Outline: This module is specifically aimed at the requirements of improvisers - both lead and support approaches. In a musical situation where there is scope for improvisation at some level, we are no longer just 'following the dots', reading the music, playing something rehearsed/practised from memory; or being told what to do (musically speaking) in the form of visual or verbal instructions. Instead, the onus is on the improviser to make something up on the spot: do something musically appropriate on their instrument: to respond to the situation appropriately and to meet the requirements in some way.
There are a number of components required to do this effectively. The ear most certainly plays a part in all of this in more ways than one: the ear is used to assess the musical environment and perhaps make sense of what is going on in all respects before deciding how to act; although this is also an ongoing process during the improvisation and may be very interactional by its nature. But the 'ear' is also used in translating what the creative imagination 'hears' to the instrument. It is a matter of knowing what one wishes to hear and knowing how to perform it so it is heard.
Both of these elements can be improved with suitable training; and it is hoped that this module will achieve that goal with a view to becoming a better improviser.