The way forward

This chapters presents conclusions and overarching summaries of key issues, outlining implications for future research. The accessibility of an arts practice that offers creative engagement at any level of virtuosity can have a transformative effect on music education and the ways we feel about making music in our everyday lives. The location of creative agency within a group, rather than within an individual, calls for a new psychology and musicology of improvisation. These issues and other aspects of the way ahead are discussed, with suggestions for new directions in studying, making, or researching music and other improvisatory arts in years to come. In the moments of improvisation, we have opportunities: to explore our identity; to connect with other people; to make conceptual breakthroughs and gain new insights; to develop our confidence or self-esteem; to be understood; to be misunderstood; and still to have fun within an artistic and expressive environment.