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Chapter 3 Methodology

This study is guided by the following research questions:
1) How do kinetically efficient actions and patterns interact to enable an improvising guitarist to navigate the fretboard most effectively?
2) What is the most efficient way to structure patterns from the major scale and jazz melodic minor on the guitar by considering the layout of the instrument?
3) How can the benefits of chunking be applied to achieve cognitive efficiency, so that the economic patterns become part of motor memory?
4) What are the affordances that the guitar provides to the player’s musical environment and how do these affordances relate to dynamic touch and effectivities?
5) How would economy of movement be achieved from one pattern to the next?
6) How to test these on TUT guitar learners who have all completed a four-year guitar practical module?
7) How will evidence be collected and data be processed?

Research Design

Cresswell (2014, 32) identifies three approaches to research. Quantitative research is framed in terms of using numbers or using closed-ended questions (quantitative hypotheses), as opposed to qualitative research that is framed in words rather than numbers and open-ended questions (qualitative interview questions). Mixed methods research can draw from both qualitative and quantitative data where the combination of approaches provides a complete understanding of a research problem.
In this research undertaking, data was collected from the perceptions and actions of each individual test subject and from active observations of these subjects in their natural environment during application of various reduction concepts on the guitar. As researcher, I actively participated by asking open-ended interview questions and accompanied the participants during their application of specific scale patterns in improvisation. The individual methodologies that the participants applied to the concept of reduction and the point of view of each participant had to be examined. The participants’ input was essential to the project as a whole and a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer provided by a closed-ended enquiry used in the quantitative approach, would not have provided adequate data to answer all of the research questions. The mixed-methods approach, which integrates both quantitative and qualitative components in research methodology, was therefore also ruled out Therefore, a qualitative approach was best matched to answer the particular research questions in this thesis. To support this argument, Ely et al. (1991, 4) argue that Sherman and Webb (1988, 2-8) analysed what leading qualitative researchers had to say about their work in various areas including philosophy of education, biography, history, ethnography, life history, grounded theory, phenomenography, curriculum criticism, uses of literature in qualitative research and critical theory.
The following characteristics of qualitative research were identified by Ely’s analysis:
1) Events can be understood effectively only if they are seen in context, and therefore a qualitative researcher engages in the setting
2) The contexts of inquiry are natural and not manufactured. Nothing is taken for granted or pre-defined
3) The participants should speak for themselves to provide their perspectives in words and other actions
4) Focus is placed on the experience as a whole, not as separate variables.
According to Ely et al. (1991, 4–5), Sherman and Webb (1988, 7) formulated the following summary: “…Qualitative implies a direct concern with experience as it is ‘lived’ or ‘felt’ or ‘undergone’…. Qualitative research, then, has the aim of understanding experience as nearly as possible as its participants feel or live it”.
Creswell (2013), Hatch (2002), and Marshall and Rossman (2011) agree that the characteristics of qualitative research include: Collection of data in the field, talking directly to people and observing their behaviour within their context. Data are collected through observations, documents, and audio-visual information. The data is then reviewed and organised. The researcher focuses on the participant’s perspective on the problem or issue. Some or all phases of the research process may change as the researcher enters the field. The researcher‘s personal background and experience may shape the direction of the study, and the researcher has to reflect on this effect. A complex picture of the issue or problem under study is developed by the researcher (Cresswell 2014, 234).
The philosophical worldview underpinning this research was based on constructivism (as in Chapter 2) and approached with a qualitative research method. Emphasis was placed on interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) as a strategy of inquiry and semi-structured interviews and action research as data collection methods.
A constructivist worldview relates to my research where the participants’ interpretation, behaviour and perspective were observed during active engagement in application and performance of specific tasks on the guitar. A set of patterns and formulas had been presented to participating subjects including all modes from the major and melodic minor scales, taught over a four-year time frame at TUT. All participants had adequate time to memorise/internalise and understand the material on scales or add some of their own contributions to the material. Application and execution of specific patterns (Figure 2.7 and 2.11) and formulas were tested in real-time situations under active observation. This worldview also links into applications of Gibson’s affordance theory (1977), where chunking and the morphology of the guitar combined with knowledge of patterns, their applications and imagination afford the subject to make immediate decisions and yield direct action in the research. Through observation of these actions in their natural environment, theories, patterns and generalisations were recognised by the researcher.
Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) links in with the qualitative constructivist’s worldview since IPA also implements active participation and detailed observation of participants by the researcher. IPA studies are usually focused on purposive sampling of a small group of subjects. Through purposive sampling, a closely defined group that will be more significant to the research question can be identified (Smith 2007, 55–56). According to Gentles et al. (2015, 1781), the general aim of sampling in qualitative research is to obtain useful information for understanding the complexity, depth, variation or context that surrounds a phenomenon. The sample size should allow for saturation to take place where any additional data collection has little or no contribution to the study.
In this study, the subject group consisted of five participants, and therefore I have opted to make use of IPA as a strategy of inquiry that is effective on small sample sizes. The participants were specifically selected because of their skilled ability to partake and execute precise tasks that related to this specific concept of reduction and also allowed them to contribute some of their own discoveries to the research. Participants were selected from a pool of willing guitar players that have all completed a four-year guitar course at TUT. Five participants agreed to take part in the research, and these individuals made up the sampling group.
Smith (2007, 54) comments that IPA sense-making by both the researcher and participant can be described as having cognition as a central analytic concern. A potentially fruitful theoretical alliance is implied between IPA and the cognitive paradigm that is dominant in contemporary psychology. Although IPA shares cognitive psychology and social cognition approaches in social and clinical psychology, it differs from mainstream psychology in deciding the appropriate methodology for such questions. IPA employs in-depth qualitative analysis as opposed to mainstream psychology that is strongly committed to quantitative and experimental methodologies.
IPA explores in detail how participants are making sense of their personal and social world with emphasis on the meanings that particular experiences hold for participants. This approach involves detailed examination of the participant’s lifeworld (i.e. all the immediate experiences, activities and contacts that make up the world of an individual) on the basis of the individual’s personal experience. IPA is a phenomenological approach and focuses on the personal perception or account of an object or event of an individual as opposed to the production of an objective statement or event itself. The researcher takes an active role in this dynamic process and tries to get close to the participant’s personal world.
The researcher’s own conceptions have an influence on accessing of that other personal world through a process of interpretative activity. A double hermeneutic or a two-stage interpretation process is involved. Smith (2007, 53, emphasis added) points out that “the participants are trying to make sense of their world; the researcher is trying to make sense of the participants trying to make sense of their world” (emphasis added).

Data collection techniques

My investigation explored how the five participants subjectively made sense of the reduction concept through their lifeworld and how they applied such concepts during improvisation. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews where the researcher and participant engaged in dialogue and action research. According to Adelman (1993, 8), Mills (1959) stated that “action research gives credence to the development of powers of reflective thought, discussion, decision and action by ordinary people participating in collective research on ‘private troubles”. A qualitative report was written with comments about the narrative that emerged from the IPA analysis of data collected.
A semi-structured approach is more flexible than using a structured interview approach in which the investigator decides in advance exactly what constitutes the required data. In a structured interview, the investigator will use short, specific questions, read the question exactly in a similar way to all test subjects and have pre-coded response categories, where the questioner can match what the participant says against one of those categories. Semi-structured interviews allow the investigator to have a set of questions, but ordering of the questions is less important. This allows the interviewer more freedom in probing areas of interest as they arise. The participant can share more closely in the direction that the interview takes, and can even introduce an issue that the investigator had not thought of (Smith 2007, 57–59).
The strategy in the semi-structured interview process is to get as close as possible to what the participant thinks and feels about the topic without being led too much by the interviewer. The concept of funnelling is efficient when setting up interview questions. The interviewer starts with the most general possible question, and through probing, addresses more specific issues. Questions should be open and neutral rather than value-laden or leading. The interviewer has to be aware of the language and perspective of participants (Smith 2007, 61-63).
In this study, all interviews were video recorded because it was not possible to capture every detail without breaking the flow of the process in an attempt to make notes in real time. The video recordings have been archived and could be made available by request. Each interview was transliterated accurately by referring to the video recordings to capture data. King, Nigel and Horrocks (2010, 46–47) argue that according to Murray (2008), participants should be informed from the start of the interview that they will be filmed and their explicit consent must be obtained. As long as participants have an interesting topic to talk about, they quickly become accustomed to filming.
Participants were actively involved in the research, and their involvement was regarded as essential for two reasons. Firstly, the participants who were being researched have truly been living in the situation that was being researched and have accumulated invaluable insider knowledge of the situation through their own lived experience. Secondly, the participants have directly benefited by the process of research by empowering them to understand and make changes in their own lives with regards to the application of the reduction concept in jazz improvisation.
Specific questions, problems and solutions were identified in the research questions, and by being actively involved in the research process, access and control proved to be pragmatic over the knowledge produced. The validity of the analysis was tested by implementing the changes suggested by the investigation and then evaluating the effects.
David et al. (2011, 15) point out that action research bridges the gap between research and practice because it involves implementing and evaluating solutions to specific local problems. Therefore, action research is different from interviewing or observation-based studies that simply describe and analyse a situation.
According to Gustavsen, Haddon and Qvale (2011, 2), when compared to the production of ‘words alone’, the mapping of practice is a major advantage found in action research. Forms of practice are reality (embodied knowledge), as opposed to words that often have a slippery relationship to reality. Action research is dependent upon working with specific people in specific contexts, and this often implies working with relatively small groups of people to help construct forms of practice. Gustavsen, et al. (2011, 16) emphasise that a challenge arises out of this: How can action research achieve scope, magnitude, or mass in its impact? One answer could be that a theory has to be created with a claim to validity beyond the case, or cases out of which it occurs with an assumption that others can learn from the theory and do likewise.
This research was limited to the execution and application of the major and jazz melodic minor scales and all relevant modes. Data was collected from five guitar learners that have all completed the four-year guitar practical module at TUT. The participants were interviewed, and the interviews were documented by making use of video recordings. Evaluations was made according to the efficiency in execution of patterns on the guitar fretboard and by testing efficiency against a fixed tempo. The subjects were tested on identification of the correct master patterns; their ability to apply the patterns on the guitar fretboard both vertically and horizontally; and their ability to recognise the next pattern if the scale pattern or application changes and to move efficiently from one pattern to the next. The purpose of the tests was to access relationships between actions and patterns to enable an improvising guitarist to move around the fretboard most effectively. Another fixed parameter was introduced by testing the efficiency of the application of pattern or patterns at a fixed tempo on static chord and various applications on major and minor II V I progressions that make up the building blocks of the jazz standard repertoire.
The semi-structured interview was designed to consider the following points for data collection to test the technical application of the concept and to investigate how the participants experienced the concept of reduction in their individual approaches to improvisation:
1) All of the participants had prior knowledge before they enrolled in the first-year program at TUT. They had all obtained information from various sources about applying scales in jazz improvisation, and it was important to the study to investigate where each participant came from and how they felt about changing their previous approach to the new reduction concept
2) The ability of the participants to execute all 10 Dorian and melodic minor patterns from memory on the fretboard with various reference roots on the various strings had to be tested. Execution of the patterns was tested in both a vertical and horizontal direction on the fretboard
3) This concept of reduction relies on both the ability to execute the patterns and to recognise the correct intervallic reference point to provide maximum affordance to the improviser. The participants had to deal with both of these applications and how they perceived to process this information, had to be examined. The ability to quickly recognise the correct intervallic application to apply the correct pattern had to be tested on improvisation on a static chord and on major and minor II V I progressions
4) The affordance that the concept of reduction provided to each of the participants had to be tested. Quick pattern recognition and accurate execution of these patterns and the ability to quickly recognise the correct intervallic application, played an important role in terms of the affordance that the reduction concept provided. The perceptions of the participants had to be examined in terms of what the concept afforded to each participant
5) The ability to improvise by applying only one specific pattern in various areas on the fretboard and the ability to combine both Dorian and melodic minor patterns during improvisation had to be tested
6) Economy of movement and voice leading from one pattern to the next had to be tested
7) The participants view on the practicality of the concept, as well as: the process of learning all of the patterns and formulas, moving from the Dorian set of patterns to the melodic minor patterns, seeing the intervallic applications quickly during improvisation
on various chord qualities and any recommendations on improving or changing aspects of the concept, had to be investigated
8) The concept also had to be applied to a real-world example to test validity and practicality. Russell (1953, 95-96) analysed an excerpt of John Coltrane’s Giant Steps solo, and a theoretical application of this reduction concept to the Coltrane solo would have to be investigated

Ethical considerations

Ethical clearance application form (Annexure A) and a specimen letter of consent from TUT are attached as appendices.
Guiding principles for the ethical conduct of research is as provided by the Helsinki Declaration (Human & Fluss 2001) was taken into consideration in Annexure A. These principals were originally adopted in 1964 and amended in 2004. In the USA the Belmont report was issued by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioural Research on 18 April 1979. The Belmont Report also cites the Helsinki Declaration and was developed to address ethical concerns in both social and medical sciences disciplines (Brydon-Miller 2011, 4).
According to (Brydon-Miller 2011, 4) three basic principals were outlined in the Belmont report:
“Respect for persons, i.e. ‘that individuals should be treated as autonomous agents’ and ‘that persons with diminished autonomy are entitled to protection’ (198)”;
“Beneficence, i.e. ‘do not harm’ and ‘maximize possible benefits and minimize possible harm (199)”; and
“Justice, i.e. ‘research should not unduly involve persons from groups unlikely to be among the beneficiaries of subsequent applications’ (201).”
Specific applications incorporated into human subjects review processes were defined by the Belmont report. These include: (Brydon-Miller 2011, 5)
Informed consent – where subjects are informed about the nature of the research and choose to participate in the research based on their understanding of the information without coercion or undue influence.
Assessment of risk and benefits – the potential benefits of the research have to outweigh any possible risks to the immediate research subject.
Selection of subjects – no individual or group should be fairly included or excluded from participation in the research.

Abstract
Abstract (isiXhosa)
Abstract (isiZulu)
Table of Figures
Chapter 1
1 Introduction
1.1 Aim
1.2 Rationale
1.3 Statement of the research problem
1.4 Research question
1.5 Sub-questions
Chapter 2 Theoretical framework
2.1 Literature survey
Chapter 3 Methodology
3.1 Research Design
3.2 Data collection techniques
3.3 Ethical considerations
Chapter 4 Testing and Findings
4.1 Question 1
4.2 Question 2
4.3 Question 3
4.4 Question 4
4.5 Question 5
4.6 Question 6
4.7 Question 7
4.8 Question 8
4.9 Question 9
4.10 Question 10
4.11 Question 11
4.12 Question 12
4.13 Question 13
4.14 Question 14
4.15 Question 15
Chapter 5 Conclusions and recommendations
5.1 Recapitulation of purpose and findings
5.2 Relationship with previous research
5.3 Limitations of this research
5.4 Problems arising during the research
5.5 Recommendations
6 References
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