on being mistake-free
This is sort of a rant that is largely a result of feedback received from videos on YouTube.
I really never considered trying to play in a way that’s free of mistakes until I started posting videos online, and it has me thinking about the whole creative process, and editing, and what makes jazz interesting, a lot of related issues.
I didn’t really notice the subtle shift in perception when it happened. I started off my YouTube adventure by slapping up a video I hastily recorded of myself playing Lush Life. Lush Life is a complicated, challenging tune, and the charts I’ve seen aren’t really all that good, so I had spent a lot of time puzzling out what the right changes are, and working up a treatment that was sophisticated enough to do the tune justice. So it was a reasonably polished performance, even if it was a rough and ready video that I posted. And at the time, I just wanted to see what would happen. It was kind of a throwaway.
I never thought I’d get so addicted to YouTube.
So where I currently stand, process-wise, is that I tape a lot of playing at once, usually a couple hours. I capture these takes to mpeg video, and do some minimal editing, basically putting in the title and fade to black at the end. Lately I’ve been EQing a little to overcome some of the mic deficiencies. But the only editing I’m really doing is selecting some takes.
So how do I pick which ones I upload? I pretty much make a judgement whether the musical ideas they contain outweigh the technical mistakes. Being solo performances, the mistakes are really noticeable. If I had a drummer and bass player, you wouldn’t even catch a lot of them.
But I noticed recently that I’ve subtly shifted more toward favoring “mistake-free” over “interesting performance.” I have been posting takes that are somewhat less adventurous sounding (and hence less interesting) because I thought the level of mistakes was too high.
I’m beginning to see that as an error of judgement, and a disservice to the audience. It’s a very different way of intereacting with the audience than I’m used to. I am accustomed to playing in clubs, with a great deal of encouragement and feedback from the audience. Playing for videos in my music room, I only have the voice in my head telling me “don’t screw up, don’t screw up, don’t screw up…” to listen to. The result is that I don’t think that the vids do my playing much justice. I know that sounds a little like an excuse, but it’s not. I’m just making the observation, and I intend to post videos with more mistakes in the future.
That’s right, I’m committed to bringing you more mistakes. And along with it, more creative, engaging and adventurous musicianship.
