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A breed apart and a breed below: creative music performance and the expert drummer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2020

Bill Bruford
Bill Bruford*
Affiliation:
High Broom, Moon Hall Road, Ewhurst, Surrey, GU6 7NP, UK
*
E-mail: bill@billbruford.com
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Abstract

This article argues that contemporary systems theory explanations are insufficient when accounting for ‘in the moment’ creative musical performance. The system model's focus on a domain-changing contribution from an individual fails to offer a satisfactory account of the construction and assessment of the more everyday distributed and collaborative creativity undertaken by many popular music instrumentalists. A cultural psychology perspective, in contrast, situates distributed creativity inbetween people and objects rather than within them. Glăveanu's ‘Five As framework’ has particular utility in capturing the ordinary creativity that does not seek to change the domain but nevertheless contributes to it. The model is applied here to four case studies of expert instrumentalists that draw upon a combination of primary evidence, lived experience and original research.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , May 2020 , pp. 312 - 331
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Discography

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