CITATION — REFERENCE ENTRY
The neuroscience of musical improvisation — Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
- Key
- beaty2015-neuroscience-improvisation
- Authors
- Beaty, Roger E.
- Issued
- 2015-4
- Type
- article-journal
- Container
- Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
- Volume
- 51
- Pages
- 108-117
Raw CSL JSON
{
"DOI": "10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.01.004",
"URL": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.01.004",
"page": "108-117",
"type": "article-journal",
"title": "The neuroscience of musical improvisation",
"author": [
{
"given": "Roger E.",
"family": "Beaty"
}
],
"issued": {
"date-parts": [
[
2015,
4
]
]
},
"volume": "51",
"container-title": "Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews"
}
Claims
-
fMRI studies of improvisation, using jazz pianists, classical musicians, freestyle rap artists and non-musicians, implicate prefrontal and premotor regions; the review suggests improvisation may reflect cooperation between brain networks for cognitive control and spontaneous thought.
"Activation of premotor and lateral prefrontal regions suggests that a seemingly unconstrained behavior may actually benefit from motor planning and cognitive control. Yet activation of cortical midline regions points to a role of spontaneous cognition characteristic of the default network. Together, such results may reflect cooperation between large-scale brain networks associated with cognitive control and spontaneous thought."
-
Jeff Pressing's model (1988, 1998), described as perhaps the most influential model of musical improvisation, treats improvisation as an acquired skill built on referents and a domain-specific knowledge base, with feedback and error correction, and argues that fluency relies on automatized processes requiring minimal conscious attention.
"Perhaps the most influential model of musical improvisation was developed by Pressing (1988, 1998). ... Pressing’s theory is grounded in the notion that improvisation is an acquired skill that requires a substantial amount of training to achieve expertise. ... According to Pressing’s model, improvisational expertise involves the interplay between referent processes and a domain-specific knowledge base. ... Pressing argued that improvisational fluency relies on automatized processes that require minimal conscious attention."
-
Improvising musicians manage several processes at once in real time: generating and evaluating melodic and rhythmic material, coordinating with other musicians, and executing fine motor movements.
"The improvising musician faces the unique challenge of managing several simultaneous processes in real-time—generating and evaluating melodic and rhythmic sequences, coordinating performance with other musicians in an ensemble, and executing elaborate fine-motor movements—all with the overall goal of creating esthetically appealing music."
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