The more experience I got as a jazz drummer, the worse my instincts became – and figuring out why changed how I think about every creative decision.

There's a moment in almost every creative project where the variables multiply past what you can reasonably think through – and the harder you try to decide, the less clear it gets. I know this feeling from the bandstand: I'm a jazz drummer, and for a stretch of my 30s I lost access to the one thing I'd always been able to rely on – my improvisational instincts.

I couldn't explain it, and reaching for more information made it worse. In this episode I talk about an essay by an anesthesiologist who went through the same thing, what his experience revealed about how creative intuition actually works, and the simple technique I developed to get my instincts back – one that turns out to apply far beyond drumming.

🎧Check out my music: https://scottmclemore.bandcamp.com/

🤟Join the Patreon community: https://patreon.com/scottmclemore

📭 The free newsletter goes deeper into ideas like these: https://ktfpod.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.