Modes of communication during jazz improvisation

Abstract

This study investigated modes of communication adopted by six student jazz musicians during rehearsal and performance. Six one-hour rehearsal sessions and a performance were observed and videotaped for analysis. Results revealed six modes of communication that formed two main categories, verbal and non-verbal, each containing three distinct modes of communication: instruction, cooperation and collaboration. Non-verbal collaborative mode displayed empathetic attunement, which is a vehicle for empathetic creativity. Empathetic creativity is a theoretical concept proposed by the author based on the concept of empathetic intelligence (Arnold, 2003, 2004). Practical applications of empathetic creativity are discussed with reference to music education, focusing on evaluation of individual contribution to group creative performances.

Empathic Listening as a Transferable Skill

“…This Janus-faced division of attention-sometimes described in the ensemble performance literature as a "decentering" of the self (Seddon 2005)-has cognitive and affective components: respectively, turn-taking or perspective-taking, and an emotional response. One psychoanalyst has defined empathy as follows, highlighting the delicate balancing act of empathy between intervention and facilitation:…”

The sign of silence: Negotiating musical identities in an improvising ensemble

“…Any individual musical contribution is impromptu and is tailored to the sounds, rhythms and tonalities heard from accompanying musicians (Bastien & Hostager, 1988;Mazzola & Cherlin, 2009;Nettl & Russell, 2008;Seddon, 2005). Since all have input into the overall sound, the creativity in group improvisation is inherently social, rather than being attributable to or located within a single individual (Sawyer, 2003).…”

Permission to Play: Fostering Enterprise Creativities in Music Technology through Extracurricular Interdisciplinary Collaboration

“…It explains how this community has been harnessing the kinds of creativities and entrepreneurial modalities that are necessary for the successful 21st century musician. Extra-curricular interdisciplinary collaboration encompasses all collaborative creative modes including: distributed, complementary, family, integrative modes (John-Steiner, 2000), joint devising through thinking together verbally (Littleton & Mercer, 2013), improvised co-creating (Sawyer & DeZutter, 2009;Seddon, 2005), distributed creativity (Sawyer & DeZutter, 2009), and collaborations that include phases of independent parallel and sequential working. Extra-curricular and interdisciplinary collaborative creativity offers incredible diversity of experience; and this is what this chapter argues to be beneficial for the development creative enterprise amongst Higher Education music students.…”

“…This chapter explores how extra-curricular work in music technology constitutes considerable range of creativities, notably through interdisciplinary collaboration. Multiple kinds of music based creativities include innovative work around multimedia, performance creativities, and empathetic creativity in improvised performance (Seddon, 2005;Burnard, 2012), and musicians are not only creative because of their musicality, but because of their inventiveness; '…the discovery of newness, and enabling and enacting new reflective practices with imagination and originality.' (Burnard, 2014: 80).…”

“…In scrutinising these music-making communities we can see how students develop 'funds of knowledge' (Moll et. al, 1992) about music performance (Green, 2002, King, 2006, Seddon, 2005, but our institutes also offer opportunities for learning through creative enterprise, especially in through participation in extra-curricular interdisciplinary collaborations. By this I mean collaborative work that is undertaken outside the curriculum, in multi-discipline groups involving students on different degree courses.…”