Cognition and Musical Improvisation in Individual and Group Contexts By Su Ching Hsieh A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1 Abstract The aims of this research are to investigate how improvisatory skills develop in individuals and teams. It focuses upon the effect of musical expertise in different musical genres on the development of improvisatory skills. Multi methods were applied in the research and classified into four phases. The first phase involved a self-case study implementing deliberate self regulated practice based on a planned sequential model; a) sight-reading; b) memorising; and c) improvising; over 8 weeks in a trained classical musician. Additionally, the self-case study used two commissioned musical compositions matched in length, harmony and structure, one in the classical genre the other in jazz. In the 2nd phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with novice and expert improvisers. The final phases included experiments studying sight- reading, memorising and improvising as a duo and observations and interviews relating to ensemble rehearsals and improvisation with cross genre compositions. The findings suggest that learning to improvise is frustrating and anxiety provoking. Seven elements were found to be important in acquiring musical skills and domain knowledge acquisition: physiological adaptation and developing reading music skills; establishing auditory schemata; automaticity; use of memorisation strategies; analytic strategy application; and improvising to a coherent musical structure. The findings also show that sight-reading and improvising share similarities in their characteristics when learning to improvise as a duo. Issues such as communicating to the audience, performance identity and connecting to the context are essential in the duo improvisation performance. The findings indicate that a 'concept of break-points' (Poole, 1983) take place during the latter stage of the ensemble improvisation process where changes occur across all three elements, musical structure, social structure and communicative behavior. (Bastien and Hostager, 2002:21) Factors such as leadership, group member characteristic, resource, 2 information flow, the creative environment and collateral structure can influence the quality of group improvisation performance. Acknowledgement I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Graham F Welch and Professor Susan Hallam for their relentless support and guidance. I would like to thank colleagues at Music Education department, Anne, Geoffrey and Keith for their friendship. I would like to thank my family for their financial and spiritual support in the completion of my study. I would like to dedicate this thesis to Professor Graham F Welch and Professor Susan Hallam 3 Declaration I declare the originality of this thesis and it contains 66,339 words, exclusive of appendices, list of references and bibliographies. Su Ching Hsieh 4 Table of Contents Tables 16 Figures 19 Chapter One: 23 Introduction 23 1.1 Improvisation in Traditional European Music 25 1.2 Non-Classical Music Improvisations 25 1.3 Improvisation in British Music Education 26 1.3.1 Pre-School 26 1.3.2 Improvisation in the Classroom 27 1.4 The Benefits of Learning to Improvise 28 1.5 Aims and Research Questions 29 Chapter Two• 31 Cognition and Musical Improvisation in Individual and Group Contexts .31 2.1 Introduction 31 2.2 The Characteristics in Musically Creative Individuals 32 2.2.1 Creative Processes in Music 33 2.3 Background to Improvisation 34 2.3.1 The Process of Musical Improvisation 34 2.3.2 The Development of Improvisation Skills 36 2.4 Improvising as a Group Activity 39 2.4.1 Organization Improvisation 39 2.4.2 Group Improvising in Music and Drama 40 5 2.4.3 Group Improvising in Business 41 2.5 Characteristics of Group Jazz Improvisation 42 2.5.1 Related Constructs in Organizational Improvisation 43 2.5.2 Conditions in Organizational Improvisation 44 2.5.3 Factors influencing the quality of Organization Improvisation 45 2.6 Creative Cognition 49 2.6.1 Geneplore Model 49 2.6.2 The Pre-inventive Structure 51 2.6.3 Cognition in Group Jazz Performance 52 2.6.4 Cognitive Behaviour in Group Jazz 52 2.6.5 Improvisation and Memory 53 2.6.6 The Impact of Organizational Memory 54 2.7 Summary 55 Chapter Three: 58 The Development of Musical Expertise in Learning to Improvise 58 3.1 Introduction 58 3.2 Expertise Theory 59 3.2.1 Experts do best in their own domains 59 3.2.2. Experts are able to recognize large patterns and process them into meaningful knowledge in a very short time 60 3.2.3 Experts obtain better short-term and long-term memory 60 3.2.4 Experts perceive a problem at a deeper level 61 3.2.5 Experts invest a longer time analysing problems in a qualitative manner 61 6 3.2.6 Stages in the Development of Expertise 62 3.3 Automaticity in Musical Learning 63 3.4 Physiological Adaptations 64 3.5 Reading music 65 3.6 Sight-reading 66 3.7 Performance 67 3.8 The Role of Feedback in Music 68 3.8.1 Effect of Auditory Feedback in Musical Performance from Memory 69 3.9 Musical Memory 70 3.9.1 Memorization in Music Performance 71 3.9.2 Experts and memory in music learning 72 3.10 Practice in music learning 74 3.10.1 The Effect of Practice 75 3.10.2 Strategies used by Experts 75 3.10.3 Novice and Expert Comparisons in Practice 77 3.10.4 Developing aural schemata in practice 78 3.10.5 Metacognitive Strategies in Practice 78 3.10.6 Motivation and Self-regulated learning 79 3.10.7 Rehearsing in Groups 80 3.11 Summary 81 Chapter Four: 82 Methodology 82 4.1 Methodological Enquiry related to the Present Study 82 7 4.2 Research methods in musical expertise 83 4.3 The chosen methods for the current studies 84 4.4 The Development of the Field Studies 86 4.4.1 Methodological Issues 86 4.4.2 Validity and Reliability 87 4.4.3 Ethics 88 4.5 The Research 90 4.5.1 A self case study of an experienced classical musician learning to improvise using planned self-regulated practice and two matched music pieces representing classical and jazz genres 90 4.5.2 Semi-Structured Interviews with Novice and Expert Improvisers 95 4.5.3 The first experiment: Sight-reading, memorising and improvising as a duo97 4.5.4 Observation Study: Ensemble rehearsal and improvisation performance with multi-genre composition elements 101 4.6 Summary 106 Chapter Five: 108 Self -regulation and Learning to Improvise 108 5.1 Data Analysis 108 5.1.1 Analysis of DVD Data 108 5.1.2 Analysis of Interview Data 109 5.2 Emerging themes and Subcategories 110 5.3 Physiological Adaptations 110 5.3.1 Developing Physiological Adaptation in Learning a Classical Music Piece 110 8 5.3.2 Developing Physiological Adaptation in Learning a Jazz Piece 112 5.3.3 Comparison of Physiological Adaptation Development in Learning the Classical and Jazz Pieces 114 5.4 The Music Reading Skill 116 5.4.1 Developing Reading Music Skills in Learning a Classical Music Piece 116 5.4.2 Developing Reading Music Skills in Learning a Jazz Piece 117 5.4.3 A Comparison of Reading Music Skill Development in Learning Classical and Jazz Music Pieces 118 5.5 The Role of Auditory Feedback in developing aural schemata 119 5.5.1 Developing the use of feedback in learning to a classical piece 119 5.5.2 Developing the use of feedback in learning to a jazz piece 121 5.5.3 A Comparison of the use of Feedback in Self-regulated learning to improvise to Classical and Jazz Music Pieces 122 5.6 Automaticity 124 5.6.1 Developing Automaticity in Learning to Improvise to a Classical Music Piece 124 5.6.2 Developing Automaticity in Learning to Improvise to a Jazz Music Piece 124 5.6.3 A Comparison of the Development of Automaticity during Learning to Improvise in the Classical and Jazz music Pieces 125 5.7 Musical Memory 127 5.7.1 Developing Musical Memory for a Classical music piece 127 5.7.2 Developing Musical Memory for a Jazz Music piece 127 5.7.3 A Comparison of the Development of Musical Memory in Classical and Jazz Pieces 129 9 5.8 Memorisation Strategies 130 5.8.1 Memorisation Strategies for memorizing a classical music piece 130 5.8.2 Memorisation Strategies for Memorising a Jazz Music Piece 130 5.8.3 A Comparison of the Memorisation Strategies for Memorising Classical and Jazz Music Pieces 133 5.9 Analytic Strategies 135 5.9.1 Developing Analytic Strategies in self-regulated Learning to Improvise to a Classical Piece 135 5.9.2 Developing Analytic Strategies in Self-regulated Learning to Improvise to a Jazz Piece 135 5.9.3 A Comparison of the Application of Analytic Strategies in self-regulated learning to improvise to Classical and Jazz Music Pieces 136 5.10 Solo Improvisation Strategies 137 5.10.1 A Novice Developing Improvisation Strategies in Self-regulated Learning to Improvise to a Classical Music Piece 137 5.10.2 Developing Improvisation Strategies in Self-regulated Learning to Improvise to a Jazz Music Piece 138 5.10.3 A Comparison of the improvisation strategies adopted for classical and jazz music pieces 138 5.11 Analysis of Semi-Structured interview Data of the Expert Improvisers 139 5.11.1 The Role of Sight-reading Skills in Improvisation 139 5.11.2 The Role of memory 140 5.11.3 Solo Improvisation Strategies 141 5.12 Summary 145 10 Chapter Six• 149 Learning to Improvise as a Duo 149 6.1 The Experimental Study 149 6.1.1 Method of Analysis in the experimental study 150 6.1.2 The Amount of Time spent in Small Group practice