How free is free? Investigating teachers’ conceptualisations of freedom in improvisation pedagogy

In this paper, we draw on empirical findings from a qualitative interview study with twelve teachers of free improvisation in European HME institutions in eight
different countries. We investigated teachers’ conceptual tools and how these related to cultural and educational values. A salient theme from the interviews was teachers’ reflections on the very notion of free improvisation. This paper explores their conceptions of free improvisation with a particular educational interest in the critical potential embedded in improvisation practices. When discussing these, we are inspired by George Lewis’ Afrological and Eurological approaches to improvisation, and Maxine Greene’s notion of freedom as closely connected to imagination and the power for self-expression and self determination in the arts. The teachers in the study are aligned with the perspective from Greene in seeing free improvisation as a site for challenging and expanding established “truths” about music and creativity
and to defy artistic and epistemic hierarchies. However, some teachers address
mechanisms in improvisation practice and pedagogy that pull towards a conservation of (new) knowledge and values, and privilege what is perceived as masculine social and musical norms. We claim that a learning and performing environment where forms of knowledge are taken for granted and only tolerate some forms of expressions may develop a socio-musical homogeneity that exclude and limit expressive possibilities for students and performers not identifying with masculine norms.