Learning to improvise as a Western classical musician: a psychological self-study

This thesis is an autoethnographic self-study of learning to improvise in classical styles. As a professional musician trained in interpretive performance, acquiring the skills of improvisation had been a long-term musical and artistic ambition; in addition I was intensely curious as to investigate the reasons why I, as a trained classical musician, felt unable to improvise. Over a period of three years I recorded, analysed and reflected on my progress from novice to expert (my first public improvisations in Baroque style), a process which provided me with detailed insights into the conscious experience of improvising at all stages of learning. Initially, I encountered difficulties in making musical decisions and felt unable to take creative ownership over the task. These cognitive and emotional barriers to improvising I traced to attitudes of Werktreue fidelity to the score and a sense of role in serving every detail of a written score - attitudes acquired through institutionalised training in interpretive performance. Through learning strategies and increasing agency I discovered a new way of perceiving musical texture and form, these new perceptions being based on a conceptual impression of underlying structural principles and relationships which could be realised in many different ways. Generating my own music increasingly through these conceptual mental representations I gained a better control over the task, allowing me to improvise imaginatively but within rule-bound systems. Throughout the thesis I compare and contrast the lived experience of my study with cognitive theories of improvised performance and learning to improvise. In addition I draw on a wider range of literature (outside of music cognition): theories of memory and attention, biological theories of consciousness, implicit learning, second language and adult learning, ideology and social philosophy to gain insights into all relevant aspects of my study experience. As a result this study offers a novel range of perspectives and insights into the cognitive processes of improvising throughout learning, while also articulating the cultural issues arising from a classically-trained musician learning to improvise in a predominantly non-improvising musical practice.