Gaborone — I will be excused for not revealing who was playing at that concert. It is musicians' talk. But the comment confirmed the worst of my fears, that in fact my unease with the ongoing performance definitely missed something; something that I could not quiet put my fingers on because my initial impulse was to enjoy myself. I wanted to enjoy myself so I resisted the temptation to be critical as I was listening to the music. Still, that did not work. Something was definitely missing. Something that is terribly essential to what music must sound like.

I did not have the same problem as the band masters. Mine was that, as I learnt a few seasons ago, it is possible to play every beat, every rhythm and every note correctly and still sound uninteresting, listless and boring. I did not make the observation as a musician. One person who loves music, but is not a musician made the same observation. "The music did not seem to have much life in it," she commented. I was justified. Even the audience will hear it if the music is short of energy; if it sounds uninspired and purposeless!

The easier way to make that statement is to say that it lacks emotion. Let's put it this way. During the performance, the music feeds on the musicians and the musicians feed off the music. Each draws energy from the other. That usually happens when the musicians are challenged by the music. That does not mean that the music must be complicated. It simply means that the melodies must offer the musicians something new or fresh to play. It means that the rhythm section should have interesting chord movements to play against interesting rhythmic patterns that might be built into the music by the arranger or infused into the music by the players.

People who attend concerts generally listen to music on radio or on CD. They are educated listeners even if they do not play actively themselves. At the concert they want to hear a good amount of innovation in the treatment of the melody, the harmony and the rhythm. One way of creating excitement in the music is through the solo. The audience must feel that they are listening to a new voice, not a repetition of stuff they have heard from elsewhere.

Secondly, the musicians are in the habit of transferring the music on the record onto the stage word for word. The stage is an open atmosphere where the music is not frozen into vinyl or digital electronic messages. The stage is not a closed studio where you repeat things for perfection and arrange them with radio for the convenience of DJs. The stage demands direct communication with the audience, here and now. Lifting or copying music from the record and re-presenting it on stage is one of the best way to kill the music. You do not need musicians to do that. All you need is your background tracks and the hired musician to fill in the missing pieces.

Another ingredient, especially in African popular music - erroneously referred to as jazz in the music columns and the music organisations - is the spontaneous conversation that happens between the musicians on stage. The piano and the rhythm guitars create spaces for each other, creating a circle of rhythm wherein each one has a specific place and time to occupy. When more than one instrument plays the same rhythmic pattern that kills the conversation. Two people are saying the same things to each other at the same time. One of them should not be on stage. The composer should have a good sense of how harmony works and a good sense of the history of the music of the world.

A minor chord where there should be a major kills the brightness of the progression.

The fact that there are no hard and fast rules should not suggest the music should be arranged randomly, as if the sensitivities of the ear operate in a vacuum. There are sounds that sound logical when they are placed here rather than there. So, much as new ways of arranging harmony is encouraged, random arrangement of chords is inadmissible. It gives the ear the idea that there is disharmony. Finally - though the conversation cannot be regarded as complete - tuning is central to creating a sensible conversation. There are no sms messages in music, where 'four' can be represented by '4' or 'for' or 'pho'.

Bad tuning means that when one is playing a C Major chord, the other is playing a C Sharp. He is sharp. He might also play a B Major. He is flat. That means when one says 'Dumela', the other is saying 'Le wena'. When that communication breakdown happens, the music sounds flat, incongruous, discordant and finally, irritating. Western horns are new to Botswana music. The horn players have to take particular care to make sure that they are in tune with the band. That will surely brighten up the music. Let's discuss the comment of the band masters next week.