Improvisation and meaning

Abstract

This article presents and discusses a long-term repeated-immersion research process that explores meaning allocated to an episode of 50 seconds of music improvisation in early neurosurgical rehabilitation by a teenage boy with severe traumatic brain injury and his music therapist. The process began with the original therapy session in August 1994 and extends to the current time of writing in 2013. A diverse selection of qualitative research methods were used during a repeated immersion and engagement with the selected episodes. The multiple methods used in this enquiry include therapeutic narrative analysis and musicological and video analysis during my doctoral research between 2002 and 2004, arts-based research in 2008 using expressive writing, and arts-based research in 2012 based on the creation of a body cast of my right hand as I used it to play the first note of my music improvising in the original therapy episode, which is accompanied by reflective journaling. The casting of my hand was done to explore and reconsider the role of my own body as an embodied and integral, but originally hidden, part of the therapy process. Put together, these investigations explore the potential meanings of the episode of music improvisation in therapy in an innovative and imaginative way. However, this article does not aim at this stage to present a model or theory for neurorehabilitation but offers an example of how a combination of diverse qualitative methods over an extended period of time can be instrumental in gaining innovative and rich insights into initially hidden perspectives on health, well-being, and human relating.

Musical improvisation and health: a review

“…This experience of give and take has been found helpful by therapists' clients suffering from depression (Erkkilä et al 2012), by bereaved adolescents interacting within group improvisation (McFerran and Wigram 2005) and by patients receiving palliative care (Hartley 2000). It is seen as important for individuals with difficulties engaging in social intercourse because it gives a sense of communication without involving verbal exchange (Kim et al 2009;Simpson and Keen 2011;Edgerton 1994;Gilbertson 2013;Naess and Ruud 2007;Pavlicevic et al 1994). Thus a trial of music therapy including elements of improvisation for adults in mental health care found a significant effect for the intervention on social relationships , and a current trial of improvisational music therapy with children with ASD is predicated on the potential for social engagement within the framework of this activity (Geretsegger et al 2012).…”

Performative, Arts-Based, or Arts-Informed? Reflections on the Development of Arts-Based Research in Music Therapy

“…It was observed that it was more common for music therapy studies to be related to ABR principles or to demonstrate the use of the arts at some stage in the research process. More recent examples can be found in the work of Beer (2015), Gilbertson (2013), Lindvang (2013, McCaffrey (2014), Schenstead (2012), and Viega (2013). For the purpose of this paper, we undertook an updated review of music therapy studies employing artistic methods.…”

“…ABR has been employed by researchers oriented to a range of different theories and training within music therapy practice. While a number of authors have not explicitly mentioned theoretical orientation as background information to the ABR process, an observable cohort align with a music-centred approach, for example Aldridge (2008), Beer (2015), Gilbertson (2013) and Viega (2013). Other approaches include Community Music Therapy (CoMT) (Vaillancourt, 2009(Vaillancourt, & 2011 and recovery-oriented music therapy (McCaffrey, 2014).…”

“…Other music therapy researchers have approached their topic with the intention to use an arts process to explore an issue or gain new insights (Gilbertson, 2013;Lindvang, 2013;McCaffrey, 2014;2009& 2011. The term arts-based reflexivity was used in both McCaffrey's (2014) and Schenstead's (2012) work in which gaining insight was an explicit goal.…”

“…There are also a group of music therapy researchers who have moved beyond the medium of music in the pursuit of knowledge through ABR. Some have employed poetry (Ledger, 2010), body casting and creative writing (Gilbertson, 2013), while others have engaged in movement to musical data described as body listening (Trondalen, 2007;Viega, 2013). In an earlier overview of ABR this was described as seeming "to approach the nature of expressive movement or even dance."…”