Originally Posted by Bass Thumper
<…snip…>How can "learning to play an instrument" be spot on?
Isn't this rather obvious?<…>
I think what is understood in that statement, is ho well you learn to play the instrument.

It's a combination of learning things until you can play them without thinking about them, and enough experience so that you can play the right things at the right time without thinking about it.

When I was young and learning to improvise in bands, I did a lot of thinking about what I was doing. Some things I did worked out well to my ears, others did not. Plenty more were between the two extremes.

I never intended to get into the zone, I never tried to do it, and I don't think you can intentionally get into the flow. With enough experience, it just started happening. I didn't even notice it at first.

So it's about learning to play the instrument well, plus a good dose of experience.

As I said, I don't think you can go into the flow intentionally, and some people who are very good players never seem to get there, either.

So I wouldn't be concerned about it. I'd encourage people first to practice their fundamentals until they don't have to think about them. The fundamentals can't be overstressed, fragments of scales and arpeggios make up the bulk of what we call music. If you can't do this without thinking, you are at a disadvantage.

Then learn some other people's solos that you particularly like, and are at your skill level. Keep progressing and learning more difficult passages. Little by little, you will build up a vocabulary of licks, and they will reside in your subconscious. Somehow, and I can't explain how, to me, it's magic, the right notes will come out at the right time while you are improvising.

My best advice is not to think about it. If you are meant to get into the flow, it'll happen all by itself. Keep learning, no matter how much you know, there is something else to learn. That's one of the things I like about music.


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