A few weeks ago, I took a lesson with a great drum set player named Frank Rosaly. We talked about developing a drum solo (four bars, or indefinitely extended). He told me that he almost always takes at least two beats of silence to let some type of music come to him. This allows the music and your creative instinct to breathe. He then talked about the choices we make as soloists.
In a setting of improvisation, the improviser makes choices (and sacrifices) all the time, consciously and unconsciously. The improviser decides to play something comfortable, or loud, or soft, or out of the box, or a lick, or something new that they've never done before. Sometimes the result of the choice fails miserably, sometimes it works wonderfully. Its success or failure doesn't have to be dependent on its aesthetic appeal to the player/audience, or its ability to teach us something. He said he's seen some pretty beautiful failures, it was greatly artistic because of the choices they made, even if they didn't work. If the improviser makes choices all the time, why not make some consciously and without fear--but with expectancy, and understanding of the possibility--of failure? The music will go on regardless of success or failure (which is too often defined by public's opinion, as opposed to personal best) because you chose for it to do so.
"Our doubts are traitors, / and make us lose the good we might oft win / By fearing to attempt." --Shakespeare
What parallels do you find with this and your life?
