The first glimmer was in Dr. Bauer's Music Learning Today (2014) when I read about Kratus's seven-level sequence for the mastery of improvisation (p. 52-53). I took solace in the described step-by-step process because it broke up what seems like an elusive concept into easily attainable goals. It starts with simple exploration of sound and works its way up to unique personal improvisational style, requiring the introduction of music theory, musical structure, and musical style along the way. In a way, it reminds me of the Orff method of teaching elementary music. Orff's model is centered around intellectual musical discovery (American Orff-Schulwerk Association, 2017). In fact, whilst exploring the online resource page of Music Learning Today, I came across a page that was also shared as part of our discussion post about improvisation games (Dimoff, 2003). My personal struggle with teaching improvisation is I feel I lack the tools to introduce it in a classroom setting. Trevor Dimoff's approaches to the basics of improv remind me so much of my Orff training, and in reading about his ideas about his activities involving the concepts of call-and-response, rhythmic duration, motivic and intervallic exercises, I was reminded of many lessons that touched on those same concepts in the elementary classroom. These activities can easily be adaptable to a middle or high school classroom and improvisation can begin!
I'm rather excited to move on to the concept of composition with these ideas in mind, since I believe that at the heart of every great composer is someone who is comfortable with improvisation. A fellow classmate reminded me that even though I'm not a jazz musician, much of my performance work in church music was centered around improvising underneath prayers and for filling space in the worship service. Though I didn't realize it at the time, I have in fact dabbled with improvisation, and in looking back, it seems to have laid the foundation to my skills in the realm of composition. The words of cartoonist Scott Adams spoke deep truth when he said "creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." (Bauer, 2014, p. 54). In a way, the first part of the quote seems to refer to improvisation: creating an environment to explore, to learn, to grow, and to make mistakes for the sake of learning. The second part speaks of mastery, of learning the best practices, the best patterns, the logical ways of stringing musical ideas together--ideas that can be associated with quality improvisation and skilled composition. I suppose that investigating improvisation in this way drew tangible lines to what I consider a more concrete concept of composition. Technology also helps bridge this gap.
While most of the online applications explored this week seemed to be geared toward instrumentalists, there may be some applications for vocal improvisation as well. I was enlightened by instrumental classmates who also saw the potential in Band-in-a-Box and others like it which includes accompaniments which could be potentially improvised on top of. Combined with applications like Incredibox that highlight vocal improvisation forthright, it could be a useful way to get students comfortable with improvisation. In the choral classroom, much like Kratus's model (Bauer, 2014, p. 52-53), it seems that introducing these concepts as well as their related technologies must happen step-by-step, not jumping in head first into improvising on top of accompaniment tracks when students have limited to no experience with vocal improv.
This week's MuseScore and NoteFlight projects were a bit challenging for me, since I have been a dedicated (and stubborn) Sibelius user for several years. These two technologies seem to have great applications for notated music and for students who have a basic understanding of music theory. This reminds me of the earlier explored link between improvisation and composition, and I'm eager to see how these and other technologies can help make these difficult educational concepts accessible.
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American Orff-Schulwerk Association (2017). More on Orff-Schulwerk. Retrieved from http://aosa.org/about/more-on-orff-schulwerk/
Bauer, William (2014). Music Learning Today. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Dimoff, Trevor (2003). Improvisation Games: Creating Spontaneous Music in Groups. Retrieved from http://www.acadiau.ca/~dreid/games/Game_descriptions/Improvisation_Games.html#MotivicImprovisation/
I'm rather excited to move on to the concept of composition with these ideas in mind, since I believe that at the heart of every great composer is someone who is comfortable with improvisation. A fellow classmate reminded me that even though I'm not a jazz musician, much of my performance work in church music was centered around improvising underneath prayers and for filling space in the worship service. Though I didn't realize it at the time, I have in fact dabbled with improvisation, and in looking back, it seems to have laid the foundation to my skills in the realm of composition. The words of cartoonist Scott Adams spoke deep truth when he said "creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." (Bauer, 2014, p. 54). In a way, the first part of the quote seems to refer to improvisation: creating an environment to explore, to learn, to grow, and to make mistakes for the sake of learning. The second part speaks of mastery, of learning the best practices, the best patterns, the logical ways of stringing musical ideas together--ideas that can be associated with quality improvisation and skilled composition. I suppose that investigating improvisation in this way drew tangible lines to what I consider a more concrete concept of composition. Technology also helps bridge this gap.
While most of the online applications explored this week seemed to be geared toward instrumentalists, there may be some applications for vocal improvisation as well. I was enlightened by instrumental classmates who also saw the potential in Band-in-a-Box and others like it which includes accompaniments which could be potentially improvised on top of. Combined with applications like Incredibox that highlight vocal improvisation forthright, it could be a useful way to get students comfortable with improvisation. In the choral classroom, much like Kratus's model (Bauer, 2014, p. 52-53), it seems that introducing these concepts as well as their related technologies must happen step-by-step, not jumping in head first into improvising on top of accompaniment tracks when students have limited to no experience with vocal improv.
This week's MuseScore and NoteFlight projects were a bit challenging for me, since I have been a dedicated (and stubborn) Sibelius user for several years. These two technologies seem to have great applications for notated music and for students who have a basic understanding of music theory. This reminds me of the earlier explored link between improvisation and composition, and I'm eager to see how these and other technologies can help make these difficult educational concepts accessible.
---
American Orff-Schulwerk Association (2017). More on Orff-Schulwerk. Retrieved from http://aosa.org/about/more-on-orff-schulwerk/
Bauer, William (2014). Music Learning Today. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Dimoff, Trevor (2003). Improvisation Games: Creating Spontaneous Music in Groups. Retrieved from http://www.acadiau.ca/~dreid/games/Game_descriptions/Improvisation_Games.html#MotivicImprovisation/
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