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IJMSTA - Vol. 8 - Issue 1 - January 2026
ISSN 2612-2146
Pages: 7
Embodied Sound-Making with Experimental Violin Practices and Their Impact on Learning Processes
Authors: Axelle Bruyne
Categories: Journal
Abstract - Experimental violin practices, particularly those involving unconventional gestures and sound production, offer significant potential for renewing learning processes in contemporary music education. Engaging with non-traditional timbres, material resistance, and atypical playing modes encourages students to develop forms of perception and reasoning that extend beyond the scope of conventional instrumental training. These practices invite learners to articulate hypotheses about sound behavior, negotiate technical challenges creatively, and cultivate a heightened awareness of their own bodily involvement in music-making. Digital tools - such as high-resolution audio - video recording, spectrographic analysis, and multimodal annotation - strengthen this process by rendering subtle sonic and gestural phenomena observable and discussable. The integration of these technologies supports iterative cycles of experimentation, documentation, and reflection, enabling students to trace patterns in their explorations and to refine their technical and artistic strategies over time. The pedagogical implications are considerable. Experimental practices foster autonomy, interpretative flexibility, and critical engagement, while encouraging learners to assume an active role in constructing their musical understanding. They also open pathways for collaborative inquiry, as shared digital materials facilitate collective reflection and peer-supported learning. By framing exploratory sound-making as a legitimate and productive mode of knowledge formation, this contribution proposes a pedagogical approach capable of enriching violin education and contributing more broadly to the development of creative, reflective, and adaptive musicians in the twenty-first century.
Keywords: Experimental practice, Violin pedagogy, Embodied learning, Creative reasoning, Multimodal documentation, Music education
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