If Miles Davis’ music told us anything, it’s that there is meaning in silence. In the spaces between the notes. And in good writing we can find ourselves transfixed by the beauty and meaning of, yes it’s true, the spaces between the words:
Writing With Miles Davis
by Aaron Gilbreath
If Miles Davis’s midcentury trumpet solos can be described by a single phrase, it might be “doing more with less.” Despite his renown, Davis wasn’t a flashy or highly technical player during the late 1950s and early ’60s. He was melodic and economical, and his approach can teach prose writers a lot about the power of concision, suggestion and space.