Musical Improvisation as Therapeutic Practice: A Short Film

Abstract

This video presentation speaks to the conference theme of ‘music and the everyday’ in asserting the primacy of the non-representational in private acts of musical improvisation. In contrast to representational styles of thought, musical improvisation begins with a praxical opening, or attunement, to the world. It is a way of thinking about something that seeks to be open to one’s connection with it, and thus has the potential to transform (Crawford, 2013). As Heidgger (1962) similarly suggests, attunement involves ‘throwing’ oneself into the world, directing that ‘throwness’ towards something that in turn discloses the world, and ‘elucidation’ – a movement back to the self where one is affec..