B. J. Music Ed. 2019 36:1, 49–67 C  Cambridge University Press 2018 doi:10.1017/S026505171800013X First published online 22 June 2018 Improvisation in general music education – a literature review Christina Larsson and Eva Georgii-Hemming School of Music, Theatre and Art, Örebro University SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden christina.larsson@oru.se, eva.georgii-hemming@oru.se The overall purpose of this article is to provide a convenient summary of empirical research on improvisation in general music education and thereby provide guidance to researchers and practitioners, using a systematic, narrative-review approach. By analysing 20 music education research articles, published from 2000–2015 in peer-reviewed journals, we firstly provide an overview of the key features and knowledge of existing research. Secondly we identify how improvisation has been characterized, conceptually before, thirdly, describing the implications of the literature for improvisation in practice. Our article reveals that improvisation tends to be an overlooked activity both in music education contexts and in music education research. Broadly speaking, music education research tends to characterise improvisation within two conceptual frameworks, which have different implications for implementation; ‘structured’, teacher-directed improvisation and ‘free’, child-directed improvisation. We conclude by arguing that music educational research on improvisation is an underdeveloped field and outline a number of questions to be addressed in future research. Background and purpose Improvisation, in almost all aspects of everyday life, is essential to human existence and a common feature of human experience (Steinsholt & Sommerro, 2006). Improvisation is a distinguished feature of most music practices and children have been shown to benefit from learning to improvise in experientially different ways (Burnard, 2000a; Azzara, 2002; Sawyer, 2003, 2006, 2008; Kanellopoulos & Wright, 2012; Green, 2014). In addition, music improvisation has even been judged to have a positive influence on empathy in children (Rabinowitch, Cross & Burnard, 2013). Researchers have therefore argued that music education in schools should provide improvisation activities to a much greater extent (Sawyer, 2003; Brophy, 2005; Hickey, 2009, 2015; Beegle, 2010; Burnard, 2012). In the US, improvisation has been included in the National standards for Music Education (Consortium of National Arts Education Associations, 1994) since they were formulated 22 years ago. In the revised standards (nafme.org, 2014) improvisation is presented as a creative artistic process and activities that include ‘improvising ideas and patterns as well as a rhythmic, melodic and harmonic improvisation’ are suggested (Yoo, 2015, p. 92). Furthermore, recent music education curricula in many European countries – Norway: udir.no, (2006); Scotland: gov.uk, (2008); Denmark: emu.dk, (2009/2014.); Sweden: Skolverket, (2011); England: gov.uk, (2013); Finland: Oph.fi, (2014); Germany: bildungsserver.de, (n.d.); as well as in Australia, ACARA, 49 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S026505171800013X Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 107.23.116.65, on 04 May 2021 at 05:31:39, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at