I once had a guitar instructor who was (and remains) an incredible player. When I asked him about how to move ahead in improvisation he said, "There's only 12 notes, man." But these 12 notes can be organized in a seemingly infinite amount of ways! I'm reminded of this constantly, but especially just yesterday as I listened to the music of Morton Feldman (Feldman Edition 4) -- some of his Durations, Projections and Two Pieces -- alongside of Grant Green's Standards. Basically just the same 12 even-tempered pitches...but the results are of different worlds.
All of this to say that
organization is obviously key. And organization flows from planning, even if it's on-the-spot planning in a freely improvised setting. And not just organizing the notes but the feeling, the pacing, the spaciousness (or lack thereof). I played in a group imrpovisation a couple months back and the leader simply said before we started: "You know...not all the time."
