Introduction to Trust in the Art of Free Improvisation

This chapter outlines the aims of the book: to investigate and bring to the fore the nature and function of trust in free improvisation. It argues that although free improvisation is a subset of a variety of greater domains, ranging from un-notated music-making to life in general, it has some specifically unique characteristics. Trust plays both a social role and a musical/sonic one in the process, predominantly because the process functions as a product, and any output is evaluated in terms of criteria that arose during the process, rather than having been set as an aim beforehand. The chapter also outlines the slightly modified version of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) that allows us to contextualise our analyses in an ensemble context. IPA is a well-established qualitative approach developed to investigate individuals&s; lived experiences and how meaning is made in relation to those experiences. This chapter outlines the theoretical underpinnings of IPA and includes a description of the general principles of the process.