How should we teach genre for improvisation in secondary school?
In this series, I will present parts of my dissertation, ‘What strategies, activities and methods would help develop the teaching of music improvisation in UK secondary school education?’. I aim to give you insight into my improvisation research by informally presenting my findings, opinions and thoughts. It may start a discussion into the justifications, merits and advocations for music improvisation or completely put you off and double down on why improvisation should be left out of music education. Either way, I believe its a meaningful conversation to have.
Can improvisation be taught with or without attachment to genre? It’s a question that presented itself to me during my research, and I had yet to give any thought until the ‘Genre Wars’ surfaced. When I learned to improvise Blues music, I understood that the Blues pentatonic scale, compound rhythms, and 12/8 or 4/4 shuffle rhythms were key to unlocking the Blues ‘sound’, not that I knew any of this as an eleven year old! It wasn’t until much later that I learned theory and listened to more music that I separated improvised music with genre; knowing how to improvise over many genres helped me in my improvisation languages.
Ed Sarath is a researcher and musician who came up often in my Masters. Through the recommendation of Tim Palmer, I began reading his work and was delighted that somebody viewed improvisation as a pedagogical tool. Sarath’s work often refers to a method he developed that advocates for a genre-less approach to improvisation pedagogy, the ‘Trans-stylistic’ method. Sarath describes Trans-stylistic as teaching improvisation ‘outside the context of stylistic aspects’ (Sarath 2009, 1), allowing ‘style elements to manifest as a by-product of the creative process.’ (ibid). His advocacy of the Trans-stylistic method is intended to assist ‘creative exploration and analysis and reflection on a wide range of modal-tonal-post-tonal pitch systems and rhythmic practices’ (Sarath 2018, 80) in addition to the study of music that embraces ‘training in aural performance, movement processes, history, culture, aesthetics, cognition, and mind-body integration.’ (ibid).
Sarath latter speaks to my early experience as an improviser but what I like about Sarath’s approach is it works around learning about genre/style without explicitly learning about genre/style, picking up stylistic aspects through osmosis, citing Hindustani music as part of a collective/formation from different musical cultures that are either ‘style-specific or ‘stylistically open’ (Sarath et al. 2016, 88). It might be easy for us to pigeonhole stylistic improvisation i.e. 50s Hard Bop or Baroque figured bass once we reach an advanced level of musicianship, but if educators want to introduce improvisation in secondary schools, genre might be challenging to understand when there is no grounding of musicianship or harmony reference. Extending the creative process makes it relevant to traditional and contemporary improvisational music (Sarath 2018).
Looking at teaching improvisation like this does have advantages. In theory, musicians would study music not based on genre or style, and understanding improvisation could be greater than the sum of its parts; Students could approach music without confronting barriers associated with a lack of musicianship skills or understanding of how genre defines improvised-based music.
‘The Connect Report’ by Renshaw addressed the former, which has shades of Trans-stylistics, promoting music in the ‘cross-arts, cross-cultural, cross-sector, formal and non-formal contexts’ (Renshaw 2013, 4). Both principles aimed to unite both models ‘make music in a genre-free ensemble, where its musical material reflects the shared interests of the leaders and participants’ (Ibid, 5) and ‘be able to speak a number of musical ‘languages’ simultaneously’ (Ibid). The report promoted the benefits of the Connect model enabled genre-less improvisation to support technical skills and ‘significantly increases motivation and enjoyment.’ (Renshaw 2013, 6) in the learning. Though both models could work in secondary education contexts, more research on the success of engagement and outcomes of learning in secondary school music is required instead of publishing a list of successful musicians loosely tied into the promoted models (Sarath 2009).
A genre-less approach to secondary teaching might be farfetched for teachers accustomed to genre practice, but teachers familiar with ‘post-genre music-making (Hargreaves, Miell, MacDonald 2012, 244) will benefit from the facilitation of ‘multiple improvisatory languages’ (Sarath, Myres & Campbell 2016, 58-59). To advocate a broader practice of improvisation in secondary curricula, we could consider how genre is used in improvisational pedagogy. Genres such as Jazz, Hindustani, or Early Music taught in a ‘post-genre’ context can use ‘exploration and analysis and reflection on a wide range of modal-tonal-post-tonal pitch systems and rhythmic practices.’ (ibid, 59), fitting in with the new wave of music making and the traditional. (ibid). If students were to learn ‘post-genre’ improvisation at secondary, they would need to learn about different genres to transcend genre boundaries.
The Model Music Curriculum’s references to improvised recordings from their ‘Repertoire in Context’ section could help promote improvised music as a starting point for educators to introduce improvised music (DoE 2021, 61). Structure and reference points will still be necessary for teaching secondary improvisation. Many secondary students will need reference points when improvising, meaning genre must be referenced one way or another. It would be up to the teacher to decide a context in which their students will improvise and teach the characteristics of the context.
Hargreaves, David John, Dorothy Miell, and Raymond MacDonald. 2012. Musical Imaginations. Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Creativity, Performance, and Perception. Oxford University Press.
Department for Education. “Model Music Curriculum: Key Stages 1 to 2 : Non-Statutory Guidance for the National Curriculum in England.” https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-music-in-schools.
Renshaw, Peter. “Simply Connect: ‘NEXT PRACTICE’ IN GROUP MUSIC MAKING AND MUSICAL LEADERSHIP – A REPORT BY PETER RENSHAW.” https://www.musicalfutures.org/. The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, July 2005.
Sarath, Edward. 2009. Music Theory through Improvisation. A New Approach to Musicianship Training. Routledge.
Sarath, Ed, David Eugene Myers, and Patricia Shehan Campbell. 2016. Redefining Music Studies in an Age of Change. Creativity, Diversity, and Integration. Routledge.
Sarath, Ed. 2018. Black Music Matters : Jazz and the Transformation of Music Studies. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Mike Wright Music Education 