Expert Western Classical Music Improvisers’ Strategies

What is it about?

Our research addresses the following question: What strategies are implemented in the course of performance by Western classical music improvisers? To answer this question, semistructured interviews were conducted with five internationally recognized Western classical music expert improvisers. Each participant improvised, and immediately afterward, a retrospective verbal protocol with subjective aided recall data collection strategy was used to elicit the improvising musician’s strategies. Our data revealed 46 improvisation strategies that were subsequently organized into five categories: preplanning, conceptual, structural, atmospheric and stylistic, and real time.

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