Abstract:

The aim of our study is to explore university students’ attitudes towards musical improvisation (MI). Musical improvisation is a fundamental form of musical creativity, but even though the latter should be the ground point in music education, it is unfortunately quite neglected activity. Formal music education prevails in the traditional approach in educating future musicians, where very little attention is devoted to fostering musical creativity. The purpose of our research is to investigate the attitudes towards improvisation in music students at the Academy of music in Zagreb (Croatia) and the Academy of music in Ljubljana (Slovenia).

The results obtained indicate that there are differences in attitudes to MI between Croatian and Slovenian music students. The differences between students were determined regarding the sources of knowledge and skills of MI, the prevalence of MI, the self-perception of quality of improvisation and in elicited emotions by MI. In accordance with the reported results it was concluded that there is not paying enough attention and importance to the development of improvisational skills and knowledge during formal music education at the music academies in Croatia and Slovenia and that it is necessary to successively develop these values throughout the entire music education.

These results represent a significant guideline for improving the educational practice of future professional musicians, as well as its adaptation to the changes and needs of contemporary society.

Keywords:

Formal music education, higher music education, improvisation, musical creativity, students’ attitudes.