Psychoanalyzing Jazz Improvisations
Bill Evans in a concert in 1969. Photo by Fauban
On my last post, I mentioned Bill Evans and his expressive improvisations. Particularly on Peace Piece, Evans seems to bare his soul. As psychoanalysis is a deep interest of mine, it made me wonder if musical improvisations reveal a person's psychological state, like the Rorschach ink blot test or Critical Stimulus.
Music may be better for conveying complex mental and emotional states because it's multisensory. Words are reductionist. The more descriptive you get, the less you mean. Use enough words and it means nothing at all.
I'd like to try psychoanalysing my own improvisations, using Peace Piece as a template. In the song, Evans comps with his left hand and improvises with his right. So today I started learning easy chord patterns for my left hand. Then I'll need some guidelines on piano improvisation (it's harder than it looks/sounds). Then maybe I'll start recording my improvisations and post them online.
There's no timeframe for this though. I'm contemplating another musical project too (shiny object syndrome strikes again) and of course I'm committed to learning So What.
Time bookstanding today: 15 minutes Quality of meditation (out of 10): 5
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