This systematic literature review aims to identify and critically examine the prevailing general trends of music education research that addresses issues of improvisation from 1985 to 2015. The study examined the main features of studies with impact that focus on musical improvisation and have been published in peer-reviewed music education journals. Data were organised on the basis of the following: 1) General publication features; 2) Topic; 3) Methodological approach; 4) Participant features; 5) Type of improvisation; 6) Definition of improvisation; 7) Findings; 8) Suggestions for practice. The study also takes a close look at the construction of the discourses through which improvisation has been framed in the field of music education, providing insights on how such discourses create particular pedagogical visions of improvisation. To this end, we have created a map of the different visions of improvisation pedagogy that the studied works point towards. These visions have been clustered in the following five categories: (i) from rupture of certainties to creative problematisation; (ii) return to the “natural” beginning—in search of humanness; (iii) improvisation as a learning tool; (iv) conserving and enlivening traditions; (v) improvisation as an impetus for creativity. The map proposed in this study is meant as a possible representation of the general trends that underpin music education research focusing on improvisation. This map can also be seen as a “tool” through which music educators can situate their practice and reflect on their particular ways of working with improvisation, possibly envisioning alternative ways forward.
This instrumental case study explores and theorizes on the educational potential and value of free collaborative vocal improvisation, a process that enables equal access to music regardless of musical skills. The focus of the article is on the musical activities of an adult choir in Finland that applied tenets from improvisational theatre to facilitate the social and musical processes of free improvisation. This study applies an ecological perspective to understand how improvisation can offer asylum—a physical or conceptual safe space within which an individual can flourish socially and musically—and explore how it is sought, constructed, and supported, and what opportunities it can afford to those participating in it. The analysis shows how the participants used various techniques for seeking asylum, both in and away from their shared social space, when they encountered the inherent discomforts of improvisation. Depending on the social ecology of each situation, the musicking activities provided the participants with the resources to construct both social and musical agency as well as experiences in playful collaborative musical learning and wellbeing. The present study calls for an ecological framework for music education and improvisation that supports musicking in a safe and playful learning environment with a focus on social processes, and which could be considered the starting point for music education at all ages.
Yliopiston oppimisympäristössä ja toimintakulttuurissa jännittäminen on yleisyydestään ja haitallisista vaikutuksistaan huolimatta huonosti tiedostettu ongelma. Jännittämisen ilmenemismuodot voivat vaihdella pienestä epävarmuudesta lamaannuttavaan ja elämää rajoittavaan ahdistukseen. Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastelemme opiskelijoiden kokemuksia jännittämisestä yliopistossa ja jännittämistä käsittelevässä taideinterventiossa. Taideinterventio toteutettiin Ylioppilaiden Terveydenhoitosäätiön (YTHS) ja Taideyliopiston Sibelius-Akatemian yhteistyönä vuosina 2013–2014. Esitämme kaksi tutkimuskysymystä: 1) Miten taideinterventioon osallistuneet yliopisto-opiskelijat kertovat kokevansa jännittämisen yliopistossa? ja 2) Millaisia koettuja merkityksiä opiskelijat antavat taideinterventiolle? Aineisto muodostuu seitsemästä temaattisesta yksilöhaastattelusta. Aineisto on analysoitu laadullisen sisällönanalyysin menetelmällä. Tutkimus osoittaa, että jännittämiseen taipuvaiset opiskelijat voivat kokea stressiä, pelkoa, fyysisiä oireita ja jopa voimakasta ahdistusta vuorovaikutustilanteissa tai tilanteissa, joissa opiskelijat kokevat olevansa arvioitavana. Tutkimuksen tulosten mukaan yliopiston tulisi huomioida opiskelijoiden erilaiset lähtökohdat ja tarpeet ei vain sisällön omaksumisessa vaan myös sosiaalisessa vuorovaikutuksessa.
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