Improvisation is the spontaneous creation of music in the immediate moment, played without any written music or notation for guidance. Like forces of nature coming together, improvising musicians collide and bounce off each other, create force fields that propel each other, twist and turn and lead each other on a wild, unpredictable ride. The result is music that's being born before your very eyes, and it's a one-time experience that's never to be repeated. If your goal is to be here now and live in the moment, improvisation is for you!

Although improvised music is being created at the moment it's played, it often comes off sounding very organized. Great improvisation between musicians can come out sounding as complete and perfect as a painstakingly composed piece of music, where the different parts intertwine and build on each other to develop themes and variations between instruments that sound carefully planned and mapped out. The fact that such an illusion is possible shows you that real composition is taking place during improvisation. When you solo, you're composing music on the spot. There's even a saying that's common among jazz players: “Improvisation is composing speeded up, while composing is improvisation slowed down.”

Being a great musician doesn't automatically mean you can improvise. Many highly trained classical players are not good improvisers because they've been trained their whole careers to read music and play whatever is put in front of them. When nothing is put in front of them they don't know what they're supposed to do.

Improvisation requires taking all the techniques and instincts you have developed as a musician and using them to navigate through the unknown, like a pathfinder riding a well-equipped wagon through uncharted territory. You don't know where you're going to end up, but you know you have the skills to get you there.