Daniel Healy
The Influence of Technical Proficiency On Clarinet and iPad Improvisation Achievement
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of improvisation achievement to instrumental facility among clarinet students with two to three years of performance experience. This inquiry examined this relationship from two perspectives: (1) the relationship of improvisation achievement scores to a measure of clarinet facility, and (2) the analysis of improvisation achievement scores as performed on two different modalities, clarinet and iPad. The study was focused on three research questions: (1) Is there a difference in clarinet students’ improvisation achievement scores using their primary instrument versus an intuitive iPad program? (2) Does instrument facility influence the improvisation achievement score in either modality (clarinet vs. iPad)? (3) Do students prefer one improvisation modality over the other and is preference related to improvisation achievement or instrument facility?
McPherson’s (1993) Test of Ability to Improvise (TAI) was adopted as the measure of improvisation achievement. The researcher-designed Clarinet Technical Facility Measure (CTFM) was utilized to assess basic clarinet facility. The iPad program, Thumbjam, was selected as the alternative modality for this study due to its interface compatibility with the nature of the TAI tasks. Participants were given a short training session on Thumbjam before participating in the iPad iteration of the TAI. Every participant in the sample (N=43) recorded improvised performances on both the clarinet and the iPad. Audio data were scrambled for anonymity and judged by two groups of three middle school teacher judges.
Results demonstrated significant group differences in improvisation achievement scores between the clarinet and the iPad. Mean TAI scores were consistently higher on the iPad than on clarinet. Clarinet facility appears to specifically enhance clarinet improvisation without direct transfer to the iPad. Participants were nearly evenly divided in terms of their preference for clarinet or iPad as an improvisation modality, however, this preference did not appear to be a significant variable on TAI scores. Clarinet facility scores and modality preference also seem to be independent of one another. Although iPad program suitability depends on the type of program and the musical task at hand, participants with less developed clarinet facility were still able to demonstrate significant improvisation achievement on the iPad.