Giving voice to jazz singers’ experiences of flow in improvisation

Jazz instrumentalists’ experiences of improvisation have informed psychological research on a range of topics including flow in improvisation, yet there is scant evidence of jazz singers’ improvising experiences. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), this study investigated the experiences of three professional Australian jazz singers who improvise extensively in their performance practice: How do these singers experience improvisation? IPA of semi-structured interviews with the singers resulted in two superordinate themes which both related to the flow state: 1) singers experienced flow when improvisation “went well”; 2) singers experienced flow as meaningful—flow provided singers with both the freedom to express the self and the opportunity to contribute to something beyond the self. These findings reveal a new context for flow experiences. Implications for vocal jazz education and practice are discussed

Methods and ideas for the creation of 'transparent' music in the classroom

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Methods and ideas for the creation of ‘transparent’ music in the classroom The aims of this port-folio are as follows; - To provide a coherent sequence of pieces and methods which can be used to create music in an educational context and also encourage students and teachers to develop their own creativity. - To provide pieces which develop student’s confidence in their own ability to create music in a variety of ways including composition, improvisation and creative leadership. - To provide exercises and pieces which help to develop the listening and appreciation skills essential for ensemble musicmaking. - To provide methods that enable the creation of ‘transparent music’. This is music in which the some, or all, of the decision making involved in the creation of a piece is accessible and apparent to an audience during its performance. This submission consists of a teaching book containing thirteen pieces/exercises, instructions giving guidance on their possible use in a teaching context and recorded examples. Also included are separate instructions where appropriate for the use of pieces in a concert or other non-educational setting and two essays giving context and background information on the ideas behind the pieces

Listening and remembering: networked off-line improvisation for four commuters

This paper analyses the experience of the networked off-line improvisation 'Listening and Remembering', a performance for four commuters using voices and sounds from the Mexico City and Paris metros. It addresses the question: how can an act of collective remembering, inspired by listening to metro soundscapes, lead to the creation of networked voice- and sound-based narratives about the urban commuting experience? The networked experience is seen here from the structural perspective (telematic setting), the sonic underground context, the ethnographic process that led to the performance, the narratives that are created in the electro-acoustic setting, the shared acoustic environments that those creations suggest, and the technical features and participants' responses that prevent or facilitate interaction. Emphasis is placed on the participants' status as non-performers, and on their familiarity with the sonic environment, as a context that allows the participation of non-musicians in the making of music through telematically shared interfaces, using soundscape and real-time voice. Participants re-enact their routine experience through a dialogical relation- ship with the sounds, the other participants, themselves, and the experience of sharing: a collective memory

Jazz Improvisation, the Body, and the Ordinary

What is one doing when one improvises music, as one does in jazz? There are two sorts of account prominent in jazz literature. The traditional answer is that one is organizing sound materials in the only way they can be organized if they are to be musical. This implies that jazz solos are to be interpreted with the procedures of written music in mind. A second, more controversial answer is offered in David Sudnow's pioneering account of the phenomenology of improvisation, Ways of the Hand. Sudnow claims that learning to improvise at the piano is concerned centrally with copying the bodily ways of one's mentors and finding how one's instructable hands and the keyboard come to answer to one another, so that "to define jazz ... is to describe the body's ways." But despite its greater sensitivity over the traditional account, Sudnow's account is flawed both as a description of how improvisatory skill is acquired and as a model for describing the interest of jazz. My critique of Sudnow compares his account to Augustine's account of learning language, and finds that Wittgenstein's criticisms of Augustine extend to Sudnow. I offer a third approach to understanding improvised music, one which treats the procedures of improvisation as derived from, and importantly at play in, our everyday actions

ROUTINE AS DEVIATION

We draw on evidence scattered across thick descriptions of organizations to outline an alternative model of routine. Instead of defining routine as a process of compliance with prescribed rules and procedures we define it as a process of deviation from the prescribed elements of organizations, resulting from the mutual constitution of repetitive work and improvisation. This view of routine underscores its adaptive nature and suggests that flexibility can be achieved not only by nimble and openly innovative organizations but also by large and organizations engaging in ‘closet’ innovation.

Seeking out the spaces between: Using improvisation for collaborative composition and interactive technology

Copyright © 2010 ISASTThis article presents findings from experiments into piano performance live electronics undertaken by the author since early 2007. The use of improvisation has infused every step of the process---both as a methodology to obtain meaningful results using interactive technology and as a way to generate and characterize a collaborative musical space with composers. The technology used has included pre-built MIDI interfaces such as the PianoBar, actuators such as miniature DC motors and sensor interfaces including iCube and the Wii controller. Collaborators have included researchers at the Centre for Digital Music (QMUL), Richard Barrett, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay and Atau Tanaka. In seeking to create responsive “performance environments” at the piano, I explore live, performative control of electronics to create better connections for both performer (providing the same level of interpretive freedom as with a “pure” instrumental performance) and audience (communicating clearly to them). I have been lucky to witness first-hand many live interactive performances and to work with various empathetic composers/performers in flexible working environments. Collaborating with experienced technologists and musicians, I have witnessed time and again what, for me, is a fundamental truth in interactive instrumental performance: As a living, spontaneous form it must be nurtured and informed by the performer’s physicality and imagination as much as by the creativity or knowledge of the composer and/or technologist. Specifically in the case of sensors, their dependence on the detail of each person’s body and reactions is so refined as to necessitate, I would argue, an entirely collaborative approach and therefore one that involves at least directed improvisation and, more likely, fairly extensive improvised exploration. The fundamentally personal and intimate nature of sensor readings---the amount of tension created by each performer, the shape of the ancillary gestures or the level of emotional involvement (especially relevant when using galvanic skin response or EEG)---makes creating pieces with sensors extremely difficult for a composer to do in isolation. Improvisation therefore provides a way for performer and composer to generate a common musical and gestural language. Related to these issues is the fact that the technical or notational parameters in interactive music are not yet (and may never be) standardized, thereby creating a very real and practical need for improvisation to figure at least somewhere in the process.This study is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council

Philosophy of Music Education

A philosophy of music education refers to the value of music, the value of teaching music, and how to practically utilize those values in the music classroom. This thesis explores the philosophies of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze, Carl Orff, Zoltan Kodaly, Bennett Reimer, and David Elliott, and suggests practical applications or their philosophies in the orchestral classroom, especially in the context of ear training and improvisation. From these philosophies, the author develops their own personal philosophy of music education, most broadly defined by the claim that music is key to experiencing and understanding feelingful experiences