Before our current notation system was widely adopted by musicians, improvisation was a key component of music throughout the Western world. One of the fundamental elements of the baroque style, namely, using improvised embellishment, offered musicians great artist liberty. During the baroque period, improvisation spread across Europe and beyond.…

It is vitally important for students to be creating music from the youngest age, and in all general music class settings. Now that the National Standards have been revised (renamed the National Core Arts Standards) and creating has been elevated to one of three artistic processes, the creative activities of composing, arranging, and improvising…

The creative music strategy is a dynamic and flexible seven-step model for guiding general music students through the music concepts of improvisation and composition, followed by critical reflection. These are musical behaviors that cultivate the development of our students' deeper conceptual understandings and music independence by helping them…

Music education scholars and veteran teachers often assert that composition is an essential part of a child's participation in music, but like many music educators, the author was reluctant to include it as part of her daily beginning band curriculum. Time and money were limited, and she wanted to be sure to cover all the material that beginners…

Discusses the Manhattanville Music Curriculum Project's concentration on the purpose, substance, and means of music instruction. Describes improvisation as the dominant means for teaching concepts, knowing how music works, and knowing how to make musical sense. Urges that the same goals of aural acuity, creative thought, and musical facility are…

Discusses the importance of teaching improvisation. Defines improvisation as the spontaneous generation of melody and rhythm without specific preparation or premeditation. Answers reasons for not teaching improvisation. Suggests training the ear, providing models, allowing for imitation, developing performance facility, guaranteeing success, and…

Offers suggestions for students and teachers for learning jazz improvisation. Discusses listening, practicing scales, chords, phrasing, developing a sense of swing, and shaping creative ideas through structural features. Emphasizes the relationship between chords and scales as a critical key to improvisation. Recommends educational materials to…

Educators need to develop teaching strategies that allow children to explore creative musical processes that will nurture musical skills, self-awareness, and imagination. A sequence of five lessons encompassing language arts and music demonstrates how students can develop creativity by writing haiku and then composing music to accompany the poems.…

Offers ideas for teaching musicians to be improvisors. Suggests that structure, organization, and continuity are problems that can be solved by learning to improvise. Recommends exercises in building phrases to help students acquire a sense of the developing whole. Concludes that improvisation can be taught by showing students how to teach…

Music motivator projects that enable the elementary teacher to use social science methods (known as ethnomethodology) to observe and learn about students without testing are described. Working in groups and guiding each other, students compose a musical composition and then notate it. Discovery learning is encouraged. (RM)

Examines music creativity from a cross-cultural perspective. Delineates the difference between creativity and re-creativity giving cultural examples of each. Discusses the differences between composition and improvisation and analyzes the language of musical expression. Describes the cultural traditions of musical creativity in India, China, Iran,…

Presents a collection of teachers' ideas on instruction for musical improvisation. Includes suggestions for ascending grade levels, spontaneous composition, and creation of sound maps. Recommends making technique training fun and creative through improvisation. Suggests that children be taught to think in sounds and to experiment with variations.…

Discusses improvisation as a phenomenon. Offers suggestions for a learning sequence. Warns against allowing students to skip levels. Identifies developmental levels of improvisation as exploration, process-oriented, product-oriented, fluid, structural, stylistic, and personal improvisation. Urges that improvisation can and should be a meaningful…

Contends that band students who are taught composition techniques improve listening skills, make aesthetic decisions, and become more imaginative and creative. Presents ideas from five music teachers for incorporating composition into the music curriculum. Discusses the use of computer software in musical composition. (CFR)

Maintains that, to improvise successfully in music, students must have an understanding of the creative process. Presents teaching suggestions for encouraging creativity in music classes. Maintains that improvisation is an excellent method for students to explore and practice creativity. (CFR)