An improviser is an ecosystem of ideas and techniques, a living exchange of habits and philosophies. When we see an advanced player at work, we are in witness of a mature rain forest. There’s so much moving color and pulsing detail: every crevice is packed with life. We are dumbstruck by the vibrancy, and are left wondering how on earth anything could be so animated.

Simply: the player put the time in. You will get better by doing. And sometimes a caring instructor will provide you with a note that helps you do more. Exercises and practice will change how you play, the same way a combination of species growing and living in a rain forest influence each other.

In the appropriate setting, with careful delivery, an instructor’s note can reduce the frantic backpedaling of the player cresting a pivotal breakthrough. A well-timed and carefully couched note can reinforce the confidence of someone doubting their own skill.

Some notes are catchy enough to disperse. Short and to the point, they are sufficiently hardy to become Quotes. The Quote can travel from group to group, player to player through word of mouth, planting in someone’s mind at the just the right time to really open up their work and help them develop. A good Quote is a tropical plant that doesn’t need much care and makes a great house plant.

Or maybe the Quote hits the right place at the wrong time; the player already knows this thing in their bones. It’s a coconut washing against an established mangal. Had the Quote arrived earlier there would have been an open beach, but now the island is so thick with mangrove trees that it can’t gain purchase.

A mangal is a grove of mangrove trees.

What about wrong time, wrong place? If the conditions are right, the Quote can be an invasive species, eating any new growth and crowding out the native denizens. We all know a player that gives so much importance to a Quote that it takes over their work. Any new skills risk being out-competed by the Quote.

When a note becomes a Quote, the context of the player’s discoveries and the care of the instructor is gone. The note is no longer balanced by the conditions from which it sprang.