La orquesta libre (The Free Orchestra): freedom practices and rhizomatic learning in an improvisation and experimentation laboratory with children.

Abstract

The article presents the nature, objectives, methodologies, results and conclusions of a free musical improvisation and sound experimentation class for children, La orquesta libre (The Free Orchestra). It gives account of the teacher’s personal expe-rience in which the class transcends its initial objective: to develop a free musical improvisation class through a directed improvisation. It ends up giving way to a space in which the children members of The Free Orchestra develop strategies to feel free in their sound practice. They can, in addition to improvising, compose, arrange, reflect, design graphic scores, play with sound and experience music in multiple ways. The article includes reflections on how the very practice of improvi-sation disarticulated the hierarchical structure of the classroom to give way to in-terdependent and rhizomatic learning among all its members, including the teacher. The article can be added to a corpus of texts that give account of the role of free improvisation in music education and how this practice enriches other practices to promote a musical education ecosystem in children, more affective and in a sta-ble relationship with both the poetic and the technical. This generates tools for self-knowledge, equanimity and the development of children’s own criteria with a powerful and creative individual voice.