Playing by ear: trust creation as improvisation and sensemaking

The vast majority of all music ever made is played by ear. To make music by ear means to create, perform, remember and teach music without the use of written notation. This is a type of music-making that has been little observed by musicology, which has mainly been devoted to notated music. Even in the research on folk and popular music, which has expanded in the last twenty or thirty years, questions of musical practice when you play by ear are rarely treated: how do you learn to play an instrument, how do you make songs, how do you teach and learn songs and how do you conceive of music theory?

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Group Playing by Ear in Higher Education: the processes that support imitation, invention and group improvisation

British Journal of Music Education ◽

10.1017/s0265051717000109 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 34 (3) ◽

pp. 291-304 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Maria Varvarigou

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Peer Interaction ◽

Classical Music ◽

Music Students ◽

First Year ◽

Group Creativity ◽

Classical Musicians ◽

Western Classical Music ◽

Playing By Ear

This article explores how group playing by ear (GEP) through imitation of recorded material and opportunities for inventive work during peer interaction was used to support first year undergraduate western classical music students’ aural, group creativity and improvisation skills. The framework that emerged from the analysis of the data describes two routes taken by the students, whilst progressing from GEP to group improvisation and it is compared to Priest's (1989) model on playing by ear through imitation and invention. The article concludes with suggestion on how these two routes could be used to scaffold the development of western classical musicians’ improvisation skills.

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