Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Music

Transitive Property was a structured improvisational performance that explored spontaneous co-creation through music and dance. The project sought to explore interdisciplinary relationships using coexistent, process-based, and collaborative creative methods inspired by Shultis, Cage, and Cunningham. In addition, the project explored how the use of collaborative improvisation in performance can incorporate the audience and physical environment in creative ways. The rehearsal process for Transitive Property occurred over six weeks and included collaborators specializing in music and dance. Rehearsals were planned based on improvisational and pedagogical methods of Reeve, Morgenroth, and Hahn, and ongoing feedback and responses from the collaborators were essential throughout the process. The rehearsal process resulted in the hour-long performance Transitive Property. Two performances of this work (Spring 2024) investigated the inherent musicality of dance and speech, the dance-like qualities of artists drawing or musicians playing, the visual artistry of written language and scores, and the performance of everyday action. Transitive Property demonstrated that process-based artmaking in the form of interdisciplinary and collaborative improvisation can be an effective way to strengthen inter-performer relationships and create meaningful experiences for performers and audiences.

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2022, Dance

This creative research project explores how embodied knowledge in dance deals with structures of authority, power, relationship, and collectivity as they manifest in practices of group movement improvisation. Through critical reference, expert interviews, and experimental workshops, the research discusses how "togetherness" is facilitated and negotiated through the lens of group improvisation in dance. The research highlights how elements of group improvisation practices can be used as tools for shifting habitual or traditional ways of structuring authority into new, collective ways of "being in togetherness," using the term "generative practices" to develop these concepts.

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2021, Music

Piano instruction is often conducted as an isolated practice. Most pre-college pianists attend regular private lessons, practice their repertoire at home, and occasionally partake in competitions and recitals. On rare occasions, piano students have access to collaborative environments, such as studio classes, chamber music, or other ensembles. Due to the segregated nature of private music instruction, pianists are often deprived of collaborative or interdisciplinary creative opportunities, which can lead to limited self-expression and perspectives on how music relates to other art forms and to society. Unless pianists are presented with practical instruction and examples of how different art forms intersect with each other, many immersive opportunities can go undiscovered. This thesis explores the applications of the arts in comprehensive, pre-college piano instruction. An experiential program was implemented for young pianists to interact and collaborate with four different art forms: dance, literature, theatre, and visual art. This project observed how interdisciplinary experiential learning affects piano students' interpretations of music as well as how it encourages confidence and liberty in musical improvisation, collaboration, and performance.

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Contemporary Music

Improvisation offers unique opportunities in musical creativity and development, though incorporation of the teaching of improvisation into American higher education curricula has been uneven. While there is a growing interest in teaching improvisation, most improvisation instruction can be found in early childhood music education and in high school and college-level jazz instruction, creating an accessibility gap for individuals who wish to improvise or teach improvisation but have no experience improvising, in a jazz context or otherwise. The purpose of this document is to examine current instructional methods of teaching free improvisation in higher education, and to develop a series of musical prompts designed to develop spontaneous musical creative ability in an individual and group setting. In doing so, this document aims to reduce the accessibility gap and to help bring the culture of creative improvising further into collegiate-level musical instruction.

BA, Kent State University, 2019, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

In theatrical improvisation, actors create a performance without the use of a script, and with no prior preparation. The skills and cooperation required for such a feat mirror positive client-therapist relationships, and exercises in improvisation cultivate healthy, flexible ways of being. An array of approaches makes theatrical improvisation flexible enough to use regardless of therapeutic framework. Therapists have used an improvisational mindset to spur improvisational moments, and they have directly integrated exercises and skills into sessions in order to assist in evaluating underlying issues clients may be facing. Short-form improvisation is goal-oriented and can be used in training therapists as well as helping clients. Long-form improvisation provides a structure for longer-term, relationship-based therapeutic interventions. Research is limited, due to the challenge of operationalizing an art form for empirical investigation, but there is plenty of literature on theory and practice. Findings on the few empirical studies available, as well as anecdotal examples provided by authors, indicate that learning and practicing improvisation skills can help therapists develop confidence, therapeutic presence, and charisma. For clients, intervention programs can help them feel more connected and congruent with themselves, and more emotionally flexible.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1971, Graduate School

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2024, College-Conservatory of Music: Theory

This dissertation explores the tension between improvisation and preservation in the development of the barbershop style. Barbershop music is an American genre of a cappella vocal music originating in improvisational singing by African Americans in the late 19th century. Barbershop singing was widespread in the first two decades of the 20th century, but later declined in popularity until a group of Midwesterners founded the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA) in 1938. This Society was built on nostalgia and a desire to preserve “the old songs” and the practice of barbershop quartet singing. Preservation was primarily accomplished through contest rules, which outlined the mandatory elements of the barbershop style. In this dissertation, I emphasize the importance of improvisation in the formation of barbershop music. I explore the role Society preservation efforts played in codifying certain elements of contemporary practice and provide detailed explication and analysis of SPEBSQSA music theoretical sources. I identify weaknesses in existing barbershop theory for explaining certain chromatic progressions that are idiomatic to the style and suggest that these progressions are evidence of the Black improvised origin of the style. By applying modern neo-Riemannian theory methodologies, I demonstrate that parsimonious voice leading is a key organizing principle of barbershop music that can be visualized through graphical representations of seventh chord harmonic spaces. These findings allow me to present a comprehensive theory of barbershop harmonic practice, which I employ in a thorough study of harmony and voice leading in barbershop endings, called tags.

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Music Composition

An Uncommon Duo is a composition for solo performer and computer. The performer plays glass bottles, ocarina, thunder tube, and voice, while the computer processes those sounds live and plays fixed media using Cycling ‘74's Max object-oriented audio software. The work explores the intersectionality between composition and improvisation through the medium of technology. The title, An Uncommon Duo, derives from pairing two unlikely forces–one human and one electronic. The piece is organized into two interconnected movements, with each highlighting two acoustic instruments. The first movement, “An Earthen Flute”, features the ocarina and glass bottles, while the second movement, “A Thundering Breath”, features the voice and thunder tube. An Uncommon Duo is pseudo-improvised with the live performer creating improvisational gestures and textures that anticipate and/or react to the computer's predetermined live processing effects and fixed media tracks. An Uncommon Duo's musical language was derived from the instruments' spectromorphological characteristics rather than adhering to traditional harmonic or melodic structures. Each movement's musical material includes instrument and found object sounds, live processed sounds, and fixed media soundfiles. Density and energy fluctuate over time, with individual gestures evolving into large sound masses that subsequently disintegrate into moments of stasis and repose. Exploring extended, non-standard techniques with acoustic instruments was integral to creating a diverse and engaging texture as each movement evolved. The first movement's techniques include flutter tonguing, key tapping, air sounds, pitch bending, and multiphonics on the ocarina, as well as clinking and blowing the rim of the glass bottles. The second movement's sound world includes whistling, tongue trilling, breath sounds, vocalized phenomes, and simultaneous whistling and singing on the voice, combined with hitting/tapping, shaking, and dragging finger (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, East Asian Languages and Literatures

This research is about the underlying process language learners rely on to be able to engage effectively in unscripted conversations without premeditation, or “improvisation.” To engage in improvisation in another language, one needs to recognize those elements of the evolving cultural context that are significant at the moment. By associating past experience with the perceived current context, one can develop appropriate scripts, both linguistic and nonlinguistic, and perform them readily to keep the conversation flow. How do teachers and students work together to enable language learners to socialize in the target culture through engagement in improvisation? Does training help? What kind of training works? The argument is East Asian language learners at various levels profit from consistent contextualized performances. I conducted two verification studies in Chinese and Japanese language programs at the Ohio State University. The aim of these studies is to refine the observation that the classroom activities that fostered the development of improvised learner performances followed a discernible pattern. Both studies were conducted in programs that follow the Performed Culture Approach (Walker and Noda 2010), which meant that students were encouraged to learn from the multiple and sequenced experiences of using language in realistic and feasible social contexts. One involved intermediate level Chinese and the other one focused on beginning level Japanese. The observations were conducted to describe how students, including focal students, and their instructors worked together to develop improvised performances. The focal students participated in individual interviews that included recall protocols of their actions during the focal class sessions. Starting with a discussion of experiential learning, the study narrows the focus of the discussion to participating in another culture using the target language through the lens of the Performed Culture Approach (PCA) (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Music (MM), Ohio University, 2022, Music Therapy (Fine Arts)

Adult individuals seeking non-pharmacological, therapeutic support for situational mental health challenges have emerged as a population group that is unrecognized and underserved by the mental healthcare system in the US. Music therapy is known as a beneficial treatment modality for these individuals, but accessible treatment methods for this group of consumers is narrowly represented in music therapy literature. This case exploration was conducted to gain insight into the experiences of one member of this population as she engaged in a series of music therapy sessions involving reflexive, participant-led therapeutic music experiences facilitated by a supportive music therapist. The clinician, who was also the primary investigator in this study, employed research methods based in transcendental phenomenology during collection and analysis of rich, descriptive data. The research process ultimately resulted in synthesis of the essential, structural elements of a phenomenon that emerged organically from the participant's therapeutic process. The essence of the phenomenon, Therapeutic Change, is defined by the intersection of Awareness, Control, and Connection within the therapeutic space. The researcher discusses implications of these findings and makes recommendations for development and future implementation of a new, integral model of music psychotherapy that emerged as a result of this work, called Insight-Oriented Music Facilitated Psychotherapy (IMFP). The researcher believes the ethical application of IMFP will empower and inspire music therapy clinicians to expand their services to meet the mental health treatment needs of this emergent group of consumers.

Doctor of Musical Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, Music

The following document discusses Katherine Hoover's Clarinet Concerto (1987), while setting the Concerto in context with the rich history of women in classical music, jazz, and feminist theory. It traces the intersection of history, feminism, and genre, discussing feminist theory and its application to music. Flutist and composer Katherine Hoover (1937-2018) was a world-renowned composer, known for her elegant and intense style for wind instruments, primarily the flute. Her repertoire for clarinet is not only versatile, but virtuosic, and explores a wide variety of genres, from jazz to Greek folk song. The Clarinet Concerto (1987), written for jazz clarinetist Eddie Daniels, is a powerful work, which presents challenges both with traditional performance and jazz-based improvisation. An in-depth biographical sketch of Katherine Hoover is provided, documenting her development from a young student with limited music education, into a world-renowned artist and composer. Also included is a brief history of women composers and performers in both classical music and in jazz, along with biographical sketches of historic jazz clarinetists and their impact on the genre. Finally, the Clarinet Concerto is explored as a performance guide, including tips on improvisation for those who might be uncomfortable with the medium. The Clarinet Concerto is promoted herein for clarinetists, not only for its invaluable musical elements that blend jazz and classical sounds, but for its reflection of a feminist work that has helped to shape music today.

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2021, Dance

For my undergraduate thesis project, I have created an improvisational dance score called pillow:you:blanket Dances, which uses props and language to lead participants through a dance improvisation and is designed to engage dancers who are physically separated due to COVID-19. This score, which is specifically designed for the restrictions and realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, is an innovative tool that combines virtual and physical elements to create a meditative improvisational experience. Using dance improvisation as a method of inquiry, I abstracted my bedroom into two objects, a pillow and a blanket, and created a dance score meant to be practiced alone and at home. Hosted online for anyone, anywhere to access, the score fosters feelings of playfulness, nostalgia, and awareness for participants as they create relationships with inanimate objects.

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2020, Curriculum and Instruction

This qualitative study investigated how learning works within innovative organizations through interviews with leaders at those organizations. Such organizations included churches and businesses which have found success because of their ability to function as learning organizations. The researcher sought to understand how these organizations create cultures and environments which promote learning, as well as to examine the ways that they have attempted to foster transformative learning, learning which leads to the expanding of identity on the part of the learner. In addition, the role of improvisational values, principles, and practices in encouraging such learning was also investigated. Through interviews with the leaders of 10 such organizations, the researcher found that these organizations fostered learning through creating organizational cultures and structures designed to foster the well-being of those with whom they work. Well-being is fostered in three ways: through nurturing joy, through granting individuals dignity and visibility, and through creating connection and purpose. In order to foster joy these organizations create a playful culture that embraces an abundance mindset, remove fear from the workplace and grant individuals permission to fail. In order to grant individuals dignity and visibility, these organizations put systems in place which recognize and value individual differences, such as the use of qualitative rather than quantitative evaluation; they adopt responsive approaches which ensure that individuals are listened to, and they reward success and creativity. In order to foster connection and purpose they share ownership with individuals, empowering those within their organizations (or with whom they work), particularly through adopting a systems-thinking approach; they share an expansive vision with individuals who are invited to work with them, and they intentionally nurture connections between individuals and community with the organizat (open full item for complete abstract)

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2019, Music

The purpose of this study was to present non-playing practice techniques for the development of the melodic vocabulary for jazz improvisation. Specific research questions included: 1) What non-playing practice techniques have shown to be effective in cultivate music performance skills? 2) What are the most commonly recommended practice techniques for developing the melodic vocabulary for jazz improvisation? Why are these important? 3) What, if any, non-playing practice techniques have been recommended for developing the melodic vocabulary for jazz improvisation? Why are these important? Relevant literature was reviewed from the following 7 categories: (a) studies of non-playing practice techniques within instrumental music education, (b) historical accounts of top improvisers; (c) mainstream printed jazz pedagogy; (d) recently-published alternative jazz pedagogy; (e) online jazz pedagogical resources; (f) dissertations/theses relating to jazz pedagogy; and (g) Music education research related to jazz pedagogy. Semi- formal interviews were also conducted with pedagogues Jamey Aebersold and Hal Crook. The study concludes with a presentation of a 5-step method for the development of melodic vocabulary which includes: 1) Engage in immersive listening, 2) Develop an intellectual understanding, 3) Internalize the language, 4) Connect theoretical and aural understanding to fingering technique, and 5) Apply ideas in context.

Doctor of Musical Arts, The Ohio State University, 2019, Music

National standards in music education from elementary through the university level dictate that students should receive instruction in musical improvisation. However, most university music curricula do not include coursework devoted to the subject. This document first examines the calls for reform in collegiate music education as well as the challenges and barriers to change. Then, a review of literature illuminates motivations for incorporating improvisation in music education, the benefits of improvisation training, research on assessment in improvisation, and methods for teaching improvisation. A comprehensive semester-long course for teaching non-idiomatic improvisation at the undergraduate level to musicians of all instruments and backgrounds follows. The course design, assignments, and activities are all detailed to facilitate potential adoption by collegiate institutions. The document concludes with avenues for further research on the topic. It is the hope of this author that this document inspires the creation and adoption of courses in improvisation at colleges and universities.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Comparative Studies

From the behavioral and cognitive sciences to the interdisciplinary field of critical improvisation studies, scholars and artists have increasingly focused on the creative potentials of improvisation not just as an artistic practice, but also as a force in all spheres of human behavior. In this field, while many scholars have attested to the connection between musical improvisation and everyday life, the quality of that connection has not been rigorously studied. This dissertation examines that connection in earnest by asking: what are the differences between musical and social improvisation? It also argues that a thorough investigation of this relationship might reorient our thinking about the aesthetics and politics of improvisation itself. In exploring these questions, I argue that the link between music and everyday life centers on the notion of contingency—that in both musical and social situations, improvisation is coextensive with a contingent encounter between subjects, objects, and multiple environments. I pursue this argument in three parts. In the first section, I develop a multidisciplinary comparative methodology centered on the notion of “contingency”. This approach helps me to conceive improvisation as a total socio-cultural phenomenon, rather than a musical skill. In the second section, I then deploy this framework through three musical case studies: one track each from Eric Dolphy, John Cage, and Norwegian free improvisers Mr. K. In this section, I trace the historical, cultural, and musical specificities of each example, arguing that each improvisation is radically incommensurate with the others. Subsequently, I compare my conclusions on musical improvisation with improvisation's appearance in the space of everyday life. In this last section, I take up Michel de Certeau's everyday practices and Sara Ahmed's queer phenomenology, locating the fundamental indeterminacy and constitutive contingencies at the heart of both everyday practices (such as (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Popular Culture

The subculture of jam bands is often publicly held to multiple stereotypical expectations. Participants in the subculture are expected to fall into one of two camps, coastal elites or “dirty hippies.” Members of the Northwest Ohio jam scene often do not have the kind of economic privilege that is assumed of them based on the larger jam subculture. Not only do these perceptions create difficulties for audience members of the Northwest Ohio scene, but there are added complications for the musicians in the scene. This research explores the challenges of class and belonging faced by participants in the Northwest Ohio jam scene. More specifically, this thesis focuses on the careful social negotiations scene members and musicians are required to navigate in order to maintain insider status while dealing with the working-class realities of life in the area. In this thesis, I argue that subcultural capital is one of the most significant factors for belonging to the larger subculture, and that its necessity, which requires sufficient economic support, demands more nuanced practices by local scenesters in order to maintain. I dissect the complexities of the concept of “family” in the jam scene, including its meaning for audiences and musicians, as well as how it intersects with class and public perceptions of class in the scene. Finally, I argue that musical forms and practices hold significance in establishing genre authenticity, but I maintain that class is a determining factor in the decisions bands make about whether or not they hold completely true to genre boundaries. This thesis attempts to address the complexities of class and how it functions in small, local rock scenes, specifically in the Northwest Ohio jam scene.

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2018, Leadership and Change

Educational researchers have conducted very few studies on the subjective experiences of both trained and self-taught auto mechanics (Barber, 2003, 2004; Nelsen, 1997, 2010). Further, no present studies explore the subjective experience of the automotive instructor as he or she experiences uncertainty in the automotive lab. This study addresses a gap in the current literature on career/technical instructor development. For this study, data were gathered by video recording automotive laboratory activities at three Midwestern automotive programs. Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) interviews were conducted with automotive instructors as they observed themselves navigating the lab environment. Data from the IPR interviews were analyzed using emergent thematic analysis. The research revealed that most instructors in this study were aware, after reflection, of the reasoning behind many of the intuitive and improvisational behaviors, and had an awareness of the nuances of skill assessment the importance of modeling behavior. This study also identified transfer of artistry as a concept of advanced skill attainment in automotive subjects. Transfer of artistry is the result of an instructor's ability to manage several paradigms of the laboratory experience at once, to create the appropriate conditions for a student to develop the cognitive, spatial, and tactile skills necessary for performing advanced automotive diagnostics and repair. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2017, International and Comparative Politics

The utilization of improvisation theatre in businesses and organizations to revolve conflict began to be used at the turn of the century. This new and growing tool has helped with company mergers and internal disputes. Thus, why not use these same improv theatre elements in international conflicts? The analysis of three distinct cases of track two diplomacy and improv theatre has shown the possibility of a new tool for diplomacy mediators to utilize.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2017, Music Education

An Exploration of Musical Habits of Alumni from “The Lakewood Project” and How They Musick After High School By ELIZABETH AYLMER HANKINS ABSTRACT The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the musical habits of alumni from The Lakewood Project (TLP), a high school rock orchestra whose alumni tend to participate in music making experiences after high school at a high rate. Two lenses were used to explore this phenomenon. First, Christopher Small (1999) defined musicking as a person contributing, in any capacity, to a musical performance or in any activity that adds to the human encounter of music. Second, Situated Learning Theory, a theory derived from the apprenticeship model, stating that students are more inclined to learn when actively participating in their learning. Both components have been the bedrock of TLP environment. Thus, the research questions in this study included (1) the ways in which TLP alumni were motivated and enabled to musick after high school, (2) how TLP learning environment emulated their current musicking environment, (3) what aspects of formal music learning and informal music learning have they continued to use, and (4) what skills or knowledge were missing from their TLP experience. This multiple case study was based on ethnographic data collection techniques and included five TLP alumni. Data were collected through observations, interviews, and participant artifacts. Codes and themes were assigned following data analysis. Themes included musical motivation, voluntary risk-taking, the musical zone, camaraderie, and democratic collaboration. Within-case and cross-case analysis produced overarching themes, including a well-trained ear; arranging, composing, and improvising; knowledge of technology; and the ability to develop and implement performances. Unexpected findings included participants' motivation to give back to younger musicians and their comfort with failure. Embracing failure as an opportunity to achieve grea (open full item for complete abstract)