MENTORING Richard Cangro, Chairperson
Creativity and Improvisation: Roads Less Traveled, Unwittingly Perhaps
Don’t expect anything original from an echo.
Author Unknown
Many people associate two 4-letter words with creativity and improvisation: fear and jazz. Yet, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and many other giants in our field were improvisers. Music is a living art that has lasted centuries because of the encouragement of creativity and improvisation. What if someone said to Mozart – “What are you doing – playing by ear? Making up music? Play what’s on the page for crying out loud!” Do we have any Mozarts in our ensembles? I’m sure we do. However, if students never have a chance to individually say some- thing new in music, how will we know they are there?
Dr. Chris Azzara, chair of the music edu- cation department at the Eastman School of Music and an incredible jazz pianist, is an expert in developing improvisation skills. From his research, Azzara states:
Improvisation is a manifestation of
musical thought . . . improvisation means that an individual has internal- ized a music vocabulary and is able to understand and to express musical ideas spontaneously. Just as every culture has its language, every culture has its music. Improvisation is to music what speaking is to language. Individuals improvise daily with language when engaging in conversation.
(Azzara, 1993)
Azzara’s research centers on the prem- ise that improvisation improves music reading in beginning instrumentalists. He treats improvisation as a teaching technique to develop musicianship, rather than as an isolated idiom reserved only for jazz musicians. Az- zara concludes that improvisation is a natural vehicle to think musically and express musical thought.
In this frame of mind, improvisation be- comes crucial in the development of literate musicians: people who can look at music and hear it in their head, just as we look at words and understand them in our head.
Imagine students who can independently play music on the page, and spontaneously create variations or new melodies and com- positions. Music becomes alive once again, rather than an echo.
Provided with the opportunity for musical expression in an ensemble, new composers can be nurtured, young music innovators encouraged, and uninhibited musical creativity can spark a more artis- tic performance. Purposeful music mak- ing through improvisation can be the difference between stuffing music into our students, and bringing music out.
References
Azzara, C. (1993) Audiation-Based Im- provisation Techniques and Elementary Instrumental Students’ Music Achieve- ment. Journal of Research in Music Education (41) 4 (Winter, 1993).
Richard Cangro Western Illinois University Macomb, IL 61455 309.298.3114 |
RM-Cangro@wiu.edu
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Illinois Music Educator | Volume 72 Number 1
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