{"id":2720,"date":"2017-03-28T21:41:11","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T01:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.music.mcgill.ca\/mpbs\/?page_id=2720"},"modified":"2017-04-21T20:43:20","modified_gmt":"2017-04-22T00:43:20","slug":"stress-and-jazz-improvisation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.music.mcgill.ca\/mpbs\/stressed\/stress-and-jazz-improvisation\/","title":{"rendered":"Stress and Jazz Improvisation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Improvisation is one of the most complex forms of creative behavior. The improvising musician faces the unique challenge of managing several simultaneous processes in real-time \u2013 generating and evaluating melodic and rhythmic sequences, coordinating performance with other musicians in an ensemble, and executing elaborate fine-motor movements \u2013 all with the overall goal of creating esthetically appealing music.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>(Beaty, 2015)<\/p>\n

A JAZZ MUSICIAN\u2019S STRESS STORY<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Billy is a great jazz musician that has a regular concert date on Saturday nights in a jazz club of his small native town.\u00a0 The music is ready for performance, he\u2019s playing at his best (as usual), his bandmates are in a good mood and people in the audience are having a great time.\u00a0 In the middle of the 2nd<\/sup> set, another musician enters the venue. He\u2019s a fantastic, really well-known musician from outside town.\u00a0 He finds his way through the crowd and sits right in front of the stage, first row.\u00a0 From the stage, Billy recognizes him, of course. He says to himself:\u201d Hey, that\u2019s Kenny Watson from New-York\u2026 I think he was playing tonight in the concert hall with his band.\u00a0 Wow!! this guys is so great!\u201d\u00a0 So while deciding on the next tune, he starts feeling his heart beating faster and louder, his breathing speed has increased, he has dry mouth and his hands start to shake a bit.\u00a0 First of all, he counts off the piece (a bit too fast\u2026), then BOOM, memory blank—He forgets parts of the melody.\u00a0 He starts improvising, but after a chorus or two, he gets lost in the form.\u00a0 While wanting to get back on track, he feels that he can\u2019t because he forgot the chord changes. A feeling of confusion, fear and insecurity takes him over. All that time, the music is playing but he feels like he is outside of it, like as if he was in a completely different place and time frame. Confused, he finally stops playing in the middle of the bridge section, forcing the piano player to abruptly take over.<\/p>\n

After the show, the piano player comes to him and asks: “Hey, what happened in that tune we played? You were doing so well all night, and all of a sudden, you seemed to have lost it.” The answer to that question was: \u201cI don\u2019t know\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though he usually stays at the venue to talk to people he knows, he quickly packs up his gears and leaves. On his way home, he bumps into one of his long time friend who asks him about the performance: \u201cSo, how did the gig go tonight??\u201d<\/p>\n

He answers: \u201cIt went so bad\u2026 I\u2019m the worst player on the planet, I can\u2019t play anymore. I think I should quit\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking at the situation,it is obvious that stress interfered with Billy’s capacity to improvise fluently, but how exactly?<\/p>\n

[accordion multiopen=”true”]<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, let’s take a look inside the improviser’s mind.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[toggle title=”What’s happening in a musician’s mind during improvisation?” state=”open”]<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

PRESSING\u2019S MODEL OF IMPROVISATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Pressing\u2019s model of improvisation seems to be one of the most accurate in the literature so far. In fact, most of the research done to this date tends to acknowledge it. In 2015, Beaty wrote the review The neuroscience of musical improvisation<\/em><\/a><\/strong> and summarized it in his introduction.<\/p>\n

Improvisation is an acquired skill that requires a lot of practice to be mastered\u00a0 (about 10000 hours over a 10-year period, also known as the 10-year rule<\/em>).\u00a0 It is stated that it involves an interplay between cognitive, perceptual and emotional referent processes (a series of well-rehearsed retrieval cues that are deployed during performance, minimizing processing demands and guiding idea generation) and procedural and declarative information stored in a domain-specific knowledge base (hierarchical knowledge structures stored in long-term memory). Also, Pressing includes the perceptual feedback, short-term (ongoing motor movement) and long term (decision making and response selection), and error correction, that allows the improviser to minimize the distance between intended and actual performance. (Beaty, 2015<\/a><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

In fact, the close-loop model Pressing proposes includes the feedback in the creative process, as the improviser is comparing the actual output with the intended output, and then adjusting the future performance.\u00a0 He conceptualized improvisation as a series of generative and evaluative processes. Although these processes involve some level of cognitive control and conscious monitoring, Pressing emphasizes the role of automatized motor processes and routines (e.g., well-rehearsed action sequences) and argues that improvisational fluency relies on automatized processes that require minimal conscious attention.\u00a0(Beaty, 2015<\/a><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

\u201cDomain-specific expertise seems especially relevant to musical improvisation. In addition to the physical and psychological constraints common to other domains of skilled performance, jazz musicians must perform under extraordinary temporal constraints. Improvising requires the simultaneous execution of several processes in real-time, including sensory and perceptual encoding, motor control, performance monitoring, and memory retrieval, among others.\u201d \u00a0(Beaty, 2015<\/a><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

[\/toggle]<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let’s now investigate stress, and see how it can interfere with the musician’s improvisational capacities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[toggle title=”An overview of stress<\/u><\/strong>” state=”open”]<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cStress refers to an organism\u2019s physiological and psychological reaction triggered by an external or internal stressor, such as an environmental condition or a psychological stimulus. It is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances and can last for just a few minutes to hours (acute stress) up to months or even years (chronic stress).\u201d (Ness & Calabrese, 2016<\/a><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

So, what makes us stressed out? What characteristics make a situation stressful?<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE N.U.T.S THEORY OF STRESS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

According to the N.U.T.S. theory<\/a>, a stress response in human can be triggered if one or more of the following characteristics are present in any given situation.\u00a0 The more elements present, the more chances there is for an individual to experience stress. They are: N<\/strong>ovelty, U<\/strong>nexpectability, T<\/strong>hreat to the ego and the lost of S<\/strong>ense of control over a situation.<\/p>\n

OK, a situation is perceived as stressful by the brain… \u00a0Then, what happens in the body??<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>As pointed out by Ness and Calabrese (2016), when a situation is perceived as stressful, neurons located in the periventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus <\/strong><\/a>synthesize and release corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH)<\/strong> which in turn triggers the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone<\/strong><\/a> (ACTH)<\/strong> from the pituitary gland<\/strong><\/a> into the bloodstream. ACTH acts on the adrenal glands<\/strong><\/a> and thus induces the release of glucocorticoids<\/strong> from the adrenal cortices. Glucocorticoids alter the function of multiple body tissues in order to mobilize or store energy to meet the demands of a stress challenge.<\/p>\n

This stress system is called Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal<\/strong> Axis (also called HPA axis)<\/p>\n

There are two main classes of stress hormones: the glucocorticoids,\u00a0<\/strong>also called cortisol in human, and catecholamines,\u00a0<\/strong>also known as epinephrine and norepinephrine. Once those hormones are released, they bind to two types of receptors at different location in the body. First, the low-affinity mineralocorticoid receptors<\/strong>, situated almost exclusively in the hippocampal formation, and secondly, the high-affinity glucocorticoid receptors<\/strong> which are present in high concentrations in the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the prefrontal cortex. (Ness & Calabrese, 2016)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a resting state, the mineralocorticoid receptors are usually occupied, while the glucocorticoid levels are too low to bind to the low-affinity glucocorticoid receptor.\u00a0 When a stressful event occurs, glucocorticoid level gets high enough to activate both low-affinity and high-affinity receptors\u201d (Ness & Calabrese, 2016). It is then that stress symptoms may be experienced.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a short explanatory video on the topic:<\/p>\n