Originally Posted by: maggiorWell a couple of weeks ago that magic came back. Yet some more "invention on the fly" happened with some more things I'm carrying forward....
Perhaps if I could explain the whys and hows of this type of thing, I'd be a millionaire!
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Glad you had that experience. They are few & far between. But at least you know the only way to get them to happen occasionally, right? Keep playing!

When we practice & learn to do improv the goal is to move some task from conscious awareness to your subconscious. We accomplish this by repeating that task so much that it becomes part of your subconcious & you can do it seemingly "automatically". The trick is to get the little details so automated that you don't have to consciously think abot them. Your conscious mind is free to think in larger units.

When you start learning & playing you have to focus on every little detail. It is hard because it is unfamiliar.

Gradually, as you repeat these things, they become automated (shifted over to your subconscious), and you are able to think in larger units. Instead of having to consciously think of every motion, "Put this finger here, is this a chord tone? Which note is the next chord tone? Which chord is next? Put this finger here, etc.", you are able to think, "One chord ... Four chord ...". And your fingers will take care of the details. They will play the licks & notes you've already worked on that you know will be the sound you are after.

Eventually you can get to the stage of playing whole sequences of chords or notes or even songs on "auto-pilot". This is because it's been practiced enough to be automated.

This is what jazz players mean when they say, "Learn all the notes & scales & chords ... then forget them." What this means is, "Do it so much that you don't have to think in small details, you can think in larger units & make it effortless."
[QUOTE=maggior]
As learning guitarists, I think we get very hung up sometimes on technique and theory and sometimes forget to just "play". Christopher Schlegel often closes his detailed advice and lessons with "...and play more guitar". Technique and theory are certainly important, but we need to never lose sight of the simple joy of just playing the guitar.

Thanks for mentioning that. That's the end goal: have fun playing music on the guitar!

Thanks for sharing the vid, congrats again & here's to many more of those magical moments!