"not a single note wasted"

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In the (very nice) liner notes to the compilation of Candi Staton's FAME records stuff, Tim Tooher writes "When the band eases up for the ballads the playing is precise and intelligent. There's not a single note wasted or out of place."

I think he's right, everything sounds absolutely neccessary... and it's kind of funny, because this isn't minimalist music - it's a full late sixties/early seventies soul/proto-funk&disco set up w/ horns, swooping strings and a piano & organ on top of a guitar/bass/drums groove.

The "not a note wasted" idea just got me thinking... is that a defining feature of danceable music?

The playing on music like this has a selflessness to it - it's so dedicated to engaging the listener, to communicating. It's like Checkov or Raymond Carver, like it trusts that you - the listener, the reader - want to hear what it has to say, so it concentrates on saying it as concisely as possible.

And I think about the music I love and start to think it all fits this description, from the Angry Samoans to Premier. Not a note wasted.

But then I start to think that this whole idea of economy of notes is a writerly mindset grafted onto a different form of communication. It makes sense to writers to think that "show don't tell" & "less is more" is always better, because that's what tends to work best.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Saturday, 3 April 2004 16:55 (twenty-one years ago)

The "not a note wasted" idea just got me thinking... is that a defining feature of danceable music?

cf. the currently gauche drum & bass

― j. pantsman (jpantsman), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:08 (twenty-one years ago)

The god king of "Not a Single Note Wasted"....

http://home.clara.net/antoni/rubicong.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:08 (twenty-one years ago)

surely you mean
http://perso.club-internet.fr/jpp-product/booker2.jpg

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:13 (twenty-one years ago)

just once I'd like to see a review that comments on all the wasted notes.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually found myself writing that "not a note is wasted" about something just a week or so ago. I think it's an issue of economy.

And maybe it's not really expressing what you want to say. Do you know that Misfits song that has the "I ain't no godamn son of a bitch" chorus? I could say that "not a note is wasted" in that chorus, but what I would really want to say is that every note is really significant (and every chord, too--it's only I, IV, and V chords in that chorus).

― Tim Ellison, Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

can we have some examples of wasted notes please?

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:17 (twenty-one years ago)

just once I'd like to see a review that comments on all the wasted notes.

Surely you mean the God King of Extraneous Note Usage...

http://www.chimpnet.com/images/yngwie.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Every time you waste a note, God kills a kitten.

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

ok aside from the obvious absurdities like Yngwie.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

My point is that someone will say that there isn't a note wasted in some Mahler symphony, but they don't mean the same thing as me when I'm saying that there isn't a note wasted in "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tommy James.

― Tim Ellison, Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Ok,...howzabout?
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/entertainment/0208/gallery.yes/yes-atl-2.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

(x-post)

well, there are the other obvious absurdities like mariah and whitney and all their descendents.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

plus pretty much the entire oeuvre of jellyfish.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

jambands to thread.

hmm, they're gauche too

― j. pantsman (jpantsman), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

slash's second guitar solo in "november rain" is many, many wasted notes. i've never counted them, though, so i don't know exactly how many.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:30 (twenty-one years ago)

haha for some reason "November Rain" had popped in my head too!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Yer all gonna laugh at me (like Carrie's mom said they would), but whenever i hear Sarah Smile by Hall & Oates I always think that if there were one added note or one taken away that its perfection would crumble like a sandcastle too close to the water at high tide. ( Steely Dan to thread as well. no don't. they get too much play. Too much ILM girly action. i heart them doofuses though. oh yes i do.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

second guitar solo

Those three words anywhere are usually a sign. (And yes, Hall and Oates should at least as much attention as Steely Dan, but there has been love.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Staton's Sweet Feeling is one of the greatest records ever made.

― red, Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"Usually," OK. Not true of "Looking at You" by the MC5, though, of course. BROTHER WAYNE KRAMER TESTIFYING!

― Tim Ellison, Saturday, 3 April 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, I've got a good one: Not a note of Syd Barrett's 16-note melisma in "If It's in You" is wasted. (You know the one I'm talking about--"Yes, I'm thi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-inking of this/Yes, I am."

― Tim Ellison, Saturday, 3 April 2004 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

but did we really need to hear the flubbed take/studio banter preceding it? generally the answer is no. i wonder, did syd choose to include it himself, or was it like maybe roger w and dave g having a laugh at his expense. eh, probably not.

― j. pantsman (jpantsman), Saturday, 3 April 2004 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

btw, you're right, that is a good one.

i think the long & winding road has some wasted notes. and not just the obvious phil spector orchestration, but paul's melody itself. i've never found it to be musically pleasing. it's long, winding, and boring.

the first time i heard it, i thought the theme from the finale of saint saens' 3rd concerto was gratuitous, but now i'd argue that it wastes no notes.

― j. pantsman (jpantsman), Saturday, 3 April 2004 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

At first I'm thinking that all of this 'not a note wasted' sounds, if anything, very control freak-ish to me with all of the striving for a type of listener's idea of perfection, but I haven't thought through this much.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 3 April 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I like wasted notes a lot, almost as often as the not wasted ones. Think 'Sister Ray'.

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Saturday, 3 April 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think that something like 'sister ray' has notes that are wasted. To me it sounds like a very carefully planned, tightly structured piece of music.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 3 April 2004 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

(x-post)

i think you're spot on. type of listener = [me]. lemme know if thinking through it changes your mind.

― j. pantsman (jpantsman), Saturday, 3 April 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

???????????????????????????
xpost

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Saturday, 3 April 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

free improv = the art of wasting notes

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Saturday, 3 April 2004 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah it totally is but the question is referring to records whereas free improv is a form of live music.

*glances at the stack of free improv vinyl and CDs before pressing submit*

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 3 April 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

What's the difference between live music and recorded music, besides whether it was recorded or not?

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Saturday, 3 April 2004 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I think the perception of what is a wasted note (or not) does really change from hearing it on the stage to the hearing of it in yr room.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 3 April 2004 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I prefer wasted notes to stone-cold sober ones.

― Dave Segal (Da ve Segal), Sunday, 4 April 2004 04:48 (twenty-one years ago)

There are very few pieces of music in which any notes are wasted. (Except there are a few that are so embarrassing almost every note is wasted)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 4 April 2004 11:39 (twenty-one years ago)

"cf. the currently gauche drum & bass"

WTF? Surely current d&b's problem is that it's not wasteful enough. I can usually count about three notes per track.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 4 April 2004 12:59 (twenty-one years ago)

can you give a fer instance? i'm not familar w/ current d & b. was thinking more about tracks from v. late 90s/v. early 00s that had notes spewing every which way

― j. pantsman (jpantsman), Sunday, 4 April 2004 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

That's pretty much the era I was thinking of too. The basic d&b track: 2-step beat, three or four note bass riff, five or six note electro riff. Repeat. That's not particularly note-worthy.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 4 April 2004 23:13 (twenty-one years ago)

"'second guitar solo'

Those three words anywhere are usually a sign."

The second solo of Go4's 'Armalite Rifle' *is* one note.

― Sasha (sgh), Monday, 5 April 2004 12:27 (twenty-one years ago)

And just what the hell's wrong with wasting notes, anyway? It's not like there's a shortage of 'em or anything, for chrissakes!

Hitting EVERY note = eventually hitting the RIGHT one

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Every note ever played by Limp Bizkit or Korn is a note wasted.

― Phil Freeman (Phil Freeman), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I think "not a single note is wasted" is simply another way of saying "I like this record."

Cf. above, where two posters disagreed on whether notes are wasted in Sister Ray. If this were an objective question, and objective answers were possible, there would be no dispute.

A critical component of liking a record is the feeling that it is being channeled through the writer/singer/band, not cluttered by conscious, ego-driven invention.

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

If this were an objective question, and objective answers were possible, there would be no dispute.

so true, yet so useless.

tim, i'll try to come up with some specific examples of what i'm thinking of. i'm remembering going to ravish events in the late late 90s and hearing this frantic spatter of beats that was like, this is too much, it's wasted on dancers (even wasted ones). you know but whatever, people were dancing to it and that's fine.

but i felt like to create the track the artist had just opened a drum editor like the one in digital performer that lets you draw in notes and just swung their mouse back and forth until a suitable density was achieved, then made sure there was some combination of a regular kick/snare/hat beat going on. didn't float my boat.

― j. pantsman (jpantsman), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

phil otm, btw. i was thinking of saying something similar but thought it too cheeky

― j. pantsman (jpantsman), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 21:40 (twenty-one years ago)

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