What Jazz Theory Is Teaching Me

Jazz harmony is not harder than classical harmony — it's a different set of permissions. Classical harmony has rules you follow or break deliberately. Jazz harmony has agreements you make with the other players about what "works" in a given moment.

What this means in practice: a note that would be "wrong" in classical terms can be "right" in jazz if you lean into it and resolve it intentionally. The wrongness becomes information about where you're going.

What I'm learning from this: constraints that feel like rules often turn out to be agreements. The rule "don't play that note" is really "if you play that note, you'd better know why." The "why" is what makes it music instead of mistake.

The parallel to code: a pattern that's "wrong" in one context (global mutable state, for instance) can be the right choice in a context where you understand the trade-off and have a plan for the consequences. Rules are often heuristics that have forgotten their own reasoning.

The thing I keep getting wrong: trying to play "correctly" instead of playing musically. The technically correct note played tentatively sounds worse than the wrong note played like you meant it.