Abstract
Music improvisation has been the subject of a vast body of research, a lot of which has focused on techniques and pedagogy. This paper accompanies its author’s creative work and argues that the practice of group music improvisation can be used to elicit joy and build communities.Drawing from positive psychology and theology, this research defines joy as a positive emotional state encompassing happiness, empathy, empowerment, and engagement with others. The community origin of music improvisation is compared with its current niche academic status, before referring to sociology and pedagogy literature and arguing in favour of improvisation’s role in the musical experience of children and community groups. Using a mixed methodology including artistic practice, autoethnographic reflection and analytic autoethnography, this paper analyses the author’s original recordings alongside the interviews of small groups of adults and young people after they improvised music in a peer group setting. Throughout, the author employs a practice approach based on musical simplicity and humour, to encourage the participant’s engagement.
This research concludes that music improvisation is a joy-promoting activity and adds another perspective to the ongoing conversation around the merits of improvising music in a group, which may be especially relevant in relation to pedagogy and community music.
| Date of Award | 25 Mar 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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