Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-302).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 173-179).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009. / Title from 1st page of PDF file (viewed Feb. 22, 2010). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references: P. 121-126.

I investigated the thought processes of seven artist-level jazz musicians. Although jazz artists in the past have spoken extensively about the improvisational process, most have described improvisation only in general terms or have discussed specific recorded improvisations long after the recordings had been made. To date, no study has attempted to record artists’ perceptions of their improvisational thinking regarding improvisations they had just performed. Seven jazz artists recorded an improvised solo based on a blues chord progression accompanied only by a drum track. New technologies made it possible to notate the recorded material as it was being performed. After completing their improvisations, participants described in a directed interview, during which they listened to their playing and looked at the notation of their solos, the thinking processes that led to the realization of their performances. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a qualitative research methodology. Six main themes were identified through the coding of the interviews. In all of the interviews, artists described making sketch plans, which outlined one or more musical features of upcoming passages. These plans became increasingly more explicit as the time to play each idea approached. The artists also described monitoring and evaluating their own output as they performed, making judgments that were often incorporated into future planning. Interestingly, the artists at times expressed surprise in hearing what they were playing, indicating that not all of the improvisations were based on ideas that were first imagined before they were played. The artists described four strategies for generating the note content of their improvisations: recalling well-learned ideas from memory and inserting them into the ongoing improvisation, choosing notes based on a harmonic priority, choosing notes based on a melodic priority, and repeating material played in earlier sections of the improvisation. / text

As a means of musical elaboration, improvisation takes an important role in different musical genres. From impromptus and rhapsody, to traditional music such as Javanese gamelan and Cantonese opera, improvisation shapes the distinctive features of musical works, and how composition takes on the features of improvisation. Despite the distinctive modes of improvisation in accordance with specific musical conventions, such improvisation share a common ground that it does not arise from nothing but comprises something memorized or given. Improvisation can be regarded as a spontaneous creativity within constraints and convention. Composers, therefore, can explore the performance techniques of different musical instruments and the creative possibilities within certain musical conventions through the use of improvisation from time to time. In this thesis, I seek to explore how improvisation as being operated within constraints and convention through a portfolio of three compositions. Each composition features one or two particular instruments in the improvisatory passage, i.e., sheng (Opera From a Forgotten Land), piano and flute (Improvisation Study no. 1) and electronic bass guitar (Improvisation Study no. 2). Considering the differences in the adhered musical culture and performance practice of these instruments, I shall explain the rationales behind my composition strategy. / published_or_final_version / Music / Master / Master of Philosophy

Jazz improvisation represents one of the more impressive examples of human creative behavior, but as yet there has been little systematic investigation of its cognitive bases. The results of three studies that this investigation comprises illustrate the optimizations of thinking and behavior that underlie the capacities of skillful jazz improvisers, enabling them to meet the demands of improvised performance effectively and efficiently. Studies 1 and 2 provide evidence of a process for generating and controlling musical ideas that improvisers can enact with little conscious mediation. In Study 1, this was demonstrated by the ability of experienced improvisers to generate well-formed improvised solos during dual-task conditions, in which they allocated attentional resources to a secondary nonmusical task. In Study 2, the contributions of nonconscious processes to jazz improvisation were inferred from experienced improvisers’ descriptions of their intentions for upcoming music during improvised solos. Their descriptions contained almost no explicit details of the music they were about to play; v inexperienced improvisers, contrastingly, conceived of upcoming music largely in terms of its specific details (e.g., note selection, the quotation of licks). Study 3 examines the perceptions of two musicians performing as a duo, both serving at different times as soloist and accompanist. Here, the soloist’s attention was focused on the developmental and associative implications of his musical ideas, whereas the accompanist’s attention was devoted primarily to assessing the aesthetic and logistical implications of the soloist’s part while remaining vigilant for opportunities to directly interact. The findings in these studies illustrate the extent to which expert jazz musicians acquire and refine procedures for generating well-formed musical ideas at a minimal cognitive cost. The efficiency of the improvisational process was evidenced by the limited demands that generating novel music placed on the skilled improvisers’ attention, and in the abstract relationship between experts’ musical intentions and the specific actions they produced in bringing their intentions to fruition. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Robert Pace. Dissertation Committee: Gladys Tipton. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Charles W. Walton. Dissertation Committee: Robert Pace. Includes bibliographical references.