Thinking Through Improvisation

How Arts-based Reflexivity Can Offer New Knowing About Music Therapists’ Experiences of Humour in Music Therapy

Authors

  • Nicky Haire Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh; Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, Scotland
  • Raymond MacDonald Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15845/voices.v21i2.3104

Keywords:

Humour, music therapy, improvisation, reflexivity, arts-based research, thinking through improvisation

Abstract

As part of a larger research study investigating humour in music therapy with persons with dementia, this article details how music therapists perceive, embody and experience humour in their practice. Three focus groups with music therapists ( N = 9) were organised and resulting data analysed through arts-based reflexive methods.

Building on Schenstead’s (2012) articulation of arts-based reflexivity, two distinct and overlapping forms of thinking through improvisation are highlighted; self-reflexivity and collaborative-reflexivity. Finlay’s (2011) phenomenological lifeworld-oriented questions are used to explicate dimensions of experiences of humour and frame broad thematic reflections. Particular correspondence between improvisation as a way of being and humour in music therapy are explored performatively through a group improvisation involving the first author.

The findings from this synthesis offer insight into how music therapists conceive of humour in their work as supportive of relational bonding, and also experience humour as distancing and defensive behaviour. Along with the perceived risks of humour in relational therapeutic work, an intricate balance between playfulness and professionalism surfaced as part of a music therapy identity. Improvisation, while seemingly taken for granted as a part of spontaneous humour, is also problematised through the perceived seriousness of learning how to improvise as a music therapist aligning with a psychodynamic approach. The consequences of these findings are discussed in relation to music therapy pedagogy and practice along with methodological implications of thinking through improvisation.

Author Biographies

Nicky Haire, Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh; Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, Scotland

Nicky Haire is a doctoral researcher affiliated with the Institute for Music in Human and Social Development at the Reid School of Music at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Her research focuses on experiences of humour in music therapy, specifically with persons with dementia. In addition to practising as a music therapist, she is a dynamic performer and has a particular interest in free improvisation, the process of empathic improvisation in music therapy and arts-based research methods. She is a lecturer on the MSc Music Therapy programme at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.

Raymond MacDonald, Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

Raymond MacDonald is Professor of Music Psychology and Improvisation at Edinburgh University. His ongoing research focuses on issues relating to improvisation, musical communication, music health and wellbeing, music education and musical identities and has a particular interest in collaborative creativity. His work is informed by a view of improvisation as a social, collaborative and uniquely creative process that provides opportunities to develop new ways of working musically. He published over 70 peer reviewed papers and has co-edited five texts. He was editor of the journal Psychology of Music between 2006 and 2012 and was Head of The School of Music at Edinburgh University between 2013 and 2016. He is also a saxophonist and composer has released over 60 CDs and toured and broadcast worldwide.

Photo of the authors Haire and MacDonald

Published

2021-06-29

How to Cite

Haire, N., & MacDonald, R. (2021). Thinking Through Improvisation: How Arts-based Reflexivity Can Offer New Knowing About Music Therapists’ Experiences of Humour in Music Therapy. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 21(2). https://doi.org/10.15845/voices.v21i2.3104

Issue

Section

Research