Ensino e aprendizagem de improvisação em um curso superior de música

Abstract

This research aimed to explore and analyze the processes of teaching and learning improvisation at the Music School of UFMG. Improvisation in this context is related predominantly to the ability to compose a solo in the course of the performance, which is built based on a pre-defined harmonic structure. Accordingly, the training of this skill is mainly based on pitch structures, such as scales, chords and the relationships between the two. Developing improvisation skills is part of the curriculum of the recent course of Popular Music of the institution where this research was carried out. However there are students from other courses that are also involved with training this skill. This research sought to identify the characteristics of these students and also of the teachers who are designated for teaching improvisation. About the methods used in its pedagogy one can argue that they are very similar to those used in jazz courses. Perhaps this is why jazz is a genre central to disciplines involving the teaching of improvisation, along with Brazilian instrumental music, which has similar paradigms to the first musical genre. This research suggests that although the inclusion of the study of improvisation and popular music represents an important change in the institution investigated, the concepts about music and how to teach music at the Music School of UFMG have slightly changed with the entry of this new repertoire.