Improvisation IS For You Even If You Think It Isn't

(Off the top, my thanks go out to Emily for encouraging me to improvise and not be afraid...she's the reason I can even talk about this without fear...)

Have you ever been stuck with your own thoughts?   Have you not tried improvising because it's reserved only for the best jazz soloists, and you can't do it because you might not play a jazz instrument?   Time to take those thoughts and turn them into something.

Improvisation has no wrong notes , and you can always turn around some misplaced notes.   You just have to try it... You have thoughts in your head that will eat you alive or get lost because you are not using them... Don't give them away and sit alone with thoughts you can't use. 

Improvisations are literally NEVER wrong.  You cannot screw them up.  I used to think that because I didn't play a jazz instrument (and I was never allowed to audition for jazz band) that I just couldn't do it.  I never felt comfortable in that world even though I know how to read changes and all that.

The problem with missing out on jazz band was that no jazz band director ever wanted me to beat one of their tenor sax players.  The problem with thinking that improvisation is a jazz form is that it isn't.  There's an organ competition every four years that has an improvisation round.  There's a whole society for improvisation that's mostly classical musicians doing their thing.  I improvised for like 10 straight minutes in a (very short) recording session because the guy wanted some extra material.  After he said he just let me keep going because he was so interested.  That same session we did about 7 minutes straight up with no plan at all...and he's coming back to the church where I'm the choir director so we can shred.  HE HAS NO IDEA THAT I HAVE NO JAZZ EDUCATION.  Nor would he care.

You think of tunes...try to write them down, or just play them.  Whatever works for you.  Your tunes could turn into anything.  When I get my channel really going on YouTube I have hours of improvs that I did in the sunroom of my wife's great aunt and uncle's house.  It's really good, and it's all made up.

I know you might be afraid of it, and I was, too, but you can totally improvise.  You just can, and I have to thank Emily again for encouraging me to do it in the first place because now I can't imagine why I wasn't doing it sooner.  It is not a mystical art.  It is just your ideas as they come out.  Don't be afraid, it's actually pretty cool.