2015 Link to the Dissertation: https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/24888 Scholars in many fields of study have examined confidence. Within music education, confidence is often studied through the lens of Bandura’s social cognitive theory, and for music improvisation, much confidence work has been accomplished through survey design and examined confidence to teach improvisation or gender differences. Though Bandura’s self-efficacy model provides a useful framework to study confidence as part of music (especially in understanding why people’s behavior may differ markedly in improvising), confidence may be important to improvising distinct from self- efficacy theory, and deserves inductive and explorative treatment; I completed three qualitative research studies on confident music improvising (CMI). These three studies are shared in this dissertation, a phenomenological study of CMI from the perspective of improvising performers (Chapter 2), a case study of teachers at the jazz portion of a summer music camp (Chapter 3), and most recently (Chapter 4), I explored CMI within the parameters of improvisation teachers helping students build a personal, subjective sense of confidence, which is needed to improvise musically. In the first study, interviews and observations were conducted with three self-described confident music improvisers: a bluegrass fiddler, a jazz bassist, and a baroque violinist. Participants described their learning experiences with CMI. The following essential themes emerged from that analysis – listening, criticism- free environment, sequential experiences, passion for a style, and openness to learning. The first three of these themes were considered pedagogical and the final two themes dispositional. In the second study, case study design was employed to test the essential pedagogical themes—listening, criticism-free environment, and sequential experiences—against situational reality of the jazz portion of a one-week summer music camp. The focus of this second study was on teaching CMI. Interviews, observations, and documents were used to triangulate data. Teaching through questions emerged as a theme of teaching CMI. In the third study, an emergent, responsive interviewing research design was used to explore the experiences of expert improvisation teachers’ teaching praxes for improving student confidence to improvise music. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand praxes of teaching CMI, that is, how expert improvisation teachers conceive the techniques they use to increase student confidence to improvise music. There were two research questions. What teaching praxes do participants use to help unconfident students become confident music improvisers? How does student gender affect teaching praxes?

2015 Link to the Article: http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Shevock14_2.pdf Abstract Paulo Freire was an important figure in adult education whose pedagogy has been used in music education. In this act of praxis (reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it), I share an autoethnography of my teaching of a university-level small ensemble jazz class. The purpose of this autoethnography was to examine my teaching praxis as I integrated Freirean pedagogy. There were two research questions. To what extent were the teachings of Paulo Freire applicable or useful for a university-level, improvisational, small ensemble class? How do students’ confidence and ability at improvisation improve during the class? Data sources included teacher reflections, video-recordings of each class, and conversations on a Facebook page. In the Jazz Combo Lab, students who were unable to successfully navigate the competitive audition process were empowered to develop as jazz musicians and become critically reflective. A narrative of my own evolving praxis is shared around the themes “Freirean Pedagogy as Increased Conversation,” “Empowering Students to Critique Their Worlds,” “Pedagogical Missteps,” and “A More Critical Praxis.” Keywords: music education, Freire, jazz, pedagogy

If music education is to respond to the skills and needs of 21st-century music learners, innovative learning paradigms must be explored. This dissertation reports a research-creation approach for the development of a framework for Creative Music Learning with Technology (CMLT), which emphasizes a process of learning to interact creatively with music. Theoretical analysis of improvisation pedagogy and technology for learning to improvise provide the foundation for creative experimentation. An examination of existing technologies reveals a lack of available tools for cultivating a creative disposition to musicianship. As a result, a prototype application was built for iPad and iPhone based on the principles of the CMLT framework. The software is at once a tool for developing musical understanding and for exploring creative freedom in music. A two-phased study of middle school instrumentalists and expert teachers examined the effectiveness of the prototype. In the first phase, seven expert music teachers and eight middle school instrumental students participated in user testing, revealing that the prototype effectively engaged users in learning many key objectives of improvisation pedagogy. In the second phase, six middle school students reported increased confidence after using the prototype for four weeks. Results suggest there is a strong potential for the framework for CMLT to positively enhance creative music learning.

This dissertation provides an ethnographic account of the history, ideology, teaching methods, and current performance practices and creative processes of Finnish contemporary folk music, an urban, professional music using traditional Finnish folk music as a point of departure for contemporary, individualistic creations. It focuses primarily on the Folk Music Department of the Sibelius Academy music conservatory in Helsinki, where the genre was created and where its most important practitioners have studied or currently teach and work. Finnish contemporary folk music serves as a case study and jumping-off point for theoretical discussions of five larger socio-musical issues: 1) the institutionalization of musicians’ training in traditional musics; 2) the construction of legitimacy, authenticity, and historical continuity in revived and recontextualized musics; 3) the ideology, pedagogy, and methods for teaching creativity; 4) how the authority to be musical and specifically to be creative in music is created and allocated; and 5) the expression and reification of transnational relationships through musical fusions and appropriations. The Folk Music Department, influenced by its conservatory environment, has adopted a Western art music ethos of individual artistry while rebelling against its pedagogy and performance practices, which folk musicians perceive as inhibiting creativity. Contemporary folk musicians legitimize their practices by claiming to enter into the same creative process as folk musicians of the past, allowing them to innovate and experiment while maintaining historical continuity and authenticity. Department pedagogues have developed unique teaching methods drawing from historical practices, manipulating aural memory to imitate oral culture, simulating oral composition, and using avant-garde improvisation to develop individuality and personal expression. Their ideology authorizes all (Finnish) musicians to become tradition bearers and innovators, compose, improvise, and arrange, regardless of musical background or skill. Contemporary folk musicians incorporate musical elements from other cultures, reifying their desired relationships with those cultures. The Department wields tremendous power in the dissemination of ideology, causing an increase in creative activities by folk musicians of all ages and skill levels and general knowledge about and respect for folk music.

Presented at the Community Music in Theorie und Praxis International Conference