Free Improvisation in Theory and Practice: understanding music through the phenomenology of sound and musical experience

PALATINE Improvisation Pedagogy Study Day, Leeds College of Music, May 10, 2006

Abstract

This paper discusses the background to and teaching of an HE2 module named 'Free Improvisation: Theory & Practice'. As a holistic model it is an example of teaching practice that seeks to tackle the educational imbalance that emphasises technique in practice on the one hand, and the detached thinking and reflection of musicology as a discrete discipline on the other. Its broad pedagogical agenda is one that seeks to develop musical understanding that is informed by experience. This 'experience' is one rooted in free improvisation as a means of emphasising the phenomenology of sound and musical experience as the basis for understanding the musical medium. The paper will describe the research and reasoning informing the design and teaching of the module, its content and delivery, its value as a means of equipping and establishing the creative practice of students, and account for how its holistic approach combines theoretical and practical elements.

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