Lives In Progress

Albert Einstein playing the violin Art icle by Jude Treder-Wolff       Some photographs show Einstein holding a violin, an instrument he loved and studied but often found frustrating. It was piano that he played every day. He improvised as a form of relaxation, and said “when that appears to be going somewhere, I require the clear constructions of Bach to follow it through.” Improvisation is the most inventive musical expression, with a formal structure to which even Einstein surrendered. Creative freedom, in art and in life, requires those clear boundaries within which movement and surprise and spontaneity can flow. If we are going to change the way we think, we can use Einstein at the piano as a model.       Improvisation in music, theater, or comedy grows out of a dynamic interplay between form and freedom, a “yes-and” way of thinking which we can easily apply to the situations and interaction of daily life. The “yes….and” approach to any given moment means we accept what