Expanding Self-Referential Awareness in Music Learning: Utilising the Expressive Arts to Facilitate Reflection during Group Free Improvisation

Traditional music education has prioritised external over internal performance aims, leading some learners to prioritise external motivations. I facilitated a workshop series for participants who experienced music performance anxiety when improvising, to examine if free improvisation coupled with expressive art response could cultivate self-knowledge and self-referential awareness to balance internal and external motivations and restore healthful evaluations of the participants' music-making. Using case study and art-based research, I invited six participants to improvise, journal, engage in art response during the playback of improvisations, and participate in group discussions. Findings suggest that participants learnt to identify self-referents and expand their conscious awareness of inner dialogue, emotions, and physical sensations during music-making. They were able to use this expanded awareness to begin to redirect their focus from self-conscious thoughts to more non-judgmental or creative states. Internalised fear-based motivation was identified as a barrier to effective musical communication during improvisation.