Problem-solving strategies and processes in musical composition: Observations in real time

Abstract

This article draws on previous empirical studies that have used methodological strategies such as think-alouds (verbal protocol analysis), computer-based digital data collection and video observations to explore the process of music composition in real-time. A paradigm of music composition as a form of problem solving was assumed. Three higher education students composed short pieces and, using the above data collection methods, outputs were mapped against theoretical models of creative thinking and a hypothetical model deriving from a previous longitudinal, four-year single-case study. The real-time tracking of the music composition process in the present study observed a linear cycle of problem-solving strategies and nonlinear, recursive musical structuring. The study indicates that the real-time data collection tools were useful in eliciting added understandings of cognition in music composition and further insight into the act of musical structuring at a macro and micro level.