While playing todays recorded improvisation I was aware of how I move around harmonically, and how that may drive my choice of where the next chord will come. The melody might be the driver of what chord comes next also, and I switch between the two all the time.
A written song might be conceived from melody, or might be from a harmonic progression, or any idea that gets something started (in my experience). But partly because I've logged way more hours improvising, and the nature of the "spontaneous" composition, this cycle of: think of an idea; play it; listen to how it sounds in context; let the previous stuff, and any new idea inform what's played next; repeat this process (sometimes multiple times a second).
Unlike real composed pieces, these improvisations do have a quality that's more a fleeting moment - much like the process involved to make them. They don't usually have some of the things we're used to getting in a song: a well defined shape or form, a melody that gets recapitulated, and some of the more subtle developmental and variational attributes that come from sculpting a piece while taking time to make it just right.
I like both equally for their different qualities. While a refined composition can be a great piece of work, a total improvisation is a real time statement and its immediacy is present. In the end both examples likely end up a moment heard and never visited again. One beautiful feature of pieces you've heard before is, you can have a different emotional reaction every time.
A written song might be conceived from melody, or might be from a harmonic progression, or any idea that gets something started (in my experience). But partly because I've logged way more hours improvising, and the nature of the "spontaneous" composition, this cycle of: think of an idea; play it; listen to how it sounds in context; let the previous stuff, and any new idea inform what's played next; repeat this process (sometimes multiple times a second).
Unlike real composed pieces, these improvisations do have a quality that's more a fleeting moment - much like the process involved to make them. They don't usually have some of the things we're used to getting in a song: a well defined shape or form, a melody that gets recapitulated, and some of the more subtle developmental and variational attributes that come from sculpting a piece while taking time to make it just right.
I like both equally for their different qualities. While a refined composition can be a great piece of work, a total improvisation is a real time statement and its immediacy is present. In the end both examples likely end up a moment heard and never visited again. One beautiful feature of pieces you've heard before is, you can have a different emotional reaction every time.