Patterns in Flight: Constraints-led Practice to Develop Coordinative Skill for Improvised Guitar Performance

Abstract

This project investigates practice design to develop coordinative skills for spontaneously improvised guitar performance. In this study, guitar playing is conceptualised primarily as a bimanual coordinative task. A constraints-led approach was used to design and conduct an experimental practice intervention to promote skill transfer, increase capacity to calibrate attentional focus, and develop aesthetic approaches to creative performance. Bimanual coordination was developed in three contexts: (i) juggling, (ii) drumming and (iii) spontaneous guitar improvisation. This three-task circuit promoted skill transfer between tasks. Methods of interleaved practice and differential learning were applied, using kinaesthetic feedback as the primary tool to monitor development. The intervention was conducted over a three-month period. This project extends upon emerging research that applies ecological dynamics and non-linear pedagogy through a constraints-led approach to musical skill acquisition. The project included the production of a creative work: an album of spontaneously improvised music entitled Patterns in Flight. Findings include a taxonomy of useful practice techniques and performance cues to stimulate coordinative skill development and encourage transferred skill to emerge during performance.