How to Play "Wrong Notes" on Purpose
There are no wrong notes in jazz, right?
Well, according to Robert Glasper...
“There’s a difference between playing a wrong note on purpose and playing a wrong note because you didn’t know the right note. Those are two different things. They sound different. They feel different.”
Amen.
Long story short: Stop BS-ing your way through your improvised solos.
No matter how much I talk about tritone substitution, rhythmic syncopation, and blue notes, at the end of the day you should be striving to play what you hear in your head – not what you think in your head.
The best way to do that is by singing in your “mind’s ear” (think “mind’s eye”) while soloing. Your singing voice is the best indicator of how clearly you’re hearing the notes you go to play.
If you can’t sing it, that means you can’t hear it, which means you shouldn’t play it.
Here’s an analogy:
When you take off your glasses, words on the page become blurry.
Too many improvisers are guessing the “blurry” notes in their heads and playing them wrong on their instruments. Some people don’t even know the notes they’re hearing are blurry in the first place.
So you have two options
Get a stronger prescription, i.e. train your ears
Increase the size of the font, i.e. simplify your note choices.
Now, when you’re in the practice room—as opposed to on the bandstand—it’s important to “teach” your ear new sounds by playing material you may not yet be able to sing accurately.
For instance, if you want to play bluesier lines in your solos but don’t know how to get that sound, you could pick a few licks from the Sick Licks blues collection and play them again and again – teaching your ear the sound that you’re after.
From there, you can begin to sing the lines that your ear has now come to know.
You may have to go back and forth between playing and singing, but this is how we learn the language. This is how we stop BS-ing our solos. This is how we play on purpose.
Again, if you’re after a more classic, bluesy, or modern sound in your solos, it’s essential that you teach your ear the language. Transcribing is a great way to go about learning the ins and outs of a particular style, but it does take a long time.
So, while you’re working on your transcription chops, have a look and a listen to my new Sick Licks series, which includes hundreds and hundreds of badass licks organized by style, skill level, and chord progression.
It’s an insanely valuable resource, and you can learn all about it here:
Click here to learn more about Sick Licks.
Happy Shedding!
Jeff