Creativity in the Improvised Drum Solo: South African Drummers’ Experiences through an Interpretative Phenomenological Lens

This article explores how expert South African drummers understand and experience creativity in improvised drum solos. While drumming is often examined in ensemble contexts, this study focuses specifically on unaccompanied solo improvisation—a setting in which the drummer must negotiate creative expression without direct interaction with other musicians or explicit harmonic constraints. Five expert drummers recorded two improvised solos: one structured over the melodic, formal, and stylistic features of Charlie Parker’s “Yardbird Suite” and another entirely free in form. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), interviews incorporating reflective video- stimulated recall were analysed to explore the participants’ lived experiences of creativity. Three interrelated themes emerged: “Becoming a Drummer,” “Creativity and Constraint,” and “Saying Something.” The participants discussed “Becoming a Drummer” through several means of developing, establishing, and expressing a distinct musical identity. They recognised an association between “Creativity and Constraint,” perceiving various constraints to enable rather than inhibit their creativity. The participants ultimately emphasised “Saying Something” through their improvised drum solos, identifying creativity as the ability to meaningfully communicate with listeners’ previous personal musical encounters. The findings suggest that creativity in unaccompanied solo drumming is relational, contextually grounded, and deeply connected to each drummer’s identity and sense of meaning. These insights contribute to broader understandings of musical creativity and performance psychology, particularly in non-melodic instrumental improvisation.