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We need to be mindful that we are not teaching a violin or bow, but a person. To take this a step further, we are not teaching a body, we are teaching the consciousness that directs the body. Consciousness operates according to quantum principles combined with and assisted by classical, or deterministic, principles. The main quantum function of consciousness is what I will call observation. Observation is the quantum act which creates a reality. Observation collapses the probability wave and, at least momentarily, creates a local and temporal reality which can be manipulated. The big questions then become: What do I observe? When do I observe it? In what order do I observe multiple phenomena?
When consciousness is not directed by the answers to the above questions, the student experiences overload which leads to a moment of unconsciousness. The hallmark of this occurrence is that the student, while aware of the poor result, cannot remember exactly what happened to go wrong., and so , is powerless to improve the situation. Explaining/defining the problem using classical terminology will not be as effective as equipping the student with a specific plan of action.
Here is where quantum and classical concepts can merge and support a common result. The student is directed to observe a specific technical action or a series of technical actions in a specific order. Given a sufficient skill development on the part of the student, the act of observing correctly will sort out the problem and allow the solution to be committed to muscle memory through the classical process we all know.
This is a subject which demonstrates clearly that, as a culture, we are still dominated by classical thought paradigms. The common belief that “improvisation cannot be taught” arises from the cultural need to analyze and quantify, as opposed to observing. I have worked with people who, after having been given many specific ideas and materials with which to improvise, hesitate before playing and ask “What am I supposed to do now?”
The answer to the question is “Observe!” Observation in this case consists of listening to the musical environment( beat and harmony) and to the internal environment as it spins out something in response. This observation is in conflict with classical training (musical and cultural) that asks us to study hard and get the right answers.
If (as I always do) materials in the form of scale exercises and call and response phrases have been previously practiced, observation also consists of observing one’s fingers and arms as they respond through muscle memory to both the external and internal musical environment. We all know that this process is very powerful and, even though it takes time to work perfectly for complex things, it starts working quickly.
All the great improvisers I have known relate the common experience of feeling as if they are calmly listening to what they are playing along with the audience. They are experiencing something like a quantum temporal anomaly by listening to what they have played before they have played it.