Teaching as Improvisation

A Creativity Model for Teaching Stylistic Improvisation

This paper a) examines the nature of creative thinking in musical improvisation, b) examines music teachers 'confidence in their inprovisation abilities and c) proposes a model for teaching stylistic improvisation. First, factor analysis of improvisations of college jazz singers indicates that divergent thinking, as exemplified through variety, originality and elaboration of musical ideas, is l...

Improvisation as a Creative Dialogue

Improvisational Builder: Improvisation as Conversation

To participate in musical improvisations, an interacting system must both generate appropriate musical materials and express those materials appropriately in collaboration with other performers. We have used results from the study of conversation and discourse to identify the major components for a theory of improvisation—listening, composing, and realizing. Our goal is a framework based on a m...

Disciplined Improvisation: Characteristics of Inquiry in Mindfulness-Based Teaching

Evidence for the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is rapidly growing as interest in this field expands. By contrast, there are few empirical analyses of the pedagogy of MBSR and MBCT. Development of the evidence base concerning the teaching of MBCT or MBSR would support the integrity of the approach in the context of rapid...

Directed Improvisation

We introduce "directed improvisation," a new paradigm for human-computer interaction (HCI). Users direct computer "characters" with abstract instructions and constraints. The characters improvise behaviors that follow the directions, express their personal styles, and meet other objectives. We illustrate directed improvisation with our current testbed application, a Computer-Animated Improvisat...