bill evans
The Creative Process and Self-Teaching
Evans explains the step-by-step process of creative problem-solving.
Be real and true
People approximate the result instead of tackling it honestly at even the simplest level, yet each effort must be entirely true, real, and accurate.
They prefer to blur the whole problem rather than focus on one small piece with precision.
If you're confused, you won't find your way out
Approximating the whole thing vaguely may feel like touching it, but the path leads to confusion, and soon you become so lost that you cannot find your way out.
Build on what you know
They try to do something so general that they cannot build on it.
If they build on that, they build on confusion and vagueness and cannot progress.
If you approximate something advanced without knowing what you are doing, you cannot advance.
Subconscious
The whole process of learning to play jazz is to take these problems from the outside in, one by one, and stay with each at intense conscious focus until it becomes secondary and subconscious.
When it is subconscious you can turn your attention to the next problem, which lets you do a little more…