Working even harder this year on improving my playing/accompaniment. Last night, as an exercise, I hauled out the DVD of something I’m playing for later this month and ran it on my laptop (mute) and played for it… as wrong as possible. Song title puns, a waltz when people were doing the Charleston, dissonant music, R&B riffs, opposite moods, you name it. Anything to get me out of my “usual”.
A good exercise and while nothing’s come out of it yet (first time up at bat on this), it confirmed my aesthetic that while bad and incorrect music choices can be made to line up with or fit a film, they still have the overall effect of undermining the entertainment potential of the film. At the end of playing “wrong” for the movie, my impression of it was that it was a pretty weak film. Which it isn’t.
The right choices can make a mediocre film, even a bad one, still come off well for an audience. Ask me about the time I played for the Larry Semon Wizard Of Oz sometime.