I feel poorly making mistakes

[averagebluesman]

Hello my name is Tim. I mainly play blues and a little bit of punk rock. But I enjoy playing blues the best.

The thing is I am pretty average. I know a few cool riffs and I know the basics of blues bass. I can find what key I'm in and I know about 8 or 9 variations to the walk and shuffle etc...

I love playing blues but I feel like I have to be up to par with Willie Dixon or be as technically sound as Stevie Ray Vaughn in order to play.

I do make mistakes, my timing is sometimes off etc... and this just upsets me.

The thing is when I listen to a lot of old blues records the sound is raw and I hear them make errors to.

Blues records nowadays are so refined to the point where I feel insecure playing blues bass because I feel like I'm not up to par.

I was wondering if anybody else feels the same way.

I mean when I watch youtube videos I see 10 year old kids shredding the blues up and it makes me want to set down my instrument.


Hubert Sumlin said himself that it doesn't take much to kind of jump out of the realm of blues because its a very structured basic thing.

I feel like a lot of people claim to be playing blues bass but its more along the lines of jazz.

[Pacman]

Practice.

Moved to Miscellaneous, as this is not a technique related issue.

[stratovani]

Originally Posted by averagebluesman

Hello my name is Tim. I mainly play blues and a little bit of punk rock. But I enjoy playing blues the best.

The thing is I am pretty average. I know a few cool riffs and I know the basics of blues bass. I can find what key I'm in and I know about 8 or 9 variations to the walk and shuffle etc...

Sounds to me like you've got the fundamentals down. At least enough to not embarrass yourself at a blues jam!

I love playing blues but I feel like I have to be up to par with Willie Dixon or be as technically sound as Stevie Ray Vaughn in order to play.

Well, maybe after twenty years but not after just starting out! You need to go easy on yourself!

I do make mistakes, my timing is sometimes off etc... and this just upsets me.

The thing is when I listen to a lot of old blues records the sound is raw and I hear them make errors to.

Blues records nowadays are so refined to the point where I feel insecure playing blues bass because I feel like I'm not up to par.

I was wondering if anybody else feels the same way.

I mean when I watch youtube videos I see 10 year old kids shredding the blues up and it makes me want to set down my instrument.


Hubert Sumlin said himself that it doesn't take much to kind of jump out of the realm of blues because its a very structured basic thing.

I feel like a lot of people claim to be playing blues bass but its more along the lines of jazz.

Tim, the secret to getting better is simple - practice. Do it long enough, and you'll be able to change your username from averagebluesman to exceptionalbluesman!

[Zooberwerx]

Don't sweat it! Some pearls of wisdom:

"There are no wrong notes." - Miles Davis

"You're only a halfstep from happiness" - unknown

There's a whole thread on playing "ahead" or "behind" the beat. I've been doing it for years and just now realizing it's some type of artform.

Riis

[bassbully]

Its all about the time you want to put in to a point. I really feel in my case no matter how much I practice...I am what I am as a player. Remember when you hear a recording it is just that a recording..mistakes removed. To understand where any player is see them live.

On mistakes they happen timing is a bigger issue and you need to iron that out. I need to make music fun. To practice day in night to seek perfection or as close as i can doesn't work. I just want to be a solid player at the best of my abilities. It sounds like your there to go further is up to you and a time investment.

[Skitch it!]

Blues is feel, you play it -your- way, noones ever said you have to be a fusion chopster or whatever, improve your playing, but most of all, improve your feel, your not going to be them, they are a different person, you are you.

[Pilgrim]

Almost ALL records today are the result of careful takes edited together. No player sounds like that live, so you don't have to worry about sounding like that.
Perfection is NOT required.

Just practice, and every time you play a number, you'll get better. As I tell my daughter about learning a new guitar number, "The first 100 times you play it, it's gonna be hard." But after that first 100 times, it's much easier.

Also study blues lines and learn your way around them. i don't know that genre very well either, but I'm starting to learn more about it.

[Winnb]

Just play man. It's just music. No one's gonna die when you hit a bad note. Get over it. Stop taking it so seriously, because there's nothing serious about it.

[laklandplayer]

We all make mistakes. It can come from a distraction, an instant lack concentration or just thinking too much about what you are playing. Or, the tune just plain sucks and you aren't interested.
Regardless, just think ahead of where you going when you are are playing a tune, not just where you are just at the moment.
Let the music flow from your soul and your hands will find their way.

[lowendfriend]

Here is what I do when I'm not happy with my lines on a song....toss the MP3 into BestPractice (free software) and slow it down....even if u have to go down to 50% speed.

Then practice the lines till u get 'em repeatably solid and then tweak up the percentage 10 points and try again.....get it right real slow and then practice up to speed.

I'm doing this with the Van Morrison tune "Wild Night" as we want to record it and I believe one key to successful recording is getting everyone in the band to repeatable play. First of all, me!!

[BassChuck]

Originally Posted by Zooberwerx

......."There are no wrong notes." - Miles Davis

But there are musicians who don't know what to do with them.

Making mistakes is normal, keep working at the sound you know you want to make. The real problem would be if you didn't know you were making mistakes.

[Pacman]

Originally Posted by Zooberwerx

"There are no wrong notes." - Miles Davis

Actually, this is only half of Miles' quote. The whole quote is "There are no wrong notes, only notes in the wrong places."

[HeadyVan Halen]

I feel poorly making mistakes


Couldn't think of a better title for this thread.

[oldcatfish]

I make mistakes in every gig that I play. The good gigs...mistakes are not noticeable; the bad gigs, are a bit more noticeable. I almost always get asked back to play again.

Most people won't notice your mistakes anyway, if you learn to just keep going.
On one gig that I played, the bass didn't enter until the end of the first verse. I turned my volume up, and right before my part came in, my strap came loose. I instinctively grabbed the neck of my bass making a loud clunk. Then I missed the note coming in and lost my place, when trying to readjust my strap. I was very embarrassed at the time, but after the gig, several people (including the sound guy) came up to me to compliment my playing. When I made a comment about the disaster with the strap, the sound guy just went, "what are you talking about?"

Everyone makes mistakes. The pros just learn to cover up better. And as for playing along to recordings...the musicians get to fix any mistakes that they do make, unless the sound engineer chooses to leave them.

[martyman5000]

Ya mistakes are part of learning and progressing. Its impossible not to make mistakes also when playing with other musicians, they can mess you up and you need to be able to adapt and recover.

[Phalex]

My experience has been that unlike playing pool, slop plays when playing music.


There are good nights, and there are bad nights, but even the bad nights are pretty good!

[averagebluesman]

Thank you for the replies. I appreciate them immensely. With your help I have reached a conclusion. As I stared in the mirror at my greasy pimply pale face I thought about my past and myself. I have been listening to some form of punk rock since I was 9. I then looked at my ripped jeans smelly sock big dorky glasses long hair and yellow teeth. I then walked into my room, picked up.my black squier p bass and stared at blood sweat and grease stains. I read the ramones lyrics on the pickguard and admired the flipper and black flag symbols I had drawn all over the pickguard. I then began to strum a slow heavy song I had made up and I felt so liberated. I then had an appifiny. I was using the blues to aid in my development but punk rock is where my freedom lies. Praise god.

[Skitch it!]

Originally Posted by averagebluesman

Thank you for the replies. I appreciate them immensely. With your help I have reached a conclusion. As I stared in the mirror at my greasy pimply pale face I thought about my past and myself. I have been listening to some form of punk rock since I was 9. I then looked at my ripped jeans smelly sock big dorky glasses long hair and yellow teeth. I then walked into my room, picked up.my black squier p bass and stared at blood sweat and grease stains. I read the ramones lyrics on the pickguard and admired the flipper and black flag symbols I had drawn all over the pickguard. I then began to strum a slow heavy song I had made up and I felt so liberated. I then had an appifiny. I was using the blues to aid in my development but punk rock is where my freedom lies. Praise god.

Just be you

[DougD]

Originally Posted by averagebluesman

Hello my name is Tim. I mainly play blues and a little bit of punk rock. But I enjoy playing blues the best.

The thing is I am pretty average. I know a few cool riffs and I know the basics of blues bass. I can find what key I'm in and I know about 8 or 9 variations to the walk and shuffle etc...

I love playing blues but I feel like I have to be up to par with Willie Dixon or be as technically sound as Stevie Ray Vaughn in order to play.

I do make mistakes, my timing is sometimes off etc... and this just upsets me.

The thing is when I listen to a lot of old blues records the sound is raw and I hear them make errors to.

Blues records nowadays are so refined to the point where I feel insecure playing blues bass because I feel like I'm not up to par.

I was wondering if anybody else feels the same way.

I mean when I watch youtube videos I see 10 year old kids shredding the blues up and it makes me want to set down my instrument.


Hubert Sumlin said himself that it doesn't take much to kind of jump out of the realm of blues because its a very structured basic thing.

I feel like a lot of people claim to be playing blues bass but its more along the lines of jazz.

A very wise man once told me: You are only human, you are going to make mistakes. How you recover from those mistakes is the most important thing. He also told me that if I make a mistake on stage , do it once or twice more on purpose and act like I meant it
Try it, it really does work

[bassbully]

My band just went thru this last Saturday. We had some sound issues from the start that came back into the second set. We had a few timing issues a clam here and there. I thought it was one of our worse gigs in a long time...not horrible but we were not on. The owner is re-booking us for the long haul, folks came up and said we were fantastic and danced most of the night ...even to our originals..AWESOME!