Group practice reflection
Introduction
As a aspiring musician, we often find ourselves navigating the delicate balance between
individual expression and collective creation. Throughout this module, I’ve had the
opportunity to participate in the creation of three distinct musical pieces that have
profoundly influenced my development as a guitarist. These collaborative experiences
have pushed me beyond my comfort zone, highlighted my strengths, and revealed areas
where I need further growth. In this reflection, I’ll explore how this collaboration influenced
my creative approach and compare my journey with two of my peers.
My Role in the Creative Process
As the guitarist in our ensemble, I approached the project with mixed emotions—
excitement about creating with others, but apprehension about how my individual style
would fit within the group dynamic. My background had primarily been in solo playing,
making the collaborative aspect both challenging and refreshing. Throughout our sessions,
I found myself serving as a bridge between the rhythmic foundation and melodic
expressions within our compositions.
My primary contributions came in the form of chord progressions and rhythmic patterns
that helped establish the harmonic framework for our pieces. I noticed early on that while I
was comfortable providing these foundational elements, I hesitated when opportunities for
soloing or more expressive lead work arose. This realization became a pivotal moment in
my self-assessment as a musician, highlighting a clear area for development.
The collaborative environment proved invaluable for experimenting with new techniques.
When our group was developing the main theme for our second piece, I suggested
incorporating elements of modal interchange—using chords from harmonic keys to create
more colorful harmonic movements. This suggestion was well-received and encouraged
me to be more vocal about my ideas, despite my initial reservations about stepping
forward. It did bring up a lot of doubts as to whether what I heard internally worked for the
others.
Evolution of Creative Approach
As our project progressed through the three pieces, I observed a significant shift in my
creative approach. Initially, I found myself playing it safe, sticking to familiar patterns and
conventional progressions. However, the diverse musical backgrounds within our group—
ranging from classical to jazz and contemporary styles—challenged me to expand my
harmonic vocabulary.
In our final piece, my contribution was more intuitive than technical. I discovered several
uniquely sounding chord voicings that I found naturally by ear, without knowing their
theoretical names or structures. These chords added distinctive color to our composition,
but highlighted an area where I need significant development—my theoretical knowledge
of harmony. While I could create interesting sounds, I struggled to communicate these
ideas to my bandmates in musical terminology, often resorting to demonstrations rather
than explanations.
This experience revealed a gap in my musical education that I’m now motivated to
address. Being able to discover interesting harmonies by ear demonstrates good listeningskills, but my inability to identify what I was playing limited my ability to build upon these
ideas systematically or communicate them effectively to others. I’m now in the process of
adding more chord shapes and structures to my bag of tricks, which will offer more
exploratory options in the future. I hope lol.
The project also highlighted my need to develop more confidence in improvisation and
scale work. While I could competently execute predetermined parts, I found myself
hesitant during improvised sections. My peers’ encouragement pushed me to embrace
these moments rather than avoid them, gradually building my confidence in this area.
Even though I still froze at times when I could’ve experimented.
Comparing Experiences with Taz and Sofia
To gain perspective on my experience, I spoke with two classmates about their journeys
through similar collaborative projects. Their insights revealed both commonalities and
contrasts in our creative development.
Sofia, like me, noted significant growth in her confidence when contributing to group
performances. She highlighted how peer influences expanded her knowledge of different
genres—something I also experienced working alongside musicians from varied
backgrounds. However, her observation about the exclusion of production students and
the disjointed nature of her group’s piece raised an important point about genuine
collaboration versus mere coexistence of ideas.
Sofia reflected: “I’d also suggest finding more compromises with the whole group as it felt
like our piece had a section for the classical students and then a section for the jazz
students.” This insight resonated with me, as I had noticed similar divisions in ourgroup’s
work also, where we sometimes created and perhaps were relying on our great pianist
rather than truly integrated musical ideas from everybody’s skillset. There was a student in
particular who seemed a bit left out and she didn’t get to add much. I wish id have known
how to bring her in more.
Taz’s experience offered another valuable perspective, she faced challenges similar to
those I encountered as a guitarist with primarily rock and indie acoustic influences working
in a ensemble that was screaming for electric guitar solos. Her comment about becoming
“more comfortable working in a collaborative setting” mirrored my own journey from
hesitation to engagement.
Critical Evaluation and Areas for Development
Looking critically at the creative process, our group succeeded in creating three cohesive
musical pieces that showcased each member’s strengths. The final composition
demonstrated technical competence and stylistic diversity, with my guitar work providing
the 3 chords discovered more from feel than knowledge.
However,Personally, my reluctance to fully commit to improvised solos limited my
contribution to certain sections of the pieces, while my lack of theoretical knowledge
hindered my ability to communicate musical ideas effectively.
My primary areas for development include:
1. Expanding my theoretical knowledge of harmony and chord construction
2. Developing greater confidence in lead playing and improvisation
3. Building a stronger vocabulary to communicate musical ideasConclusion
This collaborative project has been instrumental in revealing both my strengths as a
guitarist and areas where I need further development. The experience highlighted my
ability to discover interesting sounds while exposing my need to grow in music theory,
improvisation, and lead playing. The insights gained from comparing my journey with Sofia
and Taz’s experiences have reinforced the value of active listening, genuine collaboration,
and stepping beyond comfort zones.
Moving forward, I intend to focus deliberately on understanding the theory behind the
sounds I create, along with developing my improvisation skills and scale work. The
balance between intuitive playing and theoretical understanding remains an ongoing
exploration—one that I now approach with greater awareness and purpose.
Interview with Sofia (13/05/2025)
“In James’ class (as I’m assuming this is what this interview is for lol) I’ve noticed a large
development in my confidence regarding contributing to group performances. As an artist,
I’ve developed my creative skills through developing my knowledge of other genres due to
peer influences.
An improvement I’d suggest is making sure to include everyone in our group more, as
often it felt like the creative process was monopolised by a group of us and we slightly
excluded the production students (since our pieces never really incorporated production or
live DAW). I’d also suggest finding more compromises with the whole group as it felt like
our piece had a section for the classical students and then a section for the jazz students,
and the transitions felt uneasy. If we’d compromised more then the piece might’ve been
more coherent.
Working with others has helped me understand different genres and instruments more, as
well as develop general social general musicianship skills. It’s made the atmosphere really
positive and it’s made the group project really enjoyable :)”
Interview with Taz (15/05/2025)
“I feel like I’ve grown to be more comfortable working in a collaborative setting. I usually do
a lot of solo projects so it was good to be pushed out of my comfort zone a bit. I was the
only pop student in my group which made things a bit challenging. Sometimes it felt like I
was on a different page to everyone else which meant I wasn’t always comfortable with
some of the ideas but I was surrounded by people who understood when I expressed that,
I’m glad that’s the environment I got to work in. I kinda wish I felt confident proposing my
own ideas more. There were times when I did but not as much as I would’ve liked to.
Before this year, I hadn’t really been exposed to a lot of jazz music, I took that as an
opportunity to really listen to my group and how they played which definitely helped me get
better at improvising. As a singer I think I’d become used to receiving some lyrics, learning
them and that’s it, but overtime I started to understand the importance of really listening to
every instrument to know when and where vocals were appropriate. This definitely helped
our composition to sound more structured.”
On Wed, 21 May 2025, 10:34
