Practice and Process

This chapter draws on insights from sociology and psychology as well as current research into artistry and creativity to consider the effect of the environment on trust in free improvisation. The environment is argued to include both the physical and the affective environments as well as all the cognitive, affective and physical affordances that contextualise the interaction. Consequent to such a definition, the environment plays a part in shaping the music because it includes extant idiomatic and stylistic protocols as well as spaces of freedom (freeness), experimentation, support, care and safety. Drawing on the interviews and extant literature, the chapter considers how improvising musicians, particularly women and gender-diverse performers, engage with and trust the various environments in which they perform. Furthermore, it considers how trusting the environment plays a role in enjoyment of the experience of musical improvisation and vice versa.