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Music Education Research

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How Children Ascribe Meaning to Improvisation and
Composition: rethinking pedagogy in music education
Pamela Burnard

Online Publication Date: 01 March 2000

To cite this Article: Burnard, Pamela (2000) 'How Children Ascribe Meaning to
Improvisation and Composition: rethinking pedagogy in music education', Music
Education Research, 2:1, 7 — 23
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 Music Education Research, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2000

How Children Ascribe Meaning to

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Improvisation and Composition: rethinking

pedagogy in music education

PAMELA BURNARD, School of Education, University of Reading, Bulmershe

Court, Reading RG6 1HY, UK (e-mail: p.a.burnard@reading.ac.uk )

ABSTRACT This paper is taken from doctoral research which sought to discover how
children engage in and re ect on their experiences of improvising and composing. The
study was carried out at a comprehensive Middle School in West London where 18
self-selected 12-year-old children participated in weekly music making sessions. Data
collected over a six-month period included observations, interviews and the examination
of musical artefacts. This paper reports on interview methodology based on construc-
tivist elicitation tools to understand how children ascribe meaning to improvisation and
composition. It was found that children represented these phenomena in three ways: (i)
distinct forms distinguished by bodily intention; (ii) interrelated forms co-existing
functionally in context; and (iii) inseparable processes. The pedagogical signiŽ cance of
what is under description here will be discussed.

Introduction
Our assumptions pertaining to improvising and composing are integral to how improvis-
ation and composition are taught. Some writers (Paynter, 1982, 1992) consider compo-
sition to be the preferred means of learning and therefore locate it at the heart of the
music curriculum, at the expense of improvisation. Others consider improvisation to be
a ‘constant companion’ to the compositional process (Lawrence, 1978), or an ‘impulse
which sets creation in motion’ (Sessions, 1952, p. 38), and regard the two phenomena
as indistinguishably embedded in the one act of creation (Loane, 1984, 1987; Davies,
1992; Marsh, 1995). Certainly, improvisation is integral to genre-speciŽ c styles such as
jazz and blues. However, improvising can also be a term used to describe the essence
of spontaneity as independence from pre-existing styles (Elliott, 1996). Critically, it is
these underlying assumptions which shape our approach to the teaching of improvisation
and composition.
ISSN 1461-3808(print) /ISSN 1469-9893(online) /00/010007-1 7 Ó 2000 Taylor & Francis Ltd
 8 P. Burnard

Adult understandings of improvisation and composition have been studied extensively

and are largely based on anecdotal accounts which can represent highly specialised
views of the process of musical creation (Wallas, 1926; Ghiselin, 1952; Sloboda, 1985,
1988; Pressing 1988; Berliner, 1994). However, the relevance of adult practice to
children’s musical experience is not clear. The question arises as to the extent to which
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children’s experience of improvising and composing resonates with those of adults.

There is no systematic body of knowledge (or consensus) pertaining to children’s
experience of improvisation and composition, only contradictory claims that propose: the
existence of different musical processes (Kratus, 1989; 1991; Upitis, 1992); the involve-
ment of distinct abilities (Webster, 1990; McPherson, 1993/4, 1998); and different
aptitudes (Gordon, 1989). Other researchers considered the two processes to be indis-
tinguishable (Swanwick & Tillman, 1986; Loane, 1987).
The earliest seminal studies of children composing made no distinction between the
terms ‘improvisation’ and ‘composition’. Consequently, the term ‘composition’ was
applied to forms of improvisation, invention and creative music (Swanwick & Tillman,
1986; Davies, 1992). Later writers began to delimit these terms more speciŽ cally
(Webster, 1990; Kratus, 1994; Barrett, 1996; Folkestad, 1998). However, only a few
studies have widened the investigative focus to include children’s musical thinking, the
nature of their musical experiences and what meanings they attribute to these experi-
ences (Blacking, 1967; Upitis, 1992; Campbell, 1998).
This paper is taken from doctoral research which sought to discover how children
engage in, and re ect on, their experiences of improvising and composing. Two
questions guided the investigation: (i) what constitutes the dimensions along which
children move between improvisation and composing, and (ii) how do children’s
re ections of their lived experience provide insight into the intention which directs their
processes of music making. The paper focuses on children’s meaning making because of
the effect of thinking about what it is to improvise and compose from a constructivist
perspective. It has particular relevance for music educators’ understanding creative
modes of experience as diverse forms of meaning, and seeks to illustrate the degree of
rethinking we need to engage in if we are to assist children to develop as creators (not
only makers) of music.

Theoretical Perspective
A phenomenological base, theoretically informed by a cognitivist–interpretative
paradigm, provided the present study with its descriptive and analytical focus from
which an interpretation of children’s understanding of their own experience was
developed. Merleau-Ponty (1962) referred to phenomenology as the study of objects and
events as they present to, and appear in, our experience wherein ‘the world is what we
perceive’ (p. xi). In this way, experience as we live it becomes a function of how we
direct our consciousness in a dialectical relationship toward the world (i.e. revealed by
our attempts to construe events and objects). From this perspective, action (including
pre-re ective action) as it embodies intention (which is visible in action) becomes the
focus of mapping children’s worlds of meaning through their experiential descriptions
(Van Manen, 1990).
Important issues concerning the context can also be deŽ ned phenomenologically.
Context, according to Wertsh (1985), is ‘grounded in a set of assumptions about
appropriate roles, goals and means used by the participants in the settings’ whereupon
the activity setting ‘guides the selection of actions and the operational composition of
 How children ascribe meaning to improvisation and composition 9

actions and it determines the functional signiŽ cance of these actions’ (p. 212). Thus, the
importance of distinguishing characteristics of the context (or activity settings) and the
meanings given to intentional acts that characterise improvising and composing, as
manifest through the actions and re ections of the children, provided the focus of this
research. Given the interpretative–constructivist tradition in which the central tenet is to
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describe and interpret the phenomena under investigation, an ethnographic approach was
considered appropriate to reveal the meanings constructed by children (Schwandt, 1994).

Research Design
An ethnographic approach using a multi-method research plan was designed. The data
were generated from observations of the participants engaged in music making, with the
researcher in the role of participant observer; through interviewing both individuals and
groups in focused sessions; and from the examination of transcriptions of 116 improvi-
sations and 79 compositions.
The study was carried out in a multi-ethnic, comprehensive Middle School in West
London, England over a period of six months. Eighteen self-selected 12-year-old
children participated in 21 weekly music-making sessions. Of the 18 children, there were
12 girls and 6 boys. Fourteen children had received instrumental tuition and Ž ve had
taken graded examinations; four had received no formal instrumental training. There
were 14 of British descent, two Afro-Caribbean and two Asian children. I wanted to
know in what ways these children carried out single event and spontaneous performances
of music (i.e. improvisation) and revised pieces created over time (i.e. composition). I
also wanted to explore the nature of the relationship between improvisation and
composition from the children’s perspectives.
The Ž eldwork took place over a period of six months and divided into three phases
referred to as the Early, Middle and Late Phase. Each child was given two individual
interviews, which framed the Early and Late Phases. Drawing on the phenomenological
concepts of the noematic and noetic, the study focused on the ‘how-issue’, as children’s
ways of engagement, and the ‘what-issue’, as children’s expressed interpretation of these
phenomena. However, it is not within the scope of this paper to examine the ‘how-issue’.
Instead, the ‘what-issue’ which mapped children’s worlds of meaning through their
experiential descriptions, as derived from interview data, will be discussed.

Interview Methodology
A preliminary one-hour interview provided baseline data concerning the children’s
musical background and experiences that in uenced their general musical interests both
at home and school. A constructivist elicitation technique developed by Denicolo and
Pope (1990), called Critical Incident Charting was used to encourage a re ective
conversational style of engagement. The children were asked to re ect on speciŽ c
instances, or critical incidents, which they considered had in uenced the direction of
their musical lives. I asked the children to re ect upon their experiences of music and
share stories which ‘tell me about’ their memorable experiences of music making at
school, with friends and family as well as within the community. Whilst they recalled
these events in their musical histories, I located each narration on different bends along
the length of a winding river, where each bend represented an in uential incident. This
was their ‘musical river’. Each bend in the musical river was a manifestation of aspects
of the child’s formative experiences in music. Then I asked them to re ect upon these
 10 P. Burnard

incidents giving voice to the attitudes and orientations implicit to their musical worlds
and identities.
At the conclusion of the Late Phase, the Ž nal interview provided the children with an
opportunity to re ect upon their experiences of improvisation and composition across the
six-month term of the study. An image-based, draw-and-talk technique (Prosser, 1998),
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based on respondent veriŽ cation (Becker, 1998) of the varied forms of representing
relationships between improvisation and composition, was used. The children were asked
to draw an image or pictorial representation to convey some aspect (or aspects) of what
it was to improvise and compose. Then, they were invited to explain in detail how these
pictures related to their own experiences. The speciŽ c concerns addressed in this
interview included the critical question: ‘Thinking back over your experience of music
making, what, for you, does it mean to improvise and compose?’. The idea was to focus
on the phenomenological issues of what it means to improvise and compose as well as
to enhance the credibility of Ž ndings through triangulation of data sources (Denzin,
1978). The themes arising from the analysis of one source of data (i.e. observation of
action) were compared with the evidence found in another source (i.e. children’s
re ection on action), which in turn was compared with the data from the musical
transcription and Ž nally checked against the accounts from the initial interviews.

Analysis of Data
All qualitative research is based upon the interpretation of a selection of the data. In this
study, the segmentation and selection of data were governed by the technique known as
theoretical or purposive sampling (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). The
general approach adopted was to subject the data to analysis for thematic content using
the method of iterative inductive coding, as described in many standard texts on
qualitative, naturalistic social research methods (Miles & Huberman, 1994).
Analysis of the data collected in the initial interviews was done by hand on printed
copies of the full transcriptions. The data from each musical river was summarised and
presented in a form which could be scanned sequentially; next to each extract passage
placed on each bend in the river, a thematic category was pencilled in the margin of the
page. At this initial stage of data analysis, every descriptive incident about a musical
episode or encounter contributed to the representation of children voicing their relation-
ship to music. Thus, each musical memory had a potential relationship to the purpose of
the study.
The images and language collected in the Ž nal interviews, representing the children’s
Ž nal re ections on improvisation and composition, were analysed in the form of a
picture-by-picture comparison to gain impressions of similarities and differences be-
tween cases. Then, reading and re-reading the children’s explanations in order to identify
any possible relationships tested my visual impressions. When all the drawings had been
compared, a form of relationship was sought. Then, a type of ‘theoretical’ generalisation
was employed and re-tested against the earlier phases. Many of the children explained
their pictures of improvisation and composition metaphorically, making their meanings
easily apparent, a technique advocated by Eisner (1991), ‘for making public the
ineffable’ (p. 227).
A variety of validity check procedures included the use of ‘independent referees’ to
evaluate the credibility of the researcher’s thematic categorisation of the data. This was
achieved by sending the presentation of data to two independent researchers. The coding
agreement or disagreement was noted and discussed in detail in order to eliminate the
 How children ascribe meaning to improvisation and composition 11

risk of false coding and to publicly test my interpretation (Denzin, 1978; Lincoln &
Guba, 1985; Becker, 1998).

Introducing Individual Realities as Essential Backgrounds of Musical Experience

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This paper proŽ les three children with different instrumental training and performance
backgrounds. An elicitation technique is used to chart their perspective ‘music-rivers’.
Each ‘river’ re ects differences in musical identity and beliefs about music making. This
was apparent in the varying extent to which children focus on different facets of musical
experience in relation to their backgrounds. Links between musical biographies and
children’s experience of improvising and composing are developed later in the paper.

Introducing Diane. Diane has played the piano since the age of eight and the clarinet for
nearly two years. She is familiar with performing in both solo and orchestral settings.
She expresses great interest in exploring different ways of creating music on a range of
instruments. Her Dad makes up songs on guitar. At home, she uses her Dad’s guitar to
‘just play about’. She also ‘makes up little pieces on the piano’. Figure 1 shows a précis
of Diane’s recollections at different phases of her musical development.
Diane’s need to express herself and discover the extent of her artistic capabilities is
illustrated by her individual passion for creating her own music and ‘playing around’ on
a variety of instruments. Her reluctance to conform and periodic impatience re ects her
desire ‘to do something[s] different’. She recalls creative encounters which both
stimulated and frustrated her. These encounters play an important role in making sense
of music and in establishing her musical identity. She prefers to make her own music at
home, but still values the music she makes in school even though, as she says,
‘sometimes I get put in groups with people who don’t get along very well and then we
waste time arguing’. These collaborative encounters serve to reafŽ rm her identity as she
becomes aware of her own music-making processes whose meaning she Ž nds embodied
in personal ownership.

Introducing Tim. Tim has completed Ž ve years of formal instrumental tuition on piano
and has taken graded examinations in piano (Grade 5), violin (Grade 3) and theory
(Grade 4). He has also completed two terms of group lessons at school in percussion.
He is a member of the school choir, string orchestra and attended a Saturday morning
School of Young Musicians. According to Tim, he has ‘really got into the rhythm doing
grades’ and intends to ‘go all the way to Grade 8’. His mother is a professional piano
teacher and father plays the guitar, piano, saxophone and banjo. His younger brother also
plays the piano and cello. At home, they have a variety of digital and acoustic pianos.
What strikes me most about Tim’s recollections is that they are primarily deŽ ned in
terms of progress, achievement and competition. Consequently, his river begins and ends
with expressions relating ‘to proper pieces like the Allegro by Bach’ and the ambition
of ‘getting it right’. He also speaks of the pressures of preparing for exams and the
‘frustrations’ of ‘having to practise’. What is interesting is how he emphasises the salient
issues of experiences that are set by expectations, standards of achievement and success
as characterised by subjective values, particular to a set of goals. Tim is an ambitious
player who reveals his thoughts and feelings in terms of musical training rather than
musical experience. For Tim, musical meaning seems to be based on the highly
structured and sequential learning techniques, which form the basis of his musical
instruction (see Figure 2).
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12
P. Burnard

FIG. 1. Diane’s musical river.

 How children ascribe meaning to improvisation and composition 13
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FIG. 2. Tim’s musical river.

 14 P. Burnard

Introducing Sidin. Sidin is a 12-year-old Asian girl who receives no formal training on
a musical instrument. She is the youngest member of a family who has no instruments
to play at home and Sidin is the least musically experienced member of the group.
She considers that people fall into one of three categories in terms of musical
ability. Firstly, there are those that are ‘really talented and play good music’. Secondly,
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there are those that are ‘good but need improvement’ and thirdly, there are those that
‘like music but are not good or looked up to’. Sidin conceptualises her own reality when
she says:
When I play, I think I’m the third type of person but I want to be like others
and play the way they do. I want to play it but I think I shouldn’t play it.
Despite her self-consciousness and shyness, Sidin indicates a strong desire to play music
as evident in re ections relating to her musical experiences. This is shown in her musical
river (see Figure 3) which shows a précis of her six-page transcription.
The qualities that characterise Sidin are her self-consciousness and low self-esteem.
Her great admiration of those with performance skills is a re ection of her interest in
music. Her re ections relate to private and ‘imagined’ performance within the security
of her home environment. Clearly, she feels intimidated by performing in a school
context whereas her private musical world is a safe, non-threatening place where she can
Ž nd expression as ‘it doesn’t matter if it sounds silly’. Part of her fear of public
performance is a result of the difŽ culties with reading notation, which required her to
‘look at it and think and play it’.
In summary, while the ‘musical rivers’ reveal diverse experiences, they also convey
similarities identiŽ ed as an interest in playing instruments and a desire to be involved
with music. This was a common characteristic of all the participant’s recollections. The
‘musical rivers’ also illustrate some important issues relating to experiential knowledge
of music. These representations highlight the in uence of prior experience on artistic
activity as ‘ways of knowing’ that involve re ection, production and musical perception
(Gardner, 1989). These different ways of ‘knowing’ seem to be in uenced by the sources
of their knowledge and motivation. Tim’s production and perception skills are the result
of specialist instrumental training. On the other hand, Diane strongly identiŽ es with the
production of her own music, whilst Sidin focuses critical judgement on her own
music-making and considers herself to be the least musically skilled of the group. Music
is integral and yet differently situated in the lives of these children. Thus, it is important
to examine the ways in which different children make sense of their experiences of
improvising and composing (Van Manen, 1990).

Representing Experiences of Improvising and Composing

The three children (Diane, Tim and Sidin) drew the following forms of representation.
They do more than recount experiences. They also convey possible interpretations
of the nature of improvising and composing, and perceived relationships (Van
Manen, 1990). The images demonstrate three forms of relationship between improvising
and composing. These images fall into categories of experiencing ‘differences’,
‘interrelatedness’, or ‘sameness’. It was found that children experienced improvising
and composing differently according to context (i.e. characteristics of the activity setting)
and intention (i.e. directed by speciŽ c orientations). Most of the children described
improvisation and composition as distinct forms distinguished by bodily intention,
whilst some experienced them as interrelated forms, co-existing functionally in context.
 How children ascribe meaning to improvisation and composition 15
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FIG. 3. Sidin’s musical river.

A few children regarded them as inseparable processes, highlighting a ‘sameness’ in

orientation.

Experiencing Difference
The following drawings by Diane convey improvisation as a kind of continuity in action
whilst composition is expressed in terms of Ž xing thoughts by setting parameters. Figure
4 shows a vivid depiction of improvisation as, metaphorically speaking, ‘a roller coaster
ride’ and composition as a  ow ‘chart’ of Ž xed action sequences. The ‘roller coaster
ride’ re ects the momentum of a short-lived and fast-paced experience in which ‘you
just play’ and ‘it keeps going until you Ž nish’. The metaphor offers a potent way of
 16 P. Burnard
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FIG. 4.

representing the temporal quality of being carried forward. What seems to make the
experience of improvisation possible is that, from the starting point, the player engages
in a process of focusing on a continuing impulse of ongoing activity in which s/he is
thinking in action.
Drawn again by Diane, the compositional image in Figure 5 conveys a multi-direc-
tional rather than uni-directional mode. The arrow directions, geared toward building
structures, indicate a back-and-forth movement of revising parts in relation to the whole,
as a way of forming a musical Gestalt. As shown in many images, re ection as the act
of ‘thinking back over it’ speaks of composition as a process of revision and rehearsal.
Figure 5 makes explicit the setting of limits by bracketing the musical events into
segments. Clearly, the intention was to build a structure as ‘I was thinking back over it
to the beginning to make sure it went with the middle … then I worked out the end’.
The arrows show the compositional path of revision, shifting back and forth across
bracketed segments as she sorts, selects and assembles the piece.

Experiencing Interrelatedness
Drawn by Tim, Figure 6 conveys visual images that are conceived largely as a journey
toward a composition which is generated through improvising. The mutuality is shown
by way of the improvisation which ‘starts with a pattern I’ve played before’ [Tim
points to the straight line], progresses to ‘bursts of going higher and then lower’
[Tim’s Ž nger follows the curved lines] and ‘then you stop’ [Tim hits the precise
point on the page]. The composition is described as ‘a proper piece’ which incorporates
‘a bit of structure and a bit made on the spot and a bit more structure’. These images
create the impression of improvisation in the service of composition as a closely
associated, role-related activity. Composition begins with improvisation and it is impro-
visation which acts as the creative catalyst to externalise musical thoughts. Similarly,
many adult composers improvise as an important tool for realising ideas (Lawrence,
1978). However, whilst Tim’s compositional process emphasised formation and revision
of ideas, as the result of thinking re ectively about relationships within the whole piece,
there were moments of improvisation during the repeat performances of the revised
piece. Thus, improvisation and composition are interrelated in all aspects of the process
of performance.
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FIG. 5.
How children ascribe meaning to improvisation and composition
17
 18 P. Burnard
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FIG. 6.

Experiencing Sameness
In contrast, Sidin considers that there is no difference between improvisation and
composition (see Figure 7). She explains:
Improvising and composing [are] no different, they are the same piece to me.
I can spend a lot of time playing around trying to settle ideas. It’s supposed

FIG. 7.
 How children ascribe meaning to improvisation and composition 19
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FIG. 8.

to get better when you spend lots of time on it but I get so nervous when I
perform. I keep losing my ideas and all of a sudden I’ll forget what I’m
supposed to do and think ‘I’m going to play something wrong. Everyone’s
going to hate it’. So now when I lose my ideas all of a sudden, I don’t look
up and see what everyone is thinking and stop, I say ‘I don’t really care what
anyone else thinks, I’m just going to play on with my partner’. I never used
to play pieces in front of anyone but now I play with my musician friends and
whatever I play comes up good. [Source: Final Interview]
Sidin is an inexperienced player whose unwillingness to take risks means that she
deliberately seeks to play with others. Her performance fears can be attributed to a
myriad of factors (some of which were reported in earlier chapters). For example, she
makes a distinction between externalising ideas (‘playing around’), the internalised work
of ‘memory’ (‘losing my ideas’) and maintaining continuity in performance (‘look up
and see what everyone is thinking and stop’). In other words, she used to encounter a
complex interplay of cognitive and performance difŽ culties, mechanisms in which the
music was sounded out, selected, grouped and recalled or ‘lost’ in subsequent perfor-
mances. Despite these skills-related issues, Sidin’s fear of memory lapses and perform-
ance errors diminished with increasing support of playing partners whom she could trust
and who trusted her. Sidin found collaborative settings allowed her to feel less
vulnerable for reasons that were more social than musical. Thus, it was the interdepen-
dence between improvisatory and compositional processes, where one depends on and is
inseparable from the other, as mirrored by the musical partnership, to make pieces afresh
in performance.
As in the case of Sidin, there were other children who expressed a similar perspective.
One further drawing by a participant called Katya will provide a further illustration of
the importance of intention where the creation of music is concerned. Katya (who shares
 20 P. Burnard

a similar musical background to Diane) has played the piano for four years and clarinet
for two years. In Figure 8, we see two versions of an intersection which re ect Katya’s
performance-directed desire to make pieces afresh. She explains:
Improvising is different ideas jumbled up coming in from all directions. It’s no
different to composing ‘cause your ideas come from different places and they
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meet in what your playing. They are not really set because you’re always
improvising in some ways. I like changing my ideas around. It’s not about
remembering it. [Source: Final Interview]
These remarks illustrate several issues about improvisation. Firstly, the experience is
characterised by spontaneity making the music fresh, free of the need for memorisation
and fear of making mistakes. Secondly, that the process of performance is, by nature,
improvisatory means there is little need to encode or ‘set’ the music in memory. Thirdly,
the ‘sameness’ becomes a manifestation of musical divergence as inŽ nite combinations
of ideas come ‘from all directions’ or ‘from different places’. Finally, the image of an
‘intersection’ suggests a musical convergence of all these ideas at a place where sound
meets and play exists free of expectations ‘about remembering it’. Unlike the previous
images, improvising does not represent a stage of a process that is going on to another
point but rather, represents the continuity of each moment being led up to and led away
from.
Sidin and Katya represent aspects of similar experiences in as much as both are
concerned with a desire to perform, a passion for sound and reluctance towards
memory-directed composition. Interestingly, Katya is a keen and experienced performer
whilst Sidin is as keen but much less experienced. For Sidin, it makes ‘no difference’
if pieces are planned or not. In the  ux of things, the details become apparent only in
the contingent and precarious moment of performance. Improvising and composing
come to represent a similar process because they are interlaced and overlapping, in the
service of each other; as the direct outcomes of the vagaries of performance. By bringing
a sharper focus on ‘performance’ the intentions underlying improvising and composing
become inseparable and mutually dependent. At the intersection, improvising occurs in
the service of composition to generate a divergence of ideas and, similarly, composing
occurs in the service of improvisation to establish a divergence of ideas. Thus, neither
experience is marked out from the other in the streams of ideas.

A Model of Children’s Experience of Improvisation and Composition

It was apparent that improvising and composing seemed to be as much about the
children’s relationship to musical activity as improvisation and composition were to each
other. These formed relationships that comprised:
1 Improvisation and composition as ends in themselves and differently orientated
activities;
2 Improvisation and composition as interrelated entities whereby improvisation is used
in the service of making and performing a composition; and
3 Improvisation and composition as indistinguishable forms that are inseparable in
intention.
Thus, it emerged that the children incorporated improvisation into the compositional
process. However, their underlying intentions resulted in different ways of experiencing
improvisation and composition. Figure 9 is a shaded Venn diagram that depicts the three
 How children ascribe meaning to improvisation and composition 21
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FIG. 9. A model of the relationshi p between improvisation and composition .

forms of relationship between improvisation and composition. From a child’s perspec-

tive, the relationship between improvisation and composition can be described as
follows: (i) distinct and separate (see lightest areas); (ii) interrelated (see shaded areas);
and (iii) indistinguishable, where no distinction is apparent (see darkest area).
This study highlighted the diversity of children’s understandings of both the nature
and relationship between improvisation and composition. Surprisingly, musical training
was a less critical determinant of the ways of experiencing improvising and composing
than the creative intention.

Implications For Teachers: rethinking pedagogy

The Ž ndings contained a number of implications for teaching. For instance, children’s
willingness to improvise and compose is a function of creating an environment where
children can express their creativity. By starting with activities that are not too far
removed from the child’s immediate experience, creativity becomes integrated within the
child’s existing musical experiences and skills. Furthermore, by locating children in a
range of musical settings they come to recognise the multidimensional nature of music
resulting in greater valuing of what they already know, think, and can do.
Inevitably, teachers have their pre-conceptions regarding improvising and composing,
which must in uence their pedagogic approach. However, the Ž ndings from my research
suggest that it is advantageous to apply the potential of both improvising and composing
to enhance the social dimension of music learning which recognises the signiŽ cance of
children’s perspectives. For learning should be perceived as meanings negotiated
amongst learners as well as between learners and their teachers. Teachers should,
therefore, try not to impose their values but rather encourage the children to discuss and
develop their own.
Our aim as music educators should be to facilitate a form of music education that
focuses on genuine experiences of children being improvisers and composers rather than
acting out a pre-deŽ ned model. Subsequently, we must encourage and assist the children
to think critically and creatively. As Dewey (1916) claimed ‘each [individual] has to
refer his [sic] own action to that of others and to consider the actions of others to give
point and direction to his own’ (p. 87). Children should be encouraged to: (i) discuss
what it is that is intrinsic to their own musical experience; (ii) identify themselves not
only as music makers but as music creators; and (iii) encouraged to re ect on what it
is to improvise and compose.
 22 P. Burnard

If we acknowledge the importance of the words of children then they will socially
construct the ways they compose and improvise in the classroom. Sharing understanding
will help the children to recognise why they are doing a certain activity and what they
are doing, leading to an awareness of how they are doing it. Thus, by giving children
the opportunity to articulate their understandings we enhance learning.
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It was Polanyi (1966) who said that within the domain of human knowledge, ‘we can
know far more than we can tell’ (p. 4). This view re ects the experiential nature of
learning and the importance of incorporating re ection in the curriculum. Children
should be encouraged to talk about, re ect upon and write about (in re ective journals)
their musical experiences in order to help make meaning of their learning. The Ž ndings
from my study indicated that all children, irrespective of musical backgrounds, have the
potential to think explicitly about music experiences. Thus, teaching improvisation and
composition should incorporate: (i) examining past and present assumptions about what
it is to improvise and compose; (ii) encouraging children to be more re ective by asking
children to think about how as well as what they improvise and compose; (iii) ensuring
the starting points for improvising and composing are based on children’s existing
knowledge and experience; (iv) ensuring children have the opportunity to select from a
wide range of instruments; (v) sufŽ cient time for children to clarify conceptual
modiŽ cation or changes and to test and extend ideas through their actions and
re ections; (vi) a clear distinction between critical appraisal and interpretation of
improvised and composed outcomes; and (vii) opportunities for children to confer
meaning on the creation of their own music and musical experiences.
Without doubt, teachers will meet with some difŽ culties when they try to apply the
re ective methods discussed in this paper. However, it is important for teachers to
prioritise time for re ection in the curriculum. It is hoped, that once children and their
teachers re ect on what improvising and composing means to them they will become
better equipped and more likely to envisage what they could come to mean within and
beyond the classroom.

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