A few thoughts on improvisation..

Dario Napoli

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6aCFXglaPA&t=327s

So, this topic came up at my last "Under the Tuscan Sun" camp and we ended up talking about it almost every day for the whole week. I figured I would sit down and ramble about it a bit on YouTube because I think it is something a lot of players can relate to.

I hope it might help someone

Buco

Well said, Dario. Isn't that funny? A lot of people think improvised music should be something they have never "spoken" before. Even though everyone, in their daily speech regurgitates the same phrases without thinking that they have to be original about their conversations. And in music, we don't have to try to elevate our musicality and expressiveness at all times. A lot of the times it's totally fine to just join a conversation and say: "hey, how you doing, how are things, how is your day going, etc...?".

To me using language as analogy for improvising makes perfect sense, but it never sort of clicked as an aha moment. What did was when I heard Pat Martino said what improvising is like for him and described a big house with lots of different rooms and lots of different ways to get from one room to another. Thinking about it in terms of pathways clicked with me. At some point as I was practicing and learning different ways to get from place to another on the fretboard, I realized that often I would find myself using these same pathways. At first I would take the same exact path but as the time went on, maybe I'd step on the path at a different moment, or change my pace or swerve around, pause to take a look, circle around the place I was at etc.