• Don’t look forward to a finished and complete entity. The idea must always be kept in a state of flux.
• An error may be only an unintentional rightness.
• Do not get too fussy about how every part of the thing sounds. Go ahead. All processes are at first awkward and clumsy and “funny”.
• Polishing is not at all the important thing; instead strive for a rough go-ahead energy.
• Do not be afraid of being wrong; just be afraid of being uninteresting.

Excerpts of “General Basic Principles”
from organist T. Carl Whitmer’s 1934 book
The Art of Improvisation
Quoted by Derek Bailey in his book
Improvisation: Its Nature And Practice In Music