My Improvisation Practice : the act of improvising in individual instrumental practice, collaboration projects and performance

Sammanfattning: In this study I research and reflect on the way I have been practicing with my saxophone, how I have been collaborating with others and how I’ve worked with performance during my two master years, with a focus on improvisation. The study is a presentation of my Professional Integration Project on NAIP-European Master of Music-program. I have had many different projects that will be presented. By playing, listening, and analyzing free improvisation I wanted to learn more about myself as a musician and about improvisation in general. I am also going to present individual exercises for improvisation I’ve been using, as well as exercises for group improvisation. I am going to present time-lines of events to see how one thing leads to another. I will present the product of a piece with improvised aspects, that led me and my collaborators to find our own ways of rehearsing. By summarizing the many aspects, I present my findings by describing what I want to learn, and how I want to learn it, and how I’ve been working with free improvisation groups and music collaboration, and what is important for me while performing improvisations. The findings of my studies suggest that I have developed my improvisational skills by playing free improvisation and doing exercises. My projects has also shown that you can combine written music with improvisational aspects in a classical setting by using different ways of rehearsing. Lastly, I found that it is important that, while improvising, musicians have a total mental presence to avoid energy loss in the music.