Lesson 4: Wrong Notes or Happy Appearances

Welcome to Lesson 4

0:00:12 Hey, welcome. It's joEy from Eternal Crane. This is the fourth lesson. I'm excited for this one because it's going to apply to me personally, wrong notes or happy appearances. You get to make the decision. As always, it's a 20 minute lesson. Welcome, spiritual talk, music lesson, and then play, which we also call improvisation. You're welcome to join the interfaith community. You do not have to be a musician. If you are a musician, you can be any skill level. We'd love to have you part of the community. We are supportive of each other.

0:01:07 This is a free course. It's every Tuesday and Thursday. If I don't make happy appearances and fall behind on the schedule, but it's going to go to the end of the year. We are streaming recording on the holidays, so there's no break for joEy. That may have been what we call a mistake, but we have an opportunity to reframe that.

The Dishwasher and the Cat Meows

0:01:50 Also, you could say that my dishwasher running right now is a mistake because I'm supposed to be recording, but we used to have people that we would hire to take out all of the sounds of me bumping my elbow on my record, taking out the cat meows. I recognize this is a waste of money. I'm recording my life, and everything that is in the room is part of the recording. So we had one cat meow removed, and then we decided we're never doing that again.

0:02:33 Every cat meow is my precious baby, and it's going to be in my final record. So that's an example of reframing a mistake and saying that's a happy appearance.

0:02:48 Now I go back to my records. I hear cats meow that I don't get to see anymore. They've passed on the rainbow bridge. I'm so happy that I left them in. The dishwasher, that's a happy appearance. I'm so happy I have a dishwasher.

0:03:11 So it could be a slip, or it could be a reframe. Meet it with curiosity, not judgment. Why is the dishwasher running right now? Why does the cat like to walk up on the keyboard during the improvisation, during the final take? There's all sorts of answers, because life is always happening. It's always flowing, and that's what makes it beautiful. I'm happy that the house is noisy. I'm happy that I'm getting my dishes done.

0:03:48 When you're playing music, if you make a mistake, which we do not do at Eternal Crane, we just say that they're happy appearances. Who are we to know? What is a mistake and what is not a mistake? So what showed up for you this week that you called a mistake? Can you add curiosity? Can you reframe it?

Poor Heart, Gentle With Ourselves

0:04:18 This is nice from Francis de Sales on gentleness towards ourselves. Poor heart. Be as gentle with your own slip-up as you'd be with a friend. Poor heart! So soon fallen again into the snare! Well now, rise up again bravely and fall no more. That's from Introduction to the Devout Life. A very beautiful book. I highly recommend that book. It's so tender. It's so gentle, and it applies to everybody.

0:05:04 He also says there is no cause to marvel, because weakness is weak. So it's not that surprising when you slip or you fall. We expect that. That's part of the process. Failure is the process by which we improve. So there's no need to be surprised. So acknowledge it. Bring tenderness. Bring your devotion. Learn. And you can change. And it'll change on God's time. It'll change on Tao's time.

0:05:50 I did another lesson about nobody's behind the wheel. This is an empty boat. You don't have to take so much personal responsibility. We live in a personal responsibility society. But I think that the creator animates everything. So it'll happen on the creation's time. But you can align yourself with it.

The Partial Becomes Complete

0:06:14 So I decided, because I made so many happy appearances with my schedule, that I decided not to prepare for this talk. So this slide is brand new to me. I'm reading it with you. I see a circle that says complete. And unfortunately, it went too partial. And I said, unfortunately, because I want things to be finished. And that's my mistake. In an infinite universe, nothing is ever finished. Work will always be coming. And if you finish your work quickly, you're just going to get more work. I used to think that applied just to corporate America. But I've learned that applies to my entire world.

0:07:07 I see that you can go from straight to crooked. You can go from full to empty. And you can go from new to worn out. From Lao Tzu, the partial becomes complete. The crooked straight. The empty full. The worn out new. Apparently, I said this. Yeah, I did that. I was wrong. Try this one. Yeah, I did that. I did that too. And I've changed. Changed. I'm a different person now. So that's okay. What will you name today so you can begin again?

0:07:55 And I want to point out on this slide, this isn't about completing work. This isn't about becoming a perfect person. This isn't about scrubbing all the stains off your past. It's the opposite. It's about allowing where you are today.

Wrong Notes, a Half Step Away

0:08:12 So the music lesson, I hope that was helpful for your spirituality. Let's talk about wrong notes. So if I play C consonant, everything is where it should be. Sounds very resolved. If you play a half step, any of these triad, you're going to get a more dissonant chord. So I'm just taking notes of the triad. And I'm just picking F sharp is a mistake. That's a happy appearance. But I'm picking notes that are one step above.

0:09:11 I'll make a triad from one half step above. And I get a quite unresolved chord. These are useful. This is the other half of music. When you're learning music, you usually are taught something like that, right? Those are consonant changes. This is the other half of music. All of these dissonances, they give you a place to go. They give you a place to return. Anytime you have a dissonance that's a half step away, you can resolve it.

0:10:04 Some of the more esoteric dissonances, you may have to search. But you can find one. If you're playing and you play a wrong note, I often play a flat six or a raise five by mistake. I stay there and I repeat it. So if I'm trying to do C minor and I accidentally play a flat six, well, I can always resolve it half step away.

Play With Your Mistake

0:10:43 But what's even more fun than that is play with your mistake. I just built an augmented scale off my mistake. I'm going to play my mistake in both hands. You see how mistakes are becoming happy appearances? Because I don't stop and say, oh, no, I made a mistake. And everybody heard my mistake. I say, wow, I was visited by a flat six and that's beautiful. And I love to hear it. I'll even let the mistake ring out and repeat it in both hands. And then once I've accepted the appearance, then I can resolve back to the fifth. So I hope that's helpful.

0:11:33 I know it's a little bit abstract right now. Eternal Crane is not teaching you very precise. This is not the Suzuki method. I'm trying to find a sweet spot between beginners, intermediate, advanced, philosophers. Musicians, spiritual people. I wonder if joEy's going to fit in just this awkward little bubble. Because joEy never really fit in. joEy himself is a happy appearance. So I'm not going into all of the details, but I'm trying to give you ideas to stimulate your creativity, stimulate your emotional life, stimulate your spiritual heart, and give you some new practice ideas.

Improvising From a Cluster Chord

0:12:25 So as my dishwasher runs, let's go ahead and play an improvisation. I don't know what to do today. So I'm going to pick a cluster chord. I'm picking three notes that are a whole step apart. And then I'm repeating the pattern an octave higher, a half note above. That's it. And I'm just playing. And I'm going to resolve. And I discovered I'm in the key of F. So I played a little consonant melody. This is 2, 4, 1, 3 with a trill.

0:13:10 If you play something in the right, play it in the left. Flat 7, ending on the third. I'm going to go back here. I'm just repeating the structure, going back. Oh no, I made a happy appearance. I'm not going to rush. I'm not going to tell the whole audience I did that. I didn't mean to play. I didn't mean to play a major 7, but I did. So you're playing. You're trying to keep your structure. You're trying to play a flat 7.

0:13:58 And all of a sudden, you make a happy appearance. And it's quite out of place. Build a triad on it. Make a triad. Have fun with it. We're playing an E. Play whatever you want. I'm going to play another augmented. And once I'm ready, back. Did it again.

0:14:38 This was an augmented scale down. Picking augmented because it has a flat second. And because I was a half step away. I was a half step away. That means I was technically playing an augmented. You don't have to know that. Fix your happy mistakes. I just resolved it to F. This time I played the flat 7. So there was no happy appearance. Happy appearance.

0:15:24 Triad. Even turned it dominant. And then resolve. Okay. I hope that's helpful. I'm staying in F minor. E. Make a dominant on it. Resolved it. I don't think the audience could tell that I didn't mean to play the major 7. Of course, E is a major 7 because it's a half step down from the root F. How did we get F? I started with this cluster. And then I resolved it by going down a half step and finding a triad. I'm just kind of summarizing again.

0:16:25 I don't read any critiques. I only read praise. You're welcome to write Joseph and send him praise. That's the only feedback that I read. As you're the greatest ever. So I'm anticipating the feedback I did not read. As some people said, you're going too quickly. So I'm trying. To repeat. Just making clusters. I picked these randomly. And you know what's interesting? You can pick any random ones that you want. This was the same cluster down a half step.

0:16:58 So I could do the same thing and then resolve it. E. Now we're in the key of E. I played E dominant. Play flat 7. I make a oops. I made an oopsie. Make a triad on it. And I'm going to go a half step above my root and resolve it. And then repeat it. If you make a happy appearance, repeat it. Build it into your structure.

A Real Happy Appearance

0:17:40 This was a legitimate happy appearance. The other happy appearances I planned ahead of time. This one I didn't mean. I played on the right hand a triad built on the 6. Excuse me. On the flat 7. Because we're in the key of E flat. I meant to build the triad on the root. So I'm going to. That's another one. I meant to play the flat 7 inversion. Instead, I don't know what I played. It's a good time when you're studying to name your mistakes.

0:18:28 If you're improvising, you might not have time. Let's say I don't have time. I've made a mistake on a mistake. What is joEy going to do? He's just playing a couple chromatics? Half step, half step, half step. I just was playing half steps to get out of it. If you get so lost, just play half steps.

0:19:01 See how that works? As long as I end on the tonic, the root triad. As long as I end on the triad and build it into the structure, it works.

Thanks and Goodbye

0:19:25 So that's the improvisation today. I hope you enjoyed that. That's about happy appearances. I hope that helped you reframe mistakes in your life, mistakes in your playing. I hope it gave you some creativity.

0:19:43 Please write me a question. You're welcome to send me a question about cluster chords. Send me a question about dissonance and consonants. Join the discord, check out the site, follow this course until the end of the year. You're welcome to have me learn a piece and you're welcome to hire me too. So until next time, remember, if you're not sure, if you're strong, others are looking at you to see if they can be strong.