Raymond’s Big Foot …. Note
 

THE NOTION that everyone is musical, that every human being has a biological, social and cultural guarantee of musicianship is not a new idea. It has roots in educational and medical practice that date back to ancient Greek civilisation and probably beyond. Moreover, this notion is not a vague utopian ideal but rather a conclusion drawn by an increasing number of academic researchers involved in investigating the foundations of musical behaviour.

It appears that the earliest communication between a parent and a child is essentially musical and, more specifically, improvisational. We can indeed sing before we can talk. Indeed, to respond emotionally to music may be one defining feature of our humanity.

However, western cultural norms have created a climate where artistic pursuits are viewed as the preserve of a cultural elite; those individuals with appropriate genetic inheritance and/or the requisite educational training.

These competing influences – the drive to be expressive, creative and musical and the need to conform to society’s expectations – can play havoc with people’s confidence when it comes to playing music. Week in and week out I hear personal anecdotes from people, of all ages, who have a very strong desire to play an instrument or sing, but who believe themselves to be non-musical.

This decision, that they are not musical, more often than not stems from an earlier experience of failure in music, eg, not getting into the choir at school or not being able to quickly pick up a tune on the piano or recorder. People can often recount, in vivid detail, these non-contingency experiences that occurred 20, 30, 40 or more years ago.

Thus, people sometimes take their first experiences of failure in music and internalise them for the rest of their life. There is no evidence whatsoever to support the notion that some people are not musical.

Music is, and has always been, ubiquitous. Every culture throughout history has used music for a variety of different social purposes. At a more fundamental level, we all have the ability to learn the basics of musical performance. Musical performance is motor co-ordination and, if you can learn to drive a car, you can learn to play the guitar.

One of my own research interests focuses upon the work of Sounds of Progress, a music production company who work predominately with individuals who have learning disabilities and physical impairments. Sounds of Progress provide a variety of different musical activities from recording projects, writing workshops, international tours and music therapy projects. They have demonstrated how an unpatronising approach to music activities for disadvantaged groups can develop musical skills, increase confidence and also create employment opportunities.

 From the first time I picked up the saxophone I felt an instinctive, if completely uneducated, affinity for free improvisation.

As mentioned above, there is now a significant body of research suggesting that everybody’s early musical experiences are improvisatory. Even from a conventional instrumental perspective anybody watching a child explore a musical instrument for the first time can’t fail to be moved at how these first improvisations can create a profound sense of musical wonder in a young person.

However, it is paradoxical that by the time music students leave higher education or by the time music teachers have qualified, significant number of these music graduates have extreme anxieties about improvisation.

There is no doubt in my mind that improvisation is a significantly under-utilised musical approach within an educational context. Children could and should be improvising right from the start of formal musical studies. A less elitist approach to improvisation may engender the use of improvisation in educational contexts in such a way as to significantly enhance music teaching across the whole educational spectrum.

For a long time my work as an academic and my work as a musician seemed quite separate from each other. Beavering away with experiments investigating the effects of music listening or investigating the therapeutic aspects of playing music seemed related but quite separate from my musical life composing, performing and recording.

However, over the past three or four of years my academic work has started to focus upon musical improvisation. From a psychological perspective, in terms of how musicians conceptualise improvisation and use it to form a sense of their own musicality and, in a practical sense, in terms of how improvisation can be studied as a fundamental type of musical communication.

This academic work runs parallel to my long-standing commitment to improvisation within a music workshop context, and also seems to coincide with an explosion of interest within the musical community in Scotland in free improvisation.

To create music spontaneously and focus upon the collective interactions between the musicians can produce incredible music in many different contexts – for example, in a music therapy session, in a school music workshop, or on stage at a music festival.

From the first time I picked up the saxophone I felt an instinctive, if completely uneducated, affinity for free improvisation. I only started to explore the possibilities seriously when I began collaborating with, and being inspired by, George Burt ten years later. Now, ten years after meeting George, my academic work and musical work seem inseparable.

 References

Miell, D., MacDonald R.A.R., & Hargreaves, D.J. EDS (2005, August). Musical Communication Oxford: Oxford University Press.

MacDonald, R.A.R., Miell, D. & Hargreaves, D.J. EDS (2002). Musical Identities Oxford: Oxford University Press.

© Raymond MacDonald, 2005