvisation takes us to: ‘That world which precedes knowledge…’ (Merleau-

Ponty 1962, p ix) not a world of science. Free improvisation, as an embodied

practice, is also freed from what Hubert Dreyfus (1991) has referred to in other

contexts as the ‘myth of the mind,’ or the generally accepted belief in the cerebral as

the source of all truth regarding existence. Dreyfus’ refutation of early models of

artificial intelligence (AI) was based upon understandings of the nature of being-in-

the-world found in Heidegger’s and Merleau- Ponty’s work. To simplify, early

models of AI were based upon an outdated concept of reason not reflecting later

developments in 20th century philosophy in which our existence is understood as

embodied, where the divide of body/mind has been shown to be a flawed model of

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existence. In free improvisation the absence of the pre-determined score and the

agency of autonomous action create the conditions for a freeing from the ‘myth of

the mind’ as embodied participation is required. Engagement, autonomy and

individual action in free improvisation are born from the embodiment of being-in-

the-world. Improvisation reflects Merleau-Ponty’s idea that it is the body that

grasps the world and how to be in it, rather than the mind’s development of

concepts and rules, it is the body that grasps and organises perceptual experience

and this is reflected in act of free improvisation.

8.2.8 Summary

Chapter 8, ‘Body,’ has explored improvisation’s relationship with the body and

embodied knowledge. The discussion of interpretations of ‘oneness,’ in 8.1.2, as

unifying experience found in the act of improvisation was further contextualised in

8.2.2, ‘Unity,’ in which embodied improvisation was seen to question the mind/body

divide, and connections to the thinking of Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger were

explored. This theme became further contextualised in 8.2.7 ‘The myth of the mind,’

where improvisation was seen to draw attention to the body’s grasping of the world.

The theme of ‘oneness’ also leads to the discussion of ‘Kinaesthetic learning,’ 8.1.3,

and theories that acknowledge learning by doing are seen to support the idea of

embodied knowledge through improvisation. ‘Physical performance and free

improvisation,’ 8.1.5 recognises the body as the pragmatic site of professional

performance in improvisation, through which openness to other forms becomes

apparent. ‘Listening,’ 8.1.4, is also discussed within the thematic context of the body,

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perception and embodied knowledge and this is further contextualised in 8.2.6,

‘Intervolving,’ in which listening is seen as giving rise to being-in-the-world through

improvisation: perceiving, as well as part of, the world. The collective aspect of

improvisation and the body/embodied knowledge is further contextualised in 8.2.3,

specifically in relation to the thinking of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, it describes

how understanding of embodiment and ‘the return to the thing itself,’ leads to

acknowledgement of inter-corporeality and inter-subjectivity in improvisation. In

‘Embodied metaphor,’ 8.2.5, embodied cognition and improvisation is discussed and

in particular our reliance upon spatial metaphors to describe music, reflecting the

act of improvisation in music as embodied knowledge.

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Chapter 9

Strategies

Interviewees’ accounts of experiences were informed by descriptions of strategies

in the practice of free improvisation. While remembering that this super-ordinate

theme does not exist in isolation, in order that strategies may be interpreted, they

are considered discreetly within this chapter. In ‘Spontaneity and free

improvisation,’ 9.1.1, varying interpretations of the place and relative importance of

spontaneity for improvisation are explored, in particular the relationship between

musicians’ known material and their approach to performance within improvisation

contexts is discussed. In 9.1.2, ‘Strategies and the social setting,’ creative, collective

music making is discussed in the envisioned, broader social setting and within such

a philosophy of improvisation strategies for group improvisation are discussed. By

means of acknowledging the formal and non-formal approaches to learning in music

within the interviewees’ accounts of their development, strategies for developing

improvisation practice are discussed in 9.1.3, ‘Free improvisation and formal/non-

formal education’. In ‘Technique and free improvisation,’ 9.1.4, interviewees’

understandings of technique are interpreted in the context of the creative music

practice of improvisation. The further contextualisation of the theme of ‘Strategies’

follows in the second part of Chapter 9.

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9.1.1 Spontaneity and free improvisation

While spontaneity is commonly presumed to be closely associated with free

improvisation views expressed in the interviews of the relationship between

improvisation and spontaneity varied significantly.

… what I’m striving for is to be able to create spontaneous composition. And I think

that this helps me know how composition works and then you can apply these

principles during an improvisation. LR P1 L8

LR connects creating music spontaneously firmly with composition and in using the

term ‘striving for… ’ suggests spontaneity’s importance together with the desire for

a greater knowledge of compositional possibilities that may feed into the

improvisation process. LR also suggests a cyclic exchange between developing

understanding of compositional aspects and improvisation (Chapter 5.2.6). The idea

of ‘spontaneous composition’ has been overtly expressed elsewhere since the

initiation of free improvisation specifically in the groups Spontaneous Music

Ensemble (SME) in the UK, and Instant Composers Pool (ICP) in Holland. SG

expressed a different view of spontaneity:

… everyone’s trying to avoid the familiar and stick with the spontaneous. The problem

is most of the time what spontaneity produces is the familiar (laughs) SG P17 L6

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The attraction of free improvisation may well be to connect to what is perceived as

the spontaneous expression, a sense of freedom evoked by engagement with music

making that is concerned with immediacy, however in SG’s view ‘… what spontaneity

produces is the familiar’. There may often be a presumption that free improvisation,

by means of spontaneity, results in new material. For SG individuals ‘spontaneously’

produce what is already known, citing studies of the music of Charlie Parker and

John Coltrane (Spence 2009, Owen 1974), SG elaborates how ‘the upshot was there

was nothing new there in the act of improvising (SG P16 L30).

… how did the impression arise that Charlie Parker was so spontaneous or even John

Coltrane, you hear the same things over and over, but what accounts for the power of

it, it’s not in the spontaneity that’s for sure, there’s something else there.

SR What is it?

SG Well, I don’t know, but let’s take out all the things that obviously don’t work (both

laugh) and start there, you know one of those Sherlock Holmes things, once you’ve

eliminated all the obvious things then however improbably, this is the truth (laughs)…

SG P16 L31

A distinguishing feature of a mature improviser is the confidence they place in their

own resources of known material and judgement in how to make use of these

resources, in a fluid manner, within settings that will differ. At the same time, the

development and developing use of such material can become a life’s work.

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… I kind of felt that spontaneity is overblown, most people aren’t that spontaneous,

they’re doing mostly the same thing, there are all kinds of little rituals that people do,

you know that they do every day, just to get through their everyday lives, and they use

the same version of those repetitious rituals when they play music. Music is just one

domain of the improvisative experience, you know, and as you start to find out how

vast that experience is, how many levels it has, you don’t want to privilege music over

all the others, which ends up making a limitation on it. SG P15 L15

SG prefers to describe improvisation in terms of ‘repetitious rituals’ and,

additionally, sees it as important not to separate improvisation practice in music

from the ‘many levels’ of improvisation practice in everyday life. Similarly, for RT,

free improvisation’s agency is not described through an emphasis upon spontaneity.

… when you start thinking about it, the complexity of, of, let’s say a concert, all the

things that are influencing you, the audience, the place, whatever, I think has a great

deal to do with the outcome… and I suppose the only, the only thing is to be prepared

for this complexity. I would say that it’s… and of course spontaneity is … part of this

complexity, I would say - so, I think it comes down to experience and really being part

of this complexity offers a possibility that… that this complexity transforms into some

kind of simplicity. So if you have the confidence to realize the complexity, then you can

become simple, I would say. Because it’s kind of like, seeing, that, you are just a crumb

(picks up a cigarette butt from the ashtray) you’re just like that in the complexity, but

if you understand that… then you can offer simplicity. And I would say, spontaneity is

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maybe another way to express the same thing, but I would have to say that

spontaneity is over rated. RT P11 L24

RT’s particular account of free improvisation does not exclude spontaneity, but

rather describes a breadth of perceptual experience and for RT ‘it comes down to

experience’ while in his view ‘spontaneity is over rated.’ KM refers to a strategy for

improvisation that involves allowing for spontaneity:

… another approach which is that I’m going to let my mind go as blank as I can and let

random sounds emerge and see if they suggest anything. And the problem with that is

that what will tend to emerge is the clichés that you’ve been rehearsing with yourself

for any number of years. (Laughs) KM P9 L43

KM’s view aligns with SG’s: in seeking to discover material in the moment, KM

paradoxically rediscovers the very familiar, although in this case there is the

additional suggestion of a negative connotation, what is spontaneously produced ‘is

the clichés’. If, as SG suggests, what individuals produce is entirely reliant upon what

they have already developed, this questions the nature of the ‘not-pre-determined

form,’ of free improvisation. However, the contingency created by the possible

choice of known material drawn upon in any given situation, at the point of

performance, remains the point of creativity in free improvisation while the way in

which those involved choose to simultaneously interact, play and respond

contributes to the composition of the music. In other words the two elements

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together: the choice of material and decisions regarding interaction, are particularly

characteristic of free improvisation, as SG puts it, rather than emphasising

spontaneity:

… you revel in the combinations, which are potentially infinite. SG P16 L19

The opportunity presented by ‘potentially infinite’ combinations is a unique feature

of the free improvisation form. While individual’s musical material may be already

known to themselves, the opportunity to re-combine elements, alone or in

conjunction with others, seems to be an essential characteristic of free

improvisation. The degree to which individual improvisers choose to conceptualise

their music in terms of repeatable elements is a different matter. For some the flow

of material is left purposefully open, becoming different each time a developing

playing situation occurs. Although the evolving elements have similarity, the

entirety, in the act of playing, changes. Within this aspect of the collective

performance, players commonly reflect on ‘finding new things’. This can be

described as an operation of feedback (Chapter 7.2.3): as an element is reintroduced

within different configurations, at different times, its function continues to alter

through the adaption to these differing settings. Feedback functions within specific

playing contexts and also contributes to developing exiting material across different

contexts. This learning process (Chapter 6.1) develops understanding of

adaptability:

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… what I’ve done, and continue to do, is try to improve, all the time, so that I’m able to

speak in any kind of situation… LR P6 L27

Spontaneity was referred to in GB’s description of the way in which Thelonius Monk

conveyed the sense of taking ‘a really fresh look at the piano’:

When I think of improvisers that really come to mind, who are really inspiring

improvisers in that sense. The first one would be Monk, who every time he sat down

somehow conveyed the sense that he was taking a really fresh look at the piano; ‘look

here’s an E over here… how can I use that…’ And when you compare his various

recordings he never plays the same tune the same way twice. GB P12 L32

GB describes Monk’s skill in retaining an improvisatory approach to material that

was often familiar to players as well as audiences and it is the well-known Monk

tunes that provide the setting for ‘taking a really fresh look.’ Monk makes the

process of decision making available to the listener: allowing long pauses and

communicating the sense of re-discovery of notes and motifs in performance,

valuing the unpredictable: Monk’s process of ‘finding’ new combinations is

particularly, transparently creative. GB’s comments draw attention to the

importance of the way in which familiar material may be presented.

LR approaches the same theme of spontaneity and familiarity in referring to Art

Blakey’s insistence that his band members experiment:

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I mean even Art Blakey would tell musicians; OK, you’ve got this down, I don’t want to

hear it again tomorrow night, I want to hear you reaching for something else, I want

to hear you exploring. I’d rather have you up there making a mistake, you know, trying

to do something, than finding some area that you’re comfortable with and doing it

over and over again. LR P12 L34

Although hard bop and free improvisation are often discussed in terms of their

dissimilarity, the relevance remains as LR describes how Blakey is insistent on the

agency of improvisation as an essential element for successful performance:

… you revel in the combinations which are potentially infinite. SG P16 L19

Interpreting the various views of spontaneity arising from the interviews further

elucidates the process of free improvisation (7). RJ acknowledges individually

known material and how this is employed in making not-pre-determined music:

I think that’s what I think improvising performers do, we do have vocabulary and

ingredients but they are malleable enough if not to be ever changing then really fluid

at the true moment of creation. RJ P6 L20

For RJ the music exists at the confluence of the known materials through the ability

to become ‘really fluid.’ The aim here: ‘the true moment of creation,’ suggests inter-

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subjective music making by means of the adaptability of ‘vocabulary and

ingredients.’

It is my particular interest. It is this thing of how to maintain your own personality, yet

use it to make musical sense with the people, musical sense with the people you’re

working with and to accept their intentions to be as important as your own. RJ P7 L21

The clarity created by RJ’s understanding of the complex relationship between his

own ‘ingredients’ and the ‘fluid’ creation of the music enables his articulation of a

further, more clearly compositional dimension of free improvisation (Chapter 5.2.6):

embodiment of maintaining musical ‘personality’ is used to create music through

the acceptance of other’s intentions as being ‘as important as your own.’ Individual

and group possibilities are understood with sufficient clarity to consciously work

with the agency of the ‘other’s intention,’ in the process of free improvisation.

9.1.2 Strategies and the social setting

I think it’s important to establish lasting relationships with musicians and I’ve been

fortunate from that point of view, to have come along at that time when there was a

group of people who were interested and had a vision about how they wanted their

destinies to go. In terms of not just their music but their philosophy and the way they

were thinking they were going to have some control over their lives. LR P2 L10

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LR’s description reflects and contributes to the ‘socio-musical location’ theme

(Chapter 5.1). The evolved strategies for improvisation practice are indivisible from

the ‘vision’ and ‘philosophy’ of collective action. The ‘lasting relationships with

musicians’ forms the bases through which such strategies may materialise as the

process of creating collective music becomes the means by which: ‘they were going

to have some control over their lives.’

The way in which individuality is developed in the context of these ‘lasting

relationships’ forms part of such social/learning strategy:

I’m just talking about the way they represented their own individuality onto the music,

I mean if you look at and study the (name removed) you’ll see that although we are all

there together, none of us are the same. Because there was big emphasis on getting

people to go inside of themselves and come up with their own text… That was the

general philosophy of the AACM. I mean if we just look at the different people. If you

just look at the saxophonists: (name removed) is not like me at all; (name removed) is

not like (name removed). (name removed) is not like… (name removed) is not like any

of us, you know on and on. That’s why I consider myself fortunate to have been put into

a group of people like this. LR P5 L13

The above extract describes the emphasis of developing individuality and difference

through the chosen example of these eminent improvising saxophonists. Creative

individuality has been nurtured by means of strategies for collective, creative music

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making developed through the broader social setting (Chapter 5.1.1). The success of

heterogeneity described in this extract is relevant for approaches to inclusive

education (Chapter 1.3).

Compositional knowledge for LR is a strategy for developing as an improviser and

working towards ‘spontaneous composition’ (section 9.1.1).

… people want to say they’re in the moment of the improvisation. Knowing how

composition works helps. If you’re improvising with somebody and they’re playing 8th

notes all the time and you want to add some counterpoint to what’s going on, you may

think, well maybe I should play some triplets here, you know. But of course people

ought to be aware that all they’re doing is playing 8th notes. There’s nothing wrong

with that if you put it in context, if you want to have an improvisation that doesn’t use

anything but 8th notes, you can also do that. LR P7 L7

Awareness of the compositional implications of a particular idea can be aided by

studying composition, leading to an analytical approach to improvising that

recognises implications and associated possibilities.

I’ve spent a lot of time when I was teaching workshops and improvisation and all that

kind of thing, and noticing what inexperienced improvisers were doing and figuring

out different ways to address the problems and so on, because… if you listen, a lot of

inexperienced improvisers, all they do is follow. Following is like being behind on a

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written piece of music, in other words, you know your part, I don’t really know my part

so I’m listening to see what you’re doing and by the time I’ve waited to see what you’re

doing I’m already behind. LR P6 L40

LR pinpoints what may be a particular problem in large ensemble improvisation in

which the lack of clarity created by a ‘following’ approach to playing will

characterise the music. Participation in large group improvisation can be balanced

with developing experience in small group and solo settings in which the effect of

decision making by all the members can be more immediately apparent (Chapter

5.2.3).

9.1.3 Free improvisation and formal/non-formal education

The ‘strategies and free improvisation’ theme is illustrated by interviewees’

articulations of their experience of education. KM’s description of his development

in music, from a small child to adult musician, informs the relationship between free

improvisation and formal/non-formal education.

KM … we had a piano in the house, when I was a child and I used to spend ages,

improvising, experimenting.

SR What age were you?

KM Er, as soon as I could remember, 3 onwards anyway. And I do remember I used to

sing as well. Probably to everybody’s chagrin and eh typical kiddies stuff. I’ve no idea

what the melodic lines were like, but they were ideas about puppy dogs (laughs) and

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all sorts of things. And then on the piano I do remember loving the generation of

chords, and leaning on the black notes and just making a lot of racket. And so my folks

said would I like piano lessons when I was 6 or 7. And I said yes, please, and as soon as I

started them, it killed it stone dead. KM P1 L5

There is a gap between KM’s initial experience of musicality and the formal

expectations of what learning to develop in music is perceived to involve. In this

case the early joy found through music is effectively extinguished by the particular

formal music education approach used in the piano lessons. KM began to explore

through playful improvising but the formal teaching approach holds no capacity for

incorporating or valuing the potential of such improvisation. KM is unsighted and

his enthusiasm for interaction with sound and music may have held additional

communicative potential but there is clearly a lack of pedagogical empathy towards

such an intuitive relationship to musicality. In spite of KM’s clear view that the

approach being offered to learning is ‘killing it,’ he perseveres while still at a very

young age.

I laboured on with that system for a number of years always feeling frustrated and a

bit bored with it. KM P2 L8

… in parallel to that I’d started playing the ukulele when my hands were not big

enough to play the guitar, in skiffle groups, and that was more fun. And then I decided

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that I’d make some recordings of myself playing the piano and thought: that sounds

just like I’m playing a typewriter. And I gave it up. KM P2 L15

The developing relationship between KM’s formal and informal experiences of

music are illustrated here: despite experiencing the ‘killing it’ in the context of the

piano lessons, KM retains an impetus and pleasure for playing music which becomes

expressed through the informality of playing the ukulele: ‘and that was more fun.’

Having discovered an alternative outlet for musical expression KM makes a self-

assessment of his piano playing through recording and listening back. Although very

young, KM is nevertheless able to make a case for rejecting the approach to the

piano as lacking human quality: ‘… like I’m playing a typewriter.’

I fell in with a group of people at school who were interested in things moving towards

jazz, some of it was jazz. KM P2 L26

In his teens KM finds a group of peers whose musical interests hold appeal and he

develops ‘towards jazz’, taking up the saxophone. His formative experience of formal

music education informs his approach to developing on the instrument.

… I had a few lessons and decided, because I’d had the experience of the piano, I

thought well I’ll just go it alone. So that was what I did with the saxophone. KM P3 L3

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Assuming an autodidactic (self-teaching) approach is common amongst free

improvisers (as well as musicians in different areas of musical activity). In KM’s case

it is a choice informed by the shortcomings of formal education. However there is

much more to the autodidactic approach to learning than simply being a fall back

position compensating for failings within formal education. Improvisers involved in

a lifetime of learning (Chapter 6.1.1) are necessarily, largely involved in a self-

directed process of learning.

… we’re self teaching, we’re learning from each other… we do an autodidact process…

SG P14 L35

In SG’s description of working with an improvising orchestra he explains how: ‘We

do an autodidact process…’ in the group context. Here the autodidactic approach

(section 9.2.3) and the group process coalesce. The convergence of the autodidactic

and group learning processes is potent for considering free improvisation and

education, as SG says ‘we’re learning from each other.’

GB’s experience of encountering improvisation first hand as a taught subject within

academia is unusual in the interviews.

…, they had a music improvisation class, and that was the first time I encountered the

notion that there was a thing called improvisation that you could study, in a

systematic way and the class was utterly dreary and boring and it immediately

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became the class that it was hard to drag yourself to. And then Anthony Braxton came

and taught a workshop and it was a revelation and I thought OK this is what I want to

do – my first encounter with improvisation in any rigorous or systematic way was this

horrible class, where the guy who taught it never improvised at all. GB P12 L2

(Chapter 6.1.3)

This is the only description from the cohort of improvisers that references personal

experience of improvisation in formal education as a student. It is characteristic of

the interviewees to have developed their practice as professional musicians in

improvisation despite their formal education experiences and this is significantly

indicative of the lack of institutional acknowledgement of improvisation practice. As

professional musicians, other interviewees have similarly described contemporary

improvisation courses being led by those who are not improvisers. It is a visit by a

leading professional musician/improviser Anthony Braxton that inspires GB to the

extent that he decides: ‘OK, this is what I want to do.’

9.1.4 Technique and free improvisation

For NA the need for instrumental technique was seen as being in balance with

creativity, ‘good technique’ was enabling of the particular demands created by

improvising, in this case on trombone and solo performance.

… I try to acquire as good a technique as I can and I try to bring that to bear upon

improvising. When I can’t think of anything to play I can rely on technique. I think I’ve

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got strong chops. Physically I’ve got strong chops and I can play a solo for half an hour

without falling flat on the floor. NA P2 L22

Such a view of technique clearly aligns NA with conventions associated with the

‘workmanlike’ attitude commonly found amongst professional musicians: as a

highly respected instrumentalist the approach has held him in good stead. However

there is also a less straightforward relationship between free improvisation and

formal education illustrated by a broader understanding of technique. Technique in

improvisation reflects a continuing evolution of the music through which: extended

techniques, idiosyncratic adaptations of instruments, the use of found objects, built

instruments, the incorporation of instrumental approaches from different cultures,

the incorporation of continuingly developing, as well as old, technologies which may

themselves be adapted for the purpose of free improvisation, etc. reflect the

preoccupations of creative music making. While there is utility in a rigorous regard

towards established instrumental conventions, the issue of personal musical

development through technique also becomes a question for individualised decision

making.

… what I’ve done, and continue to do, is try to improve, all the time, so that I’m able to

speak in any kind of situation. And that’s what you want to be able to do, you want to

have enough technique to be able to present the ideas that you’re hearing in your

head. You keep working on your technique, so you can present more ideas and then

continuous thoughts, because it’s also a thinker’s game. So you want to be able to have

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the long-range thinking. Certainly studying composition helps you develop that

because you know how things develop and so on. LR P6 L28

Extensive professional experience enables LR to articulate a contextualised notion

of ‘technique’ in improvisation. Within such a diverse picture, the question of

technique is well addressed by reference to need in improvisation. LR’s aim is to be

‘able to speak in any kind of situation,’ and as he explains, in order to develop, ‘try to

improve, all the time,’ he aims to have ‘enough technique to present ideas that you’re

hearing in your head.’ For free improvisation, positing technique as a developing

rather than static concept: ‘…what I’ve done and continue to do…’ aids this

embedding of technique within creative musical aims. LR’s instrument is the

saxophone but the approach he outlines seems applicable to any form of sound

production within a free improvisation context.

Notions of technique are so embedded within formal education settings, in which

there may be little or no consideration for the processes of creative

music/improvisation, and strong associations between the acquisition of technique

and the denial of improvisation have occurred, exemplified by the classically

accomplished instrumentalist who, while at the ‘top of their game’ may well eschew

improvisation.

KM expresses a pragmatic view of music and technique within an improvisation

context:

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I think there is something about music, sophisticated motor skills, in one way or

another, whether it’s manipulating a lap- top or an acoustic instrument and the way

you develop motor skills is largely through practice. So to me I couldn’t care less

whether somebody has learnt a particular theory but I think they’re far more likely to

generate some interesting music if they’ve done a lot of practise… the key thing is

whether they are motivated to practise at all, I mean spend time, because it requires

the development... KM P12 L10

Notwithstanding the tensions between formal and informal approaches to the music

of free improvisation, as KM explains, it remains the case that practise is at the heart

of development, dispelling any falsehood that improvisation somehow sidesteps

rigour or provides an easy option. LR extends this central idea of development in the

music explaining how survival depends upon development:

But it’s only the people who went on to develop themselves, are the ones who remain.

So, um, music is, in the end, 99.9 percent work. LR P12 L29

The place of technique and the acquisition of knowledge, need to be contextualised

within creative free improvisation practice and the standardisation suggested by

some approaches to technique and other aspects of music is a particular concern for

free improvisation:

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… we can’t really learn anything from people that are all the same. LR P10 L38

For KM the discussion of strategies in free improvisation additionally led to

descriptions that referenced his other role as a counsellor utilising

psychotherapeutic approaches. Comparisons were made between engagement in

the process of free improvisation in music and engagement in the counselling

process:

… that’s the bit about being in the moment, there might be some things going on and

you think: Oh I don’t know what the fuck this means and what that is, but don’t try and

struggle to understand it too much, just go with the flow and say and do things which

are just instinctual and it might reveal something to you immediately but it might take

a couple of sessions for you to think, Ah, when this was going on it was probably a

reflection of this that or the other. KM P14 L42

KM’s description of experience in counselling seems applicable to free

improvisation. The contingency of participation in ‘the moment’ of free

improvisation is not the same as reflective understanding of what is occurring in the

overall composition. Part of ‘being in the moment’ is accepting that not everything

will be fully understood at that time. By being in the moment we are also essentially

contributing to such an overall picture that may be better understood at a later time.

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… your reflections about how something may feel later on, may lead you to a different

interpretation of what is or was happening, which can be very informative to both the

counsellor and the client. KM P16 L1

As previously discussed in Chapter 8.1.6 the place of reflection plays an integral part

of learning in free improvisation and as UP puts it: ‘first play, listen to it, then talk

about it.’ UP P2 L1

9.2 Further contextualisation of ‘Strategies’

The theme of ‘Strategies,’ is further contextualised in the following sections of

Chapter 9. In ‘Spontaneity: a further contextualisation,’ 9.2.1, the idea of

spontaneity is considered in the broader cultural context of art-work and politics of

the 1950s and 1960s, spontaneity is also considered within the range of approaches

to playing improvised music. In ‘Others,’ 9.2.2, the ability to play successfully in

settings that may differ widely is highlighted as a specific aim within free

improvisation. ‘Autodidactism,’ 9.2.3, or self-directed learning, is interpreted as a

foundational strategy in the development of improvisation and ‘Music training,’

9.2.4, continues this theme in discussing the development of improvisation practice

and formal education. ‘Practise,’ 9.2.5, discusses the importance of instrumental

practise in improvisation and explores the particular nature of such activity for

improvisation. ‘Assessment,’ 9.2.6, discusses the place of assessment in the

development of improvisation practice and how this relates to formal and non-

formal contexts.

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9.2.1 Spontaneity: a further contextualisation

While views of spontaneity vary in interviewees’ descriptions of free improvisation

(9.1.1), the wide use of the term points to the immediacy of the temporal practice of

improvisation, as do terms such as ‘in-the-moment,’ instant and real-time (Chapter

7.2.4). Spontaneity has become so tied to improvisation through general use that it

warrants further discussion.

A zeitgeist stemming from the 1950s and 1960s connected the terms spontaneity

and free improvisation (Chapter 2.1). During this period, in which free

improvisation in Europe could be said to have begun, notions of cultural spontaneity

became apparent. Cultural spontaneity embodied an expression of the desire for

change, and the chance for political action and art, through creative action that

acknowledged urgency. Examples of such spontaneous action could be seen in

happenings (Kaprow, 1958) action painting or abstract expressionism (de Kooning,

1952) free concerts (London, 1969) Paris uprising (1968) university sit-ins (US

1960s) etc., the ‘counter culture’ exploited the potential of immediacy as a means of

expression: by-passing or overcoming conventions and formality that were likely to

present obstacles to creative expression. Such spontaneous activity was often a

method of protest and challenge. The Spontaneous Music Ensemble (UK) and

Instant Composers Pool (NED) (Chapter 5.2.2) reflected such political

understanding through the potential of musical activity that highlighted the

spontaneity associated with the period.

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The cultural and political significance of the term spontaneity does not carry the

same resonance as it did. Overstating spontaneity in describing improvisation in

music, we may obscure ‘how vast that experience is, how many levels it has.’ SG P15

L15. For SG engaging with improvisation has come to mean engagement in a broad

and complex, social human process that naturally exists across domains and at

‘many levels’ as a human capability first, occurring in many different areas of life

simultaneously (Chapter 7.2.1). RT highlights the over-arching ‘complexity’ of free

improvisation in discussing the relative place of spontaneity (section 9.1).

Free improvisers, unlike other musicians, commonly engage with ongoing

explorative ways of developing sound. Malleability is sought in playing that can be

served by developing the instrumental possibilities, technique, as well as material.

This can also be interpreted, in part, as the perceived need to be able to create in

real time in which spontaneity may contribute. This process of developing is more

fully described as evolution in improvisation (Chapter 7.2.3). Such evolving activity,

that includes the element of spontaneity, becomes illustrated by the musicians’

distinct approaches in improvisation. Within the use of conventional instruments in

improvisation such explorative activity can include, for example, removing parts of a

trombone, or the mouth-piece of a clarinet or saxophone, drastically altering,

extending the instruments sound producing possibilities, and within the playing,

introducing techniques such as ‘false fingerings,’ (saxophone,) or playing the guitar

laid flat, bowing the body of the double bass etc., contributing to developing and

extending the understanding of the instrument’s potential for sound making.

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Incorporating ‘junk,’ and other sound producing objects in percussion set-ups,

placing objects between the strings of instruments to alter its sound possibilities,

using soft-ware with an unpredictable element in its program, the use of the

endlessly unpredictable tuning of a radio, ‘found’ objects with uncertain sonic

possibilities, all of which contribute to extending the musical possibilities for the

performer and the opportunity to respond creatively. Similarly there is a lineage of

self-built-instruments that utilise a free improvisation approach (Hugh Davies, Max

Eastley etc.) that reflects the desire for new possibilities of music making.

Disrupting the familiar contributes to the exploratory character of free

improvisation although such disruption may also become familiar. The ongoing

development of instrumental technical ability, and particularly extended technique,

can be interpreted as reflecting the same desire to engage in improvisation in ways

that don’t remain static thereby retaining a relationship with the instrument that is

developing and suggesting new musical possibilities. The desire for the new, and to

find new ways to create, has been evidenced elsewhere by multi-instrumentalists,

for example Anthony Braxton who at times has played an ‘arsenal’ of saxophones,

clarinets and flutes. The desire for creative music making is the common motivation

that connects these different ways of approaching music practice.

Although an aim for some is ‘spontaneous composition’ (LR) and spontaneity for

those new to improvising may be an important attraction, within improvisation

practice it becomes an aspect within larger concerns in the process of creating

music. From beginnings that were clearly connected to a broad, emerging culture

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that featured spontaneity, free improvisation has grown to become a practice that is

characterised by the ongoing examination of ways of making sound in creative

music making.

9.2.2 Others

As the site of creativity is in performance it is in the context of playing with others

that free improvisation is realized. LR has referred to a kind of super-objective of

striving to ‘speak in any situation’ in improvisation practice. Playing with others in a

specifically wide variety of contexts, as well as solo, has come to identify RJ’s

professional practice as a musician. Discussion about musicians often reflects upon

their instrumental skill, and highly regarded improvisers are typically known for

exceptionally developed, personalised technical ability, while their ability to work in

different contexts is less celebrated. While RJ is known for such instrumental ability,

he has equally developed a specific aptitude for contributing to successful music in a

very wide range of improvised settings. RJ foregrounds the collaborative and

negotiating character of free improvisation in his approach to making music.

RJ… perhaps the most unique thing about this practice is that if it’s group playing, it’s

a collaborative process involving often contradictory creative input of other people.

Things that you wouldn’t have thought of yourself, things that you may not agree with,

things that will force you to operate in a way that you weren’t expecting. And I find

that very intrinsic to the improvising process and what makes it, when it works, almost

the most interesting music you can get.

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SR I think that’s one of the particular features of your music, having heard you in

different settings. I commented to KM on the duo that you did, I said I really like the

way RJ seems to be able to latch on to the other thing that’s going on, and then, you

seem to be able to turn and extend… you seem to be able to do this in many different

contexts.

RJ It is my particular interest. It is this thing of how to maintain your own personality,

yet use it to make musical sense with the people, musical sense with the people you’re

working with and to accept their intentions to be as important as your own. RJ P7 L21

RJ has developed an advanced facility for working with others, implemented

through a high degree of instrumental control together with an emphasis upon

flexibility. RJ’s approach foregrounds an acceptance that it is not the individual’s

instrumental ability alone but their ability to work musically with others whose

approaches will be diverse and at times ‘contradictory’. Of course, it can be argued

that good free improvisers do this all the time in negotiating the territory and

activity of creating music through free improvisation, however RJ’s articulation of

his ‘personal interest’ is particularly clear as it highlights an aspect of the process:

there is a pro-active approach to a distinguishing feature of free improvisation, its

group creativity. Identifying clearly that: ‘…perhaps the most unique thing about this

practice is that if it’s group playing, it’s a collaborative process…’ his instrumental

approach has developed, in balance with notable solo playing, with a hallmark of

adaptability and flexibility. He developed a technical approach to saxophone playing

through which he re-imagined the saxophone’s use in ensemble settings, at home

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within the dynamic range of a quietly played single string of an acoustic guitar,

violin or vocalist while still retaining flexibility over the range of the instrument in

performance. While this aligned his playing with the tendency, particularly in the

1990s for quiet improvisation, reductionism, the approach developed with a

capacity to successfully exist in the broader diversity of music created through free

improvisation. The advanced interpretation of: ‘how to maintain your own

personality, yet use it to make… musical sense with the people you’re working with and

to accept their intentions to be as important as your own.’ has been realised across

several decades of professional musical practice.

9.2.3 Autodidactism

Autodidactism is interpreted as having been a foundational strategy in the

development of free improvisation.

… we’re self teaching, we’re learning from each other... We do an autodidact process,

with the outcome of which we don’t even know (laughs). So we’re teaching ourselves to

do something that we don’t really know what it is. We’re just looking for an outcome

and we’ll know it when we see it, and that’s a part of improvisation too. SG P14 L36

The practice of autodidactism, self-directed learning, has characterised the

development of what has become free improvisation. The unique approach to music

making, traversing genres and styles, developing its own techniques, has necessarily

developed, and continues to develop, through individual’s experimental practice.

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While the term autodidactic may bring to mind the self taught academic, and notions

of self-improvement (Workers Education Movement, UK) the self-learning process

that free improvisers engage with is perhaps more akin to that of the visual artist or

crafts person. The ongoing musical concerns of the individual are self-determined as

practice becomes furthered through practical engagement. The processes within the

autodidactic approach leads to development of the individual ‘voice’.

Autodidactism in free improvisation involves working alone and with others: the

processes of working alone and in group contexts are interrelated and inform one

another, the demands of the group setting provide useful information regarding

what may be developed individually, while the material generated through

individual’s practice will contribute to the group pieces, simultaneously providing

information for others (Chapter 7.2.3). The term autodidactism itself recognises an

approach that has resulted from need as people ‘did it for themselves’ and to some

extent this reflects the absence of improvisation from formal educational settings.

While individuals develop through autodidactic practice in improvisation this is

balanced by equally important work in group settings: individual and group work

contribute to developing practice (section 9.2.2).

9.2.4 Music training

There is a tension between theorising free improvisation as autodidactic

(individually led) and the benefits that can be gained through a formal education

that may provide music training (institutionally led). This may lead to a false

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opposition between the relative benefits of self-learning and training on offer at

places of higher education. In practice, it is currently rare to find institutions

offering engagement in free improvisation within their programs. While five of the

ten interviewees, world-class improvisers, studied music in formal settings, three of

those directly referenced very negative experiences within formal education, for

two of those it meant ‘dropping’ the study. However, for one interviewee, NA,

development of technique and instrumental ability were clearly identified as

embedded within the formal study of music (although not creative music practice).

Within the cohort of interviewees, from a range of demographics in North America

and Europe, formal education, certainly in the past, has not furthered the

development of improvising musicians, reinforcing the agency of autodidactism for

the development of free improvisation. (See also recommendations: Chapter 11.5.)

9.2.5 Practise

I think there is something about music because it requires the development of

sophisticated motor skills, in one way or another, whether it’s manipulating a laptop

or an acoustic instrument and the way you develop motor skills is largely through

practise. So to me I couldn’t care less whether somebody has learnt a particular theory

but I think they’re far more likely to generate some interesting music if they’ve done a

lot of practise. I know some of the practise methods I use because they’re right for me

and if I’m asked to give people lessons then I will hold them up as possible ideas but if

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they choose not to do those then that is absolutely fine. But the key thing is whether

they are motivated to practise at all, I mean spend time. KM L10 P12

While the relationship between formal education and improvisation is complicated,

valuing the importance of practise seems to remain an area of commonality. As free

improvisation forms real time composition, the way in which we engage with the

source of sound, our instrument, determines our capability to create music and

‘spending time,’ working with the instrument, enables the development of this

process. This is interwoven with the autodidactic approach (section 9.2.4). While

highly valuing instrumental practise is common in different musical fields, the

intentions informing such activity may not be the same. Highly trained classical

musicians, may be involved in intense practise regimes, and at the same time not

aiming to develop skill in improvisation and as a result of developing a particular

relationship with their instrument they may never improvise. Practise develops in

line with the concerns of the individual musician and understandings of their

particular contexts. The content of their practising is personal and will change over

time. Practise for the improviser will become a strategy, in part, to develop

‘ingredients,’ (RJ) that may become individualised within a free improvisation

language. Particular technique develops from understanding of the need to address

musical interests. The common notion that improvisers use extended techniques

and therefore those who wish to become free improvisers should learn those

techniques is a misinterpretation. Such techniques, developed by individuals, reflect

the individual musical concerns and preoccupations, and while they exist in the

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public domain, it is necessary to recognise the need for individual personal

development through instrumental practise. With no preordained script the

opportunity to develop uniquely is available through free improvisation and the

ways in which such improvisation develops reflect changing and developing cultural

contexts.

9.2.6 Assessment

Assessment is discussed in 6.1.3 and 6.2.4 and in this section we will describe its

valuable role in relation to strategies intended to further practice. Within the non-

formality of self-led practice the term assessment may not be much used:

assessment is usually bound to institutional processes such as grading, perhaps

telling us as much about institutional requirement for grades as the progression of

learning. However, as autodidactic modes of furthering practice are something of a

norm in free improvisation, informal self and peer assessment inevitably takes

place, although this may not be necessarily overtly acknowledged. Two strands to

the notion of assessment may overlap but not necessarily, they are: assessment as a

means by which attainment can be reflected for formal purposes and secondly as a

means to facilitate the developing learning. It may be argued that they are one of the

same thing, however, unfortunately the first aspect of assessment too easily

overshadows the second. Wariness of the implications of assessment, as a method

for grading, has led many to prefer to avoid it. Assessment is however something

that we are all engaged in, in our everyday lives: analysing, making choices and

acting upon decisions by means of identifying ‘where we have got to’. Within

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autodidactism assessment is an overly formal term for the furthering of practice

improvisers seek to engage in and this in itself points to further differences between

formal and informal approaches to learning. Nevertheless, different means of

reflection that may include for example audio recording and note making enable

assessment of ongoing developing practice and contribute to decision making

regarding future musical aims and as such assessment may be a strategy for

furthering practice in free improvisation in non-formal as well as formal settings.

Assessment may begin by considering the aims of a practise session, group

improvisation or performance. Methods of record keeping have the potential for

immediacy of assessment and also for assessing of longer-term progress as a

continuum of development (Chapter 6.1.3, 6.2.4). One of the problems of formal

assessment is that it can become a ‘blunt’ instrument and employed in such a

manner may counter the aims and nature of group free improvisation practice, with

this in mind assessment for improvisation is informed by the ideas in Chapter 6:

‘Free improvisation and learning,’ and in particular 6.2.4, ‘The role of the teacher in

improvisation’.

9.2.7 Summary

In 9.1.1, interviewees’ varying views of the place of spontaneity in improvisation

were discussed. This theme was further contextualised in 9.2.1 through other art

practice in the cultural context of the 1950s and 1960s as well as by exploring ways

practicing musicians may engage with immediacy. The centrality of the social setting

for free improvisation was explored in 9.1.2 in which the relationships that give rise

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to music through improvisation were emphasised as important for its ongoing

development. ‘Others,’ 9.2.2, develops this theme by specifically identifying the

ability to play in different situations as an aim for the improvising musician. The

discussion of ‘Free improvisation and formal and non-formal education,’ 9.1.3

explored understandings of approaches to developing music and improvisation

through acknowledgement of the formal and non-formal learning contexts

described by interviewees: this contributes to the consideration of strategies for

developing practice. This theme becomes further developed in 9.2.3 ‘Autodidactism,’

and 9.2.4 ‘Music training’. ‘Autodidactism,’ discusses the significant aspect of self-

learning in the development of improvisation in music, and ‘Music training,’

explores the relationship between such self-learning and institutionally based

development in music. In ‘Technique and free improvisation,’ 9.1.4, the nature of

technique and its development in creative free improvisation practice is discussed.

This theme becomes extended in 9.2.5 through the discussion of the place and

importance of ‘Practise,’ in free improvisation. ‘Assessment,’ is discussed in 9.2.6 in

relation to developing practice in formal as well as non-formal settings.

As discussed in the introduction to Chapter 5, within these central Chapters, 5,6,7,8

and 9, in which the findings are explained and interpreted, the themes of

improvisation do not exist in isolation from one another. This is regarded as an

important theme in itself and the way in which the themes co-exist is fully

developed in 10.2, ‘The unity of the themes of improvisation,’ in the following

chapter.

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Chapter 10

Conclusion

10.0 Introduction

In Chapter 10: ‘Conclusions,’ we summarise the study and findings and raise further

questions concerning the practice of improvisation and learning. 10.1 summarises

the central chapters’ findings: Describing, Learning, Process, Body and Strategies. In

‘The unity of the themes of improvisation,’ 10.2, the co-existence of the themes of

improvisation is discussed in terms of ‘Co-presence,’ ‘Being-in-the-world and unity,’

and the ‘Unity of the themes for teaching and learning.’ ‘Difference,’ 10.3, explores

the findings in relation to: ‘Improvisation in music, difference and repetition,’

‘Improvisation, difference and education,’ ‘Improvisation, difference, diversity and

inclusion,’ ‘Difference and method,’ and

‘Difference and the agency of improvisation,’ and this is followed by a summary to

the conclusions.

10.1 Thesis summary

The aim of this qualitative study has been to explore the creative process of free

improvisation in music with a specific emphasis on investigating its educational

potential. In Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 super-ordinate themes stemming from the

overarching question: What is the place of free improvisation in your practice? are

discussed. The first part of each of these chapters interprets the super-ordinate

themes by remaining intentionally close to interviewees’ perspectives (IPA). The

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second part of each chapter further contextualises the super-ordinate themes by

including reference to additional social, cultural, political, pedagogical, psychological

and philosophical discussion and literature. Throughout the process of analysis and

discussion a hermeneutic cycle has been employed (Chapter 4.3.3): consideration of

the parts have been viewed in relation to the larger textual context. In the

conclusion we will summarise the findings of each chapter, discuss how the themes

of free improvisation importantly co-exist and discuss difference and improvisation.

The themes of improvisation are summarised in the following section.

10.1.1 Describing free improvisation: Chapter 5

Chapter 5 described how within the socio-musical context of improvisation, the

heterogeneous agency of FI suggests diversity: explicitly addressing the highly

relevant theme of inclusion in education. Interviewees made reference to

themselves as composers and the practice of improvisation as composition in a

variety of ways and participants in free improvisation were seen to compose the

music. The challenge of large group improvisation was explored, further

illuminating the socio-musical theme of improvisation. Understandings of ‘socio-

political art’ additionally described the practice of free improvisation.

Improvisation, as a human capability, was interpreted as clearly interdisciplinary,

and cross-disciplinary. Free improvisation was also found to form connections to

the theme of environment in a number of ways. The agency of free improvisation

was explored in relation to the concept of being-in-the-world and free

improvisation’s relationship with language and specifically metaphor was discussed.

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Key words: composition, socio-musical, heterogeneous, interdisciplinary, human

capability, environment, being-in-the-world, language.

10.1.2 Learning: Chapter 6

Within Chapter 6 formal and non-formal learning was discussed as recurrently

embedded in interviewees’ experiences of free improvisation: the educational

potential of characteristics of free improvisation was explored. Academic practice

and improvisation were discussed in relation to assessment and ideas of canon.

Improvisation in music and hegemony was explored. The special significance of live

performance for learning was described. Comparisons between educational practice

in drama and visual art and music education informed the potential of

improvisation. Musical practice within the music business was seen as closely tied

to improvising ability, although under-acknowledged. Participation in free

improvisation was interpreted as providing an opportunity for autonomous creative

expression, suggesting free improvisation as a democratised educational setting.

The role of the teacher in improvisation activity was explored. Free improvisation

was seen to form clear connections to understandings of knowledge and theories of

teaching and learning.

Key words: formal/non-formal learning, live performance, hegemony, participation,

role of the teacher, knowledge, teaching.

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10.1.3 Process: Chapter 7

In Chapter 7 the process of improvisation was identified as contributing towards

self-determination. Willingness to risk and trust were identified as enabling the

process of free improvisation that was described as interdisciplinary and, moreover

as a human capability. The utility of improvisation within human interaction was

discussed. Examples of improvisation as political assertion were described.

Processes found in the natural world and in improvisation were compared and

discussed. The process of improvisation as real time composition was considered in

relation to other areas of activity that highlight the real time aspect.

Key words: self-determination, trust, risk, self-assertion, natural-world, real-time,

interdisciplinary, human capability, political assertion.

10.1.4 Body: Chapter 8

In Chapter 8 the phenomenological precept: ‘to return to the thing itself,’ for

improvisation led towards the body and embodied knowledge as the site of free

improvisation. ‘Oneness,’ described as unifying of mind, body and group in the act of

free improvisation was further contextualised as ‘unity’. Kinaesthetic learning, or

learning by doing, was explored in relation to improvisation. The importance of

listening was seen as part of the central importance of the body for understanding

improvisation. Awareness of the importance of physicality in performance was

described. Perspectives of the relationship between playing and discussion further

illuminated the place of the body in improvisation. Inter-subjectivity and inter-

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corporeality were discussed as ways of describing the importance of group activity

within the theme of the body and free improvisation. The implications for creating

embodied musical practice were discussed. The importance of metaphor for

understanding cognitive processes and embodied improvisation were explored. The

unmediated form of imaginative free improvisation, creating music at the point of

performance rather than interpreting, was understood as an ‘intervolving’ with the

world. Exploring the ‘myth of the mind’ drew further attention to the way

improvisation as embodied creativity importantly connects to the body’s grasping of

the world through perceptual experience.

Key words: embodied knowledge, unity, kinaesthetic learning, listening, physical

performance, discussion, unity, inter-subjectivity, inter-corporeality, embodied

metaphor, intervolving.

10.1.5 Strategies: Chapter 9

In Chapter 9, Strategies, spontaneity’s complex relationship with free improvisation

was discussed and further contextualised. The ‘vision’ within the social setting of

improvisation informed strategies for developing individual and group practice.

Experiences of formal and informal education in music were interpreted in relation

to developing free improvisation. Interpretations of technique were discussed in the

context of developing the creative practice of free improvisation. The ability to

develop skills for working collaboratively with others was highlighted.

Autodidactism, self-teaching, was seen as an important feature of the development

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of free improvisation, and inter-related with group practice. Experiences of music

training were discussed in relation to improvisation practice and the developing

musician. Instrumental practise was seen as centrally important to development in

free improvisation. Assessment, in formal and non-formal settings, was interpreted

as playing a valuable role in furthering practice in free improvisation.

Key words: spontaneity, immediacy, autodidactism, formal/non-formal education,

technique, others, training, practise, assessment.

10.2 The ‘Unity’ of the themes of improvisation

10.2.1 Introduction

In this section of the conclusion the term ‘Unity,’ (Merleau-Ponty, 1962) refers to the

way in which the super-ordinate themes exist together through embodied, enacted

improvisation in music (Chapter 8.1.2; 8.2.2). ‘Unity,’ also refers to the way in which

the act of improvisation departs from both the notion of the mind and body as

separate entities and the idea of music as a disembodied object of study (Chapter

4.5.2). Not conceptually dividing the music from its embodied creation becomes

centrally important for the development of practice. In improvisation, music comes

into existence through the ‘unity’ of embodied expression, inseparable from

embodied creation. The ‘Unity of the themes of improvisation,’ privileges the

practitioner and embodied learning.

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Given such a ‘unity of the themes,’ it is reasonable to ask why carry out analysis that

involves creating a separation of themes. In order to become aware of the

interrelatedness of the themes it was first necessary to know what these themes are,

identifying the parts has led to understanding of the whole. Additionally, ‘The unity

of the themes,’ corresponds to the hermeneutic cycle employed in the method of the

study: examining the relationship of the parts and the whole (Chapter 4.3.3) and in

this study the parts are seen as inseparable from the whole.

While ‘Unity’ is considered important for the way in which the themes may

interrelate, ‘Difference’ is also considered an important aspect of improvisation’s

particular agency in relationship to changing social contexts, the flexibility and

adaptability, and this is discussed in detail in section 10.3.

10.2.2 Co presence

The continued process of interpretive analysis of the interviewees’ transcripts has

involved a necessary separation and isolation of concepts and ideas in the

identification of themes and development of super-ordinate themes, leading to a

dividing within the descriptions of the phenomenon of free improvisation. The

hermeneutic circle has contributed to countering fragmentation: emergent themes

have been considered in relation to the whole of the texts in the development of

super-ordinate themes. At the same time sustaining the idiographic nature of the

phenomenological study has meant that the themes have not become separated

from interviewees’ lived experience.

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The ten interviews reflect significant understanding based upon their experiences

as leading practitioners in the field of improvisation, giving rise to a potentially

unique body of knowledge. While the interviewees have highlighted different

aspects in their descriptions of free improvisation, for example ‘listening’ (Chapter

8.1.4), and the ‘socio-musical location’ (Chapter 5.1.1) etc. our interpretation of the

super-ordinate themes recognises the need for these themes to be also understood

as simultaneous, working together, through the act of free improvisation, and in

such a way contributing to their utility within educational contexts. We interpret the

co-presence of these themes as centrally important to understanding creative

improvisation in music. This is demonstrated by the way in which free

improvisation, the creation of music without pre-determined structure, exists in the

act of doing, and in no other way: at such time the themes co-exist.

The correlation between overarching, super-ordinate themes is clear: ‘Strategies’

(Chapter 9) and the ‘Process’ (Chapter 7) of free improvisation essentially inform

‘Learning’ (Chapter 6) and approaches for improvisation, learning and education. As

free improvisation is enacted in real time, the super-ordinate theme of the ‘Body’

(Chapter 8) necessarily becomes the site in which the other super-ordinate themes

become realised. The act of free improvisation becomes inseparable from learning:

all of the sub-themes become relevant for educational contexts. The correlation of

these themes: the interrelatedness of the themes with learning, further indicates the

agency of free improvisation for education. While the themes need to be considered

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separately in order to develop understanding of improvisation, the simultaneous

interrelatedness is complicated by the way in which there is not a uniform or

hierarchical way in which they fit together. The imbrication and multiplicity of the

themes of improvisation is indicative of unity and is further discussed in section

10.3 ‘Difference’.

10.2.3 Being-in-the world and unity

Heidegger’s examination of ‘Being-in-the-world,’ (Chapter 5.2.5) has been influential

as it includes a re-examination of the ‘background’ or supposition upon which

knowledge is based (and practice in disciplines, science, etc). Improvisation in music

is a good fit with such a conceptualisation of ‘being,’ it doesn’t preface with

constructs such as written composition, improvisation interrogates the boundaries

of possible musical experience through our being human-in-the-world, as a

traditional or formalised construct is not already imposed upon it.

Heidegger (1962) describes being as ‘openness’ to the world already there (Chapter

8), and the development of this central, influential idea leaves behind the idea of the

object/subject as a plausible model of being. ‘Openness,’ is a helpful way of

distinguishing improvisation – the form requires ‘openness,’ to possibilities offered

at a particular time, by a particular place and in the context of the particular

individuals involved.

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Improvisation in music as embodied, real time, creative, collective experience

provides a vivid instance of ‘… the human world coming into being,’ through artistic

practice. Creating the environment in ‘an unrepeatable moment,’ (RJ,) in the act of

improvising, becomes a heightened expression of being-in-the-world. The act of

improvisation forms a special connection to being-in-the-world, as the human world

is realised through playing: in the process of ‘holistically’ composing in real time we

create the environment, or world, through our being/improvisation, as SG

describes: ‘…you’re part of an environment and also creating an environment…’

(Chapter 5.1.1) this is interpreted as effectively describing being-in-the-world

through improvisation.

While the description of ‘oneness’ (Chapter 8.1.2) has an unintended mystical

connotation, it nevertheless makes clear connections to the theme of ‘unity’

discussed here. ‘Oneness,’ was used to describe the experience of playing together

where the separations between mind, body as well as between the individuals

becomes lessened as the process of creating the music seems to take on its own life:

this kind of immersive state is reminiscent of what has been described elsewhere as

‘Flow,’ (Csikszententmihalyi 1988) in which action and awareness merge through a

concentration in activity. Although this kind of experience, often accompanied by a

sense of wellbeing, has been historically attributed to religious experience, it is

commonly found amongst those in different domains of activity who experience

high levels of performance and this includes music. Its special relevance for

improvisation in music comes through the immediacy of the activity – improvisation

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requires total commitment, in the act of doing, through which separations of mind,

body as well as separateness from others becomes secondary to the collective act of

making music. More than an interesting aside or by-product of improvisation, this

heightened state aids the creation of music.

10.2.4 ‘Unity of the themes’ for teaching and learning

It is not uncommon for improvisation to be become valorised by those involved in it,

and terms such as ‘unity,’ may be misunderstood as contributing towards an

unrealistic picture of improvisation that may be caricatured by ‘blissed-out’

participants, seeking utopia through collective sensibility etc. However, it is

intended that the grounded learning lens employed in this study, specifically

referencing experience of teaching in challenging circumstances (Chapter 1.2, 1.3) in

which improvisation practice has been seen to be integral to successful teaching and

learning, may counter such overly idealistic or romantic suggestions. Rather, the

‘unity of the themes of improvisation,’ is seen as having particular agency for

developing teaching and learning contexts (Chapter 8.2.2). The central chapters of

findings (Chapters 5 to 9) can be employed directly in the planning of sessions in

different contexts. They become adaptable to the needs of different groups. The

experience and ideas represented form a body of knowledge of world leading

improvisers from Europe and North America and the researcher’s interpretation of

the themes is informed by several decades of experience in a variety of teaching and

learning contexts and extensive experience of practice in improvisation as a

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professional musician. The structure of the chapters avoids creating a hierarchy

within the themes and is also intended to be non-prescriptive. The aim has also been

to avoid a manual style as such a format runs counter to the way in which the

themes of improvisation have been explored through lived experience. Such a

format is an inadequate means of representing the multiplicity of improvisation,

rather it is possible for individuals to consider and make use of the concepts taken

from Chapters 5 to 9 in sessions for a wide variety of learning contexts. As teachers

can verify, no one can effectively tell you the best way to teach, teaching itself is a

process of inquiry and the material on offer here is available for interpretation in

learning and teaching, through its implementation it may become employed in a

variety of ways.

10.3 Difference

10.3.1 Improvisation in music, difference and repetition

Free improvisation’s openness (Chapter 5.2.4) forms a particular relationship with

difference: the form does not seek sameness (section 10.3.1). Improvisation can be

interpreted as ever-changing, not fixed, mutable, evolving, adaptable, fluid, not pre-

determined, not pre-conceived, shifting, flexible, code-switching, developing,

responsive, available and open. While improvisation provides for the expression

and assertion of identity (Chapters 5.1.2; 9.2.3) this becomes facilitated through its

openness to difference. And while continuous repetition in music abounds, from

‘classical,’ to ‘pop,’ a special feature of improvisation is that it does not feature

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repetition as a given musical aim. The limiting of creative options through the aim

of repetition is contrasted with improvisation’s ever present need for choice and

decision making in the process of playing and its availability as an open invitation to

participate.

10.3.2 Improvisation, difference and education

Difference has been consistently indicated throughout the findings as an important

feature on improvisation (Chapters 5.1.2; 5.1.3; 5.2.2; 5.2.4; 6.2.3; 7.1.1; 8.2.3; 9.1.3).

In Chapter 1, we began this thesis by describing the teaching experience of working

with teenagers who had been ‘permanently excluded’ from mainstream education

and the development of music practice within the educational context of a pupil

referral unit. Improvisation within evolving teaching and learning was cited as a key

component for the successful educational development of pupils in this setting:

‘Students’ alienation from mainstream education, and culture, was countered

by a strong desire to express, creatively through engagement in music and

drama.’

‘Students’ clear musical choices influenced the planning of schemes of work

that valued immediacy.’

‘As with the drama teaching, experiential and performance centred activity

became the way of proceeding in music lessons.’ (Chapter 1.2, 1.3)

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While the practice of improvisation in music became a successful strategy for

developing learning, improvisation demonstrated agency beyond the musical

discipline. The teacher’s response to ‘students’ clear musical choices,’ directly

influences the pedagogical approach: identification of the agency of improvisation,

at the point at which students create music, informs the decision making for the

teacher, in a cyclical manner (Chapter 7.2.3). Underlying this strategy is not just the

acceptance of difference but the utilisation of difference within a pedagogical

approach.

‘The pupils developed an owned, positive culture of education, which carried

into other lessons.’ (1.2)

The intrinsic development of trust through such a process is authentic (Heidegger,

1962) and can be a powerful reinforcement of the teacher/learner relationship

within an autonomous learning setting (Chapter 7.1.3).

10.3.2.1 Improvisation, difference, diversity and inclusion

The term diversity is often applied at the level of educational administration

however for the term to become realised it requires interpretation in teaching and

learning, in terms of its translation into pedagogical practice. Diversity within

multiculturalism also suggests an ‘even playing field,’ in which different cultures

may equally participate. The teaching experience highlighted in Chapter 1 describes

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how there is a highly disproportionate number of black excluded students in the UK

and within the broader picture it is not difficult to identify how cultures and

identities, other than those adhering to mainstream cultural and economic values,

do not share the same opportunities that are available to those already within the

mainstream (Chapter 6.2.2). This picture may challenge some basic assumptions

regarding approaches for the implementation of equality for ‘diversity’ in education.

As described previously improvisation’s real relationship with difference, through

musical expression, speaks very clearly to the institutional theme of diversity. The

pedagogical engagement is readily intercultural, improvisation acknowledges the

‘other’ and at the same time provides an open invitation that does not prescribe the

response. In this way teaching and learning employing improvisation introduces a

dialogue through which identities may become expressed and understood.

Importantly, improvisation engages with difference that is always present.

Improvisation’s special relationship with music and social difference also addresses

the educational theme of inclusion (Chapter 5.2.4). Like diversity, the real challenge

for inclusion is its implementation in the realisation of pedagogical practice. Once

again, improvisation’s not seeking to define a mode of expression leads to it being

available for those who, for one reason or another, are not necessarily included

within mainstream education (Chapter 5.1.2). Those who are not included

invariably present ‘otherness’ from the mainstream, in one form or another. While

Chapter 1 has described those who have been formally ‘excluded,’ from mainstream

education and by implication mainstream society, exclusion is as likely amongst

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those who are not visible as such. Improvisation’s offer to value difference (Chapter

5.1.2) therefore becomes importantly applicable in mainstream contexts where its

agency can provide expression for those who, while not necessarily visibly excluded,

may not be sharing the benefits of inclusion. Underlying the educational aim of

interpreting ‘equality of opportunity,’ is the broader theme of inclusion: a school

that acknowledges diversity is addressing issues of equality and there is a role for

improvisation within this picture (Chapter 1.3). Within this picture a challenge for

education is to resist a possible drift towards institutionalized homogeneity

(Chapter 6.1.5) in the use of FI, as a ‘safer’ approach.

10.3.3 Difference and method

Within this study, by seeking to ‘return to the thing itself,’ the understanding of

improvisation with special regard for its educational potential, it has been possible

to maintain regard for the integrity of participants views, valuing the differences

presented in participants’ life-world by means of Interpretive Phenomenological

Analysis (Chapter 4.5.2). Difference among participants has been valued through the

idiographic approach this in turn has led to a depth of understanding of

improvisation expressed through the findings (Chapters 5-9).

10.3.4 Difference and the agency of improvisation

Within the ‘unity of the themes of improvisation,’ (section 10.2.4) we have seen how

themes can be understood as imbricated, representing multiplicity as improvisation

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does not rest on a single theory but through a flexibility of approach that holds a

number of interrelated themes. Multiplicity results from improvisation’s agency for

difference. Together, the unity of the themes and difference avoid an essentialising

theory or ‘grand-narrative,’ of improvisation that would distort or restrict the

picture that, while featuring the themes of the body, process, learning and strategies,

is also, through the interrelatedness of the themes, unbounded and purposefully

open. Within such a picture the practice of improvisation gives rise to individually

strong narratives, and the formation of identities, while the particular agency of

improvisation stems from the facility for difference.

10.3 Summary to the conclusion

The act of free improvisation is a process of learning: the unity of free improvisation

is determined by its themes existing simultaneously as embodied creativity

becomes learning by doing.

Participants in free improvisation compose the music: the compositional aspect of

improvisation is interpreted as potentially dynamic for education and while

discussion of improvisation and composition often emphasises dissimilarity, free

improvisation is interpreted as real time composition.

Within the socio-musical context, the heterogeneous agency of free improvisation

engages difference thereby explicitly addressing inclusion for education.

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The autonomous character of free improvisation was highlighted as particularly

relevant for education. Participation in free improvisation was interpreted as

providing an opportunity for autonomous creative expression, suggesting free

improvisation as a democratised educational setting.

The themes of improvisation: Learning, Body, Process, Strategies, are understood as

existing simultaneously within a Unity in the embodied practice of improvisation.

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Chapter 11

Evaluation and recommendations

11.0 Introduction

In Chapter 11 the research process is evaluated and recommendations made. We

begin by discussing the research limitations through considering the findings and

possible alternative approaches. The IPA research method is evaluated together

with issues of: transparency, transferability and dependability, sensitivity to

context, and commitment and rigour. The contribution to music and education

research, the implications of the research, and further research leading from the

study are then discussed. Recommendations focus on the implementation of the

findings in educational contexts.

11.1 Research limitations

In the research study: Articulating perspectives of free improvisation for education.

(Rose, 2008) play was considered to be a centrally important aspect of free

improvisation. In this study play has not been identified as a theme of the

transcripts although it is addressed in 3.4.2 Pedagogy. There are however noticeably

three examples where what may be interpreted as the theme of Play becomes

highlighted. In KM’s descriptions of the heightened, embodied joy of playing (KM P6

L27) in RT’s descriptions of playful, comedic action and interaction in the act of

improvisation performance (RT P5 L5) and in NJ’s playing with conventions through

the visual representation of sound (NJ P8 L18). It is possible that Play may have

become interpreted at a thematic level by interpreting the life-worlds of a different,

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possibly less experienced interviewees: the cohort are very experienced

improvisers, offering particularly specialist, professional perspectives of

improvisation.

The research design has focussed upon the body of knowledge presented by highly

experienced practitioners. An alternative may have been to design research

focussing upon specific educational contexts in discerning the nature and range of

free improvisation/education practice. While valid, a concern for taking the second

approach is that formal educational concerns/orientation preface the nature of

improvisation practice. Given improvisation’s relative absence from formal

education, concern for the imbalance between education and improvisation has

been something of an ongoing sub-theme running through this research (Chapters

1.3, 6.8). While the cohort of interviewees were chosen for their experience as

musician practitioners, they also represent experience in educational contexts: four

of the ten have tenure in universities, one is a highly experienced facilitator/leader

in non-formal educational settings and two have experience of higher education as

visiting lecturer/musicians in addition to their role as professional musicians.

As a musician (Chapter 1.2) it may have been possible to design research with a

‘practice based’ orientation. The choice has been rather to focus on the practice of

others through the phenomenological approach. This has clearly defined the

researcher role as interpretive, the researcher’s interpretations have additionally

been informed by practice as a musician. The approach of clearly delineating

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between the role of researcher and musician has been further reflected in the choice

of interviewees, none of who were well known to me in a personal capacity prior to

the interviews.

11.2 Evaluation

11.2.1 Methodological approach

The experience of using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis has demonstrated

the utility of the method for researching improvisation. The method is understood

as having the capability of addressing the full range of possible interdisciplinary

interpretations arising from investigating improvisation. The method has proved to

be appropriate for addressing the complicated inter-relatedness of improvisation

and education.

In a previous study (Rose, 2008) the findings described ‘being’ as an encapsulating

theme of improvisation for education. As IPA has developed from phenomenology

(Heidegger, Husserl) in which the question of being is centrally important, there was

additional interest in the potential relationship between phenomenology of IPA, and

the study of improvisation. The in depth, inductive approach, exploring highly

personalised perspectives of the practice of free improvisation of very experienced

improvisers was found to contribute towards depth through interpretation.

Flexibility within the research design has been important in order that data and

interpretations could be fully developed without over emphasis upon reduction. The

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openness of the IPA approach was found to be of overarching importance. This

openness was directed towards the idiographic life-world of interviewees through

which analysis was developed through interpretation. The acknowledgement of the

role of researcher in interpretation by means of the hermeneutic approach was

important and the strategy of the continuing hermeneutic circle provided an

effective framework that valued the integrity of the data while repeatedly moving

between the parts and the whole. While a number of qualitative approaches were

considered (Chapter 4.4) Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis offered features

that were found to be highly suited to the aims of this particular study.

11.2.2 Research validity

Transparency

The account of the researcher’s orientation described in Chapter 1 is intended to

make the epistemological and ontological perspective of research clear. Chapter 4’s

full description of the development of research processes provides a transparent

account of the research approach. The appendices provide examples reflecting the

entire research process: it is possible to observe the textual process of developing

analysis and see how the super-ordinate themes have become developed as well as

how they have become sourced. The research method has been viewed as highly

appropriate for this study of the practice of improvisation aiding the overall

cohesiveness of the research study. The initial connection between method and

subject, through ‘being,’ (discussed in 10.2.3) has extended to the results section,

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where for example, embodiment has been positioned centrally through the super-

ordinate theme in the Chapter 8: Body.

Transferability and dependability

The range of experience represented by the cohort of interviewees has contributed

towards the generalisability of the findings: the research has benefitted from being

undertaken in the USA, California’s Bay Area (San Francisco, Oakland, Berkley)

Canada: in Banff Centre for the Arts, Montreal, and Guelph, the UK in London and

Sheffield, and Berlin in Germany where the 10 interviews with professional

improvisers have taken place. It has been possible to engage a culturally diverse

group of ten interviewees, experts in the field of improvisation whose ideas

represent many decades of professional experience. The ideas presented by these

individuals have been compared with the others’ views and beliefs in the cohort and

further contextualised by other literature. The resultant analysis and findings reflect

the idiographic depth of individual women and men from a variety of backgrounds

in North America and Europe, contributing towards the potential transferability as

well as the dependability of the findings. Interpreting and contextualising themes of

improvisation by means of their utility for learning contexts has contributed

towards developing grounded understanding and meanings.

Sensitivity to context

‘Sensitivity to context’ and ‘Commitment and rigour’ are terms suggested by Yardley

(2000) as ways for assessing validity in qualitative research. Within the findings the

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numerous interview extracts and interpretations give ‘voice’ to the individual’s

unique perspectives (hermeneutic of empathy,) that provides the core material for

the enquiry. As has been described (Chapter 4.5.2,) IPA has been chosen specifically

for what is understood as its good ‘fit’ to the subject of investigation: improvisation

and education. The researcher’s background (Chapter 1.1,1.2) in music and

education, including counselling in education training together with experience of

conducting two previous qualitative research projects, has led to awareness of how

sensitivity to the research context becomes significant. An important aspect of this

sensitivity, which raises questions for future research, is awareness of the possible

antagonistic relationship between research into music and professional musicians’

perceptions of the field (Bourdieu) of research. The constructed values of academic

research may differ from the concerns of the professional musician in ways that

become significant for research.

Commitment and rigour

For this research project there has been a single study. While it is common for

research projects of this kind to include more than one study, it has been intended

that the single, larger, in depth project, adhering closely to the idiographic method

of IPA, gives a greater opportunity to ‘go deep’. While it is usual for an IPA study to

use a small number of interviewees, for example four or five in the data gathering

process, a relatively large group of ten interviewees has been chosen. By selecting to

aim for the inclusion of a diverse breadth of experience in order to collate an as yet

undocumented pool of knowledge, at the same time remaining true to the detailed

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analysis within the idiographic, hermeneutic process, the resultant data has become

extensive. The benefit of the commitment to the large group for research has been

this large amount of idiographic data for analysis, representing a unique body of

diverse knowledge. The attention to the research processes has been reflected in the

time taken over analysis and writing during a period of two years.

11.2.3 Contribution to music and education research

There is an urgent need for further understanding the potential of improvisation in

education. The themes of improvisation: Learning, Process, Strategies and Body

together with the Conclusions, form a resource from which planning and

approaches for improvisation in education may become informed. This study

contributes a comprehensive examination of perspectives of free improvisation

from highly experienced practitioners in the field, and interprets the data with a

special view to the potential for learning that includes education across the range.

The value of the research findings, particularly for education, arises from their being

based upon selected practitioners’ experience of improvisation.

The theme suggested by improvisation practice of: ‘Situating ourselves as

components of the environment rather than commentating upon it implicitly at a

distance, suggests an important theme.’ (5.1.1) may be seen as important for

potential education settings – the question of human’s relation with the

environment being an overarching contemporary concern. Exercises in which

students make decisions (and play with concepts) in creating the sound

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environment through free improvisation contributes to thinking about how we

choose to co-exist with one another (Chapter 9.2.3): the social and musical

becoming one and the same (Chapter 5.1.1).

11.3 Research implications

The implications of the study are twofold: it is intended that free improvisation in

music becomes better understood by a broad audience, secondly, that improvisation

in music’s potential for learning is described with clarity, in particular for those who

are involved in different stages of education, for example primary, secondary,

special, higher, adult level as well as non-formal settings. It is intended that the

findings may be of use to arts organisations, funding bodies and for those who

influence policy making in regard to developing music practice and music education.

As the role and identity of the professional musician is increasingly questioned by

the changing economy (and related technological revolution) improvisation holds

relevance across social and cultural settings and becomes equally valid in

conservatoire contexts where there is an urgent need for strategies that broaden

musicians’ capability and prospects. A challenge to educational institutions is in

seeking ways in which to embed improvisation practice within the curriculum

offered to developing musicians (Chapter 6.1.3) and those with substantial

experience of improvisation may make a valuable contribution towards this end.

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11.4 Further research

This study has utilised the interpretations of highly experienced practitioners in

music improvisation. Further research exploring the experience of those with little

or no experience of improvisation would be beneficial in gaining further

understanding of how the phenomenon of free improvisation is inter-related with

learning. Such a study would benefit from being practically based: employing the

processes and aims described within the findings of this project in investigating the

application of free improvisation in a variety of contexts that may include primary,

secondary, further, higher, special education.

A theme to emerge in the course of research design, tangential to the aim of the

study, lies within the relationship between music research and professional

musicians whose livelihoods are centred in musical practice. Funding for

improvised music is scarce (and has become worse over the last decade,) and

experience has indicated that some professional musicians may be suspicious of the

intentions and value of research into musical practice. Bourdieu’s work in cultural

sociology describes how ‘fields’ in which individuals operate: in this case research

and music, have their distinct ‘cultural currency’. In other words the values of one

area (academic research) may differ in another (professional music practice). This

may account for possible antagonism between these fields. Of course, this is by no

means always the case, particularly as musicians are often familiar with working

simultaneously in more than one field. However, the researcher’s experience of

working in both fields, music and research, suggests this as a significant aspect that

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may influence not only a musician’s willingness to participate in research but also

the manner in which they participate. Prior awareness and sensitivity to this aspect

has informed the processes through which the choice of participants for this study

has been made. Awareness of this theme can contribute positively towards further

music research.

11.5 Recommendations

Improvisation is seen as having particular agency for contemporary education

through its openness to difference in creative music contexts. Practical

recommendations focus on the development of modules and courses of study

structured upon the themes of improvisation (Chapters 5-9) reflecting the findings

of the enquiry: ‘Learning and free improvisation,’ ‘Body and free improvisation,’

‘Processes of free improvisation,’ and ‘Strategies and free improvisation’.

Recommendations also focus on dissemination within formal education:

presentation of findings at conferences, lecturing, teaching, performing, recording,

and the publication of papers and articles.

Improvisation’s questioning of the role of the teacher (Chapter 6.2.4) suggests

potential implications for teacher training. Such questioning could initiate a

deepening of understanding of the teacher/pupil relationship. Reappraising the

teacher role in light of improvisation practice could inform the nature, purpose and

methodology of teaching across subject areas and suggests further questions

regarding ways in which improvisation may be identified and its agency realised

within pedagogical practice.

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Teacher training contexts are also seen as a potentially rich environment for

dissemination and a means of altering the cycle in which currently teachers, and as a

result students, are denied the opportunity to experience collective improvisation in

music. Dialogue can be initiated with those in teacher training contexts in which free

improvisation may be explored for the many educational benefits highlighted in the

findings. Particular attention will be paid to improvisation in music as an inclusive

activity. The autonomous learning aspect of free improvisation, valuing

heterogeneity, can be emphasised for such teacher training through practical,

participatory work. Developing improvisation as real time composition in

educational contexts is seen as providing a potentially dynamic contribution and

one that addresses composition in music education directly. Comparisons between

educational practice in drama, visual art and music education suggest the potential

of creative musical improvisation in education (Chapter 6.2.1). Further dialogue can

include education authorities in planning music projects and independent music

bodies and trusts whose aims include developing educational music activity.

Recording and the use of accessible digital media will be of potential benefit in

sharing good practice.

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Appendix 1: Interview invitation.

Habsburgerstrasse 10
10781 Berlin




18th January 2010


Dear

I am carrying out a study concerning free improvisation and education. I am focusing
upon those with considerable experience in the field and, as such, would like to
invite you to participate as an interviewee.

I will be carrying out the interviews during February and March 2010 and will be
seeking an hour and a half (maximum) of actual interview time.

The study will contribute to my PhD research, Glasgow Caledonian University.

Please let me know if you are available for interview during this period and if you
are I will you contact you to arrange a convenient time and place.

Kind regards


Simon Rose

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Appendix 2: Information sheet Glasgow Caledonian University

Improvisation, music and learning: an interpretive phenomenological analysis.

You are being invited to take part in a research study. Before you decide, it is
important for you to understand why the study is being done and what it will
involve. Please take time to read the following information carefully and discuss it
with others if you wish. Ask us if there is anything that is not clear or if you would
like more information. Take time to decide whether or not you wish to take part.

Why is this study being carried out?
This project focuses on the creative process of improvisation in music, and
investigates its utility within educational contexts. The study forms part of a PhD
study.

Why have you been chosen?
Altogether 10 people are being approached to take part in this study. You have been
approached because of your experience in the field of free improvisation.

Do you have to take part?
You can decide whether or not you want to take part. If you do decide to take part,
you will be given this information sheet to keep and you will be asked to sign a
consent form. If you do decide to take part, you are still free to withdraw at any
time and without giving a reason.

What will happen if you take part?
In February 2010 Simon Rose will contact you to arrange a mutually convenient time
and place to carry out the interview during February or March 2010.

How long will it take?
It will take an hour and a half (maximum) of your time.

What will happen to the information that you give?
The interview will be transcribed and analysed. This material will then become part of
the PhD thesis and its subsequent dissemination.

What to do now.
If you would like more information before you decide about taking part, please contact
Simon Rose or Professor Raymond MacDonald. If you would like to take part, a
consent form is enclosed.

Who to contact for more information.
Simon Rose simon@simonrose.org
Professor Raymond MacDonald Raymond.MacDonald@gcal.ac.uk
Thank you for taking time to read this information.

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Appendix 3: Consent form



NAME OF RESEARCH PARTICIPANT

RESEARCH STUDY: Improvisation, music and learning: an interpretive
phenomenological analysis.


CONSENT TO TAKE PART IN THE STUDY


I,………………………………………………(put your name in here)
agree to take part in the research study being carried out at Glasgow Caledonian
University. I have read the information sheet and have had chance to discuss it.

I understand that:



• I do not have to take part in the research if I don’t want to.
• If I change my mind and decide to withdraw from the research at any
stage after signing this form, I can. I do not have to give a reason or sign
anything to do so.
• Any information I give will be used for research only and will not be
used for any other purpose.


SIGNATURE ……………………………………………………………
DATE:………………………………


WITNESSED ……………………………………………………………
DATE:………………………………

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Appendix 4: Supporting questions

Simon Rose research (Glasgow Caledonian University)
Interview plan.
14th February 2010

The approach for interviewing is ‘semi-structured’. For this part of the
research there is one overarching question (1.) What is the place of
improvisation in your practice? The other questions are supporting of that. I
am primarily interested in where the interviewee’s response to this
overarching question may take the interview. In that sense it is open.


Supporting questions.

When did you become involved with free improvisation?
Possible prompts. Who else was involved? Why you were doing it? How did that feel?

What do you do when you improvise freely?
Possible prompts. Do you prepare? How does it affect you? Do you have a routine(s)?

How do you experience familiarity and spontaneity in your musical practice?
Possible prompts. Is it possible to keep finding new things? Can old things be fresh?

Do you believe FI is universal or local?
Possible prompts. Is free improvisation relatively new or old?

Performing improvisation and performing using reading or from memory.
Is there an important difference for you?
Possible prompt. Is free improvisation distinct as a musical practice?

For you is there an important distinction between improvisation and free
improvisation?

Do you have a view of style, orthodoxy or dogma within free improvisation?

Do you see free improvisation as a tool for the professional musician or something
beyond that?

How do you view improvisation in relation to education?
Possible prompt. What was your experience of music at school or college?

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Appendix 5: Interviewees identification for research analysis.

Anonymity

Anonymity was the agreed norm for the research analysis. Interviewees are
identified in the thesis by the following initials that are not their own. Names of
associates, venues and organisations etc. that may identify participants have been
removed.

KM, RJ, RT, NJ, SG, LR, LM, UP, GB, NA.

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281

1 Appendix 6: 10 Interview extracts
2
3 GB: From page 12 of interview extract
4
5 GB So when I left my home town and went to
6 school, went to (name removed), they had a
7 music improvisation class, and that was the first
8 time I encountered the notion that there was a
9 thing called improvisation that you could study,
10 in a systematic way and the class was utterly
11 dreary and boring and it immediately became the
12 class that it was hard to drag yourself to and then
13 (name removed) came and taught a workshop
14 and it was a revelation and I thought OK this is
15 what I want to do – my first encounter with
16 improvisation in any rigorous or systematic way
17 was this horrible class, where the guy who taught
18 it never improvised at all.
19 SR Was that the encounter with (name removed)
20 that led to playing with him?
21 GB Yup.
22 SR How do you experience spontaneity and
23 familiarity in your practice? Relying on what you
24 know works and allowing for some kind of
25 improvisatory process. It seems that, it’s
26 everything we were talking about this morning,
27 improvisation can go in the opposite direction
28 from reproduction. It challenges notions of
29 product, I relate that to the extent that if I try to
30 nail it down to the nth degree, I’m killing it…
31 GB If you do this for any length of time you
32 develop a palette or a grab-bag of tricks, you can
33 rely on. So then that becomes the practice, trying
34 to transcend your own cliché. When I think of
35 improvisers that really come to mind, who are
36 really inspiring improvisers in that sense, the first
37 one would be Monk, who every time he sat down
38 somehow conveyed the sense that he was taking
39 a really fresh look at the piano; ‘look here’s an E
40 over here… how can I use that…’ And when you
41 compare his various recordings he never plays
42 the same tune the same way twice. And he always
43 conveys the sense that he is discovering,
44 generally discovering new things, every time he
45 sits down to play. Which I think Hendrix did too.
46 Just going on a TV show and just stopping…

282
 1 KM: From Page 2 of interview transcript.
2
3 SR How on earth does that work in relation
4 to using your fingers to play?
5 KM You can only do it using one hand at a
6 time, in terms of sight-reading, so called.
7 But it is a comprehensive system in that it
8 does show you which notes you’re
9 supposed play and with which fingers, all
10 those sorts of things. But I laboured on with
11 that system for a number of years always
12 feeling frustrated and a bit bored with it.
13 Coming across a few pieces as I went
14 through the elementary grades that I did
15 like and enjoying being able to play them
16 but more often than not, not doing much
17 practise and becoming de-motivated. And in
18 parallel to that I’d started playing the
19 ukulele when my hands were not big
20 enough to play the guitar in skiffle groups,
21 and that was more fun. And then I decided
22 that, I’d made some recordings of myself
23 playing the piano and thought that sounds
24 just like I’m playing a typewriter. And I gave
25 it up. At the same time I fell in with a group
26 of people at school who were interested in
27 things moving towards jazz, some of it was
28 jazz.
29 SR What age were you then?
30 KM So this would be 13,14 that sort of age.
31 And I got hooked on some of the jazz. The
32 biggest impact was when I started listening
33 to bebop. The standard greats from that
34 time. Coltrane and Parker and Connonball
35 Adley and Eric Dolphy.
36 SR And you were playing?
37 KM I was playing nothing at this time
38 because I’d given up the piano. I still played
39 the guitar a bit but more in a blues way. I
40 didn’t really develop my guitar technique
41 because I was interested in Flamenco guitar
42 when I settled on the guitar and I had, for a
43 kid, probably not a bad Flamenco, Flamenco
44 licks. But then school bands loose their
45 players on a regular basis, you know people
46 leave school, and they needed a
47 saxophonist. So somebody said well why
48 don’t you take up the saxophone…

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1 LR: From page 5 of interview transcript

2
3 LR… People are like families, that’s why they played so
4 well together. Wow and if you think it’s nothing go out
5 there right now and try to keep a big band together and
6 working. You know that’s very difficult. When I was
7 coming up there were established big bands that were
8 playing and so on. And to me the only way to have a
9 really good big band was to keep it together for a while.
10 It doesn’t matter if everyone is a really good musician
11 until they really learn how to play together, you start to
12 establish a real sound, inside of the big band. We had a
13 big band in the AACM and smaller groups.
14 SR So there is a comparison to Ellington in that he was
15 writing for these individual voices.
16 LR Oh, absolutely, yes. I mean if I think about the AACM,
17 there are people in there that not only have their own
18 ideas about how they want to play the music, they have
19 instruments that nobody else even has. So the palette for
20 composition is a very wide palette. Not to mention
21 having all this experience of playing together for so
22 many years. To me that’s very important because I knew
23 that when I got on this track in music I was there for the
24 long haul because it doesn’t stop. A lot of people thought
25 oh, it’s going to stop and that’s going to be it and nothing
26 else is going to happen. What people have seen over the
27 years is that this really doesn’t stop. Actually, to try to
28 accomplish what I’d like to accomplish in music I’d need
29 more than one lifetime, to accomplish that because
30 music itself is so vast. You were talking earlier about
31 certain musicians trying to close other musicians out. I
32 have never experienced that with serious musicians that
33 really had something together. Because you can’t really
34 be anything if you can’t come to grips that somebody
35 else can do something too. It’s pretty impossible to be
36 anything. The time I played with Coltrane. When he
37 came up to me and said come up and play and just shook
38 my hand. To me that was just like… without a word
39 being spoken, I got so many messages from that you
40 know. Like we might shake somebody’s hand or some
41 thing like that, or squeeze your hand or something like
42 that, you know. When Coltrane presented his hand to
43 you, oooh, I’m a musician, it felt like, non of that, I’m
44 totally at peace with myself. I have no fear of anyone else
45 with a saxophone in their hand. You know all of these
46 different kinds of things, without a word are being

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1 spoken. Totally open, totally at peace, totally putting you

2 in a very relaxed mood, you know. I mean after the first
3 set I was like trying to get packed up and get out of
4 there. He said no, no, come on back, let’s play some
5 more. It was because (name removed)when (name
6 removed) was in Chicago, he and I played together all
7 the time. And when Trane came through with that band
8 with Jack DeJohnette and Rashid Ali and Jimi Garrison,
9 Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. (name removed)
10 was the one that told Coltrane, Oh have him come up
11 and play…
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

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1 NA: From page 6 of transcript extract

2
3 SR Yes, whatever your thought processes or…
4 NA I’m trying to create something that’s of
5 interest to the people sat in front of me,
6 basically, and myself. If I see a bunch of, a load
7 of bored faces, I’ve failed, you know. I normally
8 bring a theatrical element to my playing,
9 something a bit visual. I mean I don’t overdo it
10 but I mean I don’t stand there like a statue and
11 play and 20 minutes later step from the spot
12 when I’ve finished. I don’t play like that. I try to
13 use the space. There are certain devices you can
14 use. You know when your invention is
15 floundering there are devices you can rely on,
16 that I can rely on, a few I suppose. Getting back
17 to what I said at the beginning, non of it is that
18 free. I’ve just come back to the beginning now
19 haven’t I. An element of drama as I said before,
20 an element of coming and going. Not some
21 flaccid, limp dick music like a flat fucking pond.
22 You know I’ve seen so much of it. I would hate
23 to play like that. If I thought I played like that I’d
24 give it up, I’d just play other music.
25 SR I like improvised music because of the
26 opportunity to be not constrained. It’s the
27 opportunity to change something.
28 NA People are listening to it as well. Bear that in
29 mind as well. It’s not self-centred music. Like
30 any performance, when people have paid to
31 listen to it, they should be engaged in it in a way,
32 in the whole process, I mean I do play to an
33 audience to a certain extent, certainly when I’m
34 playing solo. When I’m playing with other
35 people, that’s different again you’re constrained
36 by the way they play. I do try to engage people
37 to some extent in my playing.
38
39
40
41

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1 NJ: From page 2 of interview transcript

2
3 NJ My practice?
4 SR Your music. Your work with sound. Your early record
5 with -(name removed) and (name removed)I don’t think is
6 written music. I wondered if you have ideas on that?
7 NJ This is a very long time ago. And it is very different
8 today. At this time I would say, this was a kind of artistic
9 step beyond a kind of jazz music which existed at the time,
10 which was just a little part of improvisation, because it’s
11 mathematic music, because it was the old song form all the
12 time. And this was a kind of step out in the cold water, you
13 don’t have to use your instrument, the sound of your
14 instrument. It was not music in that case. It was to find out
15 what the instrument can do. What you can do with the
16 instrument, more or less. A step out to … find out what the
17 instrument could bring. And it was at that time a very
18 special, young artists, mainly kind of have, it was energetic
19 music. Fast and loud.
20 SR (laughs)
21 NJ Yes, because that’s how it was at that time. Being fast
22 and being loud and express, not yourself but kind of
23 express, and use the instrument and see what the
24 instrument could do. So it was not an idea about music, so
25 much. It was playing together and then the third person
26 and then everyone had a little solo, and it kind of divided
27 the time between the 3 persons. And this is also a decision
28 you do.
29 SR So there were decisions before you…
30 NJ No, no not. During playing.
31 SR So that form of sub-dividing the trio. That was a
32 spontaneous thing.
33 NJ Yes.
34 SR So people would drop… So that’s interesting that you
35 say it wasn’t a kind of music…
36 NJ It was a kind of art sound. It became later a kind of
37 music when you started to put in musical structures,
38 elements which comes from music at any time. At first it
39 was a kind of very loud expression…
40

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1 RJ: From page 4 of interview transcript

2
3 RJ… strength. They’re effectively 3 mutual
4 composers going out and creating their music
5 which is a continually evolving body of music
6 through the practice of improvisation. It’s not free
7 improvisation in the sense that if you were
8 teaching a class to a group of people who’d never
9 encountered the idea of working without musical
10 scores and you’re trying to introduce them to
11 different ways and ideas of performing together.
12 It’s a process of incredible depth. To anyone who’s
13 familiar, even casually, with this kind of music it’s
14 not something that’s going to surprise them
15 greatly. Maybe its profundity may surprise them
16 on occasion but it methodology and its broad-
17 brush strokes won’t surprise them.
18 SR There’s a certain clarity about using that trio as
19 an example, and also as one of the longest standing
20 trios its interesting. That idea that you pinpointed
21 about the continuing evolving thing, is that unique
22 to improvisation? I wonder?
23 RJ Well, I suppose if you look at how Mozart is
24 performed, there is an evolving tradition of that as
25 well. It’s taken over, if you like, from a music that
26 Mozart conceived, to a tradition of how that music
27 is performed, by what kinds of orchestras, there
28 was a time when it evolved without thought almost
29 into being performed by the orchestra created for
30 the romantic tradition, those kinds of instruments.
31 Then people started moving back towards smaller
32 orchestras, period instruments. So many evolving
33 things in terms of what tempi are used, how you
34 deal with string vibrato, these changed though the
35 decades, so there’s an ongoing, independent of
36 Mozart, history in the evolution of performance
37 practice. I mean it would be more interesting if
38 Mozart was doing it. Which is why it’s so
39 interesting that it is Parker, Schlippenbach and
40 Lovens because they’re the true creators evolving
41 their own music.
42

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1 RT: From page 2 of interview transcript

2
3 RT… no people watching, except for the one
4 who is recording and they’re all floating
5 together, it’s one thing. It’s so beyond
6 analysing, this state.
7 SR Well, some people would say – Derek
8 Bailey said in an interview I’m interested in
9 playing I’m not interested in performing
10 and that seems to fit in with what you’re
11 saying and also there’s another notion I
12 came across which…
13 RT Well, Derek he never looked… this thing
14 of looking for him, annoyed him, so he
15 would always play like this (mimes looking
16 at held guitar).
17 SR It annoyed him?
18 RT Yes.
19 SR To look at the audience?
20 RT Well, to look – just to look, he was
21 always like this.
22 SR Was he shy when he performed.
23 RT No, because he could also just stop
24 playing and say something to the audience,
25 which is a different thing.
26 SR Something you do, and we were talking
27 about Wendel (a venue in Berlin,) and you
28 can stop…
29 RT Well I’m totally different from Derek in
30 the sense that I do open my mouth and odd
31 very odd things. He’s immobile, he was. I’m
32 very mobile in the sense of that’s who I am,
33 what I am. Where Derek was very stoic and
34 immobile, when he played, that’s what I
35 leant, something about the importance of…
36 because.
37 SR Of what?
38 RT Of movement, just movement. Someone
39 who is moving is moving anyway. I move
40 around but basically being mobile or
41 immobile is up and down.
42
43
44
45
46

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1
2 SG: From page 5 of interview
3 transcript
4
5 SG… can change and in a way that’s a
6 kind of methodology just something you
7 never hear about with so called free
8 improvisation, which is a word I think I
9 learned it in London because when we
10 were doing it in Chicago – someone like
11 Roscoe, you’d say well what’s happening
12 in this part of the music? Oh your open
13 there (laughs) nobody’d ever say you’re
14 free, they’d say Oh, you’re open there, so
15 it was open improvisation, so later I
16 heard about it being free improvisation,
17 but that’s OK. Who knows, there might be
18 some ideological difference in the
19 terminology embedded there, but before
20 I’d even started to think about going
21 there when you are trying to play with
22 someone, whatever instrument or
23 whatever they’re doing, you’re
24 interacting with them, you’re not even
25 playing with them, it should come to you
26 at a certain point, some sense of their
27 intentions, it should come, and maybe
28 people could be tuned into that and could
29 allow, tuned in as a question of method.
30 Or another way to think about is that,
31 you have – I have certain methods, which
32 are very simple actually. One of them is, I
33 kind of presume that my presence as a
34 sound maker isn’t really needed, my
35 presence to be party to the information
36 exchange is needed, I need to be listening
37 and paying attention, I don’t ever let that
38 go, but I might decide not to make a
39 sound for long periods of time because
40 it’s a matter of trust, you know, if
41 someone is doing something and it seems
42 like it’s working why should you come in.
43 A lot of people come in because they’re
44 nervous, or they’re upset, or they feel
45 they should come in or they believe in

291


1 call and response, things I don’t really do

2 any more, you know call and response,
3

292


1 UP: From page 1 of interview transcript

2
3 SR What is the place of improvisation in your
4 practice?
5 UP Well, it’s a very important thread throughout and
6 I’ve always improvised. When I was composing music
7 with conventional notation, if I got stuck I could
8 improvise. So my composition teacher, (name
9 removed) encouraged me to improvise and we were
10 all encouraged by (name removed) to improvise. And
11 the thing that you may not know or you may know, I
12 don’t know. (name removed) and (name removed)
13 and I were at school together in undergraduate years
14 at (name removed). And when we graduated we were
15 all studying with (name removed) privately and
16 Lauren was working at the radio tape (inaudible) in
17 Berkley and he was programming. And (name
18 removed) got a commission to write a piece for a film,
19 a 5 minute film and (inaudible) he didn’t have the
20 time to write the music so (name removed) and I
21 went into the studio and we recorded 5 minute tracks
22 for (name removed), we improvised the music. That
23 was my first improvisation in that way. And (name
24 removed) took a track and used it for the film, and it
25 was quite successful and I remember saying, hey this
26 is fun, we should do this. So we got together maybe
27 once a week or so and we improvised, and we
28 discovered something very important which was that
29 if we talked about the improvisation before we did it,
30 it usually fell flat, but if we just sat down and
31 improvised and then record it and then talked, then it
32 was very interesting and we advanced our practice.
33 SR What do you make of that?
34 UP Well, rather than trying to get some kind of plan
35 that you have to follow, like you have to follow a
36 score, instead of that you’re communicating with one
37 another, directly. Spoken conversations don’t have to
38 happen before you play and the dialogue in the...
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46

293


1 LM: From page 3 of interview transcript

2
3 LM… wasn’t formal education in that way
4 except with classical music, so most jazz
5 musicians learnt through playing with other
6 musicians and (name removed) mentored
7 loads of musicians. So in some ways he was
8 a revolutionary, so in that sense, he was the
9 spirit of bebop, not as a style, which it
10 became, obviously it fossilized and became
11 a little bit just going through the motions
12 but the way (name removed) played it, it
13 was truly experimental. And then to go from
14 that to John Stevens, although musically it
15 was very different, the spirit was very much
16 the same. John was a pioneer, was one of
17 the founding pioneers of free improvisation
18 in Europe. You could almost look at
19 anybody in the European improvised music
20 scene and they’ve been influenced by John,
21 if not directly by playing with him then by
22 playing with people who did play with him.
23 And all the musicians played with him –
24 Evan (Parker), Derek (Bailey)… he was just
25 phenomenal, he really was. He took rhythm
26 in particular to a whole new area. Previous
27 to that you would hear drummers who had
28 fantastic time, you know playing metrically,
29 and they’d throw it all over the place, but as
30 soon as you took the meter away they’d
31 often sound like beached whales, you know
32 floundering about on dry land and John
33 devised ways to keep that (sings bip, bap..
34 bip… bap, clap, bap) that thing that you hear
35 that is so kind of… people take for granted
36 that kind of, that rhythmic feel in free
37 improvisation, but really it was not that
38 usual and John, I have this theory because
39 John had this place he could play he found
40 called the Little Theatre Club, which was up
41 about 5 flights of stairs, very narrow stairs,
42 and I have a feeling that one of the reasons
43 he developed such an amazing approach
44 was that he just didn’t want to carry a full
45 kit up all those stairs. So he devised this

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1 weird, amazing, small, very interesting

2 sounds, percussion, in the little kit.

295


Appendix 7: Extract from ‘Diary of analysis process’

4.2.11
Noting.
Having done line-by-line and emergent themes for 4 of the 10 transcripts.
Line-by-line analysis – after a trial basing the work on the computer and of using
descriptive, linguistic, and conceptual commenting and then using initial underlining
phrases and words that suggested themselves to me as indicative of the research
theme, without comment at first, I settled on:
1. Underlining followed by line-by-line commenting for each transcript. Emergent
themes coming through during this process.
2. Then re-reading and paying closer attention to comments already made as well
as areas of text that had no comments at times adding further comments and
adjusting comments already made, again further emergent themes became
apparent. This time paying more attention to the interviewees’ positing of the
subject as evidenced line by line and linguistic content – metaphor, tense,
repetition, what appears as important for the interviewee.
3. Emergent themes, for some transcripts suggest themselves readily and
therefore appear at the line-by-line stage. For other interviews the emergent
themes require more examination of the line-by-line commenting. In all cases a
third stage of going through the transcript aided establishing of emergent
themes.
4. Emergent themes were then written on to one document on computer.

Note: Engaging and re-engaging with the text was the mode of working. It
became apparent that what was enabling of this were the fluid strategies
outlined above, in which I was able to respond without too rigid an intention,
employing some flexibility. For me an approach through which I could respond
directly regardless of the categorization of the response freed my ability to
respond and seek. Combined with a second and third parsing which ensured
that I has not missed anything I felt as significant, meant I could ensure that
this process was rigorous.

Having established an MO for the line by line that worked well for me, continuing to
work steadily through the transcripts was manageable. Doing the line by line at least
twice for each transcript meant approaching it in an unhurried way. The second line-
by-line became a chance to look at the text in other ways and to re-examine the
comments already made and the connections to emergent themes.
Aware of the need for ‘bracketing’ – as stimulating ideas emerge from one interview
and I move to the next. However engaging deeply in the next interview’s unique
(idiographic) way of articulating perceptions, forms a natural aid to, for example, not
projecting previously discovered themes. The depth of experience (in relation to
improvisation) of the interviewees is an asset in this respect as they readily offer their
own interpretation of the subject.

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14.2.11

Have emergent themes for 10 interview transcripts – on one document. Now 21 double
spaced pages. Working with a sample of the first 3 interviews. Becomes apparent that
super-ordinate themes can be established from each interview, as a manageable way
to proceed, therefore, the next phase will be to create super-ordinate tables for each
transcript.
Next phase will be a table of recurrent themes (Group Themes) – working across the
super-ordinate themes. And following that phase is the writing of results. Explaining
how I got to where I did by showing extracts and my analysis.
Note: you may need to create a quote doc. for each recurrent theme, for use in
compiling a table. And it may be of use at the writing stage (IPA p.114)

16.2.11

Have completed 3 super-ordinate themes documents. Looking through, have used
abstraction, subsumption, including numeration by noting repetition, narrative
themes, polarization. Often using different strategies within one set of emergent
themes.
It seems different texts ask for different strategies i.e. SG’s required abstraction and
subsumption whereas GB’s required polarization, in addition.

17.2.11

Sometimes the essence of what is being communicated, represented by the emerging
themes, belies being represented by a single title – in such cases, group first then seek
encapsulation.

20.2.11
Have one document of all 10 super-ordinate themes, with emergent themes grouped
for single cases and page/ line numbers for tracing back to the original transcripts.

The stage before writing is the grouping into a table of super-ordinate themes across
cases.

22.2.11
Established a table of ‘Group Themes (structured)’ by:

• Firstly creating a document; all the super-ordinate themes from individual
cases, (‘S.O. theme titles’)
• Secondly created a document of the themes under 2 headings ‘Describing
the FI phenomenon’ and ‘FI and learning’. (Themes of the Group)
• Thirdly a document retaining these 2 tiles with additionally 4 sub-
headings, titled: ‘Group Themes (structured)’

296


This process pulls away from the idiographic aim within f the method. It does however
enable the necessary structuring of the ideas within this comparatively large number
of ‘cases’ and inherently large amount of data. A hermeneutic circle will continue in
the writing as themes from, and across, individual cases are fully explored.
The themes may be tracked back to the ‘ super-ordinate master’ document with
page/line numbers referring to the transcripts.

‘Group Themes (structured)’ doc. is suggestive of some of the structure of the writing.

25.2.11

In order to approach the writing, given the large amount of data, number of
documents, necessary to create a ‘quote bank’ referring to the super-ordinate themes.

28.2.11

Created a 28 page document ‘Quote bank.’ Structured from the super-ordinate group
themes, about 2 days work. (The larger amount of data takes time to manage.) The
aim is towards creating a ‘library’. I will next structure the quotes as clearly as possible
so that I can access them for the writing process as readily as possible and cross
reference them.

1.3.11

It is clear that ‘free improvisation and learning’ material is very large – occupying
about 20 pages of quotes. Needs to be given greater structure than one chapter. Cross
referenced the new ‘quote bank’ with the ‘group themes structured’. The subheadings
clearly lend themselves to becoming chapter titles i.e. describing the process, FI and
learning, body, structures and strategies ...

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Appendix 8: Emergent themes

Emergent themes

LM



‘We are all born to be improvisers’ – narrative theme: from aged 15 working in
dangerous environment towards artistic, personal development/ expression. P.1

Improvisation: a place for women p.1

How improvisers developed in the 1960s and 70s p.2

John Stevens’ important influence in free improvisation p.3

Understandings of the jazz/FI relationship p.4

‘beautiful contradiction’ – an open, social form leading to inevitable contradictions
and therefore new ways to situate and understand these contradictions. The music
an outcome of this.’ P.5

Improvisation as universal – interdisciplinary, trans-disciplinary p.6

Improvisation: a challenge to understanding… ‘something just happened.’ p.6

Improvisation as a totality – incorporating past, present, what’s going on in the
world, politics… p.7

‘trust’ … be open to what is there, in that moment e.g. ‘ baby or a bird’ p.7

Narrative of an only woman and the predominance of the male perspective. P.8

Teaching history of FI p.9

Linguistic theme: using voice, beyond words, in communication. P.9

Woman’s theme p.9

‘Everyone’s creative – no negotiation’ p.10

‘social virtuosity and ‘collective virtuosity’ p.10

community interaction p.10

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community interaction p.11

the nature of response in improvisation p.13

dynamics and the implications for participants p.14

Improvisation as Perma-culture – autonomy in practice p. 15

performance or/and open participation - known and unknown… p.17

engaging difference p.17

belief in interaction – realized through practice – a cycle of ideas + activity e.g.
making it safe for all, (vulnerability, mixed ability, women, all people) p.18

a cycle of ideas and activity p.18

Narrative theme ‘ radical change’ – from dependency to Women’s Liberation
Movement p.19

Personal and professional fusion p.19

Integration of being - ‘ the joy of working with women’s groups, with mixed ability…’
p.20

Feminist Improvising Group and Contradictions as embodying many of MN’s
themes.p.22

Women p.24

Madness p.24

Untold story p.24


SG

You form the environment by being in it p.1/L.6

Music practice as social practice p.1/L.21

Listening as empathic strategy, leads to higher level understanding p.1/L.28

Structures found in life are found in improvisation p.2/L.8

Paying attention and growth, change. P.2/L.15

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‘Agility in the definition’ p.2/L.35

The improvisation environment p.2/L.43

Intuition as knowledge, not separated from knowledge p.4/L.3

Distancing from deep listening p.3/L.32

Empathic development. P.4/L.20

The ‘conscious strain’ in improvising p.4/L.43

‘free’ and ‘open’ as interchangeable terms p.5/L.7

A methodology for improvisation p.5/L.23

‘A great variety in the texture of the music’ p.5/L.42


‘An expression of trust’ leading them to work it out for themselves p.6/L.46

Trust in the process p.7/L.10

Frontier of understanding and communication p.8.L.3

Social purpose and empathy as method p.8/L.40

The method and how it is guided p.9/L.19

Values p.10/L.2

Autonomy in the pedagogical process p.10/L.2

Diverse textures p.10/L.10

Transform to become a listener p.10/L.30

Defines outcome of the process: ‘it opened the space, you could hear people play.’
P.11/L.24

Local intelligence: ‘view, intuit, empathise with the flow of intelligence’ p.12/L.7

‘you’re always hearing the intelligence’p.12/L.20

value: ‘what did you learn?’ p.12/L.34

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improvisation process as complex human process p.13/L.33

community p.14/L.5

the role of discussion in the improvisation process p.14/L.11

Autodidactic process and working outwards to the unknown p.14/L.28

Rejection of the notion of ‘sponteneity’ in improvisation. P.15/L.9

Music is only one domain of the improvisative experience. p.15/L.22

The infinite combinations (rather than spontaneity.) p.16/L.19

What spontaneity produces is the familiar. P.17/L.8

‘…this socio-musical location.’ P.18/L.5

‘free improvisation is a set of histories and ideologies’ p.18/L.29

FI as socio-political location p.19/L.32

‘How open are you?’ ‘The personal transformation thing.’ P. 20/L.30

FI as metaphor – activity through which greater understanding of complex social
relationships can be explored p.20/L.46

Improvisation activity as metaphor p.21/L.6


RJ

Significance given to certain musicians and the music they produce (rather than FI)
p.1/L.12

Re-ordering of assumed significance for improvisation. P.1/L.18

The problem of categorization. P.2/L.6

How FI has changed. Not the same priorities. P.2/L.29

‘Mutual composers’ p.4/L.1

Different associations to the word ‘free’. P.5/L.9

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Improvisation as a pragmatic tool for the music industry p.6/L1

Ingredients: a term to describe personal musical elements. P.6/L.22

What it means to deal with spontaneity p.6/L.31

Professional identity: ‘performer’, ‘composer’, ‘unique group playing’ p.6/L.38

Maintain personality yet use it to make musical sense with people. P.7/L.21

‘Ever present political aspect of the music’ you and the group. P.7/L.31

Not just changing to fit in – bring something uniquely you. P.8/L.7

Necessity of failure for the process. p.8/L.24

Professional musician. P.8/L.37

Professional musician ‘the gig’ p.9/L.4

Understanding relationship to audience p.9/L.10

Professional musician p.9/L.29

Professional musician etiquette p.10/L.10

‘the rules of organically developing music’ p.10/L.26

possibilities in ad hoc groups. p.10/L.31

developments in a direction away from FI p.11/L.31

different kind of improvisation. Like an indeterminate score without the score.
P.12/L.1

the fixed agenda in improvisation. p.12/L.21

‘looking for something new, something radical’ as a motivating force in FI. p.13/L.16

‘Search and Reflect’ for new ways of approaching sound. P.14/L.4

Assessment of FI in education – seen as a problem. P.14/L.22

Teaching FI – history of p.16/L.8

What education/ FI should and should not do. P.16/L.14

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The value of experiencing live FI rather than only recording. P.17/L.23

Learning from going to gigs… ‘it all comes through gigs. P.17/L.35

The changing notion of FI/I. Then, now and the view of then from now also
changing. P.18/L.8

Professional etiquette. P.18/L.11

Accessing those people and a web of ideas, experiences led to voice in operation.
P.18/32

‘extraordinary music through the process’ p.18/L.41

‘this unrepeatable experience’ p.19/L.16

‘a moment of time you’ve chosen to share attention’ p.19/L.21

‘a sensory experience which is only going to happen in that moment is very unusual.’
P.19/L.39


LR


Spontaneous composition p.1/L.

Strategy for learning p.1

Totality of improvisation/ composition as a study p.1

Process of study p.1

Strategy: writing to improvise p.2

The bigger cause: ‘vision’ ‘destiny’ ‘philosophy’ p.2

Unity is strength p.2

Being organized saves lives p.2
‘Live music’ p.2

music creating social cohesion in the face of its breakdown p.3

collective learning process. p.5

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express the self. P.5

‘emphasis on getting people to go inside themselves and come up with their own
texts.’ P.5

Collective creativity practice, creating strongly identified individuals. P.5

Improvisation a site of pedagogy p.6

The educator p.6

Super-learning p.6

Total world of learning p.6

‘…it was a collective…’ p.6

‘you don’t abide by those laws you lose.’ P.6

‘levels’ and ‘degrees’ among improvisers. P.6

life time true learning. P.6

‘able to speak in nay kind of situation.’ P.6

long range thinking p.6

analysis of (metric) time in working out your part. P.7

Familiarity p.7

Nurturing what you do, with others. P.7

Collective aesthetic. P.7

‘what people have seen over the years is that this really doesn’t stop.’ P.8

John Coltrane encounter p.8

Avid about learning p.9
‘stay true to your music, you know usually music will take care of you’ p.9

Strategy: philosophic. P.9

Write. P.9

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‘stepping out of the category’ p.10

‘constant growth’ p.10

Different eras – (temporal) characterizing different ways. P.10

Essential importance of diversity: ‘we can’t really learn anything from people that
are all the same.’ P.10

‘you have to be able to function on your own and you have to be able to function in a
large group.’ P.11

pedagogic approach. P.11

‘…you can hear them thinking…’ large group improvisation. p.11

Lack of options destroy improvisation. p.11

‘methods of learning’ p.11

De-mystifying p.11

De-mystifying improvisation method p.12

Strategy p.12

Importance of individuality p.12

Importance of self development p.12

‘…I want to hear you exploring…’ p.12

Poetic understandings of how the music is manifested. P.13

‘… every night’s different’ p.13

Flow. P.13

Learning in the process. p.14


KM


The experimenting/ improvising child p.1

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Child improvisation joy and formal death p.1

Relationship of child to music and including the ‘death’ of that through formal music.
p.1

‘freedom’ and work p.2

formal study ‘laboured’ p.2

musically active exploring child p.2

diverse musical interest p.2

failed formal approach leads to taking control and autodidactism p.3

improvisation as new life p.3

transformation ‘my mind opened up’ p.3

The enthused improviser p. 3

Development from jazz to FI p.4

Professional orientation p.4

Mission statement:
‘there was something that wasn’t a detailed, defined structure which could be
released in terms of energy, intensity output, which could be accessed by playing
freer and I was after that.’ P.4

Ineffable: the search for language to describe FI. p.4

Oneness p.5

(a personal theme. But a big theme for FI/ ed.?) p.5

Social. p.5

Creative high. P.5

Intuitive knowledge p.5
Thinking body p.5

Emotional possibilities of FI vs. ‘closed structures’ in music… access. P.5

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Response in FI and its meaning p.5

Strategies – methods for FI p.5

Compositional - a super objecive p.5

The location of the visceral/ how we experience the visceral aspect: ‘Because I’m a
wind player it’s something that is going to be quite naturally centered in the
diaphragm area. So there’s going to be feeling coming from that centre of my body,
there’s sort of of a grrrrr (makes sound), that really gets me and that’s really what O
want to do.’ P.6

The ineffable quality/ pull of FI. p.6

…It’s the speed and the speed is part of the excitement. To be able to do things
almost ahead of your self, that’s really fucking exciting. I love that.’ p.7

optimal/ ‘flow’ – unfied experience. P.7

‘Flow’ p.7

Balance of technical and ‘letting go’ emotion. p.7

Oneness with the group p.8

‘being in the moment’ p.8

social- when it’s going well ‘ being supprted and supporting’ – oneness. p.8

‘flow’ through the group p.8

momentum requires change or development. P 9

think analytically but widely p.9

metaphors are not the music p.9

Strategies in FI: suggest material or let random sounds emerge p.9

‘Never ending loops’ – of FI process. the known and not known. P.10

Immediacy has conviction in description of FI. p.10
Psychological ‘circular process’ in FI performance p.10

‘Flow’ p.10

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strategies vc ‘flow’ p.10

‘Flow’ p.10

Oneness: group, instrument, voice, body, existential, ‘the moment.’ Idealized. P.10

Oneness as collective ‘flow’.p.10

FI as intersubjective ‘flow’ experience, as temporal. P.10

The reactionary stance (closed) – leading into ‘killing it’. P.12

Spend time (motivated) – this involves time/ motivation. P.12

FI process and psychoanalytical process similarities and differences. P.13

FI comparison to psychoanalytical process. p14

‘Being in the moment’ means staying in there… the flow… be instinctual… it might
reveal itself.’ P.14

a learning process of being the moment in order to gain further understanding p.14

strategy: develop technique for addressing familiar FI problems/ situations. P.15

Strategy: (technical solutions) – only go so far? P.15

Developing understanding in a continuum – not static knowledge but moving
knowledge. P.15 (is understanding moving?)

Importance of reflection of the event in creating meaning in FI (and psychotherapy.)
p.15


GB
Wary of the terminology p.1/L.18

Difficulty with the term p.1/L.30

FI a recent term. P.1/L.33

Improvisation, not a term used by white suburban youth at that time (1969) p.2/L.5

Jamming as improv. P.2/L.7

FI as outside common reference p.2/L.32

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Informal and formal education: (the choices, differences, similarities, benefits,
failings, why the divide.) p.3/L.27

Formal vs. informal p.4/L.19

‘Improvisatory core’ p.5/L.24

instability and improvisation. p.5/L.27

Risk in FI p.5/L.39

Improv risk p.6/L.4

Professional experience beyond pop.p.6/L.41

Formative experience through live music performance. p.6/L.43

Constellation of formative experiences – towards improvisation. p.7/L.38

Refusal to pin down musical activity. p.8/L.29

The professional musician as non-academic (resistance to research). p.9/L. 1

Outrageous performance. p.9/L.31

FI and ‘gay’ performance. p.9/L.36

‘Code switching’ p.10/L.15

Unknown. P.10/L.32

Outrage.p.10/L.23

Difficulty in FI process p.10/L.34

Difference. P.10

Pre-determined and pre-structured p.10/L.15

Across cultural and language divides. P.11/L.2

Improvisation and the conservatory. p.12/L.2

Danger of improv. In the wrong hands. P.12/L.13

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FI palette or ‘grab bag’ p.12/L.29

Strategy: ‘taking a really fresh look’ p.12/L.35

Risk p.12/L.40

Risk: ‘I don’t care if it screws up.’ P.12/L.46

‘take a fresh look’ p.13/L.8

‘a life’s practice’ p.13/L.20

‘corporeal life practice’ p.13/L.33

‘you check in with your body’ p.13/L.37

Artist’s life practice: musicians, painters etc. p.14/L.9

Life practice = process over outcome. p.14/L.12

Non-organic development in developing FI practice. P.14/L.17

Highly selective in improv. Activity. P.14/L.33

Versatility. P.15/L.1


NA

It’s free within you own constraints. P.1

Tension between ‘free ‘and play ‘what they know’. P.1

Devices: personal material in improvisation. p.1

‘it’s not that free’ p.1

‘I try my best to play well, I try best to put on a good performance.’ p. 1

Oppose ‘boring’ and ‘lifeless’ music. P.1

‘big technique’ p.1

technique is enabling ‘makes up for lack of invention.’ P.2

‘…I’ve learnt properly’ p.2

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praise of training and technique. P.2

‘when I can’t think of anything to play I can rely on technique’ p.2

‘strong chops’ p.2

‘training and technique’ relationship to free improvisation. p.2

‘jazzers’ can’t improvise because they sound lie jazzers.p.3

stuck in a style p.3

the technique of free improvisation p.3

passion for music expressed through desire for technical development p.3

motivated by a desire for technique p.3

John Stevens influence. P.4

Improvisation and New music – ‘that side of the fence…’ p.4

‘They probably (always) freely improvised but within the constraints of their own
culture.’ P.4

Institutional movement towards FI. P.5

‘a practicing improviser’ p.5

lack of FI expertise within the college. P.5
what people are acculturated towards –(in college/ ed. we defines the culture) p.5

‘I’m trying to create something that’s of interest to the people sat in front of me,
basically, and myself.’ P.5

criteria of success and failure in performance. P.5

theatre p.6

use of space. P.6

FI defined as ‘drama’, ‘coming and going’.

‘not self centered music’ p.6

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‘Like any performance, when people have paid to listen t it, they should be engaged
in it I a way, in the whole process.’ p.6

‘I do try to engage people to some extent in my playing.’ P.6

UP

Improvisation: ‘an important thread throughout’. P.1

Improvisation for film.p.1

‘…we discovered something very important… if we talked about improvisation
before we did it, it usually fell flat, but if we sat down and improvised and then
recorded it and then talked, then it was interesting and we advanced our practice.’
p.1

‘you’re communicating with one another directly.’ P.1

‘spoken conversation don’t have to happen before you play.’ P.1

‘the dialogue in the sounds you’re making.’ P.1

‘working methods: first play, listen to it, then talk about it. Translating something
that is embodiment, embodied sound making, then translate it into spoken word
after the fact, which is really the right order.’ p.2

‘we understand that we mustn’t talk about it…’ ‘you’re going to kill it if you do.’p2

‘You have to trust the situation, you have to make it safe.’ P.2

Environment through a telematic lens. P.3
Improvisation as telematic – at a distance and latency. p.3

Telematic as experimental. P.3

Telematic for schools. P.4

Interdisciplinary. P.4

Gardener’s learning styles ‘auditory/ kinetic type.’ p.4

Perception of space and sound as pre-music, (not disciplinary) (perception is not
disciplinary) p.4

Body: you’re sounding before you know what you’re sounding – there is delay…
about half a second.’ P.4

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‘The body knows what to do… this is a very important aspect to improvisation…
allowing the body to lead.’ P.5

‘Creative consciousness – but it’s not necessarily from the conscious mode that it
comes.’p.5

‘Different modes of consciousness: body consciousness is faster than thinking
consciousness.’ P.5

‘…in sudden danger your body moves.’ P.5

Pedagogical strategy: ‘you have to get through that stuff as fast as possible with a
very fast hit.’ (‘referring to prejudice, fear and cultural difference.’) p.5

‘attentional processes’ Lester Ingeber. p.6

Work with the notion of the body: ‘really essential, it’s really important. It’s what it.
If you talk about being it’s right in there and having awareness upfront.’

‘They’re with something but they’re not with what’s happening.’ P.6

‘Reaction time is important…’ p.6

‘Modes of attention’ ‘inclusive attention’ and ‘exclusive attention’ p.6

the nature of experience when responding to sound. P.6

‘different ways of playing but there are different ways of listening.’ The different
ways of listening are more interesting’ P.7

‘listening in a narrow way may not fit.’ P.7

‘Who is going to make the first sound. It’s a beautiful moment.’ P.7

Beginnings and endings – ‘holding’ – ‘very special’ p.8

NJ

Very professional contextualization of very ‘out there’ music ideas. P.1

Contextualization of the subject creates enculturation. P.1

‘it’s not so free’ p.1

Free improvisation and memory. P.1

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‘a kind of step out in the cold water.’ On Brotzmann Trio p.2

‘find out what the instrument can do.’ P.2

‘young artists…energetic…fast…loud…loud…express’ p.2

‘conceptual shift of music.’ Thought of as sound art… p.2

playing together and dividing the time for each solo. Decided during performance:
compositional scheme. P.2

‘mathematical music’ = jazz. P.3

Fluxus influence. P.3

Similar thinking: different sound worlds (on Brotz. Trio and his music now.) p.3

‘try to find new experiences… new challenges… curiosity.’ P.3

understanding conventions (such as jazz); confidence to move ‘outside’P.4

different roles: ‘classical jazz percussionist’, conceptual artist, composer, curator’ p.4

own vocabulary leads to new communication. P.4

Material which communicates in a setting. P.4

Visual music – visceral sound. P.5

Creating an archive/ Life archived as an artwork. P.6

What do you do? I just start. P.6

Pre-determined improvisation. p.6

Description of improvisation practice: different sound combinations, organize,
different every time, we make structures, we are specific. P.6

Reasons why people don’t improvise: fear, aesthetic, choose not to be direct,
unfamiliarity. P.6/7

‘You are the composer and you are the instrumentalist at the same time, which is
our job.’ P.7

‘art sound’ p.7

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‘a big step in cold water.’ P.7

‘jump to anew experience.’ P.7

open forms p.7
mixed media p.7

integrated contemporary art practice and musical practice. P.7

‘I am invited as a visual artist’ p.8

‘qualities from the visual art scene come into my work as a musician.’ – his life
crosses the boundary. P.8

it’s not from the academic school.’ P.8

theatre – not theatre. P8

conservatoire – conservative. P.9

they are trained to repeat the classic. P.9

they are there to be paid to play that stuff.’ P.9

self sufficiency – e,g, the DIY record labels. P.9

‘…new communication, a new experience doesn’t happen then no reason to go on
stage.’ P.10

RT

Manage silence, and the implications p.1

The nature of performance and the performance/ audience relationship p.1

African tradition of directing music with the body p.1

Personal statement in movement p.2

FI – the principle of going up or down p.2

The moment surprises you p.2

‘like catching something that is in movement’ p.2

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‘deciding to go up or down is basically the principle of free improvisation’ p.2

‘for me this is what improvisation is, the moment of change.’ P.2

gravity as a comparison p.3

Ambiguity – several metaphors running at once which overlap and become
interchangeable. P.3

Poetry as sufficient decribe F.I.’s complexity of experience p.3

FI as metaphor for existence p.3

FI as therapeutic/ conceptual metaphor p.2/3

Describing and avoiding the restrictions of defining p.3

Water – a metaphor for FI – oneness quality p.3

Like water – ‘way of water’ – oneness. P.3

‘language’ of music –to become ’floating’, ‘flying’ (FI) p.3

Participation as the locus. (African reference) p.3

Playing with and for one another, most revealing p.3

African music practice and FI p.3

One thing – all floating together p.4
Enigma of FI p.4

FI as ‘odd things’ p.4

‘that’s who I am, that’s what I am’ p.4

the importance of movement/ just movement p.4

humour and performance/ FI p.5

Buster Keaton p.5

Social mores and performance – ‘fake’, ‘pretentious’ ‘unnatural’
(Theatre of he Absurd) p.5

‘from the beginning I was influenced by the theatre.’ P.5

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‘…they never run after…’ on English improvisers. P.5

tension created by ‘not running after (strategy) p.5

‘FI is the thing’ ‘Germans call it free jazz’ ‘and now it shows it colours’ p.6

‘Experience the silence’ p.6

potential of silence p.6

holding silence p.6

traumatic formal education p.7

Improviser a new term p.7

A realistaion: ‘this is my life’ in one moment p.7

In a theatre context p.7

‘I discovered my life which is quite amazing p.7

playing in the street p.8

emigrating for the music p.8

did not identify a scene for himself in the USA p.8

‘they didn’t let me in’ (to the scene) p.9

brave p.9

more trauma: playing first gig and drowned out. Arrested and cello confiscated. P.9

playing in the street to survive p.9

the hard life p.9

going out on a limb. P.9

‘they let me in’ p.10

playing in the streets everyday was a great school p.10

peer approval leads ‘to it happening’ p.10

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‘establishing working relationships’ p.10

FI ‘…like stepping from everyday life and all of a sudden standing on a table… no
difference… parallel world…’ p.10

FI as ‘a mirror of what everyday life is’ p.11

FI as everyday life and therefore performance as a ‘farce’ p.11

‘the whole thing’ p.11

‘all the things that are influencing you’ p.11

‘the audience, the place, whatever’ p.11

Complexity p.11

FI = ‘complexity transforms into something simple… through confidence.’ P.11

‘Spontaneity is over rated’ p.12

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Appendix 9: Super-ordinate themes

Super-ordinate themes master

NA super-ordinate themes

Performance and free improvisation

It’s free within you own constraints. P.1/L.12
Tension between ‘free ‘and play what they know’. P.1/L.12
Devices: personal material in improvisation. p.1/L.26
‘it’s not that free’ p.1/L.16
‘I’m trying to create something that’s of interest to the people sat in front of me,
basically, and myself.’ P.5/L.44
criteria of success and failure in performance. P.5/L.46
theatre p.6/L.5
use of space. P.6/L.7
FI defined as ‘drama’, ‘coming and going’.P.1/L.35
‘not self centered music’ p.6/L.24
‘Like any performance, when people have paid to listen t it, they should be engaged
in it in a way, in the whole process.’ p.6/L.25
‘I do try to engage people to some extent in my playing.’ P.6/L.32
Oppose ‘boring’ and ‘lifeless’ music. P.1/L.33

Technique in free improvisation and the professional musician.

‘big technique’ p.1/L.45
technique is enabling ‘makes up for lack of invention.’ P.2/L.1
‘…I’ve learnt properly’ p.2/L.8
praise of training and technique. P.2/L.16
‘when I can’t think of anything to play I can rely on technique’ p.2/L.24
‘strong chops’ p.2/L.26
‘training and technique’ relationship to free improvisation. p.2/L.27
‘ ‘jazzers’ can’t improvise because they sound like jazzers’.p.3/L.5
stuck in a style p.3/L.9
the technique of free improvisation p.3/L.21
passion for music expressed through desire for technical development p.3/L.43
motivated by a desire for technique p.3/L.43

The free improvisation path.

‘They probably (always) freely improvised but within the constraints of their own
culture.’ P.4/L.41
Institutional movement towards FI. P.5/L.8
‘a practicing improviser’ p.5/L.12
lack of FI expertise within the college. P.5/L.24

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‘their culture…(what people are acculturated towards in college/ ed. we define the
culture) p.5/L. 37
John Stevens influence. P.4/L.27
Improvisation and New music – ‘that side of the fence…’ p.4/L.31


GB super-ordinate themes

Challenging free improvisation assumptions/ orthodoxy

Wary of the terminology p.1/L.18
Difficulty with the term p.1/L.30
FI a recent term. P.1/L.33
Improvisation, not a term used by white suburban youth at that time (1969) p.2/L.5
Jamming as improv. P.2/L.7
FI as outside common reference p.2/L.32
Refusal to pin down musical activity. p.8/L.29
The professional musician as non-academic (resistance to research). p.9/L. 1
Pre-determined and pre-structured p.10/L.15

Risk: a practice on the edge

‘Improvisatory core’ p.5/L.24
instability and improvisation. p.5/L.27
Risk in FI p.5/L.39
Improv risk p.6/L.4
Outrageous performance. p.9/L.31
FI and gay performance. p.9/L.36
Code shifting p.10/L.15
Unknown. P.10/L.32
Outrage.p.10/L.23
Difficulty in FI process p.10/L.34
Difference. P.10
Across cultural and language divides. P.11/L.2
Risk p.12/L.40
Risk: ‘I don’t care if it screws up.’ P.12/L.46
‘take a fresh look’ p.13/L.8


Formal and informal education

Formal vs. informal p.4/L.19
Formative experience beyond pop.p.6/L.41
Formative experience through live music performance. p.6/L.43
Constellation of formative experiences – towards improvisation. p.7/L.38

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Informal and formal education: (the choices, differences, similarities, benefits,

failings, why the divide.) p.3/L.27
Improvisation and the conservatory. p.12/L.2
Danger of improvisation in the wrong teaching hands. P.12/L.13
FI palette or ‘grab bag’ p.12/L.29
Strategy: ‘taking a really fresh look’ p.12/L.35
‘a life’s practice’ p.13/L.20


The idealized and your own path: polarised perspective of practice in improvisation:

‘corporeal life practice’ p.13/L.33
‘you check in with your body’ p.13/L.37
Artist’s life practice: musicians, painters etc. p.14/L.9
Life practice = process over outcome. p.14/L.12
Non-organic development in developing FI practice. P.14/L.17
Highly selective in improvisation activity. P.14/L.33
‘Not as versatile as John Zorn.’ P.15/L.1


SG super-ordinate themes

Free improvisation as a socio-political environment: ‘you’re creating an environment
you’re also interacting with one so you have to pay attention.’

You form the environment by being in it p.1/L.6
Music practice as social practice p.1/L.21
Structures found in life are found in improvisation p.2/L.8
The improvisation environment p.2/L.43
Empathic development. P.4/L.20
Trust in the process p.7/L.10
Social purpose and empathy as method p.8/L.40
Values p.10/L.2
Defines outcome of the process: ‘it opened the space, you could hear people play.’
P.11/L.24
‘you’re always hearing the intelligence’p.12/L.20
improvisation process as complex human process p.13/L.33
community p.14/L.5
Music is only one domain of the improvisative experience. p.15/L.22
‘…this socio-musical location.’ P.18/L.5
‘free improvisation is a set of histories and ideologies’ p.18/L.29
FI as socio-political location p.19/L.32

Free improvisation as a process. ‘…we should be drawing larger lessons from
improvisation...’ (P.20/L.12)

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Listening as empathic strategy, leads to higher-level understanding p.1/L.28

Paying attention and growth, change. P.2/L.15
‘Agility in the definition’ p.2/L.35
Intuition as knowledge, not separated from knowledge p.4/L.3
Questioning the ‘deep listening’ gestalt p.3/L.32
The ‘conscious strain’ in improvising p.4/L.43
‘free’ and ‘open’ as interchangeable terms p.5/L.7
A methodology for improvisation p.5/L.23
‘A great variety in the texture of the music’ p.5/L.42
‘An expression of trust’ leading them to work it out for themselves p.6/L.46
Frontier of understanding and communication p.8.L.3
The method and how it is guided p.9/L.19
Autonomy in the pedagogical process p.10/L.2
Diverse textures p.10/L.10
Transform to become a listener p.10/L.30
Local intelligence: ‘view, intuit, empathise with the flow of intelligence’ p.12/L.7
value: ‘what did you learn?’ p.12/L.34
the role of discussion in the improvisation process p.14/L.11
Autodidactic process and working outwards to the unknown p.14/L.28
Challenging assumptions regarding ‘sponteneity’ in improvisation. P.15/L.9
The infinite combinations (rather than spontaneity.) p.16/L.19
What spontaneity produces is the familiar. P.17/L.8
‘How open are you?’ ‘The personal transformation thing.’ P. 20/L.30


RJ super-ordinate themes

Mutual composers

‘Mutual composers’ p.4/L.1
What it means to deal with spontaneity p.6/L.31
Necessity of failure for the process. p.8/L.24
Understanding relationship to audience p.9/L.10
possibilities in ad hoc groups. p.10/L.31
‘looking for something new, something radical’ as a motivating force in FI. p.13/L.16
‘extraordinary music through the process’ p.18/L.41
‘this unrepeatable experience’ p.19/L.16
‘a moment of time you’ve chosen to share attention’ p.19/L.21
‘a sensory experience which is only going to happen in that moment is very unusual.’
P.19/L.39

Professional musician in improvisation

Ingredients: a term to describe personal musical elements. P.6/L.22
Professional identity: ‘performer’, ‘composer’, ‘unique group playing’ p.6/L.38
Maintain personality yet use it to make musical sense with people. P.7/L.21

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Not just changing to fit in – bring something uniquely you. P.8/L.7

Professional musician. P.8/L.37
Professional musician ‘the gig’ p.9/L.4
Not just changing to fit in – bring something uniquely you. P.8/L.7
Professional musician. P.8/L.37
Professional musician ‘the gig’ p.9/L.4
Professional musician p.9/L.29
Professional musician etiquette p.10/L.10
Professional etiquette. P.18/L.11


Developments in improvisation practice

Significance given to certain musicians and the music they produce (rather than FI)
p.1/L.12
Re-ordering of assumed significance for improvisation. P.1/L.18
The problem of categorization. P.2/L.6
How FI has changed. Not the same priorities in evidence. P.2/L.29
Different associations to the word ‘free’. P.5/L.9
‘Ever present political aspect of the music’ you and the group. P.7/L.31
‘the rules of organically developing music’ p.10/L.26
developments in a direction away from FI p.11/L.31
different kind of improvisation. ‘Like an indeterminate score without the score.’
P.12/L.1
The changing notion of FI/I. Then, now and the view of then from now also
changing. P.18/L.8
Accessing those people and a web of ideas, experiences led to voice in operation.
P.18/32

Free improvisation and learning

Improvisation as a pragmatic tool for developing product/ music industry p.6/L1
‘Search and Reflect’ for new ways of approaching sound. P.14/L.4
Assessment of FI in education – seen as a problem. P.14/L.22
Teaching FI – history of p.16/L.8
What education/ FI should and should not do. P.16/L.14
The value of experiencing live FI rather than only recording. P.17/L.23
Learning from going to gigs… ‘it all comes through gigs. P.17/L.35

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LM super-ordinate themes

Self- development and improvisation

‘We are all born to be improvisers’ – narrative theme: from aged 15 working in
dangerous environment towards artistic, personal development/ expression.
P.1/L.8
Improvisation: a place for women p.1/L. 21
Improvisation as universal – interdisciplinary, trans-disciplinary p.6/L.3
Improvisation: a challenge to understanding… ‘something just happened.’ p.6/L.19
Improvisation as a totality – incorporating past, present, what’s going on in the
world, politics… p.7/L.12
Narrative of an only woman and the predominance of the male perspective. P.8/L.30
Woman’s theme p.9/L. 40
Narrative theme ‘ radical change’ – from dependency to Women’s Liberation
Movement p.19/L.6
Personal and professional thematic fusion p.19/L.37
Integration of being - ‘ the joy of working with women’s groups, with mixed ability…’
p.20/L.6
Feminist Improvising Group and Contradictions as embodying many of MN’s
themes.p.22/L.12
Women p.24/L.9
Untold story p.24/L.35

‘a beautiful contradiction’: creativity

‘beautiful contradiction’ – an open, social form allowing for contradictions – the
music an outcome of this.’ P.5/L.18
‘trust’ … be open to what is there, in that moment e.g. ‘ baby or a bird’ p.7/L.44
‘Everyone’s creative – no negotiation’ p.10/L.3
‘social virtuosity’ and ‘collective virtuosity’ p.10/L.16
community interaction p.10/L.17
community interaction p.11/L.11
dynamics and the implications for participants p.14/L.7
Improvisation as Perma-culture – autonomy in practice p. 15/L.1
performance or/and open participation - known and unknown… p.17/L.3
engaging difference p.17/L.25
belief in interaction – realized through practice - making it safe for all, (vulnerability,
mixed ability, women, all people) p.18/L.3
Madness p.24/L.18


Improvisation and learning


a cycle of ideas and activity p.18/L.20

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How improvisers developed in the 1960s and 70s p.2/L.21

John Stevens’ important influence in free improvisation p.3/L.16
Understandings of the jazz/ FI relationship p.4/L.18
The history of teaching/ learning in improvisation p.9/L.3
the nature of response in improvisation p.13/L.24
dynamics and the implications for participants p.14/L.1
Improvisation as Perma-culture – autonomy in practice p. 15/L.1
performance or/and open participation - known and unknown… p.17/L.3
engaging difference p.17/L.25


KM super-ordinate themes

Improvisation/ experimenting as new life p.3

The experimenting/ improvising child p.1/11
Child improvisation joy and formal music education ‘death’ p.1/13
Relationship of child to music and including the ‘death’ of that through formal music.
p.1/13
‘freedom’ and work p.2/32
improvisation as new life p.3/

The free improvisation experience: ‘oneness’

‘there was something that wasn’t a detailed, defined structure which could be
released in terms of energy, intensity output, which could be accessed by playing
freer, and I was after that.’ P.4
‘Oneness’ p.5
Creative high. P.5
Intuitive knowledge p.5
Thinking body p.5
Response in FI and its meaning p.5
optimal/ ‘flow’ – unified experience. P.7
‘Flow’ p.7
Balance of technical and ‘letting go’ emotion. p.7
‘Oneness’ with the group p.8
‘being in the moment’ p.8
social- when it’s going well ‘ being supported and supporting’ – oneness. p.8
‘flow’ through the group p.8
‘Flow’ p.10
strategies vc ‘flow’ p.10
‘Flow’ p.10
‘Oneness’: group, instrument, voice, body, existential, ‘the moment.’ Idealized. P.10
‘Oneness’ as collective ‘flow’.p.10
FI as inter-subjective ‘flow’ experience, as temporal. P.10
Compelling account: created by immediacy in description of FI. p.10

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Ineffable: the search for language to describe FI. p.4

Strategies in free improvising

Response in FI and its meaning p.5
Strategies – methods for FI p.5
Composition - a super objective p.5
momentum requires change or development. P 9
think analytically but widely p.9
metaphors are not the music p.9
Strategies in FI: suggest material or let random sounds emerge p.9
‘Never ending loops’ – of FI process. the known and not known. P.10
Psychological ‘circular process’ in FI performance p.10
‘Flow’ p.10
strategies vs ‘flow’ p.10

The visceral pull of improvisation

The location of the visceral/ how we experience the visceral aspect: ‘Because I’m a
wind player it’s something that is going to be quite naturally centered in the
diaphragm area. So there’s going to be feeling coming from that centre of my body,
there’s sort of of a grrrrr (makes sound), that really gets me and that’s really what I
want to do.’ P.6
The ineffable quality/ pull of FI. p.6
…It’s the speed and the speed is part of the excitement. To be able to do things
almost ahead of your self, that’s really fucking exciting. I love that.’ p.7

Formal structures in music education and free improvisation

formal study ‘laboured’ p.2
musically active exploring child p.2
diverse musical interest p.2
failed formal approach leads to taking control and autodidactism p.3
Ed. trad. opposition to ‘free’ thinking – leads to trad. presentation of FI in ed.
therefore ‘killing it.’ P.11
The reactionary stance leading into killing it paradigm. P.12
Spend time (motivated) – this involves time/ motivation. P.12
Emotional possibilities of FI vs. ‘closed structures’ in music. P.5

FI process and psychoanalytical process: similarities and differences. P.13

FI comparison to psychoanalytical process. p14
‘Being in the moment’ means staying in there… the flow… be instinctual… it might
reveal itself.’ P.14

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a learning process of being in the moment in order to gain further understanding

p.14
strategy: develop technique for addressing familiar FI problems/ situations. P.15
Strategy: technical solutions – only go so far P.15
Developing understanding in a continuum – not static knowledge but moving
knowledge. P.15
Importance of reflection of the event in creating understanding in FI (and
psychotherapy.) p.15



UP super-ordinate themes

Body

‘working methods: first play, listen to it, then talk about it. Translating something
that is embodiment, embodied sound making, then translate it into spoken word
after the fact, which is really the right order.’ p.2/1
‘…we discovered something very important… if we talked about improvisation
before we did it, it usually fell flat, but if we sat down and improvised and then
recorded it and then talked, then it was interesting and we advanced our practice.’
p.1/32
‘you’re communicating with one another directly.’ P.1/43
‘spoken conversation don’t have to happen before you play.’ P.1/44
‘the dialogue in the sounds you’re making.’ P.1/45
‘we understand that we mustn’t talk about it…’ ‘you’re going to kill it if you
do.’p2/15
‘You have to trust the situation, you have to make it safe.’ P.2/26
Body: you’re sounding before you know what you’re sounding – there is delay…
about half a second.’ P.4/40
‘The body knows what to do… this is a very important aspect to improvisation…
allowing the body to lead.’ P.5/1
‘…in sudden danger your body moves.’ P.5/27
the nature of experience when responding to sound. P.6/36

Creative consciousness

‘Creative consciousness – but it’s not necessarily from the conscious mode that it
comes.’p.5/19
‘Different modes of consciousness: body consciousness is faster than thinking
consciousness.’ P.5/24
‘attentional processes’ Lester Ingeber. p.6/6
(Gardener’s learning styles) ‘auditory/ kinetic type.’ p.4/36
Perception of space and sound (as pre-music, not disciplinary/ perception is not
disciplinary) p.4/40

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Pedagogical strategy: ‘you have to get through that stuff as fast as possible with a
very fast hit.’ (‘referring to prejudice, fear or wariness.’) p.5/44



Listening

Work with the notion of the body: ‘really essential, it’s really important. It’s what it.
If you talk about being it’s right in there and having awareness upfront.’P.6/10
‘They’re with something but they’re not with what’s happening.’ P.6./17
‘Reaction time is important…’ p.6/26
‘Modes of attention’ ‘inclusive attention’ and ‘exclusive attention’ p.6/37
the nature of experience when responding to sound. P.6/39
(‘different ways of playing but there are different ways of listening.’) The different
ways of listening are more interesting’ P.7/25
‘listening in a narrow way may not fit.’ P.7/27
‘Who is going to make the first sound. It’s a beautiful moment.’ P.7/34
Beginnings and endings – ‘holding’ – ‘very special’ p.8/43

Interdisciplinary improvisation

Improvisation: ‘an important thread throughout’. P.1/7
Improvisation for film.p.1/21
Environment through a telematic lens. P.2/34
Improvisation as telematic – at a distance and latency. p.3/28
Telematic as experimental. P.3/34
Telematic for schools. P.4/5


LR super-ordinate themes

Learning in the process of free improvisation

Spontaneous composition p.1/L.7
Process of study p.1/
Strategy: writing to improvise p.2/10
collective learning process. p.5/1
‘…it was a collective…’ p.6/3
‘you don’t abide by those laws you lose.’ P.6/24
‘levels’ and ‘degrees’ among improvisers. P.6/27
analysis of (metric) time in working out your part. P.7/9
Familiarity p.7/18
Write. P.9/43
‘stepping out of the category’ p.10/16
‘constant growth’ p.10/21

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‘you have to be able to function on your own and you have to be able to function in a
large group.’ P.11/14
pedagogic approach. P.11/16
‘…you can hear them thinking…’ large group improvisation. p.11/27
Lack of choices destroys improvisation. p.11/33
‘methods of learning’ p.11/41
De-mystifying improvisation method p.12/2
Strategy p.12/5
Flow. P.13/42
Learning in the process. p.14/2

Philosophy of free improvisation

The bigger cause: ‘vision’ ‘destiny’ ‘philosophy’ p.2/15
Unity is strength p.2/19
Being organized saves lives p.2/25
music creating social cohesion in the face of its breakdown p.3/2
‘emphasis on getting people to go inside themselves and come up with their own
texts.’ P.5/17
Collective creativity practice, creating strongly identified individuals. P.5/23
Total world of learning p.6/29
long range thinking p.6/37
‘what people have seen over the years is that this really doesn’t stop.’ P.8/16
John Coltrane encounter p.8/28
Strategy: philosophic. P.9/34
Different eras – (temporal) characterizing different ways. P.10/33
De-mystifying p.11/41
Importance of self development p.12/29
Poetic understandings of how the music is manifested. P.13/19

Aesthetic understanding in free improvisation: spontaneous composition

Spontaneous composition p.1/L.8
Totality of improvisation/ composition as a study p.1/6
‘Live music’ p.2/35
express the self. P.5/13
Super-learning p.6/12
‘you don’t abide by those laws you lose.’ P.6/24
life time true learning. P.6/28
‘able to speak in nay kind of situation.’ P.6/30
Nurturing what you do, with others. P.7/33
Collective aesthetic. P.7/45
Avid about learning p.9/13
‘stay true to your music, you know usually music will take care of you’ p.9/24
Essential importance of diversity: ‘we can’t really learn anything from people that
are all the same.’ P.10/38

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Importance of individuality p.12/23

‘…I want to hear you exploring…’ p.12/35
‘… every night’s different’ p.13/36



NJ super-ordinate themes

Development of embodied, interdisciplinary practice

Very professional contextualization of very ‘out there’ music concepts. P.1/11
Contextualization of the subject creates enculturation. P.1/21
‘conceptual shift of music.’ Thought of as sound art… p.2/42
Fluxus influence. P.3/24
Similar thinking: different sound worlds (on Brotz. Trio and his music now.) p.3/31
Visual music – visceral sound. P.5/6
integrated contemporary art practice and musical practice. P.7/34
‘I am invited as a visual artist’ p.8/4
‘qualities from the visual art scene come into my work as a musician.’ – his life
crosses the boundary. P.8/10
it’s not from the academic school.’ P.8/12
theatre – not theatre. P8/22
self sufficiency – e,g, creating the DIY record label. P.9/29


‘Step out in the cold water.’ ‘… new communication, a new experience…’

‘a kind of step out in the cold water.’ On Brotzmann Trio p.2/13
‘find out what the instrument can do.’ P.2/16
‘young artists…energetic…fast…loud…loud…express’ p.2/20
playing together and dividing the time for each solo. Decided during performance:
compositional scheme. P.2/29
‘try to find new experiences… new challenges… curiosity.’ P.3/33
understanding conventions (such as jazz); confidence to move ‘outside’. P.4/3
different roles: ‘classical jazz percussionist’, conceptual artist, composer, curator’
p.4/11
own vocabulary leads to new communication. P.4/29
Material which communicates in a setting. P.4/43
What do you do? I just start. P.6/23
Pre-determined improvisation. p.6/30
Description of improvisation practice: different sound combinations, organize,
different every time, we make structures, we are specific. P.6/23
Reasons why people don’t improvise: fear, aesthetic, choose not to be direct,
unfamiliarity. P.6/45
‘You are the composer and you are the instrumentalist at the same time, which is
our job.’ P.7/14

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‘art sound’ p.7/19

‘a big step in cold water.’ P.7/20
‘jump to a new experience.’ P.7/24
‘…new communication, a new experience doesn’t happen then no reason to go on
stage.’ P.9/46


On formal music education

conservatoire – conservative. P.9/4
they are trained to repeat the classic. P.9/10
they are there to be paid to play that stuff.’ P.9/11

RT super-ordinate themes

Silence: ‘…the way free improvisation is going’

Manage silence, and the implications p.1/10
The nature of performance and the performance/ audience relationship p.1/18
‘Experience the silence’ p.6/34
potential of silence p.6/40
holding silence p.6.46

The limitations of language and music as language: describing the phenomena of
music.

Ambiguity – several metaphors running at once which overlap and become
interchangeable. P.3/18
Poetic language to reflect F.I.’s complexity of experience p.3/18-31
FI as metaphor for existence p.3/26
FI as therapeutic/ conceptual metaphor p.2/35
Describing and avoiding the restrictions of defining p.3/15
Water – a metaphor for FI – ‘oneness’ quality p.3/19/
‘language of music’ –to become ’floating’, ‘flying’ (FI) p.3/33
FI – the principle of going up or down p.2/23
The moment surprises you p.2/30
‘like catching something that is in movement’ p.2/35

‘That’s who I am - that’s what I am’

Personal statement in movement p.2/5
‘odd things’ p.4/27
‘that’s who I am, what I am’ p.4/29
humour and performance/ FI. P.5/5
Buster Keaton p.5/13
‘from the beginning I was influenced by the theatre.’ P.5/28

331


traumatic formal education p.7/7

A realisation: ‘this is my life’ in one moment p.7/37
‘I discovered my life which is quite amazing p.7/45
playing in the street p.8/10
emigrating for the music p.8/35
did not identify a scene for himself in the USA p.8/38
‘they didn’t let me in’ (to the scene) p.9/46
brave p.9/7
more trauma: playing first gig and drowned out. Arrested and cello confiscated.
P.9/19
playing in the street to survive p.9/29
the hard life p.9/32
‘they let me in’ p.10/6


‘What it is’ – free improvisation practice

FI ‘…like stepping from everyday life and all of a sudden standing on a table… no
difference… parallel world…’ p.10/41
FI as ‘a mirror of what everyday life is’ p.11/1
FI as everyday life and therefore performance as a ‘farce’ p.11/8
‘the whole thing’ p.11/24
‘all the things that are influencing you’, ‘the audience, the place, whatever…’ p.11/26
Complexity p.11/31
FI = ‘complexity transforms into something simple… through confidence.’ P.11/37
‘Spontaneity is over rated’ p.12/2
‘deciding to go up or down is basically the principle of free improvisation’ p.2/27
‘for me this is what improvisation is.’ P.2/36
gravity as a comparison p.2/44
Participation as the locus. (African reference) p.3/35
Playing with and for one another, most revealing p.3/38
African music practice and FI p.3/35
One thing – all floating together p.4/2
Enigma of FI p.4/11
the importance of movement - just movement p.4/32
Social mores and performance – ‘fake’, ‘pretentious’ ‘unnatural’
(Theatre of the Absurd) p.5/16
‘…they never run after…’ on English improvisers. P.5/45
tension created by ‘not running after (strategy) p.6/2
‘FI is the thing’ ‘Germans call it free jazz’ ‘and now it shows it colours’ p.6/17
African tradition of directing music with the body p.1/39
Improviser a relatively new term p.7/26
peer approval leads to ‘it happening’ p.10/16
‘establishing working relationships’ p.10/20

332


Appendix 10: Group themes (structured)

Structure of group themes

Note: ‘Group themes’ became subsequently delineated and represented by the
Chapters: ‘Describing FI,’ ‘Learning,’ Process,’ ‘Body,’ ‘Strategies’.

1. Socio-musical location; free improvisation.
SG
‘you’re creating an environment, you’re also interacting with one (so you have to
pay attention.’)
NA
The free improvisation path.

2. ‘a beautiful contradiction’: improvisation/ creativity
LM
GB
Challenging free improvisation assumptions/ orthodoxy
The idealized and your own path: polarised perspective of practice in improvisation.

3. Improvisation: ‘music is only one domain…’
SG
RT
Theatre – not theatre
RT
The limitations of language and music as language.

4. Technique in free improvisation and the professional musician.
NA
‘performance and free improvisation.’
RJ
Professional musician in improvisation



5. Free improvisation and learning
RJ
Improvisation and learning
LM
Improvisation and learning

6. Process
LR
Learning in the process of free improvisation
SG

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Free improvisation as a process. ‘…we should be drawing larger lessons from

improvisation...’
‘How open are you?’ ‘‘The personal transformation thing’.
LM
Self- development and improvisation
GB
Risk: a practice on the edge
LM/ UP/ SG
Trust
KM
The free improvisation experience: ‘oneness’
NJ
‘… new communication, a new experience…

7. Body
UP
Body
Listening
Creative consciousness
NJ
Developing embodied, interdisciplinary practice
RT
‘That’s who I am - that’s what I am’
NA
Performance
KM
The visceral pull of improvisation

8. Strategies
KM
Strategies in free improvisation
Structures
LR
Philosophy of free improvisation
Spontaneous composition
SG
What spontaneity produces is the familiar.
GB
Formal and informal education
Familiarity and spontaneity
FI process and psychoanalytical process: similarities and differences.
RJ
Mutual composers

334


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