Precisely what Wade said. My parents, who were music lecturers and my father a superb pianist, always reinforced the value of being able to improvise and that, basically, you're not a fully-rounded musician until you can. My father would tell about their students who would be incredible virtuosos on their instrument but completely useless if you took the notes away from them...
I spent many, many years when I was starting to drum just sticking on cassettes (I know, showing my age) of my favourite bands (Simple Minds, Van Halen, etc.) and just playing along to them. This had several benefits:
1) It hid the repetition of the drummer's job. Playing the same beat over and over seems less dull when you're playing with 'others'
2) It helped learn good timekeeping
3) You learned about dynamics. Music often needs light and shade
4) It helped you to learn your part in the context of a band and also what worked best for the style
When I used to teach drums, I made a point of telling all my students that 50% of their practice regime should be just sticking on their favourite songs and playing along. If they had any tricky bits, I set aside part of each lesson to help them figure out what was being played. In this day and age, there's no excuse as practically the entire world's music output is available to you at the touch of a button.
Everything I play is jammed to varying degrees. I dep for local bands so the ability to jump in with no rehearsal is vital. I'm not reading music (can't remember how to do that any more) but I often have lyric sheets with cues written on them and maybe a guide beat such as, 'disco beat' or '8th note rock pattern' - the rest is made up on on-the-fly. I rely on my ability to get into a style quickly and jam the rest. Most modern music follows 4, 8, 12 or 16-bar sequences so you can feel the rest!
95% of the loops I record are jammed. I take time to perhaps work out parts for more complex pieces or mark out important changes in my DAW but it's largely made up on-the-spot. That is how I sometimes manage to do so many loops in a day. I also don't have to worry about pitch or being 'in tune'.
The ability to improvise is my lifeline to music. I rely on my experience to understand what's needed for the style and then I'm off. And it starts with playing along to as much music as you can get your hands on!
Edited by
mpointon on October 17 2015 13:05