Embodied Micro-Transitions

Employing multimodal conversation analysis, this article examines a single episode of interaction taken from a studio session, during which two musicians check a chord progression. It illustrates how intra-activity micro-transitions are solely achieved through embodied actions. The detailed analysis reveals (a) how the suspension of “playing-along” is occasioned to exhibit participants’ orientation to auditory objects whose “turning-on” makes relevant disengagement from other interactional involvements; and (b) how the temporal complexities of multiactivity are contingently managed in exclusive order, explicating (c) members’ embodied practices for working around the organizational constraints of the auditory objects.