Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the assessment of vocal jazz improvisation achievement. Subjects were 101 college students enrolled in vocal jazz courses. The following aspects of vocal jazz improvisation were measured: (a) tonal (intonation, correct tones, appropriate language, variety, originality, motivic development, and unity): (1) rhxthm (steady pulse, appropriate feel, appropriate figures, varietvx originalitv, motivic development, and unity); and (c) expression (appropriate scat svllables, appropriate tone quality, variety in tone quality. varietv in range, and variety in dynamics). These items were measured by three judges using fivepoint rating scales for two tasks, a blues and a ii-V7-1 progression. The major findings of this study were as follows: (a) interjudge reliability for items ranged from 47 to 89; (b) interjudge reliability for the composite measure was 90; (c) a high correlation (.88) was found between the blues and ii-V7-I tasks; (d) moderately strong correlations were found among the dimensions of tone, rhythm, and expression, ranging from 76 to 78; and (e) three underlying factors of vocal jazz improvisation were identifiedRhythm, accounting for 66% of the variance; Tonal, accounting for an additional 8%; and Divergence, accounting for 6%.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aebersold, J. (1967). A new approach to jazz improvisation (Vol. 1). New Albany, Indiana: Aebersold.

Aitken, G. and Aebersold, J. (1983). Vocal jazz improvisation: an instrumental approach. Jazz Educators Journal, 16, 8-10.

Baker, D. (1988). Jazz improvisation: A comprehensive method for all musicians (rev. ed.). Van Nuys: Alfred.

Baker, D. (1989). Jazz pedagogy: A comprehensive method of jazz education for teacher and student (rev. ed.). Van Nuys: Alfred.

Berendt, J. (1982). The jazz book: From New Orleans to rock and free jazz. New York: Lawrence Hill.

Burnsed, V. and Price, H. E. (1984). Improvisation and evaluation. Jazz Research Papers, 4, 35-42.

Coker, J. (1964). Improvising jazz. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

Coker, J. (1978). Listening to jazz. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

Coker, P. and Baker, D. (1981). Vocal improvisation-An instrumental approach. Miami: Columbia.

10.

Dunbar, T. (1977). A system of tonal convergence. Kendall Park, New Jersey: Dunte.

11.

Gorsuch, R. L. (1983). Factor analysis (2nd ed.). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.

12.

Kuzmich, J. A. (1980). Improvisation teaching materials. Music Educators Journal, 65(5), 51-55, 161-163.

13.

Madura, P. D. (1991). Relationships among vocal jazz improvisation ability and selected performer characteristics: an exploratory study. Southeastern Journal of Music Education, 3, 42-53.

14.

Moorman, D. L. (1984). An analytic study of jazz improvisation with suggestions for performance. (Doctoral dissertation, New York University, 1984.) Dissertation Abstracts International, 45/7A, 20232023.

15.

Pfenninger, R. C. (1990). The development and validation of three rating scales for the objective measurement of jazz improvisation achievement. Unpublished D.M.A. thesis, Temple University.

16.

Pressing, J. (1984). Cognitive processes in improvisation. In: W. R. Crozier and A. J. Chapman (Eds.), Cognitive processes in the perception of art (pp. 345-363). North Holland, Amsterdam.

17.

Russell, G. (1959). The Lydian chromatic concept of tonal organisation for improvisation. New York: Concept.

18.

Schilling, R. (1987). The feasibility of objective diagnostic measurement of jazz improvisation achievement. Jazz Research Papers, 7, 149-158.

19.

Slonimsky, N. (1947). Thesaurus of scales and melodic patterns. New York: Coleman-Ross.

An Exploratory Investigation of the Assessment of Vocal Jazz Improvisation

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References