No Such Thing as a Wrong Note

Herbie Hancock shares a story of a time when he performed with Miles Davis:

During Miles’ solo, I played this chord that was so wrong. I thought I just destroyed everything.

Miles took a breath and played some notes, and he made my chord right. And I couldn’t figure out how he did that.

It took me years to figure out what happened. Here’s what happened: I judged what I played, Miles didn’t.

Miles accepted it as something new. He did what every Jazz musician should do, try to make anything that happens into something of value.

I love this story from Herbie. There’s no such thing as a wrong note. It’s wrong because we judge it as wrong. Similarly, there’s no such thing as a bad interaction or situation. It’s bad because we label it as such.