20 - Whose Line is it Anyway?

B-RAD with Brad Toews

We have all been given a script in life. We are born into a culture, a community, a family that follows certain rules and norms. This script forms and informs how we live.

It's how we make our way in the world as humans. This is how we survive and learn, by starting with what the past teaches us, reading our lines and playing our part.

But at some point in our development we decide for ourself. Am I going to keep living my life from this script?

What values are important to me? What do I want to leave behind?

Whose line is it anyway?

Any jazz musician will tell you that excellence in improvisation, in going off script, is rooted in excellence in the fundamentals of music. You have to learn how to follow the script, or the musical score before you start re-writing it.

And just like musicians we can use a riff, a repeated chord progression of catchy notes, those ideas that just won't go away like the driving guitar line of Smoke on the Water, to help us make the leap to a more improvised life.

That riff that won't leave your head, maybe that's your transition out of the script. Play with it. Copy it for a time. See where it takes you.

Join me in this episode as we indulge our love for driving guitar rhythms, appreciate but also critically examine the script we've been given, and consider how we might riff our way to improvising our life.

In-depth shownotes, video, great riff links, and other resources at Brad Toews.