Re: improvisation and performance

["Krispen Hartung" <khartung@cableone.net>]

----- Original Message ----- >
> There's the old jazz axiom - play a wrong note - well then play it wrong 
> another 3 times to make it
> seem like you did it on purpose and make it the right note. I use this 
>all 
> the time.

It's just a nit, but I've never talked to a jazz musician who as 
subscribed 
to this so-called axiom. I think
the axiom was created by people who either didn't understand jazz or who 
couldn't play it.  I think it is
ridiculous...continue playing a wrong note? And to do so to "make it" seem 
like it was on purpose.
This feels rather deceitful and insincere to me. Of course, once you play 
a 
so-called wrong note, then you
have to accept it as such and it becomes part of the weave, but to repeat 
it, that could be a freakin'
disaster if applied as a general rule of thumb.  Jazz musicians who I have 
talked to who believe in wrong
notes call them "clams", and they don't repeat them unless to be humorous 
or 
to mock each other with
call and response. Free Jazz might warrant some exceptions, but with 
improvisation in traditional or
modern jazz, I do see a tendency for folks to subscribe to the "wrong 
note" 
theory and not repeat them.
In fact, the really technical players tend to be embarrassed by them.  
They 
are called "avoid" notes
in traditional jazz theory and improvisation, and they don't repeat them.

Here is another quote, that can also be taken out of context or 
mis-applied:

"There is no such thing as a wrong note." Art Tatum

 Kris