The Constituents of Successful Group Musical Improvisation: Insights from within the developing practice of the Cold Bath Street band.

Abstract

What do musicians need to know and do, beyond applying a base vocabulary of technical music knowledge through their instrument, in order to undertake successful group improvisation? This research lives within music improvisation and music improvisation pedagogy. Specifically, it contributes original insights of use to developing improvisers and educators working with musicians from rock and pop backgrounds. Existing texts offer advice on the theories and practice of free improvisation but beyond genre guides giving stock phrases there is little provided to articulate functionality in these fields.
Building on approaches proposed by Stephen Nachmanovitch and David Borgo, operating under a self- determined definition of successful group improvisation, the researcher worked within the same group of developing improvisers for three years utilising a method combining practical workshops, recordings, discussions, interviews, contextual research and researcher reflection. Linked audio recordings serve to inform and illustrate the discussion. The study illuminates from within the practice, leading to an answer proposed in the form of constituent factors. Though specific and subjective, its findings provide an expectedly complex constituent makeup: A supportive working environment and broad agreement on remit were foundational. Active-listening, rapid and continuous creative and compositional decision-making operated in tandem with the ability to control the instrument to a high expressive level and to a point where it is second nature. After identifying points of clear commonality and differentiation with the act of pre-composing, the research further states that working with pitch was particularly difficult for the players and introduces a six-step ‘Offers System’ designed to aid their development.
The research concluded that to be successful the players must thrive within the nature of the activity, valuing communal creative interaction in the moment over the importance of any resulting product, navigating the unknown with confidence built through experience, embracing the flux, risk and ‘mistakes’ inherent to the form whilst guiding their imaginative explorations with the musical-thinking of Edwin Gordon’s audiation.