Improvising musicians shut down their inner critics. Improvisers stop filtering their ideas quite so assiduously, and allow the mess of new ideas to flow out. The improvising brain is a little like the tipsy brain, although alcohol is much cruder, making us clumsy as well as disinhibited. It is no wonder that at its best, improvisation can produce flashes of pure brilliance. No wonder, either, that with the internal censor asleep, it sometimes feels like a messy, reckless thing to risk.
