This bachelor thesis sets to find new ways of composing with a systematical use of musical motifs. The main purpose was to add a structured and systematical approach to the process of composition to reduce the necessity of inspiration and thereby be able to compose more consistently. The project started out by finding concrete ways to create and develop motific ideas by analyzing how motific development is done in existing music of different genres and by reading literature on the subject. I then used these ideas to compose short etudes, each with a different approach of the use of motifs and motific development. These methods subsequently resulted in a concert with seven original compositions. I reflected upon how the use of motifs affect the way I compose and in what way it affects the compositions as a whole and how I approach the compositions musically through the guitar. I concluded that it was substantially harder to compose longer compositions than short etudes by using solely these methods. And instead of seeing it as a way to reduce the necessity of inspiration maybe use it to spark inspiration. / <p>Medverkande musiker:</p><p>Victoria Sandström (sång), Linnea Jonsson (trumpet), Agnes Darelid (trombon), Gabriel Holmertz (gitarr), August Eriksson (kontrabas), Henrik Jäderberg (trummor)</p>

In this project, I wanted to explore how I could broaden my improvisational and compositional skills by analyzing existing music. I worked with ingraining new transcribed material from some of my favorite musicians in four new compositions. I give examples of the methods I used and discuss how I incorporate them. I discuss how my improvisation has developed and improved by practicing my compositions and the new concepts they involve. I discuss the connection between my improvisational development and the study of these new musical concepts and how my improvisation skills got affected by playing my original music. In conclusion, this project has given me a more straightforward path in how I want to develop my improvisational knowledge. My new compositions have guided me in my practice and showed me new areas to develop. This project has shown how transcribing and analyzing small fragments of music can affect a musician’s improvisational and compositional approach. I also reflect upon how this work can be developed further. / <p>Repertoar: </p><p>Mr B - Pontus Fällman</p><p>Singing Walley - Pontus Fällman </p><p>4535 - Pontus Fällman</p><p>Panic station - Pontus Fällman </p><p>Ohio - Pontus Fällman</p><p>For someone - Pontus Fällman</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>medverkande musiker:</p><p>Piano - Kalle Johansson</p><p>Kontrabas - Olle Lannér Risenfors</p><p>Trummor - Henrik Jäderberg</p><p>Gitarr och komposition - Pontus Fällman</p><p>Trumpet - Linnea Jonsson</p><p>Altflöjt - Kleer Suurskild</p><p>Trombon - Elias Fridolfsson</p><p>Trombon - Elias Ukkonen Widding</p><p>Basklarinett - Astrid le Clerq</p><p>Sång – Selma Pinton</p>

Bibliography: leaves 186-191. / This study documents Mavis Taylor's teaching of Improvisation at the University of Cape Town and provides a critical analysis of the improvisational methods she uses in the training of actors. It places her teaching within the wider field of improvisation understanding the importance of knowledge of 'self for the craft of acting. There is discussion around the role of the imagination and spontaneity in actor-training, and debate is raised regarding the concepts and practice of sensory and emotional memory training. The significance of teaching structure and form as a method for students to manipulate the medium of improvisation is argued, proposing that the creation of alternative meanings and 'realities' is the essence of acting.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur man kan arbeta med improvisation med trumsetselever på ett sätt som främjar deras skaparglädje och kreativitet. Studien genomfördes med totalt fyra elever. Två eleverna fick en 40 minuter lång lektion var, och två elever fick en 40 minuter lång lektion tillsammans. Efter varje lektion genomfördes en semistrukturerad intervju, med syfte att undersöka hur eleverna upplevde lektionen. Lektionerna bestod av olika övningar som inkluderade att säga en textrad från låten Zwampen högt och samtidigt ändra textens rytm, att hitta på olika sätt att spela textens melodi på trumset, att använda yttre begränsningar genom ett kreativitetsverktyg kallat ”idéhjulet”, samt att skicka idéer fram och tillbaka mellan varandra. Studiens resultat pekar på olika aspekter som skulle kunna uppmuntra till kreativitet och skaparglädje i improvisationsundervisning för trumset: struktur kontra frihet, att struktur och yttre begränsningar kan underlätta vid improvisation; den sociala aspekten, att den kommunikativa dimensionen av improvisation lyfts fram; och stegvis utveckling kontra flexibilitet, att undervisningen inte nödvändigtvis behöver följa en stegvis ordningsföljd.

The purpose of this study was to examine elementary instrumental music teachers’ perceptions of the inclusion of composing and improvising in their instruction with beginning string students. A total of 46 Pennsylvania public-school string teachers participated in this study. Participants filled out a 21-question survey consisting of questions about demographics, their undergraduate experience with improvising and composing, their confidence in both teaching and personally engaging with improvising and composing, the perceived importance of learning both skills, the benefits and challenges of learning how to improvise and compose, and the resources needed to successfully implement further instruction on both skills. Participants were contacted via their school email address and were given a total of 4 weeks to complete the survey. Results from the survey indicate a majority of participants had few opportunities to improvise and compose as well as few opportunities to teach both skills in their undergraduate music programs. Most participants rated themselves slightly to moderately confident in their ability to teach improvising and composing and in their ability to improvise and compose. The most frequently mentioned hurdle to teaching improvising and composing was “time”. Substantive and meaningful curricular changes are needed at all levels of music instruction in order to equip young students and future music teachers with the skills necessary to thrive in the modern, musical world. / Music Education

This motion-sensing phenomenological inquiry explores relational flow moments experienced by five professional tap dance artists in improvisational inter-action with jazz musicians to better understand the meaning of feeling relational flows in inter-activities. Guided through the Function-to-Flow conceptual framework, interviews and study with the five research participants focused on the functional capacities required to feel relational flows (e.g. movement repertoire and listening being), the form and structures of feeling relational flows (e.g. visible, audible, animatable and tangible forms of relational flows), and the feelings of relational flow experiences (e.g. connecting to, disconnecting from and transcending the self, Other and spiritual world) to discern meaning from inter-active, improvisational jazz-tap experiences. A motion-sensing phenomenological approach, which combines Max van Manen's hermeneutics with Michel Henry's material phenomenology of life to turn not simply to the things themselves but to the how of their appearing - that is, to the affective resonances of living, of bodily being - enables a primacy of sensorial attunement to the affects of kinaesthetic being or the feelings of being a body in motion. Interviews with the participants reveal meanings of relational flow in improvisational tap dance practices, and align with Maxine Sheets-Johnstone's call to phenomenologically inquire into the extraordinary experiential movement realities of professional dancers to deepen our understanding of the effect of their honed kinetic capacities. This inquiry seeks to not only deepen our knowledge of relational flow experiences, but also to add to research on tap dance, improvisational practice, and dance education more broadly.

Syftet med detta arbete är att utforska två aspekter av att vara musiker, att skriva musik och att framföra den, och hur dessa påverkar varandra. Arbetet tar också upp varför det inte längre är så vanligt att vara både tonsättare och utövande musiker.

Syftet med detta arbete är att ta reda på hur jag som instrumentalist på bästa möjliga sätt kan lära mig att spela eller främst improvisera inom genren fusion. Det görs genom dels en analys av det egna spelet. En analys som omfattar mitt improvisatoriska spel. Övningar skapas för att komplettera vad som anses vara bristfälliga färdigheter i mitt improvisationsspel. Samt en mer ingående analys av gitarristen Guthrie Govan. Där jag tittar på vilka aktivt spelmässiga val han gör i sina improvisationer. Det för att försöka synliggöra hur han väljer att spela i sina improvisationer. Dessa två metoder knyts sedan ihop i mina egenskrivna verk och improvisationer. Resultaten består främst av vunnen kunskap som rör sig inom improvisationsämnet, transkriptioner &amp; inspelningar.

The past few years have proven a need in higher education for tools that help educators and students maintain a flexible and highly adaptive approach to their coursework. Research into applied improvisation has shown that the improvisational mindset is beneficial to educational settings in this way, in part because of the way it encourages collaborative negotiations as part of the education process. Building on the work of improvisers in the fields of music, law, business, theatre, and medicine, this dissertation breaks down three specific types of negotiations found within improv: 1) Negotiations of Status; 2) Negotiations of Rule-Making; and 3) Negotiations of Authenticity. This work identifies the key components for success in those negotiations. It also provides opportunities for practical application of these negotiations using improv-based games and activities. This research indicates several benefits for educators and others who incorporate improvisational training into their work. Special attention is paid to the application of improvisation in areas such as classroom management and interpersonal relationship-building with students. It also highlights a few key games and activities that could prove beneficial as part of training for anyone engaged in the work of negotiations and communication.

Syftet med denna studie var att utforska hur resultatet skulle utforma sig inom en musikalisk improvisation där inspirationsmaterialet även skulle härstamma från mig i form av poesi och hur jag som musiker eventuellt kunde utvecklas utifrån detta. En ytterligare aspekt av detta som jag har velat utforska har varit huruvida min egen roll som lyssnares uppfattning och känsla av dikten och dess budskap kan förändras utifrån hur min musikaliska improvisation utformar sig. Denna studie har hjälpt mig att utvecklas i mitt förhållningssätt till improvisation och dess förmåga att emotionellt beröra människor i kombination med poesi. Det har även hjälpt mig att på ett mer självständigt sätt förhålla mig musikaliskt till min egen poesi och hur den kan presenteras för potentiella lyssnare och publik.