I can't remember how this adage goes. I believe I read hereabouts some time ago. It starts out something like this "If you intentionally hit a wrong note, that's improvisation. If you unintentionally hit a wrong note, that's ???.
Does someone remember how the saying goes?

I got this all wrong in my last message. It goes like this: If you unintentionally hit a wrong note, that's improvisation. If you intentionally hit a wrong note, it's in the arrangement.

Charlie Parker said something along the lines of:
"If you play something wrong once, you're a screwup.
Play it three times, and you're a genius."

Vassar Clemens, an incredible fiddler(he's over 75 now), once said that if you keep PERFECTLY in time, it is impossible to make a mistake.

I believe it was Doc Watson who said "if you make a mistake and you're really fast, just take it back. If you're not that fast, just do it again and people will think you did it on purpose." Either way, the mark of a good musician is the ability to play through mistakes.

By the way, Doc is still going strong. I have a few tracks of his recent playing. My friend made a guitar for him and went to visit him to give him the instrument. They played some songs together and recorded it with minidisc. Doc is still great.

R2