Inner Logic Revisited: Food For Thought
Here's the insight I picked up from Ornette Coleman. Working with his great
quartet, he reportedly told Charlie Haden:
Forget about key and just play within the range of the idea.
Think really hard about that. Practice for a while. Think about it some more.
I think it was Ran Blake who told me:
What makes a note right or wrong is what you play after it.
Again, think about it. What should you do when you play a note that is potentially
"wrong"? Well, you could roll your eyes and make a sad face. That's not much help,
though. Some other ideas: repeat it, bend it, sustain it, end your phrase on it.
Those might be more useful. Try not to judge a note as right or wrong but to listen
to it, to hear it, to see it as an opportunity to creatively explore a new
direction.
Don't forget the importance of space. It's really the rests that give meaning
to the notes. Miles Davis said: If you don't know what to play, don't play
anything.
Not only do rests give meaning to notes, using space in music allows us to think, to
come up with new ideas. So often we play, hoping an idea will come to us,
when really we ought to stop and listen instead.
Ok. I think this is more than enough for one lesson so I'll end here. Hope this
material points you in some new directions. Until next time, keep pickin' and
grinnin'
