Improvising is a lot like learning a language, and I think it helps to view it that way.
For example:
- It is not an innate talent. You are not born knowing how to speak a language.
- It is easier when you are younger.
- It takes awhile. You wouldn’t expect to learn a language in a few months.
- It is most awkward at first.
- There are “words” (small bits), larger “phrases”, syntax and grammar.
- There are ‘rules’ and good practitioners often follow them, and sometimes break them.
- Listening to other good practitioners helps. (Think language tapes.)
The best advice someone ever gave me is to pick somebody’s solo, and learn it as best you can. Be able to play it with the recording throughout its entirety, being as faithful as possible. I started technically easy with “So What” from Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue”.
People worry that they will somehow lose creativity by doing this, but how can you lose creativity by learning how to say words, make sentences, use the right accent, in a language? You still express your own thoughts.
Dan
