I was reading one of Nate’s blogs and picked up on a very important concept he introduces in the world of improve, the concept is space. For a musical group to work well, there needs to be space for players to build around within the music. This space is the room to build inspiration and take the music to a new level, by feeding off one another. I have had the fortune of playing in two groups that embodied this concept to the fullest. The first being my high school band, Villa. We were a three piece acoustic electric jam band which seemed to extend each song we played well beyond its limits, to us this was a good thing and it was fun. We each had certain roles within the band that we fulfilled to make to outcome of the music exciting and different each time we played. We defiantly played off each other pretty well, but I remember not having the ability I have now to listen more closely to what others are playing. I often wonder what it would sound like now if we had continued as a band. The next band that I found space to breathe in was my most recent and successful band, the Pond Duck Trio. We as a band we similar to my high school band, however the music we played was far beyond anything that Villa touched upon in technicality. However there was even more room to move within the music, and I loved it. Nate and Graham had the great ability to provide the rhythmic backing at the core of the songs, but then turn around and stretch the improvisation in radical ways. We as a band embraced dissonance and were not afraid to include sour notes to add color. However we would turn around and resolve the dissonance and sour notes to complete what I saw as coming full circle in the jam. Often I hear jam bands that certainly jam well, but are so limited in their musical color. One in particular is the band Strangefolk. In high school these guys rocked my socks, but they made a transition as a band, their original lead singer/rhythm guitarist left the group, and was replaced by a goon. Since the band’s transition they play the same songs at every show and restrict many of their jams to four chord parts. Their music is boring because the only person who is improvising in the group is the lead guitarist, the rest of the four members play the same four chords over and over again, sometimes for fifteen minutes or more. This is not always bad, The Grateful Dead did this. However they did it in a different way. There was space in their music, an uncertainty that kept the audience intrigued. No one ever really knew if Jerry, Phil, Bobby, Bill or Mickey were going to branch off and do something unexpected. With Strangefolk it is almost certain that one can expect the same four chords over and over again, even though John Trafton is an incredible guitarist. So to bring this full-circle, space in a group is fundamental to create new and unique sounds.