The Art of Improvisation

The key to improvisation is motion – you keep going forward, fearful or not, living from moment to moment. That’s how life is. — Bobby McFerrin

Full quote from above:

Improvisation means coming to the situation without rigid expectations or preconceptions. The key to improvisation is motion – you keep going forward, fearful or not, living from moment to moment. That’s how life is. — Bobby McFerrin

The only rule of improvisation is the foundational principle of saying “yes, and” to whatever arises. If we are to begin anything, we have to say yes to what is, start somewhere, and then add to it. And so it goes until in all those simple acts, something magical unfolds.  With this, we must turn uncertainty into curiosity and take bold and inspired action by following what simply feels right in the moment with the willingness to just see what happens and not yet need to know how or why.

I’ve come to recognize that improvisation is truly intuition in action.  Intuition makes the connections we don’t yet see and is always leading us somewhere unexpectedly better, beyond our analytic reasoning, which is inevitably colored in the pale hues of our past experiences.  Through the play of improvisation we can learn to flow in this intuitive state, using its inspired guidance as a creative force. Yet, to truly see the gifts that improvisation has to offer we must learn to withhold judgment, letting this new voice take form without trying to control what it has to say.

So one quiet afternoon, without worry of words, I playfully explored the sounds my voice could make, with no set structure other than a click to keep the time.  The voice is often my chosen jumping off point; it is instantly emotional, immediately accessible, and has many secrets to tell.

The unbiased microphone recorded every sound and breath that left my lips, every weird, wild, emotional, or silly sound that I was willing to hear, unedited.  I said yes to it all, just like it is, and the less I judged, the less I thought, the freer I became, babbling a wordless stream of consciousness. 

When I found something that felt good, I did more of that.  In fact, I sung it over and over, forming phrases in trance-like repetition. Pausing only to catch my breath and add a new track to the mix, I layered my voice over and over into greater harmony with itself.  And on and on it went, until I sang myself silent.

This vocal improvisation is the first I recorded back in March of 2020.  Its intuitive expression reveals a desire to find joy and explore in a way I haven’t since childhood, from a place of play and following simple creative impulses.  I tap my heart.  I snap my fingers.  I breathe wildly trying to catch my breath.  I seek comfort in the sound. 

The experience led to intuitive vocalizing as a recurring practice, a powerful tool to process emotion, release stress, and tap into the guidance of my intuition through creative flow.  It has since led to many other unexpected outcomes and insights, teaching me non-judgment, self-compassion, and breaking the cycle of perfectionism and procrastination through the bold act of saying yes as a first step into the unknown and an invitation to keep moving forward.

Since that first session over a year ago, I have made many more of these intuitive vocal pieces, each typically recorded within the span of an hour.  As I revisit and refine these short musical explorations, I share them with the message of recognizing improvisation as a life skill and intuition as a guiding force, a visionary way forward, for I’ve found, that as I learn to follow my intuition and improvise, I am led to the most remarkably beautiful places; places that I may never have found if I stopped to think it through.