Many secondary level jazz ensembles are based on the big band model, where students focus on reading music (e.g., Bernard & Stringham, 2016). This focus on reading music has created learning environments where students are hesitant to improvise. Framed in self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1977), the purpose of this study is to investigate how students’ perspectives of their ability to improvise affect their ability to learn how to improvise. I sought to understand the beliefs of secondary level students in this study about their jazz improvisation abilities and how they were influenced by enactive mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal/social persuasion, physiological and affective states, and personal and contextual factors. In addition, I investigated the role of social interactions in learning how to improvise, and how social interactions impacted the students’ perspectives on their abilities as jazz improvisers.
To understand the self-efficacy beliefs of a group of secondary level students, I distributed the Jazz Improvisation Self-Efficacy Survey (adapted from Zelenak, 2011) to the students of the top big band at the high school that met the selection criteria for this study. Using data from the survey, I selected three students who reported high, medium, and low self-efficacy belief toward their ability to improvise. The participants completed the initial interview based on a priori themes (four sources of self-efficacy) and then I conducted a follow up interview to explore personal and contextual factors such as gender, environment, and teacher-student relationships. Finally, the participants completed a journal entry with three prompts that documented performance experiences in three different settings (lessons, practice, and performance) and how these experiences may have influenced their self-efficacy beliefs about improvising.
Participants reported an increase in self-efficacy belief with every performance (enactive mastery experience). Furthermore, participants described practicing improvisation during classroom rehearsals as helpful, and that these rehearsals gave them a boost in their jazz improvisation self-efficacy belief. Students also reported learning from more experienced student players in their ensemble (vicarious experience) and described how interactions with these players helped in their development as jazz improvisors. Feedback from their teacher (verbal/social persuasion), and in some cases from peers, was reported to have a positive influence upon participants’ perceptions of their jazz improvisation abilities. Participants reported detractors to self-efficacy belief, including feeling overwhelmed, feeling tense during performances, and an inability to mentally recover from mistakes during performances (physiological and affective states). Participants reported, however, that positive learning environments and good teacher rapport resulted in an increase in learning and in student self-efficacy belief. Finally, I offer recommendations for music educators on how they might support students to improve their self-efficacy beliefs as they develop as jazz soloists.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/48672 |
| Date | 29 April 2024 |
| Creators | Adame, Esteban |
| Contributors | Goodrich, Andrew |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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