My parents encouraged me to sing and play music through my childhood. Classical music influenced my life and thought. Over the last 18 years I have been fascinated by the creativity of improvising musicians. Jazz is a genre where musicians improvise. I am indebted to improvising musician Simon Bowden who gave me these insights in conversation, “In live performance musicians work at a subconscious level to collectively realise music created through a mixture of chance and individual expression. They follow the music as if it has its own ability to come into being and musicians are the means for releasing it. Consciousness aside, all musicians must be tuned into the moment contributing to the whole by simultaneously being a leader and a follower. There is often a basic structure for what happens but unlike scored music it moves in unpredictable directions because it is formulated spontaneously in the moment. Instrumentalists leave the stage knowing they have been inside a vast array of meaning but it is not captured or copied into the next performance. Some say doing so would reduce meaning. For the next performance to be a success it requires the same conditions as the first, any attempt to recreate music created in the moment will not have the same power.” (Simon Bowden,2007).
The way Simon describes improvisation in music is like a metaphor for the way I believe we can help people. Whether through therapy, friendship, intimacy, or at a distance, helping moments are fashioned from spontaneous insights based on consumate skill. The idea we can formulate meaning in moments has captured my attention in life and in therapy. Music is a mirror where images appear and help me reflect on my practice.
