Time to fess up....

dbase · #1 12-03-2010, 05:20 AM

How many of you are better at "Faking it" than "Playing it"..
Put me down. When I slip into my "Blank Area" and dont know what the hell to play next I automatically revert into damage control ...I cant just stop playing and regroup, I start faking it and somehow come out on the correct note as though I knew what I was doing... The fact that I'm good at keeping the beat with the drummer and knowing when to come in on the down beat helps. After the gig, people tell me how good I sounded... BS, If they only knew how many mistakes I made. I'm not that good, I guess most people have an untrained ear.

**Matthew_84** · #2 12-03-2010, 05:38 AM

There is that, but I think that with most mistakes, not all, the only person who notices it will be you and maybe your bandmates. People in the audience don't notice it unless it's blatantly obvious and sounds horrible. If you just play something that somehow works, sure, you'll know you got lost and that you're just improvising for the time being, and you'll grumble as you're doing it, but unless it sounds bad the audience will just think it's what you meant to do. Even if it's a cover song, people can customize a cover, just as long as it doesn't sound horrible.

Even with stuff like hitting one note louder than the rest, you'll go, "damn, I didn't mean to do that." But the audience won't know you didn't mean to.

In my opinion, it's better to fake it and keep going than it is to stop completely.

sixway · #3 12-03-2010, 05:46 AM

What you're talking about is the "professional think to do. Take it to the next step, and play the mistake with authority the next time around, and make it sound like that's the way you play it. Now, you've just upped your "cool" factor!

MalcolmAmos · #4 12-03-2010, 06:43 AM

I think we all have our emergency kit. When I get lost I revert to a I V I vamp or grab the tonic pentatonic. Plus an old instructor once told me that the good note is just one fret away from that bad one I just did. For some reason that is reassuring.

fu22ba55 · #5 12-03-2010, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sixway

Take it to the next step, and play the mistake with authority the next time around, and make it sound like that's the way you play it.

+1

Jump into the void. You really have to learn how to embrace that kind of uncertainty... and how you act in those situations.

thesilence · #6 12-03-2010, 08:19 AM

I think that is the right thing to do if you stop playing to try and find where you're supposed to be the audience is most likely going to notice but if you keep playing "faking it" as long as you don't hit something blatantly wrong the audience want notice

BassChuck · #7 12-03-2010, 08:21 AM

Fake it 'til you make it. The only sin is making the same mistake over and over. Try to come away from every gig with a 'list' of things to learn. It's OK to fake out the audience, not so OK to fake out the band members....Never OK to fake yourself into thinking mistakes are acceptable.

plangentmusic · #8 12-03-2010, 08:28 AM

You can fool some of the people some of the time....

flypejose · #9 12-03-2010, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plangentmusic

You can fool some of the people some of the time....

Lol!

TheVoiceless · #10 12-03-2010, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbase

How many of you are better at "Faking it" than "Playing it"..
Put me down. When I dont know the hell to play next and lose my spot I usually panic and automatically go into damage control ...I cant just stop playing, I start faking it and somehow come out on the correct note as though I knew what I was doing... The fact that I'm good at keeping the beat with the drummer and knowing when to come in on the down beat helps. After the gig, people tell me I was great... BS, If they only knew how many mistakes I made. I'm not that good, I guess most people have an untrained ear.

I've heard that referred to as "Jazz" ( inside joke for faking it and throwing something together on the spot, not insulting the genre). Throw some chromatics together and land on one and your golden.

mambo4 · #11 12-03-2010, 02:54 PM

There is no such thing as "faking it" IMHO.
Constant, total perfection is an ideal to strive for, but impossible in reality.
I learned early on that to play live you need to master how to screw up and keep going

Over the years I probably don't make less mistakes, I just recover faster and faster.
add the fact, that over time, your hands and brain build a habit of playing musically,
so when you "spaz out" chances are you spaz out in a musical way.
Often my mistakes just sound like flourishes, anticipations, and other wankery....

Already In Use · #12 12-03-2010, 03:51 PM

I think folks just dont listen that close. We play dj gigs and on occasion slip a tune in with bad language or inappropriate content for the crowd. Most times nobody gets it. When I practice at home the wife and kid will tell me how great I sound. I ask them if they heard my mistakes. 99% of the time they say no. We can tell every time something is jacked.

MalcolmAmos · #13 12-04-2010, 07:31 AM

In my other life as a rhythm guitarist I've, on occasion, played 1/2 the song in the wrong key before realizing it. Of course when I play bass I never mess up.