Collective Free Music Improvisation as a Sociocommunicative Endeavor: A Literature Review

Abstract

This article is a review of literature that conceptualizes the practice of collective free music improvisation as a sociocommunicative endeavor, with its appended value and implications to musicians and music learners. Researchers have revealed that this conceptualization breaks down cultural and stylistic music boundaries to establish understanding and empathy among diverse and unique performers—through live music interactions and communication on an egalitarian and evolving platform that is negotiated by all participants. To enable collective free music improvisation pedagogically, researchers have highlighted the importance and ways of approaching it as a form of social interactionism, developing a personal music language to converse fluently and meaningfully, and establishing shared understanding among fellow improvisers as the foundation for music interaction. Together, these pedagogical implications may be synergized to inform ways in which classroom free improvisational practices may nurture expressive and confident improvisers rooted in the reality of the moment, as well as in the music conversations with one’s self and others.