How spontaneous or worked out are your improvisations? Regina Carter
Regina Carter Photo courtesy Verve Music Group |
The point of improvisation is for it to come off the top of your head. None of my solos are worked out. Even though we play a lot of the same tunes every night and it could get easy to get locked into a comfort zone, you’re working from the inspiration of the band and you’re trying to inspire them as well. We’re all policing each other. A lot of times I’m not aware of having played something special until one of the band members reacts or when I listen back to the tape. If you try to do the same thing again, you wind up sounding forced and then it’s not improvisation anymore.
But there are certain things I always have to work on for my language to expand. Until I am comfortable with whatever I am working on — patterns, tones, etc. — my solo could wind up sounding very formulaic and stiff. But when I’m comfortable with those lessons, then I forget about the patterns and start making music.