Learning from musicians better than me. The practice of copying from recordings in jazz students’ instrumental practise

摘要

The article gives an account of the practice of copying from recordings, asa part of jazz students’ instrumental practise. The article is based on a PhDthesis, which was designed as a qualitative interview study with 13 Norwegianand Swedish jazz students, within an activity theoretical framework. Resultsshow that copying as learning practice is considered to have different outcomes,where acquiring a specific musical content or musical ’language’, aswell as developing a generic procedural improvisation competency were perceivedoutcomes. The character of the learning objects were connected to differentcopying modes, differentiated in three main categories: detail-orientedcopying, concept-oriented copying, and improvising along with recordings.The three modes, though different in character, all involved improvising. Thiswas interpreted as a means to personalizing the acquired knowledge in orderto operationalize it in their improvisatory performing practice.Keywords: instrumental practise, jazz, improvisation, copying, recordings,activity theory, learning outcome, learning object, copying