Life throws problems at you. Learning from those problems is debugging.
Debugging sounds like it only applies to programming, but problem solving consists of a set of habits. The habits involved have a lot of similarity across practices, especially music.
I saw some epic real-time musical debugging at One Longfellow Square, a venue here in Maine. The band had gotten halfway through a great set when something happened to the sound. It was feedback — not the squealing, ear piercing kind, but a sustained, unchanging note. And loud enough to make the band stop.
The engineer got to work for a little while, but the note didn’t change. The band started to get a little irritated, but then we all heard the engineer’s voice.
“I’m talking through the house P.A.,” he said, “I’ve cut the power up here in the booth. The main amplifier is off… the sound is coming from the stage.”
A twist! Suddenly the tension shifted. The band sprang into action, checking their gear. And then the noise stopped. One of the band members — mortified — offered a short apology, and the show went on.
The instrument that fed back was an electric violin. Hollow body instruments are prone to this kind of feedback, so the musician had most likely dealt with feedback many times before. I bet whatever caused this was something new. A new piece of gear, or maybe a new situation, unusual acoustics, some interference, who knows. But I bet it was new.
As a musician, you learn to debug your equipment. The only way you learn is through failures. Every time something goes wrong, you make a new habit around it.
Nothing is a failure as long as you learn from it.
