Confidence Boost before Gig

Blackjack

I have got two gigs coming up, first one at the end of this month and then one in August.   Neither of them are big things, in fact they are both very low key, but I am looking for some help with any ideas for anything that I can or should be working on over the next 4 weeks to improve my confidence for the gigs.  Obviously I will be practising my humble sets but I was just wondering if there is anything I can do to up my game and thus my confidence in that time.

I am sorry to ask such an amateurish question but I haven’t got a teacher or anything to ask as I cannot afford lessons sadly so am throwing myself on the mercies of you all for some help. Thanks loads for any help or suggestions you can offer. 

BahHumbug

My rule number 1 is to practice (and improve) the bits that you are not particularly good at.  These are the bits that will most likely get your nerves going and interrupt your flow during the gig.   Knowing what these bits are may need some honesty.

On the other hand all the bits that you are proficient at shouldn’t need practice, so time spent on these is potentially wasted.

You haven’t said what type of gig.  Electric, with a band?  Or maybe solo acoustic?  Are you going to be singing?

Musicwolf

Practice, practice, practice.  The two best bits of advice that I got was that;

Amateurs practice until they get it right, professionals practice until they don't get it wrong.

Don't practice your mistakes (you'll just get better at making them).

In other words.  If something isn't right in a song - fix it.  Don't keep running through 'fudging' it.  After that keep practicing until you don't make mistakes.  Of course we all do make mistakes but I'd run through my set list and, if I fluffed something, rather than just putting it down to a lack of concentration I would then repeat the whole song making sure that I got it right.  I found that it focused the mind.

This won't guarantee that it will all go smoothly on the night but at least you won't feel under prepared.

fastonebaz

Wear something you feel confident in.  That helps reduce feeling self conscious with kills your playing.

maltingsaudio

Check your gear and replace anything which could cause a problem, put together a gig bag of essential spares gaffa and electrical tape. 
Do take comfort in the fact it is good to be nervous befor any gig, coming to a gig self confident and cocky leads to disaster

Wazmeister

maltingsaudio said:

Check your gear and replace anything which could cause a problem, put together a gig bag of essential spares gaffa and electrical tape. 
Do take comfort in the fact it is good to be nervous befor any gig, coming to a gig self confident and cocky leads to disaster

I find my confidence drains when things go 'wrong' live gear-wise, so I echo the above advice. Be very organised.

Also, confidence grows. Our band is formed of 4 of us, 3 of whom I know nearly all my life (I'm 51). We are called the Sixty Fours and play covers we love - Jam, Clash, Mod, Madness etc etc.

Anyway, we rehearse at a church, and they asked us about 5 weeks ago to play on a Saturday afternoon for their Sunday School Anniversary; we agreed, but confidence drained when there were about 30-40 people, the majority of whom were very old. In fact, a few had to use a Stanna Chairlift (really) !

We decided to give it all, and went down a storm. Confidence grew, and two weeks ago we had our first paying gig at Coseley Ex Servicemens Club. I designed some posters and somehow word got around. Instead of the predicted 10 people there, we had 150, went down a storm and were immediately offered New Years Eve !!

Our confidence has soared, as you can imagine...

What am I saying ?

- practice, rehearse,practice

- be confident in how to use your gear

- plan, plan, plan

- then just enjoy it ! 

ESBlonde

Musicwolf said:

Practice, practice, practice.  The two best bits of advice that I got was that;

Amateurs practice until they get it right, professionals practice until they don't get it wrong.

Don't practice your mistakes (you'll just get better at making them).

In other words.  If something isn't right in a song - fix it.  Don't keep running through 'fudging' it.  After that keep practicing until you don't make mistakes.  Of course we all do make mistakes but I'd run through my set list and, if I fluffed something, rather than just putting it down to a lack of concentration I would then repeat the whole song making sure that I got it right.  I found that it focused the mind.

This won't guarantee that it will all go smoothly on the night but at least you won't feel under prepared.

All of this /|\

Also to reflect on what @maltingsaudio and @Wazmeister are saying, you should practice the pieces standing up with the gear setup you will use, right the way through the songs (assuming you don't have to stop and fix errors). Include any singing or harmonies that might apply for you. This is as near a simulation to the reality of stage that you can get together with any pedal switching, drive/volume changes.

Work out how best to place pedals, stands, whatever, and ensure your gear is reliable and you can trouble shoot effectively. Have a spare cable/battery/power lead as applicable and take them on stage so they are available (just behind the amp where they can't get stood on)!

Once you have fully rehearsed your parts you will be confident that you can handle whatever happens.

Break a leg.

Musicwolf

An additional thought.  What will the lighting be like at these gigs?  If you've got stage lighting then, depending upon how it is set up, you may find it more difficult to see where you are on the fretboard, especially if you have a rosewood neck.  If that happens it's often more a case of overcoming the shock but whenever I play with a new band I always suggest doing the final practice as a dress rehearsal including some form of stage lighting (or just killing the lights in the practice room and shoving a desk lamp on the floor).  The fewer surprises on the night the better.

p90fool

One, always know what key you're in. 
Then if you get a mid song brain fart you can fudge your way to the next chord without anyone noticing.

I know that sounds obvious to anyone with any playing experience, but even those of us who've gigged for years can sometimes gloss over this when bashing out a strummy song which the singer asked you to capo at the last minute. 

Two, if you are nervous when you start the gig act like it's the most natural thing in the world, that playing guitar is a doddle, and within two or three songs it will be. 

If you start to internalise, stare at your left hand and think too hard your nerves will only increase. 

Throw your head back, ignore the fretboard apart from the occasional reference glance and look like you're enjoying it, the rest follows from that. 

digitalscream

The biggest one for me is...a good warm-up. If you can go on stage knowing that you played the difficult bits less than half an hour ago, you won't stress about them so much when you're up there.

Also...a wise man once told me: "Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong."

Yeah...I can still get it wrong, but it's good advice nonetheless

PolarityMan

I kinda think the nerves don't ever really disappear but they do get better after you have done the following things in front of a crowd and realise that the world doesn't end (in fact sometimes the crowd don't even notice).

Play a passage a semitone out
Hit the clean footswitch jsut as you are going for your huge solo
Start playing the verse instead of the chorus or vice versa
Break a string or the guitar go horribly out of tune mid song.

I'm pretty confident everyone here will have done all of those at some point so my advice is just don't sweat it. Shit happens from time to time no matter how well rehearsed you are.

Musicwolf

And don't forget.............If you do cock something up be sure to shoot a look at the other guitarist.  The audience will think that it was his mistake (if they even notice)

EricTheWeary

Wazmeister said:

maltingsaudio said:

Check your gear and replace anything which could cause a problem, put together a gig bag of essential spares gaffa and electrical tape. 
Do take comfort in the fact it is good to be nervous befor any gig, coming to a gig self confident and cocky leads to disaster

I find my confidence drains when things go 'wrong' live gear-wise, so I echo the above advice. Be very organised.

Also, confidence grows. Our band is formed of 4 of us, 3 of whom I know nearly all my life (I'm 51). We are called the Sixty Fours and play covers we love - Jam, Clash, Mod, Madness etc etc.

Anyway, we rehearse at a church, and they asked us about 5 weeks ago to play on a Saturday afternoon for their Sunday School Anniversary; we agreed, but confidence drained when there were about 30-40 people, the majority of whom were very old. In fact, a few had to use a Stanna Chairlift (really) !

We decided to give it all, and went down a storm. Confidence grew, and two weeks ago we had our first paying gig at Coseley Ex Servicemens Club. I designed some posters and somehow word got around. Instead of the predicted 10 people there, we had 150, went down a storm and were immediately offered New Years Eve !!

Our confidence has soared, as you can imagine...

What am I saying ?

- practice, rehearse,practice

- be confident in how to use your gear

- plan, plan, plan

- then just enjoy it ! 

Quite a lot of my childhood was spent at Coseley swimming baths. I can still smell the chlorine. It's knocked down now, shame.

 fastonebaz said:

Wear something you feel confident in.  That helps reduce feeling self conscious with kills your playing.

I suffer terribly from stage nerves. However, practice as if at a gig. So, for example, if you need to step on an overdrive pedal for a solo then do so rather than thinking you'll remember on the night. Any band practice then do that as a gig. For example, in rehearsal rooms people often face each other whereas on a gig you tend to face the audience and you lose any visual clues you didn't even realise you were dependant on. 
Have the first number in the set something you can do in your sleep so it has less chance of being affected by nerves. Soundcheck with that if possible so there are as few surprises as possible when you start.
Remember proximity, the audience will generally remember more about the beginning and ending of your set than the middle so your other know in your sleep song at the end of the set. Any f**k ups in the middle will be forgotten. 
Ooh, I've quoted Baz. The right level of stage look was important to me. I'd have felt self conscious in something outrageous, not in the right frame of mind mentally if I'd have turned up in my gardening outfit. Looking the part is good. 

Mark1960

To reiterate all of the above - Practice & Preparation. Practice as you intend to perform. Prepare every detail - Who's bringing the PA, How long does it take to get there, What's the access from the carpark like? Give yourself enough time to set up, and sound check. List all the things that need sorting and communicate to whoever else needs to know. I always take a spare amp and guitar. Never needed them but if you are being paid, you must be prepared.

Lestratcaster

Practice the set as if you're playing, in one of my old bands we used to set the room up like the stage and rehearse all the segments between songs so the singer knows how long to talk for whilst we tune, etc. Also in another band we use a backing track so the timing and transitions between songs is crucial. Everyone needs to know where the cues are.

BenSirAmos

Don't resort to Dutch Courage. Avoid alcohol until you've finished playing. 

Gassage

This is what you call a confidence boost-

I once (quite genuinely) played Run Like Hell for Guy Pratt in his comedy gig for a charity in 2012 whilst he told a story over the chords

Beforehand, I said-  "Ummmmm, does David play RLH like this?" ... *I play the triad lick*

Guy, frowning:  "James, I can quite catagorically assure you, without fear of contradiction, David's never played anything resembling that in his entire fucking career...."

relic245

A lot depends on how you talk to yourself.

If you tell yourself that things might go wrong, or that you might mess up then those things will happen.

If you tell yourself that you're trying to impress people then you put a lot of pressure on yourself.

Just tell  yourself that you're there to have some fun and you will.

Things might go wrong, you might forget a chord or two but you can still have fun.

A few minutes talking yourself into enjoying it can head beneficial as a physical warm up.

Go do your best, enjoy what you do and yiu will get more experienced with every gig you do.

Blackjack

Hey! What a fabulous bunch you are!!
Thank you so much for all the great advice.  Sorry I did not reply earlier but my poxy Internet has been up and down like a whores knickers today! 
Ok, I will try and make this as readable as I can...

@BahHumbug, they will both be electric gigs. One will be playing with a band that I have never played with before (apart from the drummer).  It’s a little mini music festival/bbq that a friend is putting on. The other one is in a pub with just me and a bass player.  I will be singing at both.

@fastonebaz and @EricTheWeary I agree with advice of wearing something I feel comfortable in. I am really not confident as a person and being a fat bird makes that worse so yes, I will make sure that I look my best and that whatever I wear is suitable to play in. It really does make a difference.

@Musicwolf, fortunately there won’t be stage lighting to worry about.  The outdoor one is during the day and the one in the pub doesn’t have stage lighting either. Good point to remember for the future though! 

@BenSirAmos , I never start on the hard stuff until after I have played! I only drink water beforehand.  It’s better for my voice and stops any alcohol induced embarrassing incidents on stage!! 

Thank you loads to the rest of you too for your great tips and hints for preparation and rehearsing.  I will take them all on board and remember them all as there is loads of excellent advice there from you very experienced real guitarists! 

I always carry ‘spares’ with me (leads, strings, pedal batteries etc etc ) and will be plugging into house PA on both occasions so no amp or anything to worry about which is a bonus.

Thank you so much! I really do appreciate all your great advice! 

Vibetronic

One thing I'd add is to make sure you eat properly on the day you're playing! I don't really get nerves these days, but I do find that on the day of a gig I'm really excited about I'll often forget to eat (or don't get time) - so when it's time to get on stage and the adrenaline has kicked in I can start feeling a bit wobbly as I haven't eaten! Sounds stupid, but it's pretty much the only thing I'm really careful about these days. Plus the practice, obviously  

LuttiS

Get a couple of good friends in the audience, for encouragement or just a friendly face to look at if you're worried about staring at your shoes/left hand. Just look at them, see them smile and it will usually make you smile too on stage..