Improvisation Pedagogies Via Improvised Dialogues: Lessons From a Week-Long Course on Musical Improvisation for Youth

Musical improvisation is the negotiation of musical ideas and differences in the moment. Despite its considerable contributions to the development of music history, improvisation remains conspicuously absent from mainstream Western schooling. Its omission from the classroom is due in part to the scarcity of information on the topic of facilitating improvised music. My research explores the pedagogical applications of musical improvisation and the opportunities it presents for fostering creativity and cultivating critical reflection. In this thesis, I discuss my experiences teaching a week-long course on the topic of musical improvisation to nineteen students as a part of the Enrichment Mini-Courses Program. Together through co-investigation, the class and I unpacked issues and concepts concerning improvisation in theory and practice. Exploring frameworks for improvised music making, my findings are the product of verbal, written, and musical dialogues with the students, formulating pedagogies of improvisation that are themselves improvised.