TEACHING TO IMPROVISE WITH THETEACHING TO IMPROVISE WITH THE CONTINUATORCONTINUATOR

28

International Society for Music Education World Conference

20-25 July 2008, Bologna-Italy

TEACHING TO IMPROVISE WITH THE TEACHING TO IMPROVISE WITH THE

CONTINUATOR CONTINUATOR

DIBER BENGHI

[email protected]

ANNA RITA ADDESSI

[email protected]

FRANCOIS PACHET

SONY-COMPUTERSCIENCE LABORATORY, PARIS, FRANCE

[email protected] Theoretical background

Improvis ation music al proc e s s es , for many years , are in the spotlight of psych ol o gy studies (Pressing 19 9 8 , Csikszent mih aly 19 9 7 , Sawyer 19 9 7) . Rec e nt studies on teac hin g of improvis ation hav e sho w n that such practice s dev el o p self- m otivation , collab or ative playing and music al skills in children (McPhers on 2 0 0 5 , Gellerich 200 2 , Burnard 200 0, Custod er o 200 7).

Howev er, tea c hin g improvising is still rarely tackled in Western formal music educ ation.

This poster deals with the Continuator (Pach et 200 3), the first prototyp e of the Interactive Reflexive Musical Syste m, and aims to study ho w thes e syste m s could be used in learning/tea c hin g music improvis ation. Previous studies hav e sho w n that theContinuator is able to stimulate learning proc e s s e s and music al creativity in adults and young childre n (Addes si &Pach et 200 5, 200 6; Pach et &A ddes si 200 4) .

The cor e con c e pt of the IRMS approa c h is to teac h pow erful – but co m pl ex – music al proc e s s e s (such as tonal har m o n y, improvis ation, etc.) indirectly by putting the user in a situation wh er e thes e proc e s s e s are perfor m e d not by the user (like in traditional approa c h) nor by the ma c hin e (like in so m e ITS appro a c h e s), but by the actual interaction betw e e n the user and the syste m (Pach et 200 6).

Aims

The aim of the study is verify how the Continuator affects learning /teac hi ng music al improvis ation in young children . The continuator is se e n as a tool to improv e improvis ation and creative proc e s s es in children and as supp ort for teac h er in teac hin g of improvis ation .

Method

The exp eri m e nt al protoc ol is aim e d at children of 9- 1 1 age , attending a cours e of piano at a private sch o ol of music . Participants are group e d into two pairs (A and B) and taking part in a ses si o n of improvis ation in pairs and in a single setting , for on e m o nth . The individual setting is orga niz e d differently for ea c h pair : pair A plays the individual sitting with the Continuator, the pair B plays the individual sitting only with piano. A pre- test and a test hav e prec e d e d and follow e d the exp eri m e nt al phas e.

AExperim e nt al Pair B

Control pair Pre- test play the tune ‘Danza Indiana’

with improvis ation play the tune ‘Danza Indiana’

with improvis ation

Experim e nt al phas e

1 ses si o n on pair a we e k with the teach er, play the tune

‘Aloette’ with improvis ation

1 se s si o n a we e k, alon e, with the Continuator.

Playing tunes ‘Danza indiana’,

‘Aloette’ and practice improvis ation

1 ses si o n a we e k, on pair, with the teach er, playing the tune ‘Aloette’

with improvis ation

1 se s si o n alon e a we e k, with the piano , playing tunes ‘Danza indiana’,

‘Aloette’ and practice improvis ation

Test play the tune ‘Danza Indiana’

with improvis ation play the tune ‘Danza Indiana’

with improvis ation

The data collection is don e through audio and vide o rec ording of all m e eting.

The experim e n t al hypoth e s i s is:

Leo is studying glissato Filo is listening the with the Continuator Continuator’s answer

The pair that use the Continuator in the individual ses si o n dev el o p great improvis ation ability in collective ses si o n s.

We hav e creat e d an obs erv a tion grid to analys e the participant's improvising ability. For analys e the pre- test and test we hav e assign e d grad e from 0 to 2 at ev ery categ o ry of the grid:

0= no pre s e n c e

1= medium freque n c y 2= high freque n c y

Result

Collaborative Playing

Test Test Pre-

Test Test Interaction on the

time Exchange and imitation of

musical ideas ^{0 1 0 1}

Ripetition and variation ^{0 1 1 1}

Anticipation ^{0 0 0 0}

Sharing goals Self-assigment ^{0 2 0 1}

Self-correction ^{1 2 1 1}

Problem finding/problem solving

0 2 1 2

Group knowldege ^{0 2 1 1}

Expansion ^{0 0 0 0}

Course of interaction

Role in the improvisation (soloist, follower etc..)

1 1 1 1

Personal Process

Complexity (control of the situation)

Flow ^{1 2 1 1}

Heterarchy ^{0 2 0 0}

Feedback Feedback ^{1 2 1 1}

Deliberate gesture ^{0 2 0 1}

Think in Sound Think in Sound ^{0 2 1 1}

Handing of the sound

Repetition, germination, density sound

0 1 1 1

Rhythmic-melodic

coherence Preserving of musical idea in time

Short- medium- long term anticipation e recall

0 1 1 1

Preserving of musical idea in the time

Formula, cliché and personal vocabulary

0 1 1 1

Formal

developing How to build the improvisation

0 1 1 1

Result

4 25 12 16

21 4

Play glissato together Smile together (Exchange and imitation of musical ideas)

one plays high sound and one plays Laura reads the tune while

low sound (Self-assigment) following with chord her partner (control of the situation)

Conclusion Conclusion

 The initial results sho w ho w children wh o hav e used the syste m in individual ses si o n s hav e acquired great er skills in improvisation playing, esp e ci ally the interactiv e asp e ct and the variety of on e’s music al voc a b ulary are improv e d.

 Also the syste m is positively acc e pt e d by the children as a partner of study and res e ar c h to improv e their perfor m a n c e skills. As well the particular interaction betw e e n syste m and children enc o ur a g e self- gov ern m e n t in learning and the children actively acting on their learning.

We believe that many of the interesting properties emerging from in our experiments arise from the efficiency of the concept of an interactive reflective musical system: the users can play with “virtual”

copies of themselves, or at least with agents who have a mimetic capacity and can evolve in an organic fashion.

This syste m may then bec o m e a valuabl e support for the teach er to improv e cons ci o u s, authentic and pers o n al improvis ation skills in child. In our exp eri m e nt, children learn to improvis e by interacting with a co m p ut er, which is

nec e s s a ry if their teach er cann ot, or do e s not want to, improvis e.