Music Practice Commons^™

An Examination Of Maria Schneider’S Big Band Artistry Through The Lens Of Wind Band Arranging, Amy Birdsong

Dissertations, 2020-current

Within the world of instrumental music there tends to be strict adherence to styles and genres that have historically been connected to a standard collection of instruments. Wind ensembles are expected to perform contemporary art music, orchestral transcriptions, or military marches, with little expectation of individual creative interpretation. Jazz ensembles, or “big bands,” are expected to perform styles of music such as “swing,” which cannot be properly notated using western notation, while also being rigidly glued to reduced instrument choices, repetitive chord cycles and standard song forms. While wind ensemble performers are confined to read and perform all aspects of …

The Morphological And Audiative Interconnectedness Of Sound: Equivalence In A Multidimensional Soundscape, Martin Vishnick

The 21st Century Guitar

This paper draws on the authorʼs recent theoretical and practical research into the morphology of sound and audiation. In particular, it explores the notion of equivalence in a multidimensional soundscape. Correlations between the interconnectedness of sound-based morphologies emanating from extended guitar techniques and comprehending internal auditory imagination when sound is not physically present will be assessed. To express an all-encompassing mental and visual image of apprehending the value of sound from a morphological and audiative perspective, three-dimensional topological diagrams will be evaluated ‒ a development of previous two-dimensional visualisations. In regard to morphologies, topics of interest are spectromorphology, spatiomorphology, spectral …

Improvisation, Consciousness And Cosmos: An Integral View Of Jazz Research, Ed Sarath

The IASJ Journal of Applied Jazz Research

Ed Sarath on improvisation, consciousness and cosmos, as well on integral theory.

An Analysis Of Allan Holdsworth’S Techniques And Their Application To Fundamental Melodic Devices, James Dasilva

Recital Papers

This thesis analyzes Allan Holdsworth's improvisational style for the purpose of applying his techniques, such as string skipping and omnidirectional fretboard movement, beyond the jazz-rock idiom and expanding the melodic potential of the guitar.

Creative Practice For Classical String Players With Live Looping, Caleb Yang

Student Theses

In recent years, string pedagogy discussions have highlighted the greater need for creative practice as classical string players. Since the second half of the nineteenth century, string methods have shifted towards a limited scope of improvisatory techniques, parallelling the decline of improvisation in Western classical music performance practices. This thesis explores live looping as a practice tool to facilitate learning concepts and help string players develop musicianship skills including improvisation, participate in non-classical genres, and explore their creative voices. Examining the results of string educators that incorporate live looping into their own teaching reveals the tool’s effectiveness in bridging curricula …

Do Androids Dream Of Improvisation?, Aidan J. Samp

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Developing A Systematic Approach For Teaching Beginning Improvisation Using The Concert Percussion Ensemble, Ian Mcclaflin

Dissertations

Typically, when studying percussion at a University, a student is required to be proficient at multiple aspects of percussion (snare drum, mallet keyboards, drum set, hand drumming, etc.) and work through multiple method books and solos on the different instruments. This often leaves little to no room for the study of improvisation on their instrument.

Examined in this study are the following points pertaining to the state of teaching improvisation:

• There is an apparent lack of improvisation in the classroom
• Teachers often feel unprepared in teaching improvisation
• Improvisation is most commonly associated with jazz
• Both teachers and students tend to …

Lived Experience Of Music Therapists As Musician-Therapists, Kotoe Suzuki

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

The dissertation research explored the lived experiences of music therapists who are performing musicians. A conceptual foundation of music therapists as musicians, a “musician-therapist” who is deeply versed in the unique properties of music can be identified in the literature (Ansdell & Verney, 2008; Nordoff & Robbins, 1973). The objectives of this study were to explore three topics: 1) deeper understandings of music therapists’ musical improvisation both in clinical and nonclinical settings, 2) the connection between music therapists’ personal and professional musical growth, and 3) identity formation. A qualitative method was chosen for this research including reflexive/embodied/interpretative phenomenology, and arts-based …

Night Music (Compositions, Performance And Improvisations) –And– Developing A Chromatic-Intervallic Approach To Jazz Improvisation Through Reflexive Practice. An Exegesis, Jamie Oehlers

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research examines the processes involved in developing and applying a novel melodic jazz improvisation technique—a chromatic-intervallic approach (CIA). Improvised melodic approaches in jazz music from the 1920s until today have primarily been driven through the development of tension within melody lines by using variations of the scale/chord method and harmonic substitution. The CIA examined through my saxophone and improvisatory practice in this research explores the incorporation of melodies derived from intervallic combinations, and assesses the resulting tension within the melody through the use of the Melodic Tension Rating tool; a tool created through the research period of this study. …

Electronics And The Music Of Miles Davis, Darren E. Shekailo

Theses and Dissertations

Miles Davis produced a wealth of music relying on the use of electronic instruments and new technology. With their adoption, the famous trumpeter began his “electric” period. Examining the electric period of Davis’s career helps us trace the profound impact of electronic instruments and technological advances on his music.

Music Is The "Noise Of Remembering" Tracing The Origins, Influences, And Connectivities Of West African Music, Adam Friedman

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The popularity and universal reach of music genres such as Jazz and Hip Hop attest to the idea that these forms have been long established as a vital part of global musical culture. For people who are familiar with Afrocentric music, it is clear that styles such as Jazz and Hip Hop are rooted in, and inextricably linked with, African culture and history. What is more difficult to make sense of, however, is how and why transplanted African culture came to have such wide reaching impact in the new contexts in which it was taken up – because the stories …

Dialogic Communication In The One-To-One Improvisation Lesson: A Qualitative Study, Leon R. De Bruin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This qualitative study investigates the dialogic interactions between teacher and student that enhance learning and teaching within the one-to-one music improvisation lesson. This study analyses the ways teachers elicit student actions, thoughts and processes that develop student skills, critical and creative thinking processes necessary for improvisational development. Interactions and interplay between six Australian conservatoire improvisation students and their teachers were investigated. Data reveal dialogic interactions that span instruction, conversation, inquiry and enablement of student knowledge and skills that constitute a complex socio-cultural tapestry of discursive threads. Teacher-student interactions that activate desired creative student activity engage meta-cognitive processes and the cultivation …

Worlds Of If: Analyses Of The Composed And Improvised Works Of Robert Dick, Melissa Keeling

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Considered one of the most important publications in twentieth-century flute pedagogy, Robert Dick’s seminal method book, The Other Flute (1975),[1] is an extensive catalogue of multiphonic fingerings, microtonal fingerings, glissandi, circular breathing, and other extended techniques. The Other Flute and a handful of his published solos are widely studied, but these works only represent a fraction of Dick’s creative energies.

Equally comfortable in classical, jazz, rock, electronic, and world music, Dick’s oeuvre demonstrates a sophisticated, musical use of contemporary techniques and his pieces have become standard repertoire. Though Dick was not the first flutist to use or notate these …

Codex: Embodied Communication In Richard Barrett’S Scores For Improvisation, Hannah Reardon-Smith

Directions of New Music

This paper examines the process of preparing Barrett’s codex V (2007) and codex XV (2015) and their performance on Saturday 18 June, 2016, as part of the Ghent Advanced Master in Contemporary Performance Practice (ManaMa) academy examinations in Brussels, Belgium. This project involved the development of deep collaborative relationships with a number of other performers, the study and interpretation of alternative notational practices, and the invention of a variety of ad hoc solutions to issues of coordination and ensemble unity, with a particular focus on clear physical communication. Reflections on my own process of preparation and rehearsal are supplemented by …

“Musical Fury”: Impressing Through Expressing In Baroque Improvisation, Hannah M. Rinehart

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

Baroque music experienced a dramatic change in performance practice which sprang out of certain techniques used in the Renaissance period and the emphasis placed during this time on expression and emotion in music. In the Baroque time period, much emphasis was placed on expression, emotion, and creativity in both the academic sphere and in the arts. In the arts this can be seen in elaborate and decorative architecture, emotional and expressive paintings, and creative and individualized music. Music itself developed from the simple, structured forms of the Renaissance period to the driven, complex, emotional and expressive forms of the Baroque …

Developing Depth And Dimension: Instructional Tools And Practices To Facilitate And Encourage The Growth Of Young Jazz Musicians, Shauna E. Mcfaul

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Developing Depth and Dimension: A step-by-step, comprehensive introduction to the world of jazz for young musicians. This work begins with a philosophical discussion of the educational methods that are incorporated into the following games, lesson plans and writings. The project is directed toward students who have little to no experience playing jazz or improvising. It is meant to provide a foundation for continued success and development throughout their musical lives.

Woodwind Extension Through The Systematic Use Of Microtonality And Electronic Manipulation Of The Instrument, Seán Mac Erlaine

Conference papers

This research questions how the expressive range of the saxophone / bass clarinet can be extended in new ways by employing both a systematic use of microtonality and electronic manipulation of the instrument.

The use of digital signal processing (DSP) is well advanced among certain music practitioners, most notably electric guitarists, extending that instrument’s expressive powers considerably. Woodwind instrumentalists have a huge unexplored potential to engage with new technologies, furthering the range, polyphonic voicings, loops, reverbs and general signal manipulation.

The marraige of these two disciplines with conventional woodwind practice greatly deepens the expressive range of the instrument while offering …