Working with College Students to Improve Their Improvisation and Composition Skills: A Self-Study with Music Teacher Educators and a Music Theorist

Abstract

The purpose of this self-study of teacher education practices was to examine and improve improvisation and composition teaching practices for three university professors at the same institution. Primary data sets were individual researcher journals and transcripts of seven researcher meetings. Secondary data sets were music major surveys, interviews, observations, and written communications. Findings are discussed in three sections: origins of our insecurities, turning point realizations and conversations, and our changed teaching practices and students’ learning. With the encouragement and support of our coresearchers, each of us experienced greater success in regularly integrating improvisation and composition into our teaching, which yielded notable increases in our students’ confidence and skills when improvising and composing, as well as willingness to incorporate them into their own teaching. We noticed improved student learning in many areas, as well as a more sophisticated transference of knowledge between playing, reading, and writing music.