Piano Improvisation Research Articles

Research and Practice on Instructional Methods for Piano Improvization Based on Computer Technology

In the backdrop of evolving technological landscapes, this paper delves into the utilization of computer technology, specifically Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), in enhancing piano improvisation instruction. Recognizing the growing demand for innovative teaching methods, our study aims to evaluate the practical effectiveness of ANN-based teaching evaluation in real-world piano improvisation settings. Through rigorous testing, we found that ANN demonstrates remarkable precision and consistency in assessing piano improvisation skills. In comparison to the traditional decision tree algorithm, ANN excels in managing complex nonlinear relationships, providing more accurate and reliable scoring results. This integration of technology not only elevates students’ performance but also fosters their musical creativity and perception. Our findings suggest potential improvements in refining instructional methodologies and expanding the use of computer technology in piano teaching. This underscores the importance of personalized teaching, blended learning models, and technical proficiency training for educators. Overall, our research methodologies and findings significantly contribute to advancing the modernization and technological progress of music education, equipping piano instructors with cutting-edge teaching tools and strategies.

The Influence of an Individual Teaching Method on the Development of Performing Skills of Musicians-Instrumentalists

The originality of instrumental musical interpretation is a distinctive feature of each musician, influencing and reflecting their artistic style and worldview ideas. The study aims to determine the peculiarities of the influence of an individual teaching method on the development of instrumental musicians’ performance skills. General theoretical analysis, comparison and observation techniques were used to achieve this goal. The final results were also based on the skill level coefficient, quality coefficient, and Mann-Whitney test calculations. The research process provided for developing individualized training for future instrumental musicians, focusing on developing interpretive and technical skills, artistic interpretation and improvisation. The practical significance of the work lies in the possibility of using the developed individual approaches to teaching musicians-instrumentalists, taking into account their capabilities. Prospects for further research can be to compare the effectiveness of an individual approach to teaching musicians-instrumentalists of primary school age and students. Keywords: students’ capabilities; interpretive and technical skills; musicians’ skills; piano improvisation; artistic expression; musical form

Design of online and offline teaching system for piano improvisation accompaniment course for preschool education majors integrating meta-learning recommendation algorithm and CDIO

Abstract With the development of the Internet, educational data based on social networks and mobile applications are also emerging, and personalized teaching systems have become a topic that has gradually attracted attention. In this paper, after exploring the meta-learning algorithm based on deep learning, a dynamic graph neural network is used to predict user preference, and a recommendation algorithm model is constructed based on meta-learning. On this basis, combined with the teaching and training mechanism of CDIO, a teaching system for the piano improvisation accompaniment course of preschool education was built, and the performance of the construction system was tested to test its application effect in the piano improvisation accompaniment course of preschool education. It can be seen that the values of each index of the recommended algorithm model in this paper are between 0.382~0.956 under cold and warm start, and the effect is the best. And the MRR@10 accuracy of the model in this paper is up to 0.725. In the professional piano improvisation accompaniment course, the scores of all indicators of the system use effect in this paper are above 4 points, which are higher than those of the traditional system, which proves that the method can improve the use effect of the teaching system and provides practical value for the system design of professional piano improvisation accompaniment course.

Beautiful Mis/takes

In the following three fragments, I illustrate how I am learning to practice reflexivity through the arts—with a story, piano improvisation, and poem—to evoke possibilities for more empathetic and humanistic ways of teaching and learning that embody what truly matters at the heart of children’s lived and living experiences of exploring music and piano playing. I integrate text, digitally edited photographs, and music video as artistic expressions of my praxis toward more heartful, healing, and joyful ways of teaching and learning.

Deep learning’s shallow gains: a comparative evaluation of algorithms for automatic music generation

Deep learning methods are recognised as state-of-the-art for many applications of machine learning. Recently, deep learning methods have emerged as a solution to the task of automatic music generation (AMG) using symbolic tokens in a target style, but their superiority over non-deep learning methods has not been demonstrated. Here, we conduct a listening study to comparatively evaluate several music generation systems along six musical dimensions: stylistic success, aesthetic pleasure, repetition or self-reference, melody, harmony, and rhythm. A range of models, both deep learning algorithms and other methods, are used to generate 30-s excerpts in the style of Classical string quartets and classical piano improvisations. Fifty participants with relatively high musical knowledge rate unlabelled samples of computer-generated and human-composed excerpts for the six musical dimensions. We use non-parametric Bayesian hypothesis testing to interpret the results, allowing the possibility of finding meaningful non-differences between systems’ performance. We find that the strongest deep learning method, a reimplemented version of Music Transformer, has equivalent performance to a non-deep learning method, MAIA Markov, demonstrating that to date, deep learning does not outperform other methods for AMG. We also find there still remains a significant gap between any algorithmic method and human-composed excerpts.

Interfaces of Dialogue: A Mixed Methods Approach to Investigating Intersubjectivity in Dyadic Improvisations

Music therapy provides a complex and dynamic environment and as such offers space for the emergence of nonverbal dialogue. We aimed to capture the relational, musical, and physiological aspects of intersubjectivity emerging during dyadic piano improvisations between music therapists and adult participants in a non-clinical feasibility study. Various data from 17 partner improvisations with adult participants and music therapists were collected, including audio, video, and MIDI recordings, physiological (ECG and EDA) measures, questionnaires, and semi-structured debriefing interviews. Parts of these data sets served for a mixed methods analysis to show (1) how instances of intersubjectivity were experienced by therapists and participants (drawing on interview data), (2) how their shared experiences were supported by coordination and contrast at the level of musical features (drawing on musical data), (3) how physiological arousal was compared between an initial resting baseline and the improvisation, and (4) how patterns in the event related electrodermal activity data related to qualities of intersubjectivity and musical interaction in an example of two case studies. In conclusion, intersubjectivity was characterized by overlapping experiences of relational qualities and complex patterns of musical interaction, including contrasting elements of convergence (in pitch contour) and divergence (key velocity and timing). Further, the case studies showed how differently-interpreted experiences can emerge from a homogenous musical structure, and how stronger intersubjectivity may be associated with more active experiential phenomena such as disruption or reciprocity (versus relaxation or security). Additionally, our findings highlight the complexity of musical interaction as an enactive process. Bringing together multi- and interdisciplinary perspectives enhanced a shared understanding of how subjective experiences that arise during dyadic improvisations relate to measures of musical coordination and physiological arousal. The complex mixed methods design proves to be feasible and, as a consequence, can be transferred to clinical settings in the future.

Fundamental Analysis of Chick Corea’s Improvisation in Spain (1972)

"Modern jazz can be considered an equal part of modern music, owing to the numerous experiments, at times considered strange or not really agreed by the audience. When talking about modern musical life and the possibilities for making music in a proper manner, no doubt that the value and genius of composers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Ludwig van Beethoven must be recognized. However, one must also realize that modern life, with its modern, contemporary music is also needed. The great jazz saxophonist, Charlie Parker considered improvisation the middle of the earth, the place where, if only for a few brief moments, one can be the best and the greatest composer in the world. Furthermore, the idea of a song (theme) is the only reason for musicians to come and elaborate together, with variational spontaneity, a unique and maybe unrepeatable musical manifestation. The works of Chick Corea reflect this point of view, as the analysis of the work Spain (1972), discussed in the article bellow, will demonstrate. The work represents the fusion between Spanish music and the compositional methods of modern jazz music, reflecting Corea’s unique style. Improvisation lies at the basis of this composition, offering the musician a multitude of possibilities for expressing his ideas regarding freedom and human nature. Keywords: jazz, piano improvisation, spontaneity, creativity, harmonical knowledge, contemporary "

A Survey of Four Introductions by Chick Corea

Chick Corea’s florid and adventurous piano introductions burst with rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic invention. Like Erroll Garner, Corea often constructs introductions that stand on their own as complete musical statements and draw from a unique relationship with the piano and its literature. From 1965 to 1971, Corea developed several approaches to introductions that allow for increasing levels of harmonic and formal complexity and greater control of timbre that he continued to use and expand on. All these developments are crucial to Corea’s evolution as an improviser, pianist, and composer. This document will examine four introductions: “This Is New,” recorded in 1965 for the album Tones for Joan’s Bones; “Steps,” recorded in 1968 for the album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs; “Nefertiti,” recorded in 1970 for the album The Song of Singing; and “Trinkle Tinkle” recorded in 1971 for the album Piano Improvisations Vol. 2.

COME_IN: A qualitative framework for content, meanings and intersubjectivity in free dyadic improvisations

ABSTRACT Introduction A growing body of research reflects the interest in meaningful moments in music therapeutic treatment and the client--therapist relationship; however, little insight has been given into the client’s subjective experience and the interweaving processes between a therapist and a client. Central to this initial research is the question of how dialogue as a substantial relational quality emerges and intersubjectively manifests in free, dyadic improvisations, as is typical in humanistic and/or psychodynamic approaches to music therapy practice. This paper presents the qualitative part of a mixed-methods, multi-phase feasibility study intended to develop a framework for non-clinical and clinical research. Method In a non-clinical setting with adult participants (n=9) and trained music therapists (n=8), a total of 17 free dyadic piano improvisations were recorded and verbally reflected on in semi-structured debriefing interviews. These focused on moments or time periods where one or both improvising people had the feeling that something pivotal happened between them. A qualitative summarizing content analysis of the transcribed interviews, including a selective coding process, was conducted to investigate both perspectives. Results As a two-part category system, the framework for content, meanings and intersubjectivity (COME_IN) covers (a) meanings, i.e. different intra- and interpersonal experiences indicating developments and states of relationship in dyadic improvisations, and (b) intersubjectivity, operationalized in temporal and/or content-related overlaps of subjective experiences. Discussion Showing manifold patterns of how meaning and intersubjectivity nonverbally arise between people, the framework provides a solid base for further mixed-methods analyses. Clinical studies are needed to test and refine the categories.

Musical interaction in music therapy for depression treatment

Music therapy is efficacious for the treatment of depression. Compared to other psychotherapeutic forms, it allows for the emergence of various modes of mutual interaction, thus enabling multiple channels for emotional expression and fostering therapeutic alliance. Although musical interaction patterns between client and therapist have been regarded as predictors of therapeutic outcome in depression, this has not yet been systematically investigated. We aim to address this gap by analyzing the possible linkage between musical interaction features and changes in depression score. In a clinical trial, digital piano improvisations from 58 Finnish clients and their therapists were recorded over 12 sessions of music therapy lasting 6 weeks. Subsequently, a variety of symbolic features describing pitch, rhythm, duration, and velocity were extracted from the improvisations. We observed a number of relationships between client–therapist interaction and clinical improvement. Clients with largest improvements displayed higher overall interaction, particularly more musical interaction in the middle of the therapy process than in the beginning and end. In contrast, clients with lower depression change score exhibited overall lower interaction and yielded other temporal profiles of interaction. The association between clinical improvement and an inverted U-shaped curve of musical interaction is discussed in the light of process-outcome literature.

Design and Innovation of Piano Impromptu Accompaniment for College Music Performance Majors under the Information Environment.

The development of information technology has a profound impact on the development of education. The integration of information technology into the teaching of professional courses has changed not only teaching methods and means, but more importantly, the teaching philosophy, teaching organization, and teaching evaluation are supported by information technology. Changes and progress have also been made. Piano improvisational accompaniment is an indispensable and important course in the teaching of music majors in colleges and universities. Relying on the information-based teaching environment and means, systematically designing piano impromptu accompaniment teaching for music performance majors to improve the effectiveness of teaching is a new exploration in the education and teaching reform of the current higher vocational music performance talent training courses. This study analyzes and studies the problems existing in the current teaching of piano improvisation accompaniment in colleges and universities and proposes the feasible strategies of piano improvisation accompaniment teaching in a targeted manner, to provide reference and guidance for the majority of educators.

Research on Improvisation in the Course of Piano and Nursery Rhyme Playing and Singing in Preschool Education Major

Nowadays, the training goals of the preschool education major are constantly expanding with the society's deep understanding of early childhood education, and the requirements for students' various skills and professionalism have been improved. Among them, piano improvisation is the teaching content of the course of piano and nursery rhyme playing and singing in this major, and it is also an ability of great practical significance. Therefore, teachers should actively explore the value of piano improvisation ability, reflect on the problems in the current teaching situation, and find ways to optimize the teaching effect, which are very helpful to future teaching practice.

Construction and Utilization of Network Resources of Piano Impromptu Accompaniment Course

With the continuous deepening of the new curriculum reform in the field of higher education in our country, the piano impromptu accompaniment course has an increasing influence on students. In the current piano impromptu accompaniment course, teachers are influenced by many traditional concepts of music course education. Teachers mainly focus on singing and personal practice in the teaching process. In terms of teaching content, the selection of repertoire for students is relatively fixed and outdated, which causes students to feel monotonous, and reduces the quality of learning the piano impromptu accompaniment courses. That being said, this article thoroughly explores the construction and utilization of network resources in the process of piano improvisation, in order to improve the quality of education and teaching of piano impromptu courses in colleges and universities, and provide some valuable references for promoting the overall development of students.

The origins and major trends in development of jazz piano stylistics

The origins and major trends in development of jazz piano stylistics

Moving through stasis in Stan Brakhage’s Passage Through: A Ritual

Over a career spanning five decades and nearly 400 films, Passage Through: A Ritual (1990) stands out as an anomaly in Stan Brakhage’s filmography. Most conspicuously, Passage Through is distinguished by its bold soundtrack, rare for Brakhage, and its surprising and idiosyncratic engagement with minimalist aesthetics. The film runs for forty-six minutes and is in some respects a showcase for a musical improvisation by Fluxus composer Philip Corner, Through the Mysterious Barricade: Lumen (after F. Couperin). Performed as the first in a series of near-daily meditational solo piano improvisations, Corner’s piece is built around a dark progression of trills and the repetition of a single note. At around the thirty-minute mark the piece breaks into an exquisitely protracted rendition of François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mystérieuses (1717), before ‘resolving’ back into dissonance. Brakhage’s ‘visual accompaniment’ for the piece consists almost exclusively of black leader, a monochromatic field periodically and unexpectedly punctuated by twenty-nine flashes of fairly indistinct imagery (light flares, fuzzy blobs of colour, pans through trees and foliage, netting) (figures 1–3).1 These brief disruptions range from twelve to seventy-five frames, occur at seemingly random intervals, and are often too fleeting to be fully apprehended. The film is distributed on two reels of uneven length (reel one is 1000 foot, while reel two is 600), and Brakhage’s projection instructions stipulate that the reels be changed in real time, creating a built-in intermission. The film ends with the completion of Corner’s improvisation.

Investigating the Role of the Primary Motor Cortex in Musical Creativity: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study.

Neuroscientific research has revealed interconnected brain networks implicated in musical creativity, such as the executive control network, the default mode network, and premotor cortices. The present study employed brain stimulation to evaluate the role of the primary motor cortex (M1) in creative and technically fluent jazz piano improvisations. We implemented transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to alter the neural activation patterns of the left hemispheric M1 whilst pianists performed improvisations with their right hand. Two groups of expert jazz pianists (n = 8 per group) performed five improvisations in each of two blocks. In Block 1, they improvised in the absence of brain stimulation. In Block 2, one group received inhibitory tDCS and the second group received excitatory tDCS while performing five new improvisations. Three independent expert-musicians judged the 160 performances on creativity and technical fluency using a 10-point Likert scale. As the M1 is involved in the acquisition and consolidation of motor skills and the control of hand orientation and velocity, we predicted that excitatory tDCS would increase the quality of improvisations relative to inhibitory tDCS. Indeed, improvisations under conditions of excitatory tDCS were rated as significantly more creative than those under conditions of inhibitory tDCS. A music analysis indicated that excitatory tDCS elicited improvisations with greater pitch range and number/variety of notes. Ratings of technical fluency did not differ significantly between tDCS groups. We discuss plausible mechanisms by which the M1 region contributes to musical creativity.

The Explore of the Piano’s Impromptu Accompany for Preschool Education Majors

Before entering the college, there are few students have the ability to play the piano in pre-school education. During the first one and half years in the college, they have to learn the courses of music theory, the piano, vocal music and so on. All of them begin to study piano improvisation accompaniment for songs in the second semester of their sophomore. The piano improvisation accompaniment is a very comprehensive subject, and it is not easy to make the teaching effect obvious. So if we can combine the piano improvisation accompaniment course with the piano class, the vocal music class and sing class individually to teach, thus can not only cultivate the students’ piano accompaniment ability, but also cultivate their sense of cooperation consciousness in music performance. This new teaching method will be even better for the preschool music course.

Impaired Maintenance of Interpersonal Synchronization in Musical Improvisations of Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious and complex mental disorder with a lifetime prevalence of 5.9%, characterized by pervasive difficulties with emotion regulation, impulse control, and instability in interpersonal relationships and self-image. Impairments in interpersonal functioning have always been a prominent characteristic of BPD, indicating a need for research to identify the specific interpersonal processes that are problematic for diagnosed individuals. Previous research has concentrated on self-report questionnaires, unidirectional tests, and experimental paradigms wherein the exchange of social signals between individuals was not the focus. We propose joint musical improvisation as an alternative method to investigate interpersonal processes. Using a novel, carefully planned, ABA′ accompaniment paradigm, and taking into account the possible influences of mood, psychotropic medication, general attachment, and musical sophistication, we recorded piano improvisations of 16 BPD patients and 12 matched healthy controls. We hypothesized that the insecure attachment system associated with BPD would be activated in the joint improvisation and manifest in measures of timing behavior. Results indicated that a logistic regression model, built on differences in timing deviations, predicted diagnosis with 82% success. More specifically, over the course of the improvisation B section (freer improvisation), controls' timing deviations decreased (temporal synchrony became more precise) whereas that of the patients with BPD did not, confirming our hypothesis. These findings are in accordance with previous research, where BPD is characterized by difficulties in attachment relationships such as maintaining strong attachment with others, but it is novel to find empirical evidence of such issues in joint musical improvisation. We suggest further longitudinal research within the field of music therapy, to study how recovery of these timing habits are related to attachment experiences and interpersonal functioning in general.

Relationships Between Generated Musical Structure, Performers’ Physiological Arousal and Listener Perceptions in Solo Piano Improvisation

What musical structures do improvisers produce, and how do these relate to their physiological arousal while performing and to listener perceptions? Nine professional improvisers performed both structured and free improvisations. We hypothesized that increases in performers’ arousal and attention during structural transitions would be reflected by changes in skin conductance. Consistent with the hypothesis, skin conductance changed particularly around transitions. Improvisers then listened to their improvisations, continuously rating musical change. Fourteen non-musicians also rated change, and separately rated perceptions of affect. Their perceptions related to structural parameters, though these were less influenced by musical features than those of the performers.

Emotional Intent Modulates The Neural Substrates Of Creativity: An fMRI Study of Emotionally Targeted Improvisation in Jazz Musicians

Emotion is a primary motivator for creative behaviors, yet the interaction between the neural systems involved in creativity and those involved in emotion has not been studied. In the current study, we addressed this gap by using fMRI to examine piano improvisation in response to emotional cues. We showed twelve professional jazz pianists photographs of an actress representing a positive, negative or ambiguous emotion. Using a non-ferromagnetic thirty-five key keyboard, the pianists improvised music that they felt represented the emotion expressed in the photographs. Here we show that activity in prefrontal and other brain networks involved in creativity is highly modulated by emotional context. Furthermore, emotional intent directly modulated functional connectivity of limbic and paralimbic areas such as the amygdala and insula. These findings suggest that emotion and creativity are tightly linked, and that the neural mechanisms underlying creativity may depend on emotional state.