Improvisation as Liberatory PRAXIS in Popular Music Education

There is growing recognition that improvisation is a vital artistic and ontological practice that can promote developments in many areas of musicianship and beyond. Although improvisation is taught and assessed in education institutions throughout the world, pedagogical research on improvisation is disparate, emerging mainly from case-specific accounts of particular musical traditions, for instance, jazz and free improvisation. Furthermore, in certain musical contexts, improvisation is often viewed primarily as a means to an end or as a method to construct musical artifacts.

In contrast, this volume considers improvisation within the field of popular music education not as a ＂means to an end＂ but as the opportunity for liberatory praxis. Editors Gareth Dylan Smith and Zack Moir view improvisation and improvisatory thinking within education as means to enhance, challenge, rethink, or disrupt normative pedagogic approaches within popular music education. Improvisation offers liberatory potential through resisting, undermining, and refocusing many of the forces in music education and cultures of music learning that can have dehumanizing effects on learners, teachers, scholars, and practitioners alike.

The editors have curated a unique collection of essays wherein improvisation as liberatory praxis works as an exploratory framework. Together these chapters--written by leading scholars, practitioners, and musicians from around the world--explore ways to consider improvisation and improvisatory thinking within education as means to enhance, challenge, rethink, or disrupt normative pedagogic approaches within and around popular music education.

Gareth Dylan Smith is Assistant Professor of Music, Music Education at Boston University. His books include A Philosophy of Playing Drum Kit, I Drum, Therefore I Am, and Authentic Drum Kit Pedagogy. Smith is a drummer and released his duets album, Permission Granted, in 2024, followed by Pathétique with pianist Austina Lee in 2025. His research interests include drumming, punk/DIY/DIWO, and eudaimonia/hedonia. Smith is founding co-editor of the Journal of Popular Music Education, past president of the Association for Popular Music Education, and founding co-editor of the book series, Contemporary Music Making and Learning.

Zack Moir is Professor of Learning and Teaching in Music at Edinburgh Napier University. His research interests are in higher popular music education, social justice, and composition/improvisation pedagogies. Moir edited The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music Education, The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education, and Action Based Approaches in Popular Music Education. He is also an active composer/musician, writing for saxophone and tape, and solo cello, and creating reactive generative sound art installations for the Edinburgh International Science Festival.