A Constraints-Led Approach to Improvisational Saxophone Practice

Abstract

This practice-led research project documents the application of the constraints-led approach within my self-regulated improvisational saxophone practice. The constraints-led approach is a pedagogical framework founded on the theoretical principles of ecological dynamics, within which learners are conceived of as complex adaptative systems with the capacity to spontaneously form self-organising patterns of behaviour in response to organismic, environmental, and task constraints. Constraints-led learning designs harness this self-organising tendency, implementing practice tasks that guide learners to explore new methods of identifying and acting upon information sources within their performance environment. My practice project unfolded across a 13-month developmental period in three overlapping phases of practice, each of which featured a unique learning design founded on constraints-led principles including nonlinear learning, constrain-to-afford, task variability and representative practice design. The three learning designs implemented movement-based task constraints that were oriented towards skill acquisition and the development of improvisational dexterity rather than the internalisation of musical vocabulary. A corresponding self-assessment model was developed to evaluate the efficacy of the practice tasks in promoting the formation of new stable patterns of coordination and control. Research outcomes include newly generated understandings of the relationship between saxophone-specific movement-based processes and resultant improvised musical production, and the development of practice processes to overcome movement-based instability. Outcomes also include a creative component, featuring four recorded original works. Together, these outputs contribute new knowledge to current understandings of improvisational learning and practice, as well as illuminating the utility of the constraints-led approach within self-directed musical learning projects.