“When you hit a wrong note, it’s the next note that makes it good or bad.” -Miles Davis
I came across this quote while scrolling through social media and it made me think about my undergraduate years at UC San Diego, studying and performing music. Sometimes quotes like these make me think of past experiences and other phrases or thoughts attached to those experiences. The phrase that comes to mind when I read this quote was something that my professor and friend, Kamau Kenyatta, has repeatedly said to myself along with other students: “You’re always a half-step away from the right note.”
Sometimes musicians have a tendency to say that the way in which another musician performed a song or solo was wrong. This usually stems from that individual’s personal experiences (how they learned the music they play, what their ideals are, who taught them how to play their instrument/music, etc.) and should be taken with a grain of salt. They expect to hear things like a particular type of orchestration and certain characteristic licks on instruments, and if they don’t hear these things, they consider the music wrong or lacking, forgetting completely that a lot of work goes into creating that piece of music, whether it is aesthetically pleasing to the ear or not.
Having attended an experimental music program for my undergrad degree, I’ve seen music expressed and performed in all types of ways. Self-expression can be pure and real. Therefore it is hard for me to tell a musician that something that they do is wrong or right. I prefer to offer my own advice and opinion in terms of style and technique, but students (and fellow musical colleagues) are free to take or leave what I have to say.
This way of thinking–being a “half-step away from the right note” and the next note you play determining whether the previous one is the “wrong” note–is a great way to to approach playing and performing music. I agree completely with this way of thinking, and by extension, Miles Davis’ quote, because it enables an open, accepting environment for creating and self-expression. This also leads to more experimentation in music, and thus progression. For me, music is very human. When I say this, I mean that humans tend to naturally evolve and progress, and since music is inherently human, so should music. The only way to do this is by continually hitting those supposed “wrong” notes, potentially “messing up” that Jazz or Latin standard, adding different notes or licks than what people might expect. Create. Experiment. Find what works for you and your audience. In the process of trying to find the “right” note, musicians not only discover who they are musically, but who they are as individuals.