I am used to getting blown away when sitting in Chapman University’s Jazz Combo watching musicians do their thing. As a vocalist still learning jazz style, I was perplexed how the instrumentalists could easily improv solos. The only information they are given during their solos is the tempo, key, and chords; the rest was up to them. How were they playing around with it? Did they know what would sound good, and how? How were they comfortable playing something they were making up on the spot? And as a psychology student, what exactly is going on in their brain when improvising?

After some research digging, I found that the creative and composing side of music (like improvising and getting into a flow state) show a decreased level of activity in the left hemisphere and executive control region (Korp, 2024). Executive control region is where we make decisions, plan, control our attention, inhibition (self control), working memory, adapting, and cognitive flexibility (thinking outside the box) (Diamond, 2013). Additionally, the area associated is called the lateral orbitofrontal cortex that does decision making and emotion regulation turns off while the self expression, emotional processing, and driven creativity in the medial prefrontal cortex turns on (Lopez & Limb, 2012). So one's decision making, planning, control, and more get severely diminished when improvising... But why? This is FOR allowing the creative act of improvisation to happen! The authors of that research paper said this is able to be done through much experience with music and having the ability to go into autopilot with the circuits involved with producing new ideas. The more practice one has in their instrument, the better they are at surrendering and letting creative ideas flow. In fact, they enter a flow like state. Flow is a theory of one being very immersed in a task that one enjoys that nothing else seems to matter, sometimes even a big amount of time passing, forgetting to eat food, and more basic needs. Flow state allows one to be the most creative, productive, and happy with what they are doing (Steimer). The more of a flow state the musician is in, the more easy and creative the improvisation is (Rosen et al., 2024).

There are more explanations, research, and questions, as is typical when looking into the psychology of how things work and why. Too many answers and too many questions! If there is a lesson to take with this, it is to work on your craft so that you can experience the improvisation and flow state that experienced jazz musicians do, because that is where your peak creativity can lie. And to listen to more jazz. And attend live jazz shows, and how musicians are super cool!