When I'm in a "writer's block", finding I can't get out of the same old chords like all the other songs I've heard/written ...

... sometimes my fingers will go awry on the keyboard, and a "wrong" chord gets played ... and BAM!! that's all I need to go off with some new musical idea.

Does that happen to anyone else?

I imagine it would happen more to people without extensive formal musical knowledge and training (like me) than otherwise?

Very interested to hear other's comments - thanks!

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Alexis -Cubase 6.5.0/SX3.1.1.944, XP SP2, 4GB RAM (1GB not accessible, but used just to balance the computer so it doesn't tip over); Delta 66 in Omni i/O Studio; Motif8; UAD-1

Yes. I think this compositional 'technique' produces good results because (on keyboards) the most likely mistake is to shift only a single note of a chord by a tone or semitone. The result will often be a commonly-used substitute chord (probably in inverted form) for the chord you were intending to play. (For example, accidentally playing Am instead of C or F, in the key of C).

Of course, someone who never plays a note wrong isn't going to stumble across these chords in the same way, though I don't see why they can't just randomly vary what they're playing and see how it sounds?

Mistakes are easy What you do after you make the mistake is the creative part.

When playing chords on guitar, I think you're comparatively more likely to hit a wrong note which is far, far away from the target, because you've used the wrong fret. (Well, I do, anyway). Maybe you'll occasionally find a stunningly adventurous chord progression this way, but on average the results are less likely to be usable.

Happens to me frequently

Although I now sometimes deliberately fudge a chord to see how it sounds, usually with pleasing results.

P.S.
Yes, I'm principally a keyboard player

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It wasn't me!
(Well, actually, it probably was)

Yep, I do this a lot! I've been learning the piano for a couple of years having been a guitar player for 15 or so. Learning the piano has taught me much more about theory than I picked up while self-learning the guitar.
At times, it sounds great on the piano. I often know when I've hit a wrong chord or played it incorrectly but at the same time I think "I know that's wrong but it sounds great". Maybe it's something to do with the piano's own kind of versatility. More often than not it seems to work better when not necessarily hitting the wrong chord but more playing a variation of the chord you're supposed to be playing.
Doesn't seem to work so well with the guitar though. I don't know what it is but there's just something about hitting the wrong chord on a guitar that almost never works.

Quote The Bunk:

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Doesn't seem to work so well with the guitar though. I don't know what it is but there's just something about hitting the wrong chord on a guitar that almost never works.

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you're not doing it right... pick up a copy of the tab for Radiohead's The Bends and you'll find plenty of "wrong" chords that sound right. plus it's easy to play the basics - it's a great "open your mind" album for beginner / intermediate guitarists.

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hourglass | random thoughts | doubledotdash!? collective

Quote The Bunk:

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Doesn't seem to work so well with the guitar though. I don't know what it is but there's just something about hitting the wrong chord on a guitar that almost never works.

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I offered a theory about why wrong guitar chords often don't work in my post above - I think it's because in a lot of common guitar errors, you hit the wrong string and therefore your 'bad' note is some weird distant interval like a sharpened fifth or something. (Though I managed to type 'fret' instead of 'string', so my original post didn't make much sense).

Though when a bad guitar chord does happen to work, you often get something very interesting which you would never have tried on a keyboard.

on piano, going through a classical piece and getting the key signature wrong has been a way of finding new chords.. i do it on purpose now.. if i've just played something i like and then find its wrong i like to keep something from it.

that;s always a source of new chords for me.. not taking chords directly from pieces but taking it and moving notes around in a jam-especially if there's a mistake and it sounds good but hasn't been put down yet.. this tends to happen mostly when playing classical and is most the reason i even try and learn (and give up) playing some of it.

'Happy accidents' can take the song into new and unexpected places.

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It can still happen on guitar. A good way of forcing it though is to change tunings. A big part of why Nirvana got a sound that was so different to anyone else's was messing around with altered tunings. Ditto Joni Mitchell. Suddenly all the notes on one (or more) strings are in a different place so you accidentally hit different chords which sound good, as previously mentioned for piano. Or (which particularly applies to guitar) you find that an altered tuning opens up chord inversions that you can't get in standard tunings.

Seated one day at the organ I was weary and ill at ease and my fingers wandered idly over the noisy keys. I know not what I was playing or what I was dreaming then; but I struck one chord of music like the sound of a great Amen. It flooded the crimson twilight like the close of an angel's psalm and it lay on my fevered spirit with a touch of infinite calm. It quieted pain and sorrow like love overcoming strife; it seemed the harmonious echo from our discordant life. It linked all perplexed meanings into one perfect peace, and trembled away into silence as if it were loth to cease. I have sought, but I seek it vainly, that one lost chord divine, which came from the soul of the organ and entered into mine. It may be that death's bright angel will speak in that chord again. It may be that only in Heaven I shall hear that grand Amen.

I'll get me coat.

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Putting the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

Why wait for accidental wrong notes? Deliberately play wrong notes and then try to "get out of jail free" by making them go somewhere that sounds intentional.

Listening to or playing music by harmonically advanced composers (eg Schonberg, Monk, Davis, Shorter) helps too.

Quote ConcertinaChap:

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Seated one day at the organ I was weary and ill at ease and my fingers wandered idly over the noisy keys. I know not what I was playing or what I was dreaming then; but I struck one chord of music like the sound of a great Amen. It flooded the crimson twilight like the close of an angel's psalm and it lay on my fevered spirit with a touch of infinite calm. It quieted pain and sorrow like love overcoming strife; it seemed the harmonious echo from our discordant life. It linked all perplexed meanings into one perfect peace, and trembled away into silence as if it were loth to cease. I have sought, but I seek it vainly, that one lost chord divine, which came from the soul of the organ and entered into mine. It may be that death's bright angel will speak in that chord again. It may be that only in Heaven I shall hear that grand Amen.

I'll get me coat.

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It must be over 30 years since I saw those words (and heard the piece sung by a not-half-bad amateur choir) - thanks

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It wasn't me!
(Well, actually, it probably was)

Just had another one of these moments...hit a G chord on the piano but with the left hand accidentally playing a root of A, so quickly corrected myself and played A major with the right. But actually, I thought that sounded quite nice so did it again; and again. Lo and behold...the intro to The Motors' rather magnificent "Forget about You" (albeit in a different key, but soon sussed that out.)

When working in a college with kids 12-16ish with no formal music experience I used to engage them with a "scatter and sort" exercise in which each one would splash as many or as few random notes as they wanted on the page of a MIDI editor in Cubase. I would then go round each one and arrange them into some kind of order based on discussion with the creator (the kid that is, not God). Each was unique and each kid identified immediately with their own piece.

Useful "random generator".

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Ohm's Law states, "Your PA isn't as powerful as you think it is".