Om att öva med och utan instrument – en studie i hur fyra professionella saxofonister övar med och utan sitt instrument i händerna

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to investigate how four jazz saxophonists practice without their instruments. The focus of the study is the type of exercise without the instrument that can be related to concepts like mental practice and visualization. To see how they practice without the saxophone this type of exercise must be related to their practice with the saxophone, hence the title and research area of this study. Four professional jazz saxophonists were interviewed and the results from the interviews were analyzed, categorized and compared with previous research and topic-related material. The results of this study show that my informants use exercise without the saxophone to varying extent, but generally not as a conscious strategy. Exercise without the instrument is a kind of practice that can improve the performance in practice with the instrument, especially in memorizing music, but only if mental exercise without the instrument is used as a complement, not a substitute, to physical practice with the instrument.