Salvation is only a half step away

Improve and innovation

I play bluegrass mandolin a bit. One of the things you’re called on to do often is play “breaks” (solos), sometimes for songs you’ve never heard before. Virtually everyone thinks their break is terrible, and virtually no one actually cares! It’s a good lesson in humility.

As hard as playing breaks is, there is some structure to it to help out - you always know what key you’re in. That means, out of all of the 12 possible tones you can make in an octave (and there’s only “really” one octave, it just moves around), 8 of them are the “scale tones” that are in the key you’re playing. Those tones will sound OK, if not great - they at least won’t sound too terrible.

The “bad” tones (there are no bad tones) are all fairly close to “good” tones. In fact, that’s kind of what makes them “bad”, that they are too close to another tone, and dissonant. Close in this case means “a half of a step” - the smallest amount of musical separation on a fretted or keyboard instrument.

What does all this music theory have to do with software and innovation? Glad you asked! There is a saying - it’s in the title above - that when you’re jamming, “salvation is only a half-step (meaning one move on the fretboard) away”. Which is more or less true - notes that aren’t in the scale can sound OK if you keep moving through them to one that is (this is called a passing tone). Sometimes they give character to the solo - three of the “bad” tones (music nerds - I know there’s a formal word for this, diatonic/chromatic) are blues tones. They make the solo or melody seem sad or moody, or build tension towards a resolution. If you keep moving, you can usually make any “mistake” sound interesting or even good.

So…I draw a connection to innovation and new ideas. We all feel like our new ideas are embarassing or dumb when we say them (if they’re interesting enough that is - if not, you probably need to push harder), just like a “bad” note in a break. Stalling here is as bad a stalling in a break - it chops up the flow and rhythm (and really, it’s actually all about rhythm. I also heard someone once say “the notes are negotiable, but the rhythm isn’t”). Moving and saying “yes, and”, keeping the rhythm, and seeing what you can do with a partial idea is much more effective and important than being “right”, “smart”, “visionary” or whatever.

Will you play a sour note or have a truly bad idea from time to time? Yep! But remember…salvation is always a half step away.