Indian Classical Music as an Improvisational Art
Improvisation can improve emotional resilience – it can help us learn to ‘go with the flow’
Learning music –of any genre – has proven to have direct positive impacts on students. These can range from academic benefits, such as improved reading skills to personal and social development. Compared to a test group, students who learn music are evidenced to have greater self-esteem, self-reliance, confidence and confidence. It may even improve emotional wellbeing and mental health markers.
Yet there’s one thing Indian raga music offers in particular – and that is the art of improvisation.
Indian classical music is an inherently improvisational art. Within the framework provided by the raag, learners are encouraged to explore, experiment and allow the music to evolve. Similar to culinary masterminds tweaking and adjusting a recipe as they go along, the form lends itself to add-libbing.
But it’s not just ‘winging it’.
It is only through immersive experience and sound technical skill that the exquisite results of improvisation can shine.
The art of improvisation in Indian classical music
Learners of Indian classical music may spend a lifetime perfecting and honing this art. The dexterity, skill, sense of being attuned to the audienceand sophisticated perception required to gracefully execute a largely improvised performance are hard won achievements.
However, this doesn’t mean the benefits are only reaped once mastery is attained.
The journey for raga music is long and extensive, yet beautiful and enjoyable at the same time. No two Indian classical music performances are ever identical and artists can decode and respond to the energies of their audience to deliver masterpieces that touch all the right notes and pull all the right heartstrings. This isn’t easy. But it is exhilarating.
Like going on a trip with a general idea of the destination but no Google maps or GPS guiding your every move – just the pursuit of learning, then, becomes a thrilling adventure particularly liberating for young minds. Thinking on your feet, prior travel experience and an intuitive sense of place guides you as you go along.
Similarly, having a relatively open and level playing field for students to immediately apply what they have learnt and make it relevant to their lived reality contextualises the music in tangible, concrete ways.
The science of improvisation
In a paper titled The Neuroscience of Musical Improvisation, researchers outline the complex framework and operationalised machinery that is triggered when improvisation comes into play.
“The study of musical improvisation provides an opportunity to investigate creativity at a high level of skilled performance,” writes study author Roger E. Beaty. As ‘one of the most complex forms of creative behaviour’, improvising requires spontaneous and simultaneous processing on multiple levels. During an improvisational performance, musicians are “… generating and evaluating melodic and rhythmic sequences, coordinating performance with other musicians in an ensemble, and executing elaborate fine-motor movements—all with the overall goal of creating aesthetically appealing music,” Beaty writes.
Watch an Indian classical music performance closely and this comes to the fore with the beauty of a well-choreographed ballet.
Beginning a cyclical sequence, somehow, through almost inexplicable magic, both the lead and accompanying musicians (such as a tabla artist and a sitar player) or musicians and vocalists land on the same note and end the same cycle.
Immensely gratifying and aesthetically stunning to experience, it seems unbelievable that this isn’t a carefully rehearsed sequence. Instead, it is an almost primal ‘knowing’ and understanding of the form. While the sentence structure and syntax (i.e. the raga) may be shared, the narrative that is woven is different – every single time – yet always grammatically correct.
This higher order processing and act of creation has implications far beyond music. Research is beginning to acknowledge the ramifications of improvisation in music on the psychology of creativity itself.
It follows, then, that embedding the ability for students to follow through a creative impulse to create purposeful, non-random music and movement is a highly sought skill. Especially in an age when many skills that rank lower on Bloom’s Taxonomy are becoming outsourced to Artificial Intelligence, students need to be equipped to synthesise rather than regurgitate.
Learning to improvise does just that; it benefits student learning in school and beyond, stimulates fast thinking, collaboration, team spirit and promotes intuitive responses.
Ultimately, it helps students develop their creativity, positive outlook and resilience. The mental flexibility, spontaneity, and highly refined critical thinking skills that come from learning an improvisational craft with split-second decisions helps children function better across many domains.
Ultimately, as supported by both art and science, students become more imaginative, sure of their abilities to weather the storm – ‘come what may’ – and primed to generate new ideas and think laterally.
When we get better accustomed to being mindful and present without feeling anchored by preconceived ideas, we feel more free, hopeful and alive.
That’s something we could all benefit from.
