Vintage

Vaylor Trucks of The Yeti Trio used this interesting phrase on his band's blog recently: "the correct wrong note."

He describes it this way: "... the ability to drop in a single note or phrase at the exact right time which falls outside of the stated key but makes the music much more interesting.... It is a difficult thing to master, as it takes an innate sense of compositional theory, even when improvising, to pull it off."

When looking at a painting, some people ask "What is it?" or "What does it mean?" No one listens to instrumental music and asks the same questions. Many of us don't expect music to mean anything.

Yet, it does mean something. Music is a vague language. I'm not referring to lyrics, which is poetry, not music. The "words" of music, (the notes, rhythms, melodies, and harmony of music), are not as direct as English, Spanish or French words. Though it may sound like a contradiction, sometimes the words of music, because they are vague, are even more accurate. Music can express emotions we cannot find words to describe.

This story makes me think there should be a new documentary similar to Evelyn Glennie's recent film Touch the Sound, only this film would be called "Taste the Sound."

Swiss psychologists who were studying the fascinating (dis)ability called synaesthesia found a woman who can "taste" music. Synesthetes, as they are called, get their senses mixed up. There are quite a number of documented synesthetes who see colours for different music intervals, but this 27-year-old professional musician can taste music!

Transcribed from my recording on the Moanin' album, here is the sheet music in PDF format. I wanted to create an arrangement that was sparse and introspective, yet still sounded as though the subject felt tortured enough to wail. Simple, but effective (I think).

"The Thrill Is Gone" Arranged for Guitar - PDF, 2pp., 32Kb