In this thesis, I examined how practicing and studying musical motifs affect a jazz musician’s way of improvising.

The main purpose was to investigate how I could get away from old habits and discover new paths in my improvisations with the help of repetition and withholding of ideas. 

In the project, I transcribed some of my musical heroes and analyzed their solos on different recordings. I developed ways of practicing with the transcribed material to get motivic development into my playing. I also did a lot of active listening to recordings in search for other musicians’ ways of using musical motifs. During the concert, I played my compositions and compositions written by other musicians. I transcribed and analyzed specific parts from the concert to hear my development.  

Practicing and transcribing led to an overall understanding of the concept of motivic development. The actual progress was made through focused listening to recordings and committing to a specific part of improvisation for a more extended amount of time.