Inquiry Project

Carly Sokol
READ420
11/10/14

Improvisation is a risk It is creative, and comes from within each

individual. It is a process. It is an individuals inner voice. Improvisation
happens everywhere: in everyday life, speech and actions. When people
improvise in music, they are unlocking the musicality within themselves.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why is improvisation in music not as widespread as it could

be?
- The concept of being musically educated is derived mostly from
classical music values.
- Group goals, such as note literacy and large ensemble performances,
are favored over individual creativity, progress and self-expression.
- In school systems, parents and administrators want results that can
be SEEN, (like a rubric, for example), and there is no cut and dry
grading system for improvisation.
- Parents and administrators want a refined and measurable outcome
to get a sense of teacher accountability.
- Teachers teach what they are comfortable with. Many teachers
themselves are not comfortable improvising, and thus it rarely makes
it into the classroom.
(Higgins, 2013)

How do we make improvising a more comfortable and

attainable goal for students?
- We need to create a type of improvisation culture, where the idea
of it is less abstract and more so a common, comfortable and
musically relevant activity.
where improvisation, spontaneity, and interaction are nurtured throughout
the music curriculum. Thought of as a culture or as an
environment, improvisation becomes not a skill or a cultural practice, but a way
of being in and through music, one where teachers and students embark on

significant journeys of musical discovery through the immediacy of making ones

own sounds (Higgins, 2013).

- Improvisation can be framed in such a way where experimentation is

the focus, and music-making is seen as a trial of no mistakes.
(Coulson)
- Build confidence in students
- Teachers model the activities
- Have a sense of humor
- Limit parameters
- Let them know there is no right or wrong answer
- Encouraging self-reflection
- Teach students audiation, thinking in sound builds confidence
- Let students make creative decisions and generate musical solutions
to problems critical thinking
- Students must have musical background necessary
- Personal connection to the music
(Higgins, 2013)(Coulson, 2013)

Coulsons article discusses a research study in which students in an

elementary music setting are examined. Two main focus questions:
1) What are students perceptions of creativity?
2) How can music educators successfully implement improvisation lessons
to promote student creativity and learning?
Here are some common student comments/responses researchers gleaned
throughout the study:

- Students define what makes something creative and assign these

characteristics: variety, originality, personally appealing to listener
- Difficulty in knowing what it [improvisatory expression] will sound
like.
- Its easy because there is no certain pattern to play; endless
possibilities.
- Students use the technique of considering what bars (percussion)
would sound like before playing.
- One student considered the words of the poem to help determine
what he/she would play.

- Students prefer practice time, because exploration is private, and for

the teacher model and use different instruments.
(Coulson, 2013)
After reading, I realized that I could conduct my own questionnaire based
on the studys guiding questions for class discussion. I asked 4 of my musician
friends to answer honestly, and I provided some responses from all of them.

Coulsons Questions:
1) What was the most difficult part of improvising?
2) What was easy about improvising?
3) How can I help you improvise better?
4) What can I provide you with to help you with your creativity in
improvisation?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------My Questions and Collection of Responses:
1) What is the most difficult part about improvising?
You can only control what you do and you have no idea what curve balls
others are going to throw at you.
The vocabulary I have to improvise in a given progression. How complex is
the progression? Do I know all the scales and notes necessary to improvise
in this setting? Does that even matter? These questions can sometimes
fog my mind
Understanding where the harmony will go next.

2) What is the easiest thing about improvising?

Knowing scale patterns to create a melody.
Hitting the root note within the chords.
being able to let go and express myself through music. I can play any
note or passage that I feel is the best and most expressive, and it won't be
right or wrong. It will just be me in the form of music.

3) Is there something a professor/anyone can do to help you improvise

better?
I dont think a professor could help me improvise better but over the past
few years, improvisation has been in the back of my mind. Im training to
be an opera singer and half of our job as opera signers is the job of an
actor. Actors receive improvisation training because onstage you never
know what could go wrong.
Help students to understand how harmony works (which chord goes to
which, how to think a step ahead, etc).
An expert could review fundamentals and scales with me. This seems
rather basic, but winding back the learning process and moving forward
from my level ensures that I don't skip any steps in learning something
new.

4) In what ways would you combat any apprehension towards

improvisation? (or what, if any, circumstances would make you feel OK
to improvise?)
I would feel comfortable about improvising in a safe environment
surrounded by people who care about me.
The best way to combat apprehension towards improvising is to just let
go. Improvising is almost meditative by nature, and as long as you don't let
your mind wander, and live in the moment, there is nothing to be afraid
of. Expanding this beyond myself, this way of thinking should be taught to
students from a younger age so that any apprehension they have won't
become a brick wall by the time they reach high school or college.
I would combat it by creating an environment where students feel
comfortable, and improvisation is done in many ways (in pieces, group
activities, individual activities, etc).

What are some ways we as music educators can incorporate

music improvisation into the classroom?
- Precursor- compare question and answer in language first.
- Start with pentatonic scale (some pitches eliminated made phrasing
easier).
- Guide students by at first limiting the amount of materials, then
gradually increasing amount they can use.
- Learning through exploration with sound; manipulate and organize
sounds.
- Active listening + performance as a reference point
- 7 stages of improvisation
- Teachers need to monitor students to hone their objectives and
lessons appropriately.
- More experience = more product oriented
- Inspire students with the music choice, explore different moods,
lyrics, variety.
- Ability increase, lesson structure decrease (Coulson, 2013)(Whitcomb, 2013)

How can we bridge language and music and create a way for
them to overlap while increasing student learning?
Poetry Unit and Improvisation
- Students relate words to instrument choices, rhythm choices, etc.
- Helps students know what to play.
- Helps comprehension of musical structure and meaning (Beegle, 2010)
Connection between literacy and music
- Music can help students be better readers AND reading can help
students become better musicians.
- Music included in reading = higher motivation to learn, more on task,
attentive, actively listening

- Music teachers can promote literacy via singing, poems, stories with
rhyming, alliteration
- Development of communication in both fields: oral, aural, print
- Communication while having fun
- Reading and music share parallel skills.
Results show that younger children benefit the most from music instruction in
their reading comprehension and that music interventions usually have a
positive and significant effect on reading skills (Frasher, 2014).

- Singing is natural to children

- 6 reading strategies: schema, inferring, questioning, determining
importance, visualizing synthesizing from book: Comprehension
Connections by Tanny McGregor (2007).
(Frasher, 2014)

I created a sample lesson plan designed to promote

comfortable improvisational environments, make reference
to language, and make use of the other information I
gathered above for a successful experience for students.
Objectives: Students will improvise over a simple melody with quarter
notes using the pentatonic scale. The focus will be on melodic
improvisation.
*The objective assumes that students have already learned the melody and
the D major scale (for strings), or Bb major scale (for woodwinds and brass)
*Intended age group: 5-8 grade
Procedures:
Discussion in a group setting
- I will guide a discussion in which students talk about the
characteristics of question and answer in language.
Ex) how can you tell the difference between what is or isnt a
question?
Ex) Rhythm: How are the words said in a question? In an answer?
Ex) how you know when the other person is finished speaking so
you can begin?
Ex) What makes a sentence sound final?
Students will pair up and practice question and answer in language
- Ex) Student 1: Did you eat lunch today?
Student 2: No, I did not eat lunch today. What is your favorite
color?
Student 1: My favorite color is red.
- I will bring the group back together and ask a few of the pairs to
share a question/answer.
Review of pentatonic scale in appropriate key (either D or Bb)

- Students will have 30 seconds on their own to review any fingerings

necessary.
- I will instruct the class in playing the pentatonic scale slowly, 4 beats
on each note.
- Once students are comfortable, I will model a question and an
answer using notes from the pentatonic scale, all quarter notes (no
rhythm variation until students are comfortable with melodic)
Students will pair up again, this time practicing question and answer on
instruments
Students will improvise over the tune Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Assessment:
Informal: students will form a circle. I will have a recording of Twinkle
Twinkle Little Star looping in the background. One student will start with a
question and pass it to someone else in the circle by making eye contact.
So, the first student will play a question and look at whomever they
choose, and that student will answer.
Self-Assessment: Students will write reflections about how they felt about
improvising, how they think they did, what would help them improve, and
anything theyd like to add about the experience as a whole.
Possible formal assessment: Students will pick a partner and make an audio
or video recording of themselves improvising (like in class) using Twinkle
Twinkle little Star or a song of their choice.
Lesson Plan Variations:

- Incorporating rhythm: As to not overwhelm students, I will have some

simple rhythms written on the board (such as quarter, eighth, eighth) that
they can choose from and use in their improvising.
- Free Improvisation: Once students are comfortable with rhythm and
melodic, I will let them play any notes and/or rhythms they see fit, still
sticking with the general question and answer form.

References

Beegle, A. C. (2010). A classroom-based study of small-group planned improvisation

with fifth-grade children. Journal Of Research In Music Education, 58(3), 219239. doi:10.1177/0022429410379916

Coulson, A. N., & Burke, B. M. (2013). Creativity in the elementary music classroom: A
study of students perceptions. International Journal Of Music Education, 31(4),
428-441. doi:10.1177/0255761413495760

Frasher, K. D. (2014). Music and literacy: Strategies using "comprehension

connections" by Tanny McGregor. General Music Today, 27(3), 6-9.

Higgins, L., & Mantie, R. (2013). Improvisation as ability, culture, and experience. Music
Educators Journal, 100(2), 38-44. doi:10.1177/0027432113498097

Whitcomb, R. (2013). Teaching improvisation in elementary general music: Facing fears

and fostering creativity. Music Educators Journal, 99(3), 43-50.
doi:10.1177/0027432112467648