In this project, a band’s possibilities to deepen its improvisational capabilities as a group has been studied. The goal has been to make it possible for a quartet to improvise arrangements of original compositions in terms of varying forms, dynamics, tempi and roles in the music. To achieve this, several interplay exercises have been created to practice these parameters. After the concert related to the project, an analysis has been conducted on which of these exercises that seem to have influenced the band the most, but also which characteristics that made some exercises seem influential and some redundant.  

After acknowledging the difficulties of knowing what is a result of the exercises, and what is merely a display of the quartet’s natural interplay, a conclusion has been reached. The interplay exercises that seem to deepen a group’s capabilities for improvising arrangements are the ones that can be done very concrete, but also be varied and feed new ideas. This was audible in a concert situation, where exercises in looping, free improvisation and varying musical roles became prominent. On the contrary, exercises that are too narrow, making them difficult to evolve, do not seem to have the same effect on a group’s interplay. Examples of these are playing fast rubato, or changing instrumentation quickly.