Yes to the Mess

Frank Barrett (Yes to the Mess, 73-74) outlines three components of minimal structure that allow jazz players to coordinate…

• Jazz musicians work within clear constraints…they know that they need to orient their choices within a certain range of notes that fit within the chord or the scale, but they don’t have to stop and negotiate or debate which constraints are worth attending to. They simply trust that all the players will adjust to the patterns. In effect, they employ detached, impartial trust, another seeming oxymoron that goes to the very core of the art form. 
• Once the constraints are set, players engage in lots of interaction and communication around these minimal patterns. They share ongoing information and adjust to what they hear. The chord changes come around each verse, but they are suggestive and open, waiting to be fully realized. People persevere, trade motifs, engage in spirited exchanges, and support one another to take off and embellish in one or more directions within the framework of the small rules. 
• Critically, too, these constraining patterns are punctuated, occur at regular intervals, and follow a temporal rhythm. Coordination is made possible because of the punctuated coming together that allows a going apart, convergence, and divergence. Because these constraints change each measure (or each beat), these nonnegotiable structures invite dialogical engagement. In the space between these “check-ins,” everyone is able to embellish and branch off in unpredictable directions, in search of fresh meanings.

Structures that constrain and structures that provide freedom.

What do these structures look like in your life?  How do they support or block you as you seek to grow in faith?