About improvisation

Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. en.wikipedia.org

 Some time ago at work I attended an improvisation workshop and although it wasn't really super exciting I enjoyed the time spent trying to explore the complexity of spontaneous, supportive interaction improvisation requires. I don't like to improvise since I am naturally more comfortable respecting a script and a role that is predefined and well studied, rather than having to react action by action. This doesn't mean that I am not good at it. As any creative activity, improvisation is only covered by thin layer of mystery and casualty that is easily cut open by those who know the truth about being creative: 

it takes technique.

Improvisation in music and acting implies the application of a specific technique which is flexible enough to have anyone find their own performance interpretation. Improvising in theaters means being supportive of those who interact with and always keep your mind open for all the many possibilities the actions, expressions and words may take you.

In music... well you need to know some patterns and most importantly know yourself, what you're good at and what instead you can safely avoid doing. You need a system and this is what I do, I have a system to cope with musical complexity for drums and I try to first simplify to the maximum for then increase complexity and enrich the sound. This is what I liked when tonight with my band I played "Come Together" from the Beatles and in pretty much one hour I was able to get the basic rhythm of the song which is quite easy anyway, and the rest of the band managed to do the same. Ease in improvisation and execution is heavily dependent on the partners. The better they are the easier it is so if my band is reading should know that I really liked today's session. It was great.