This was originally posted on blogger.

Every jazz musician has heard the phrase, “there are no wrong notes in jazz.” Trite but interesting, right? It implies that by definition, jazz is an artform in which there is no structure, no rules, nothing bad and nothing good. It just is. What you play just is.

I mentioned this to my friend Leon and he had quite the strong reaction. He said, “I hate that statement, because it sure feels like there are wrong notes in jazz.” He recounted a time when he was at a jam session at UC Jazz playing the chords on piano. There was another pianist sitting next to him, who heard Leon playing and leaned over, “hey, where are you?” Leon pointed to the right spot. “That’s funny,” the other guy said, “because you’re playing sounds like shit.”

The spirit of jazz differs from the institution of jazz. The institution of jazz decrees right and wrong, good and bad, professionals from amateurs. My friend Chase was in a jazz class playing drums. One time, the conductor stopped the band, and shouted at him, “Hold on, Chase. The trumpet just did that lick, why didn’t you echo it?” In the spirit of jazz, there is no right or wrong, and Chase can play however he feels. In the institution of jazz, Chase didn’t follow the rule – whether intentionally or unintentionally, that’s simply wrong.

Minecraft is a sandbox game. In Minecraft, you can mine resources, build things, fight monsters, etc. but at least when I was into the game, there was no “winning” Minecraft. There were just things you could do, like you’re a kid playing in a sandbox. The creators of Minecraft encouraged this by introducing “creative mode” (vs. survival mode) where you could be Minecraft god and simply sculpt the landscape however you wanted. Like jazz, there was no wrong way to play the game.

Pokemon is a mostly linear game, though it has open-world elements. Pokemon gives you the illusion of choice, because after all you can choose you’re Pokemon, you can choose who to talk to and what to buy from the Pokemart. But ultimately, the designers of the Pokemon games hope you follow a linear progression: defeat Pokemon gyms one through eight, then the elite four, and become the very “best” Pokemon trainer in the world. Education is a little like this. In school, you has some degree of choice in what you learn and what you remember down the line. Still, you are expected to keep to the path and finish school in 12 years and college in 4. Those who deviate from this path (deviants) are treated as either defective (if they are slower) or advanced (if they are faster).

There are no wrong notes in jazz because jazz is a sandbox game. In practice I believe this means having a certain humility if you are playing music with someone (or living life with someone). Their choices may be different to the choices you would make, but you must remember that you are you and they are them. My favorite musicians are those who made art personal to themselves, however they defined it: the poetry of Simon & Garfunkle, the spirituality of 1960s John Coltrane, the raspy voice of Tom Waits. It sounds trite, but there are truly no wrong notes in jazz. And jazz is like Minecraft, which is like life.