Re: memory and improvisation

["Miko Biffle" <Miko.Biffle@asml.com>]

> i wonder if it is possible to improvise entirely without licks... <snip>

I've wondered at times, that after lengthy exploration of your instrument 
and it's normal and extended techniques, if you "run out" of completely 
surprising moments available to you due to your familiarity with your 
instrument? Not that I'm anywhere near something like that, but I do 
sometimes feel that I've developed a "toolbox" of techniques and sounds 
which I'm often compelled to try and reach beyond.

> interestingly the most spiritual moments i have had while improvising 
>happened while i was feeling like the audience instead of the 
>performer... maybe that's what it feels like to "be the hose"...

I can remember many times, realizing something amazing was happening among 
<group of players> and gazing around with a goofy grin on my face and 
seeing the others responses to the moment... knowing they realized it too. 
The bond of the extraordinary.

> but it seems to me that those new musical ideas that flow during 
>improvisation come mostly from recombinations of other ideas in the 
>musical meme pool rather than entirely new concepts.  

Matthias wrote:
>>"Real improvising musicians dont remember what they play. Many can play 
>amazing combinations of phrases they remember, but its just a collage of 
>clichees. It really starts where we play what we dont know ourselves. ... 
> improvisation takes a lot of very quick thinking!"

Assemblage of "known" phrases and response to others playing is pretty 
much the bulk of what happens in improv. Truly reinventing oneself 
(epiphany) and playing *entirely* new, unknown passages seems to be the 
exception. Aspiring to that is the path, I guess... Using a combination of 
a "blank sheet" approach to improv passages, and trying to think 
thematically on my feet, seems to get me the most mileage. This presumes 
that I and my partners are listening well and spontaneously reacting to 
each other. 

The fact remains, that all players are burdened by a certain range of 
sounds and techniques available to them at any given point in their 
career, and are bound by whatever limitations those imply. The creative 
use of those are what takes it into the sublime.

-Miko