Embracing Our Mistakes

No doubt about it, mistakes are a blessing almost anywhere you make them in life. When we learn from our mistakes, we become wiser and better prepared for the future.

But in art, mistakes offer another often overlooked benefit. When we learn to embrace our mistakes as we do our intentions, we open a new door for the subconscious to play a deeper role in our creations. It does not even matter whether there is subconscious "intent" at the root of the mistake, so long as we give a moment to let our subconscious mind wander, potentially finding new meaning in the mistake.

An obvious example is playing an unintended note in a melody. When writing a passage, whether on paper, in a sequencer, or improvising, we often deploy a note that is not intended. The usual response to this is an immediate correction; we erase it from the page, adjust the note in the computer, or replay the passage as we originally conceived it. Perhaps sometimes we come upon a "happy accident," and allow the new note to stay, but more often than not, we ignore the possibilities that come with straying from our original path. This is particularly easy to do if the wrong note is completely outside of the game plan we've been sticking to for the piece at hand.

But every single wrong note may be a new opportunity. It may be a chance to find new territory that our minds did not anticipate. Even the strangest-sounding, most out-of-place note might turn out to belong in our work if we give it a chance to speak to us. In my personal experience, it is these unintended notes that tend to shape the more interesting sections of my work. I find it invaluable to stop everything I am doing, and consider each mistake a question I must answer: Does it fit? Can it fit? Does it make this section better than it was? Is this sound something I can use later in this piece as a variation?

I have found such enormous value in this approach that I sometimes find myself wanting a new "mistake" to appear. It's at these times that I might begin purposefully becoming more careless in my note placement, or even trying to suppress my original intent, bringing myself into sort of a daydreaming state that is much less discriminating in initial note placement. Of course I become very discriminating when I get to the point of polishing and refining my music, but there is a lot to be said for a little intentional carelessness.

In the end, everything must be approved by whatever internal processes and filters we use to satisfy ourselves that the piece is complete. Knowing this safety net will always catch what doesn't work for us, we should consider as many opportunities as possible, even if the source of that opportunity is as mundane as a clumsy index finger slipping from F-sharp to F-natural on your piano keyboard.