Improvisation: methods and models

Pressing, Jeff

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198508465.003.0007

Cited by 235 publications

(278 citation statements)

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“…Lewis and Lovatt (2013) suggest that verbal improvisation shares in common with everyday speech the use of general knowledge structures or schemas (Bartlett, 1932). However, when improvising these schemas are reformulated to produce something new (Pressing, 1987). Consequently, rather than a conversation that uses set phrases of speech linked to a well-worn schema, improvisation draws on a wider range of schemas and reformulates these, presenting more choice in speech and making it more creative.…”

Section: Experiments 2: the Effect Of Verbal Improvisation And Actingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improvisation facilitates divergent thinking and creativity: Realizing a benefit of primary school arts education.

Sowden

Clements

Redlich

et al. 2015

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

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The benefit of arts education for cultural engagement, wider academic achievement, and as a contributor to the creative economy is a subject of significant debate. In the present work we focus on the potential for simple arts-based improvisation activities to enhance divergent thinking skills and creativity in primary school age children. In a first experiment we compared the effect of children taking part in an improvised vs. non-improvised dance class on their subsequent performance on the Instances Task (Wallach & Kogan, 1965) and on a creative 'toy' design task. In a second experiment children took part in verbal and acting improvisation games or in matched control games before completing figural activity 1 of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Torrance, 1974). In both experiments we found that children who took part in the improvisation interventions showed better divergent thinking and creativity after the intervention. Our findings suggest that simple, arts-based improvisation interventions could have domain general benefits for creative cognition processes. Further, they indicate one way in which simply making better use of existing arts education provision could provide a cost-effective way to increase creativity relevant skills in primary school children. We consider putative mechanisms for the improvisation effects and specify directions for future work.

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Section: Experiments 2: the Effect Of Verbal Improvisation And Actingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improvisation facilitates divergent thinking and creativity: Realizing a benefit of primary school arts education.

Sowden

Clements

Redlich

et al. 2015

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

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show abstract

“…Improvisation arguably satisfies the demands of a prototypical creative behavior. It involves freely generated choices, but these must be adapted to ongoing performance, and monitored through auditory and somatosensory feedback, as well as to an overall aesthetic goal (Pressing, 1988). It is simple enough, however, to allow an experimental design where the neural processes involved in the free generation of musical structures can be separated from those involved in the sequential organization and programming of the movements (i.e., piano playing), and the processing of movement feedback.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cortical Regions Involved in the Generation of Musical Structures During Improvisation in Pianists

Bengtsson¹,

Csíkszentmihályi²,

Ullén³

2014

The Systems Model of Creativity

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Abstract& Studies on simple pseudorandom motor and cognitive tasks have shown that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and rostral premotor areas are involved in free response selection. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate whether these brain regions are also involved in free generation of responses in a more complex creative behavior: musical improvisation. Eleven professional pianists participated in the study. In one condition, Improvise, the pianist improvised on the basis of a visually displayed melody. In the control condition, Reproduce, the participant reproduced his previous improvisation from memory. Participants were able to reproduce their improvisations with a high level of accuracy, and the contrast Improvise versus Reproduce was thus essentially matched in terms of motor output and sensory feedback. However, the Improvise condition required storage in memory of the improvisation. We therefore also included a condition FreeImp, where the pianist improvised but was instructed not to memorize his performance. To locate brain regions involved in musical creation, we investigated the activations in the Improvise-Reproduce contrast that were also present in FreeImp contrasted with a baseline rest condition. Activated brain regions included the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the presupplementary motor area, the rostral portion of the dorsal premotor cortex, and the left posterior part of the superior temporal gyrus. We suggest that these regions are part of a network involved in musical creation, and discuss their possible functional roles. &

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“…D'une part, les stratégies d'improvisation identifiées dans la littérature antérieure ont toutes été utilisées par au moins un des participants de ma recherche, ce qui laisse entrevoir le fait que les improvisateurs experts en musique classique font effectivement appel aux stratégies présentées dans la littérature théorique (Ashley 2009 ;Clarke 1988 ;Kenny et Gellrich 2002 ;Pressing 1988) ou recensées dans les études empiriques menées dans le domaine du jazz (Berliner 1994 ;Hargreaves, Cork et Setton 1991 ;Norgaard 2008Norgaard , 2011, de l'improvisation « libre » (Menezes 2010), de l'improvisation à l'orgue (Chamblee 2008 ;Johansson 2008Johansson , 2011 ou de l'improvisation dans la musique de la période classique (Berkowitz 2009(Berkowitz , 2010. D'autre part, environ 61% des stratégies identifiées dans la présente recherche n'avaient pas été documentées dans les études précédentes.…”

Section: Phaseunclassified

Processus d’apprentissage et de création des improvisateurs experts en musique classique

Després¹

2017

rmo

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Résumé de l'article Cet article présente une synthèse des principales contributions de mon projet de recherche doctorale qui porte sur l'improvisation musicale classique.Plus précisément, un devis de recherche en trois phases a été élaboré afin de documenter le parcours d'apprentissage, les stratégies de performances, ainsi que les approches d'enseignement-apprentissage d'instrumentistes et de pédagogues experts en improvisation musicale classique. Dans un premier temps, les résultats les plus significatifs de chacune des phases de la recherche sont présentés.Ensuite, les dimensions transversales aux trois phases sont discutées, avant de contextualiser les résultats par rapport au corpus de recherches théoriques et empiriques portant sur l'improvisation musicale. L'article se termine sur les principales implications pédagogiques de la recherche, celles qui ont émergé spécifiquement de chacune de ses phases, puis celles qui ressortent de l'analyse de l'ensemble des données. Revue musicale OICRM, volume 4, n o 1 Processus d'apprentissage et de création des improvisateurs experts en musique classique Jean-Philippe Després RésuméCet article présente une synthèse des principales contributions de mon projet de recherche doctorale qui porte sur l'improvisation musicale classique. Plus précisément, un devis de recherche en trois phases a été élaboré afin de documenter le parcours d'apprentissage, les stratégies de performances, ainsi que les approches d'enseignement-apprentissage d'instrumentistes et de pédagogues experts en improvisation musicale classique. Dans un premier temps, les résultats les plus significatifs de chacune des phases de la recherche sont présentés. Ensuite, les dimensions transversales aux trois phases sont discutées, avant de contextualiser les résultats par rapport au corpus de recherches théoriques et empiriques portant sur l'improvisation musicale. L'article se termine sur les principales implications pédagogiques de la recherche, celles qui ont émergé spécifiquement de chacune de ses phases, puis celles qui ressortent de l'analyse de l'ensemble des données.Mots clés : développement de l'expertise ; enseignement-apprentissage ; improvisation ; musique classique ; stratégies. AbstractThis article presents a synthesis of the main contributions of my doctoral research project on Western classical music improvisation. Specifically, a three-phase research design was developed to document the learning pathways, the performance strategies, and the teaching-learning approaches of expert instrumentalists and pedagogues in Western classical music improvisation. Firstly, the most significant results from each phase of the research are presented. Then, the transversal dimensions of the three phases are discussed, before contextualizing the results in relation to the corpus of theoretical and empirical studies on musical improvisation. The article concludes with the main pedagogical implications of the research, beginning with those that emerged specifically from each of its phases, then those that stood ou...

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Improvisation: methods and models

Cited by 235 publications

References 0 publications

Improvisation facilitates divergent thinking and creativity: Realizing a benefit of primary school arts education.

Improvisation facilitates divergent thinking and creativity: Realizing a benefit of primary school arts education.

Cortical Regions Involved in the Generation of Musical Structures During Improvisation in Pianists

Processus d’apprentissage et de création des improvisateurs experts en musique classique

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