Good morning, everyone,
Every day, I think about what the discovery of improvisation has brought me in my journey.
I did not initially think that learning this form of expression would bring me as much musically as on the life experience itself. I explain myself: I was interested in it out of curiosity and because my students pushed me to my limits by presenting me with their improvisations and compositions. I didn’t know what to say to them, what to suggest to them. I didn’t know where to start and I was off guard.
Although being creative in nature, improvisation had not been taught to me in my classical training and I thought it had been a lack, I found myself “incomplete”.
Classical musicians, do you recognize yourself in this reflection?
Not only, as I trained in improvisation, I developed more feelings in my playing, a greater sense of rhythm and the discovery of different styles, but also realized that I had to LISTEN and LISTEN more to others to be able to improvise in a duo or in a group. That I had to know how to include more silence in my improvisations and offer my silence when I had nothing interesting to play in a group. That I could take different paths by improvising, always renewed, and that others could give me so many good ideas by improvising in a group.
I learned listening, authentic listening to my own voice and that of others, listening that is SO important to ourselves in our relationships with others.
I learned the OPENING towards myself and others, that everyone had their place and their own sound color and that everyone could bring something to their level, even with less experience than others.
I also learned SIMPLICITY, I who thought that music had to be complex to be interesting.
I also learned the sense of RISK, that we must not be afraid of the unknown, that this stranger contains unexplored wealth.
I learned the PRESENT MOMENT. You have to be in a very intimate “zone” when you improvise in order to connect and welcome every note you play, WITHOUT JUDGMENT. As soon as you get out of it, improvisation becomes less felt. This experience of the present moment that babies experience much better than us, we should make it a habit and a more frequent state of mind in our lives.
I learned FLEXIBILITY, that from the supposed “error”, we can turn around and make a discovery of it and even highlight it! Don’t be afraid of “mistakes.”
Above all, what improvisation has brought me the most is JOY and FREEDOM. It’s price-off.
In short, the discovery of improvisation was major in my musical and human journey. I have really experienced a transformation and this is the fundamental reason that drives me to teach it and transmit it in my programs. It is much more than a form of musical expression, it is a teaching of life in oneself.
The benefits of improvisation and the contexts in which to teach it are numerous. They will be the subject of another blog!
I sincerely hope that you will discover it. When you taste it, you can’t do without it.
Creatively yours,
Josée