%0 Journal Article
%T Improvising to learn
%A Michael Patrick Wall
%J Research Studies in Music Education
%@ 1834-5530
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1321103X17745180
%X This study explored how and what a group of six fifth-grade instrumental music students learned during group improvisation activities over eight sessions together with the researcher as participant observer. Students¡¯ learning was investigated through the lenses of musical fluency and collaborative emergence. Findings related to multiple understandings of students¡¯ musical fluency and students¡¯ rhythmically driven displays of collaborative emergence. Implications of this study include the ideas that (a) students¡¯ musical fluency is individual and personal in nature and improvisation gives students a space to explore these personal decisions; (b) young improvisers can be overwhelmed by free improvisation and may create boundaries to aid their playing; (c) without teacher direction, young improvisers can make pedagogical and music making decisions relevant to their interests; and (d) young improvisers can successfully create a collaborative emergent during group improvisation
%K collaborative emergence
%K fluency
%K improvisation
%K learning
%K teaching
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1321103X17745180