full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Stefon Harris: There are no mistakes on the bandstand

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So the idea of a mistake: From the perspective of a jazz musician, it's esiaer to talk about someone else's mistake. So the way I perceive a mistake when I'm on the bandstand — first of all, we don't really see it as a mistake. The only mistake lies in that I'm not able to perceive what it is that someone else did. Every "mistake" is an opirptnutoy in jazz. So it's hard to even describe what a funny note would be.

So for example, if I played a color, like we were playing on a palette, that sounded like this ... (Music) So if Christian played a note — like play an F. (Music) See, these are all right inside of the coolr palette. If you played an E. See, these all lie right inside of this genarel emotional ptltaee that we were painting. If you plyead an F# though, (Dissonance) to most people's ears, they would perceive that as a mistake.

Open Cloze


So the idea of a mistake: From the perspective of a jazz musician, it's ______ to talk about someone else's mistake. So the way I perceive a mistake when I'm on the bandstand — first of all, we don't really see it as a mistake. The only mistake lies in that I'm not able to perceive what it is that someone else did. Every "mistake" is an ___________ in jazz. So it's hard to even describe what a funny note would be.

So for example, if I played a color, like we were playing on a palette, that sounded like this ... (Music) So if Christian played a note — like play an F. (Music) See, these are all right inside of the _____ palette. If you played an E. See, these all lie right inside of this _______ emotional _______ that we were painting. If you ______ an F# though, (Dissonance) to most people's ears, they would perceive that as a mistake.

Solution


  1. easier
  2. opportunity
  3. palette
  4. general
  5. played
  6. color

Original Text


So the idea of a mistake: From the perspective of a jazz musician, it's easier to talk about someone else's mistake. So the way I perceive a mistake when I'm on the bandstand — first of all, we don't really see it as a mistake. The only mistake lies in that I'm not able to perceive what it is that someone else did. Every "mistake" is an opportunity in jazz. So it's hard to even describe what a funny note would be.

So for example, if I played a color, like we were playing on a palette, that sounded like this ... (Music) So if Christian played a note — like play an F. (Music) See, these are all right inside of the color palette. If you played an E. See, these all lie right inside of this general emotional palette that we were painting. If you played an F# though, (Dissonance) to most people's ears, they would perceive that as a mistake.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. bandstand
  2. christian
  3. color
  4. describe
  5. dissonance
  6. ears
  7. easier
  8. emotional
  9. funny
  10. general
  11. hard
  12. idea
  13. jazz
  14. lie
  15. lies
  16. mistake
  17. music
  18. musician
  19. note
  20. opportunity
  21. painting
  22. palette
  23. perceive
  24. perspective
  25. play
  26. played
  27. playing
  28. sounded
  29. talk