503-467-6199 rodsewald@hotmail.com
There was a moment in my life when I realized that there were no wrong notes. I had been told this before, but never actually felt it. That moment was the beginning of my ability to write and improvise effortlessly. That was the moment that I understood music theory not as inviolable rules, but as the interplay of creating musical tension and releasing (resolving) musical tension. "Wrong" notes weren't wrong, just more tense, anxious, colorful, or imteresting. The horizon opened and I knew for the first time that I could go from any note, chord, or scale to any other fearlessly and directly. I had been playing for over twenty years at that point and wondered what kind of musician could be created if that information was understood during the first lessons. In other words, what if a student was never indoctrinated into the common fear-based belief in the wrong note? Could a student who regularly improvised from the very beginning, learn to understand music by ear sooner? Could that student learn hand-to-ear coordination better than one who never strayed from practicing a set piece? Would their strength and dexterity increase faster? I tried this on a few, very young, new students and was amazed by the results. I now use improvisation and songwriting as an integral part of my teaching. While my students still learn set peices from written scores and study theory, we also learn from the expeiences of improvisation and songwriting that there is more than one possible next, right note.
Musical boundaries have been pushed so far that this realization is now possible for almost anyone. Musicians like the jazz players of the 50's and 60's knew that "wrong notes" were simply more interesting notes, the Greatful Dead with their hour long jams advanced no-wrong-note playing to a wider audience, and punk music made "wrong notes" into the perfect expression of angst until that became mainstream music.
I am influenced by a book called Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner. He put into words what I learned as a teacher of music and of Spanish--both are languages that require authentic practice "on the streets" to master. Academic study is only part of the learning process. Language teachers know this and at least talk about it, but music teachers seldom do.