This is super interesting @rsl12 thank you! I would love to be able to improvise, even a little bit, but it always seems very out of reach.
You have probably talked about this elsewhere, so I apologize for having missed it, but did you work with a teacher on improvising or use any specific book or other resource (including online)?
Anyway, while I think your list does help make it seem more accessible, I have the following roadblocks.
rsl12 big list of tasks and subtasks:
Know good chord sequences and what melody notes that sound good over those chords
Come up with a creative rhythm, and
Convert individual notes into intervals (either in relation to other melody notes or to the chord being played)
These all seem to rely on an understanding of music theory that I don’t have, well except for the rhythm part, which is (correct me if I’m wrong) not so much theory but just something you would develop by practicing certain patterns in conjunction with implementing certain music theory rules.
It’s not that I’m not interested in learning music theory. For example, I have several theory books and workbooks. And I tried to take a music theory class last summer (I wrote about it on PT somewhere) but I ended up dropping out for various reasons, primarily because it felt like this decontextualized memorization task and it seemed like the teacher’s approach was that you have to memorize the entire body of music theory knowledge before putting any of it to use. Definitely not the class for me! Anyway, I didn't start this post with the intention of complaining about that!
It seems to me that one key to improvising is a certain degree of automaticity of that theory knowledge, which means practicing some key aspects (patterns, rhythms) in targeted ways. Which, to me, means (for example) you could start with one chord progression (or sequences, which is the word you used)and practice that, playing with different rhythms and melody notes. And then expand outward by adding more chord progressions and developing familiarity with an expanding tool box of chords and patterns.
Does that seem accurate?
If so, then it seems like one approach should be “here’s a chord progression, here are some rhythms and melody notes. Practice that for a few weeks and then come back and we’ll add another set.”
But none of the “learn jazz” type books I have seem to take that approach (or maybe they do but it’s buried some how?)
And I have two “how to learn jazz for the classically trained pianist” type books, and they seem to make it incredibly (unnecessarily) complicated.
Anyway, sorry this has gotten long! @rsl12 please comment on any misconceptions I might have here, and also if you have a book or something to recommend, please do!
TIA!