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I play the drums sometimes people ask me
what I like most about playing music and
one of the things I always enjoyed is
improvisation to create something on the
spa is magical experience and to me it's
been the source of many discoveries so
I'd like to talk about improvisation not
just as an art form of perhaps as a
useful idea for everyone as performing
without preparation
in reality though every day requires a
lot of Federation much of this
preparation is about acquiring a state
of mind
it allows us to function without the
security of a preset protocol to have
the freedom to visualize recognize and
exploit unexpected opportunities at the
spur of the moment this idea has also
created some negative connotations about
improvisation because most of our lives
are guarded by preset protocol what and
how we learn eat sleep work socialize
and relax
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most people only improvise when things
don't go according to plan and the
results are usually regarded as being
provisional and a lesser value because
of this many people believe that
improvisation is better left
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improvisation can't be challenging but
it's not the privilege of a chosen few
it's an inherent human capability that
all of us have anyone who is aberrant
tackle an unexpected challenge
successfully has already tapped into the
emotional realm of improvisation it's a
deeply rewarding and connecting
experience it connects us with our
presence future and our past as kids we
were master improvisers we could freely
roam imagine associates and make sense
of unlimited possibilities until we had
to surrender to the restricting protocol
of school and annulled life so let me
pick up where we left off as kids and
look at improvisation as a game
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as a game you get better by playing to
the beginner it might appear to be a
game of chance but to the expert player
it clearly becomes a game of skill at
the base of that skill is what I call
framing framing is the awareness to
understand what defines the era where
improvisation happens it's within that
frame where we connected us to create a
desirable outcome for instance when you
have unexpected guests for dinner the
framing much more likely to include your
kitchen then let's say the bicycle
repair shop let me give you a very
simple musical example of framing can
you complete the following rhythmical
sentence
very good thank you Freddie here was a
well-known cliche that allowed us
perform together without the rehearsal
once the framing is established if we
increase the complexity of those
variations they could become something
completely different
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now it's not just the variation of the
theme that can mutate during an
improvisation the frame itself can
change when it becomes subject to
outside influence and new impulses
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improvisation becomes real time for each
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trait order from chaos
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recently I started to perceive
improvisation as a response to a new
cultural challenge the challenge of an
increasingly unpredictable and fast
approaching future a future where
familiar and preset protocol could fail
us a future where effective planning
might become more and more difficult and
improvisation might become more and more
important instead ultimately
improvisation is going to be a part of
the frontier that distinguishes humans
from machines I think today we have an
opportunity not just to rediscover an
ability we once have as kids but the
opportunity to refine and develop our
ability to improvise as adults an
ability that allows us to encounter the
unknown no longer as an enemy but as an
accomplice to our creativity our growth
and our authentic lives I think we have
an opportunity to start playing and
possibly better than ever before thank
you
[Applause]
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you
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