Do you ever have days...

[knobby]

... when you couldn't hit the right note if it was the only bl**dy note in the instrument?

Today is that day for me; yesterday wasn't too good either.
I'd head off down the pub if they were open!

 

[debra]

I have such days...
And then I hope that maybe one day we can just type everything into a program like Musescore and have it play the music. Sadly, all that comes out is the notes you put in. No music is coming out. Music notation software is actually only note-notation software. There is no possibility to write down what the music should be... But... it only plays a wrong note if you input a wrong note. I'd rather hear music with a wrong note than the right note but no music...

 

[Tom]

Yeah, pretty much every time I turn on the recorder.....

 

[Dingo40]

Frustrating!?

 

[mgavrilov]

I certainly do too. But when you have one of these days, it's a good oportunity to figure out ways to get around a mistake, make it least noticeable for the general public and continue to play, as if you hadn't made a mistake ?

 

[Ventura]

years ago (decades) i added a side-flipping casette tapedeck to my midi rack, and bought a case of 180 minute cassettes and would let it tape the mixed output (including vocals) on most gigs one summer when i was working as a duet with a female vocalist

the objective was to learn from our (my) mistakes as well as gather material for demo tapes

quite sobering to learn just how many of those bad notes i was hitting... but also quite pleasing to hear where we were spot on something tricky

so i can feel your pain ¡!

 

[Corinto]

Yes, one of the most complicated points I've experienced is just to learn to continue to play as if no mistake has happened, because I've observed the great majority of the general public don't notice it, or maybe they do notice it but they don't feel it as being a mistake.

 

[Ventura]

did Jazz Accordion grow partly out of quickly comping and covering our way out of a mistake ¿?

 

[MaxB]

I find generally these days are actually some of the best in terms of practice productivity, and generally come before some of my best practice days. I think it's either that you are not actually playing any worse, but realising mistakes you were making that you did not notice before, or that your brain actually working out some new neural pathways that are going to be useful in the long term... Or possibly both.

For instance, I have noticed that when I'm learning a tune (no matter the instrument), I actually need to learn it at least 2 or 3 times over several weeks. The first time, it's very much a conscient approach (this finger need to go there!). Then after leaving it rest for a while, I'll have forgotten some of the tricky bits, which I need to relearn until they become more natural.

 

[dan]

did Jazz Accordion grow partly out of quickly comping and covering our way out of a mistake ¿?

Used to do weekly Gypsy swing jam, mostly amateur musicians. Sometimes when I’d hit a wrong note I’d add some more and pretend I was playing “outside” on purpose. ?

 

[JeffJetton]

Music notation software is actually only note-notation software.

Well said.

Notation is not music in the same way that a recipe is not a cake.

 

[OldSqueezer]

@dan - and when everyone else in the band does the same thing at the same time it’s called ‘free jazz’... Possibly originally ‘free-for-all jazz’, but term shortened to protect the innocent? Or, to go back to your original point, to convince the audience that it is all ‘meant’. All jolly fun.
Doug