How to avoid onstage mistakes?

[Devo39]

I know that is a little bit of a silly question as we all makes mistakes even the best of us but I have been making a few more than normal lately. I am playing in a covers band and we did a fairly big gig for us headlining at a winery last night in front of a thousand people and I made a few clangers. One was a bit of a light issue as I was physically moving around the stage a bit and had to change from the open E to the C on the E string and I couldn't see the dots when I looked down and went to a D instead, and another coming to the end of the 2 hour gig I was getting a little tired and started playing a G instead of an F# and it wasn't until the singer lent back and said are you playing the right note that I even noticed. Also a few other instances where the pattern just seemed to leave me.

Fortunately I generally don't berate myself on stage but it is a little bit of a pain when your drummer and sound man tell you they heard quite a few mistakes after you've finished playing.

I guess you could call it a form slump like sportsman have, where you know you can do it and you've done it many times before but for some reason you just don't seem to be doing it like you normally do.

I was wondering if anyone had some good practical advice on this. I know my mind can wonder a little when I am playing like it does in every day life so I know I should be focusing on being in the moment, but I do find this a little hard to maintain during 2 hours of continuous playing.

[Johnny Crab]

Originally Posted by Devo39

I was wondering if anyone had some good practical advice on this. I know my mind can wonder a little when I am playing like it does in every day life so I know I should be focusing on being in the moment, but I do find this a little hard to maintain during 2 hours of continuous playing.

Have endurance practices at home.
Put on the bass, have an mp3 player loaded with ALL of the band's songs, and let it rip. Do this STANDING UP and walking around like you'd do live(pedals and all if you use them).
We've had 3+ hour long sets and the sort of practice above helped/helps greatly.

Dots, playing by feel, low stage lights, etc..?
Practice in the dark some or a lot.
Another tip is to try to have you basses strap buttons and strap adjustments the same(i.e. neck buttons behind fret # xx, etc). This keeps the learned "feel" of where notes are the same from bass to bass.

[FunkMetalBass]

For about $75, you can install these on your bass.
https://fretfx.com/

They'll help with the low light issue.

[jmarcus2]

Originally Posted by Devo39

I know that is a little bit of a silly question as we all makes mistakes even the best of us but I have been making a few more than normal lately. I am playing in a covers band and we did a fairly big gig for us headlining at a winery last night in front of a thousand people and I made a few clangers. One was a bit of a light issue as I was physically moving around the stage a bit and had to change from the open E to the C on the E string and I couldn't see the dots when I looked down and went to a D instead, and another coming to the end of the 2 hour gig I was getting a little tired and started playing a G instead of an F# and it wasn't until the singer lent back and said are you playing the right note that I even noticed. Also a few other instances where the pattern just seemed to leave me.

Fortunately I generally don't berate myself on stage but it is a little bit of a pain when your drummer and sound man tell you they heard quite a few mistakes after you've finished playing.

I guess you could call it a form slump like sportsman have, where you know you can do it and you've done it many times before but for some reason you just don't seem to be doing it like you normally do.

I was wondering if anyone had some good practical advice on this. I know my mind can wonder a little when I am playing like it does in every day life so I know I should be focusing on being in the moment, but I do find this a little hard to maintain during 2 hours of continuous playing.

Hey, everyone's mind wanders at some point during a show, especially if fatigue is setting in. And EVERYONE makes mistakes. I try to pay attention to the key of the next tune and remember where the changes are. Be ready to start the tune in the right key and correct position on your bass.

Get used to not looking at the neck. Practice this on tunes with simple changes.

This may sound strange, but pay attention to what's going on in the band. I see so many guys get locked into their own world and not HEARING anyone else.

[Soul Power]

Work on visualizing your fretboard. You're more likely to make a mistake if you have to look at the fretboard instead of instinctively knowing where you are based on feel and short glances. You don't even need to be holding onto your bass to do this, you can practice all day without ever touching it.

[Mike M.]

Hey, all we can do is to be prepared as possible, get up there and to give it our best shot. I've had my bad moments onstage just like everyone else.

Just don't get to hung up on it. We're human, not machines.

[Stumbo]

IME, Good food, good sleep, good vitamins(at minimum, D3-1kiu daily, super B complex) and good excercise have helped me regain an excellent memory from one that was starting to concern me.

YMMV and all that.

[colcifer]

Don't have much to say that hasn't already been said but what I think is just as important is how you recover from your mistakes. Work on turning wrong notes into passing tones and bad timing into tuplets. This only works if you never stop grooving though so that needs to be your #1 priority. After all, how can it be a mistake if it grooves?

[Munjibunga]

Two things:

1. If you're thinkin', you're stinkin'.

2. Embrace your mistakes.

[guitarhuckster1]

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

1. If you're thinkin', you're stinkin'.

If you're drinkin' you might also be stinkin'.

Don't look at the set list to see what the next song is while you're playing the previous one.

Make sure that you can hear yourself and the guitar on stage. You shouldn't be playing G instead of F# without noticing it.

[bassdude51]

Stumbo gave some excellent advice! Don't drink alcohol or take any substances! Drink some coffee! Focus and stay focused! Practice. Keep your bass lines simple. Don't experiment on stage with your bass lines! If you do screw up, forget it and move on. Don't let it rattle you. You are lucky to be on stage and play live! You've got a job to do. Do it!

[JimmyM]

just a matter of training yourself to concentrate harder. you have to want the playing to be better more than you want your mind to wander. as you said, players make mistakes, but you can limit them tio a minimum by developing your powers of concentration.

[StefTD]

I just started playing in a new band, I start learning the songs while sitting down and listening to the music,
but as soon as I get the basic sheme I stand up and play the song 1 or 2 times.
Than I start playing it and walking around, sometimes I close my eyes, try looking outside of the window, just do
something different if the stuff isn't to complex because you can be distracted on stage, too, especially if you
play infront of 1000 people.
It helped me alot, especially playing with closed eyes, you just have to know and feel what you play instead of
"seeing" what you play, if I have to use effects in a song, I learn to switch the stuff on/off without a problem,
it just sucks if you play a cool groove, should switch effects and you get distracted by that.

Oh yeah, and no alcohol or stuff like that, I am playing in a stoner rock band now, so it's ok to smoke while playing
Coffee can help, but just relax and try to feel as comfortable as you can, I was pretty shy when I started as a musican,
nowdays, I just play and rock out, it doesn't matter if it's during the rehearsal or in front of a few hundred people I've never
seen before. Because, imho, 50% of the mistakes you make are because you have problems with being on stage or stuff
like that, 30% because you haven't learned the stuff well enough or because you suck and 20% are mistakes that just
happen from time to time.

[avvie]

Originally Posted by guitarhuckster1

Don't look at the set list to see what the next song is while you're playing the previous one.

FOUL! Foul, I say!!

[BuffaloBass]

Not bad StefTD.

I make mistakes when I see select skirts and my imagination kicks in ( its really vivid!). I cant drink too much coffee or I lose my acute sense of timing. And when you get to be my age, smoking the good stuff doesnt help you mentally. It may never, but you sure notice it more later on in life. Im an old fart BTW.

I'll let Lady Gaga drink, smoke and drop pills to be creative. Although, I;d argue her schtick is hardly that creative. Just out there.

Knowing your fretboard blindfolded is important. I'm not a pro and switch between 34 and 35" , so I'm not prefect at this. Do you know every note on that fretboard? This helps as well. Do indeed close your eyes. The tones become more of a aural memory as well.

And we "practice" mistakes , meaning we'll deliberately plow thru them durting rehersal because as StefTD says, there's always that 20% out there that just happen, and you have to be able quickly cover them and not mess up the other members of the band or make them unnoticeable to the peeps.

Trouble is in a small band that's relying heavily on bass, I am the rock and therefore are simply NOT ALLOWED TO EFF UP! Ever. Yet, when I do I'll "ghost thump" so that the bass at the least produces a well timed pulse whilst I find my sorry arse on the fretboard. AS said passing tones can be your friend, and your ear is your guide so you have to be able to hear yourself quite clearly.

And since we are indeed masters of our own reality ( although loathe to admit it), I tweak my reality when playing live. I very, very consciously see my role are propogating the PULSE of the tune out to the audience, and making them feel the groove of the piece, to get their aura's shapes and colors changing with it. The singer, who is female and rather good, takes the entre the groove has made and gets right in their stuff. It may sound "corny", but that is my "visualization" scheme, I dig it, and it works for me.

With that level of near sub conscious concentration going on, its really hard to screw up actually. Unless I catch a glimpse of a sweetie pie, and it just rips my parachute off, and I tumble to earth. Truly.

[davidprice]

Originally Posted by Stumbo

IME, Good food, good sleep, good vitamins(at minimum, D3-1kiu daily, super B complex) and good excercise have helped me regain an excellent memory from one that was starting to concern me.

Really important IMO - especially if touring and the junk food that often goes with that but sleep is a huge factor for me personally. Tough as I'm a night person but I really notice how it negatively impacts my mental focus when playing if I haven't slept enough - more than any other single factor.

I think Coltrane said, “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough.” -- though I think that's more about taking risks than loss of focus.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by BuffaloBass

I'll let Lady Gaga drink, smoke and drop pills to be creative. Although, I;d argue her schtick is hardly that creative. Just out there.

wish it had worked for me so well

[stratovani]

As far as stage mistakes go, take this tip from the world of golf. The late great teacher Harvey Penick, in his little red book titled - wait for it - The Little Red Book () gave this advice when you hit a bad streak of mistakes:

If you have a bad round once, forget it. Everyone has those once in a while.

If you have two bad rounds in a row, time to review your fundamentals of grip, stance, alignment, etc.

If you have three bad rounds in a row, time to see a PGA Professional to see where you're going wrong.

For the music world:

If you have a bad gig once, forget it. It happens to all of us.

If you have two bad gigs in a row, review your fundamentals of fretboard knowledge, how well you know the songs, instrument technique, mental state, etc.

If you have three bad gig in a row, time to seek out a teacher who can look you over and see what you're doing wrong, and make the necessary corrections.

Good luck!

[Devo39]

Thanks guys, there is some good advice in there that I will put into action and see how I go. :-)

[slipitin]

Originally Posted by bassdude51

Stumbo gave some excellent advice! Don't drink alcohol or take any substances! Drink some coffee! Focus and stay focused! Practice. Keep your bass lines simple. Don't experiment on stage with your bass lines! If you do screw up, forget it and move on. Don't let it rattle you. You are lucky to be on stage and play live! You've got a job to do. Do it!

Yeah BE CAREFUL WITH THE COFFEE/SUGAR THING people, if you're gonna do either, make sure it's not long before you go on...don't do what I did and get completely wired then get moved back in the slot order so you go on right in the middle of a caffeine/sugar crash and can't think let alone play...LEARN FROM MY NIGHTMARE!