You're listening to a performance that your band recorded. A live show and you know that spot you dread is coming. Where you messed up. Only to discover... your mistake turned out to be something magical. And you re-learn the mistake so that you can repeat it. A moment of "spontaneous creativity."
I truly believe that these errors are rhythmically and theoretically correct because of the hours of practice we perform. I can't remember who said "guitarists have a form of OCD." To sit alone somewhere and repeat, ad nauseum the same phrase, lick or chords over and over. Well, that is just not ordinary. It is in fact, "extraordinary".
The painter Pablo Picasso said "without great solitude. No serious work is possible". Some of us spend countless hours just improvising constantly, to many genres and styles. Studying theories, experimenting. The following statement I cannot stress enough. Constantly improvise over as many styles as you can. Build that reference library into your brain. Listen to everything, decide what you like and steal it. Because when you encounter challenges in real time, on stage you learn to solve these problems with references and learn what is practical to fall back on and play it safe. Your mental reference library will keep you out of the dark. Above all you will learn how to fumble and to recover with grace and confidence. That the moment you must rely on your "spontaneous creativity" won't be an uh-oh moment.
Those times when you are not on the spot trying to recover during a performance. You have the experience and theoretical knowledge. As well as a large capacity reference library. Making it easy for you to improve a song's basic idea and develop it into a supportive part of the ensemble that compliments the overall sound.
Don't overplay. Play the song and remember your place in the mix. As a supporting member of the cast.
Stay humble
Be kind. Peace and out
MikeB