Non-Critical Thinking

So Dave,

Critical thinking is not critical? Then what should it be called -- Linear Thinking? Uni-dimensional thinking? Educational thinking? I agree that there is little critical thinking when driven by adrenaline in a crisis.

However, isn’t critical thinking fun? Don’t you just love a committee to busy itself with a mission statement for weeks on end just to realize that said statement is meaningless to anyone not on the committee?

I often think about the very process of improvisation. On the verge of beginning a jazz solo I am mystified by the process I must go through to choose the first note to begin the solo. No worry about what will follow only what the first note will be. In every case, I never could decide but when the time came to start I did, not even knowing what note I did play.

So what is this about. I could have stopped the rhythm section so that I could have given it some critical thought but that would only frustrate the audience.

Regardless I act as if I really did know where I started and where I was going.

Lastly, I have heard tapes of my solos after the fact and hear things that I cannot reproduce.

Hmm,
Don