[Harp-L] Harp-L Digest, Vol 182, Issue 16 - Modes and Trane's improvising

[The Iceman]

Richard sez:

<<Once you understand the musical rules you can choose to break them, but you need to understand them first because it takes knowledge and skill to break the rules in ways that are musically enjoyable, exciting or effective, rather than sounding terrible or incompetent.>>

I don't know what they do in 2nd grade here in the US any longer, but I remember having to learn all the rules about English, even though I was speaking it fluently (although very simplified) already. 


Anyone else remember having to diagram sentences with those straight and diagonal lines on which you would write the words?


This only helped me along later as I chose to improve my speaking and writing skills, so I learned all the rules and how they applied. Eventually I was able to break the rules in search of a personalized style. As a matter of fact, I realize now that I've actually forgotten a lot of the rules, yet my skills have remained and improved over the years.


So, to me it was worthwhile.


-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Hammersley <rhhammersley at xxxxx>