'Swinging through the trees': Vocal jazz improvisation, metaphor and embodied cognition

'Swinging through the trees': Vocal jazz improvisation, metaphor and embodied cognition

This paper explores the nature of cognition during vocal jazz improvisation, using one elite jazz singer’s descriptions of her experience of improvisation as a case study. These descriptions suggest that a broader concept of cognition is in play during improvisation than that commonly targeted for development by learner improvisers and vocal jazz educators.

Broadly speaking, vocal jazz pedagogical methods for teaching improvisation rely on a computational model of cognition. Developing jazz vocalists might be forgiven for thinking that learning to improvise is a matter of inputting data into a computer—the common advice for learner improvisers is to transcribe great improvised solos, learn 'licks', become fluent in the jazz 'language' and train one’s ears. Such activities are presumed to occur 'in the head'.

There is no doubt that this type of cognitive apprenticeship is an important part of learning to improvise. However, the participant elite jazz singer placed a heavy emphasis on bodily experiences during performance. The singer’s self-reported experience of improvisation did not therefore accord with cognition as computation, which tends to guide the teaching of vocal improvisation. This raises questions such as: 'What is the nature of cognition for this singer when she improvises? Might a better understanding of singers’ experiences of improvisation inform vocal jazz education?' The singer’s descriptions of what it is like to improvise—captured almost entirely in metaphorical language—suggest that masterful vocal jazz improvisation is not only the result of a 'well fed brain', but is more adequately explained by an embodied concept of cognition, which views cognition as influenced and perhaps even constituted by the dynamic interaction of the brain, the body’s motor system, and the environment (physical, cultural, and social). Potential implications for vocal jazz education will be discussed.

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