Practice for a gig but all goes wrong

skullfunkerry

Lots of good advice here. I'll just add this, to reinforce what everyoneis saying about people in the crowd not noticing: it always seemed be the nights where I thought I'd played really well, no-one said anything, and the nights where I felt like I would have played better with mittens on were the ones where someone would compliment me on my playing...

Grocer_Jack

Also maybe try and be comfortable with being 'looser' like this: - pick a song that you want to do with the band and deliberately don't learn the whole solo - just try and start it off like the record and then maybe pick out a key phrase or two.  In rehearsal let the band know you're going to wing it and see how  it goes - chances are you'll soon get  comfortable not having everything pre-planned. You can go back to a more 'composed' approach if you want, but you will feel a lot more confident that it's still going to sound good if you jump the rails at the gig. 

jdgm

What a great thread, one of the best I've read on the Fretboard; thankyou folks.

OP - Yes exactly know how you feel, same with me. It's just practice I think.

Mucho wis....

slacker

If I'm playing a constructed solo it's more stressful than purely improvising. My advice is start the solo as written improvise in the middle and end it as written. People will be sure you nailed it note for note.

I have a rehearsal band and the other guitarist does this a lot. Last rehearsal I was sure he nailed gimme shelter. He said he started it as mick Taylor on the album and then improvised it. Fooled me. Sounded great and that's the point 

Voxman

Happens to everyone at some time or other, and lots of good advice here. Its a mixture of experience, confidence and practice, but the big difference to practicing at home and playing live is that you're playing with other people. So it's really important to really listen to and key off and back up each other.  

By that I mean sometimes you can learn something really well but if the drummer mistimes or the bass player goes astray or the singer does a verse instead of a chorus, it can throw you when you just need to adapt to fit in with what happened, and likewise they need to adapt to you if it doesn't go quite as it should.  The good tight bands do this instinctively ... it's about playing together rather than necessarily playing it right, if that makes sense.

And in 99 out of 100 cases the audience has no clue you've played it 'wrong' anyway!  So, what can you do?  Well, here's a tip if you start getting lost...don't panic and just stop playing for a few seconds, refocus on what the band are doing, and rejoin once you're settled again. If you've missed a beat, physically watch the drummer for the rhythm, or make eye contact with your bass player or other guitarist whilst listening to and watching what they're doing.

And if you've played the wrong run, here's another tip...repeat it and make it look like you meant to do that. Especially with original stuff, the audience will have no clue.

But above all, enjoy yourself and try to move around a bit on stage and engage with them and your band mates.  Remember, you're entertaining the audience, so give it some attitude and posturing.  It will give you confidence, make it fun, and help loosen you up.  

And it's just a gig, lives aren't at stake, and if you fluff something so what...just relax, laugh it off and in the immortal words of one Mr Winston Churchill..."just keep buggering on"! 

And if I had a pound for every time I fluffed something, or had to adapt to something that happened, I'd be a wealthy boy! And it's what makes live music fun and interesting!  

cbakay

2 beers pre show.

gibsongretschfan

You need to buy a book called The Inner Voice of Music and give it a good read

HAL9000

Even the best can get it wrong. 2:19...

https://youtu.be/bP-1W6qtTZg

richardhomer

slacker said:

If I'm playing a constructed solo it's more stressful than purely improvising. My advice is start the solo as written improvise in the middle and end it as written. People will be sure you nailed it note for note.

I have a rehearsal band and the other guitarist does this a lot. Last rehearsal I was sure he nailed gimme shelter. He said he started it as mick Taylor on the album and then improvised it. Fooled me. Sounded great and that's the point 

I agree that playing ‘worked-out’ parts can be a high-risk undertaking.

If your familiarity with the under-lying structure is good enough - and your ability to improvise over that structure is good enough - you should be able get yourself out of trouble if a set-piece goes wrong.

viz

richardhomer said:

slacker said:

If I'm playing a constructed solo it's more stressful than purely improvising. My advice is start the solo as written improvise in the middle and end it as written. People will be sure you nailed it note for note.

I have a rehearsal band and the other guitarist does this a lot. Last rehearsal I was sure he nailed gimme shelter. He said he started it as mick Taylor on the album and then improvised it. Fooled me. Sounded great and that's the point 

I agree that playing ‘worked-out’ parts can be a high-risk undertaking.

If your familiarity with the under-lying structure is good enough - and your ability to improvise over that structure is good enough - you should be able get yourself out of trouble if a set-piece goes wrong.

That’s 100% whatI think too. And the other thing is, do mistakes matter? I’m trying to find a quote from Barenboim, and I can’t find it, but basically he says mistakes are a necessary by-product of pushing your art to the edge where you are fully committed and fully creative and giving it your all. The mistakes themselves don’t matter; what matters is giving a lack-lustre performance where you’re just playing it safe. Something like that anyway. 

siremoon

The audience rarely notice a mistake and, depending what it is, the band don't always notice it either.  In fact my biggest fault was telegraphing a mistake by pulling a face after I've made one or heard someone else making one.  There will always be mistakes and imo a useful skill to learn is not reacting in a way that makes it obvious.  

JerkMoans

viz said:

richardhomer said:

slacker said:

If I'm playing a constructed solo it's more stressful than purely improvising. My advice is start the solo as written improvise in the middle and end it as written. People will be sure you nailed it note for note.

I have a rehearsal band and the other guitarist does this a lot. Last rehearsal I was sure he nailed gimme shelter. He said he started it as mick Taylor on the album and then improvised it. Fooled me. Sounded great and that's the point 

I agree that playing ‘worked-out’ parts can be a high-risk undertaking.

If your familiarity with the under-lying structure is good enough - and your ability to improvise over that structure is good enough - you should be able get yourself out of trouble if a set-piece goes wrong.

That’s 100% whatI think too. And the other thing is, do mistakes matter? I’m trying to find a quote from Barenboim, and I can’t find it, but basically he says mistakes are a necessary by-product of pushing your art to the edge where you are fully committed and fully creative and giving it your all. The mistakes themselves don’t matter; what matters is giving a lack-lustre performance where you’re just playing it safe. Something like that anyway. 

Beethoven?  “To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.”

i know someone here has that as their sig., but can’t see sigs on this phone.

LightB4sound

Some great advice here. From my experience even though I play the same tubes nightly for years I still mess up and forget things. It became a catch 22 situation because one mistake dropped my confidence leaving to another.... And another.... Etc. But I found a way with dealing with it which might help (some have been mentioned above) and realising that most of the issue is your own psychology... The monkey brain.

1) Practice standing up... And in the dark.
2) controversial this one... But play the part while doing or concentrating on something else like watching tv. This kind of simulates a live environment where there are multiple distractions happening when playing.
3) when you fudge a note, laugh to yourself or the audience and just say to yourself next note and move on with your life and the show.
4) realising that I'm not playing to an internet guitar forum (tgp for example) where you know that every person will be scrutinizing everything thing about you and picking up on a tiny mistake. But I'm playing to people who want to have a good time and couldn't careless if I play a solo note for note with an authentic tone.... If they even know what that is. Most of a crowd don't know the difference between a bass or guitar!
5) practice wise, start the solo at different points eg try starting from the middle of the end. This works well as it's stops you remembering the solo as a linear string of notes which if you miss one you lose your follow, but let's you drop in at different points and get a better understanding of the solo.

Most of all don't worry, we all do it. It's part of the experience! Laugh at yourself when you fluff and just think about moving on.

All the best

Neil

viz

JerkMoans said:

viz said:

richardhomer said:

slacker said:

If I'm playing a constructed solo it's more stressful than purely improvising. My advice is start the solo as written improvise in the middle and end it as written. People will be sure you nailed it note for note.

I have a rehearsal band and the other guitarist does this a lot. Last rehearsal I was sure he nailed gimme shelter. He said he started it as mick Taylor on the album and then improvised it. Fooled me. Sounded great and that's the point 

I agree that playing ‘worked-out’ parts can be a high-risk undertaking.

If your familiarity with the under-lying structure is good enough - and your ability to improvise over that structure is good enough - you should be able get yourself out of trouble if a set-piece goes wrong.

That’s 100% whatI think too. And the other thing is, do mistakes matter? I’m trying to find a quote from Barenboim, and I can’t find it, but basically he says mistakes are a necessary by-product of pushing your art to the edge where you are fully committed and fully creative and giving it your all. The mistakes themselves don’t matter; what matters is giving a lack-lustre performance where you’re just playing it safe. Something like that anyway. 

Beethoven?  “To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.”

i know someone here has that as their sig., but can’t see sigs on this phone.

Ah yes, and - the interview with Barenboim had him discussing that quote. I’ve just remembered, it’s on our DVD set of his masterclasses. 

Andyjr1515

@dean111music ;

First of all, it's normal and most of us have been there.  It's to do with adrenaline and stress, fight or flight stuff and if you didn't have that your performances wouldn't sparkle. 

The others have said the same - in most cases, the audience don't notice.

In terms of why it happened out of the blue after so long playing is probably linked to your initial statement - that normally you improvise.  Improvising is a different skill to, say, the rigidity of playing from a score.  Most classically trained musicians can't improvise for toffee and vice versa.

So not only were you trying out a new skill, but your subconscious will have been kicking out stress signals too.  That combination can lead to unpredictable results.  Sometimes it will be a blistering performance. Sometimes, as happened to me in the middle of a solo instrumental, your hands stop moving and your mind goes blank!

Practice always helps - in as close to normal performing mode as possible - because your finger movement start becoming intuitive.

But at first, why dont you improvise your own set piece?  It will be close enough for that audience and ease your subconscious into knowing it's OK to play specific notes.  It should reduce the stress of 'I must get it exactly right!' so you don't end up with a mental block about it and over a few pefformances you can get closer and closer to the set piece you want to end up with...

Vibetronic

like others have said, it's practice, getting used to playing at volume and getting really familiar with the stuff. Everyone makes mistakes though, so don't worry about it. And if you do, run with it - at our last gig I played a bit of a solo a semi-tone flat by mistake; so I did it again, wrong, just to give the impression it was meant to sound like that  People are generally there for the songs and to have a good time, so won't really be all that fussed about the guitar solo.

Roland

Scott Henderson said that if he doesn’t make at least one glaring error in a performance then he’s not pushing himself far enough.

HAL9000

Every man makes mistakes; they say a man who never makes mistakes never makes anything else. (G. K. Chesterton)

Paul7926

Can't comment from the view of the player but from the view of the audience member it doesn't really matter that much.  As long as you don't crash and burn enough to stop playing then most people will not notice.  I watch a fair few pub bands and if they are playing a cover of something I've listened to a 1000 times I might notice that it's not 'perfect' with respect to the original recording but so what.  I'm there to listen to live music and that is part of it.  

I'd much rather listen to live music with a fun atmosphere and a few mistakes than wanting something that is exactly the same as the Spotify track I have in my ears on the bus to work.

PhilW1

The other thing I do when I make a mistake is look across at the other guitar/bass player shaking my head