Improvisation to me...

Blog #1

Improvisation to me is one of the most creative forms of music. You are not reading from a score, nor following any particular idea. It is a completely random and creative process. The only thing that can influence you is your surroundings, or what someone around you is improvising. Improvising is a form of communication!

I have never played in a band, and I have never written a song. But I have played the drums for 15 years. I usually listen to music on my iPod and almost always improvise a drum beat along with the other instruments. Occasionally I try and actually learn a song, but 90% of the time I am improvising. I also play with my buddies occasionally. I have a couple friends who play guitar and all we do is jam. Someone plays a riff or beat and we just take it from there. I truly enjoy jamming because it allows you to be free in your thinking.

I am actually very surprised that I love to improvise and jam so much because the type of music I listen to is completely opposite. I listen to a ton of Dream Theater which is a progressive rock band out of New York. They have very long, complex, and technical songs with many different time signatures melded into each track. When they finish a song, they have memorized everything and fit many different ideas into one long thought out work of art. I love listening to the transitions and I absolutely love watching the live DVD’s because of how they communicate on stage during their songs. They have mastered each other as well as their songs.

Lastly, I feel like most bands aren’t very structured during their writing process. I know for a fact that Dream Theater just sits around and plays riffs until someone likes something, and then they go from there bouncing ideas around. I would call that jamming/improvising. So, even a very structured sound can some from improvising and jamming.