A narrative review of cognitive load and student motivation in jazz improvisation pedagogy

The process of learning to improvise on a musical instrument is one that often provokes fear among music students, particularly at university. This article explores the existing research to better understand the intersection of teaching jazz improvisation with established strategies such as autonomy-supportive teaching and newer approaches like load-reduction instruction (LRI) emerging from cognitive load theory and self-determination theory (SDT). Although there is some research into the cognitive load of improvising, much of this is geared towards professional contexts, and further investigation into the burden of improvisation activities on students’ cognition is, therefore, much needed. Similarly, studies into motivation to engage in improvisation are also geared towards professional understanding, even though students’ motivation in learning to improvise as part of their studies has been shown to be influenced by different cultures surrounding jazz and jazz education programmes. With limited research, the motivations for studying improvisation are uncertain and spread across the literature, with a high degree of variability based on factors such as prior training and instructors’ and musicians’ goals. This narrative review will illuminate areas of the jazz improvisation pedagogy literature from which strategies can be extrapolated for use in the classroom to reduce the cognitive load of students and boost student motivation. In doing so, it will examine the relationship of these practices to broader understandings of how students are motivated to learn, suggesting avenues for exploration both in terms of teaching strategies and evidence-based approaches to better support the accessibility and inclusivity of jazz improvisation education.