The social meaning of musical improvisation

This study presents a broad sociological perspective on musical improvisation. Using survey data, observation, and interviews, this paper presents the preferences for improvisation that musicians and audiences exhibit in the music that they listen to and/or perform. Nearly all survey respondents enjoyed watching musicians improvise, most respondents enjoyed the type of music with a great deal of improvisational freedom, and most musicians enjoyed improvising on their instruments. Compared to other reasons for listening to music, however, improvisation was not very important. Music-based measures of exposure to improvisational music (i.e., being a musician and downloading music from the Internet) were associated with improvisational preferences, but class-based measures (i.e., income and education) were not. Subjects exhibiting social nonconformity were more likely to play and listen to improvised music. Those who exhibited strong preferences for improvisation listened to a wider range of music, improvisation-wise, than those who did not. Interviews revealed the complexity of subjects' feelings on improvisation.