First time playing in front of people!

[ericmknight1906]

I got a friend that took me to this improve night club in order to gain some exposure. I play the bass okay for a beginner and usually gravitate towards the funk genre. It was kinda cool because all you have to do is go in, sign your name or your groups name and then play when its your turn. You can sing ,play instruments or whatever. Anybody ever heard of these?

Lemme tell you, I was a nervous wreck. I pretty much forgot everything that I practiced before the gig. My fingers were like ice and I felt like no matter how hard I plucked the strings, I still couldn't hear anything. Fortunately, I had a pro drummer and a couple of pro leads to carry me through. Everyone said I did great, which was weird. Because, everything was so loud that I couldn't hear what the hell I was playing. !

Needless to say, regardless of how I sounded, I'm proud of myself for conquering my fears. They say that you will never accomplish anything by being scared. Sure, I can jam all day in the comfort of my own home. But who's gonna know other than me.?

Anybody, please tell me about your first time. I need a support group.

[Fun Size Nick]

Good onya! There's nothing like looking fear in the face and doing it anyway for building confidence. Hope it's the first of many live experiences!

I can't really remember my first time....it was quite a while ago.

[cutthroatmolloy]

to me playing an improv sort of deal for a first gig infront of people sounds more challenging than playing with a band youve rehearsed with and such.

good work!

[Hawaii Islander]

My first public performance on electric bass was with the high school orchestra. I usually played string bass, but the music teacher let me play a couple of songs on electric bass after I had lessons from the student teacher. I felt like everyone was staring at me because I was the only one in the orchestra with an electric instrument. It took a lot of effort to focus on the music both to play and hear what I was playing. The conductor gave me a look during one song as to say "turn it down". I must have started to play louder, because he scowled at me.

My student teacher, Ward Dilmore, played a cool electric bass solo as part of the concert. His solo was separate from the rest of the performance. Ward's dad, Herman Dilmore wrote many of the stringed instrument lesson books (those funky looking orange paperbacks).

[Foxworthy925]

ahhh, this brings me back to my first gig in front of people too. it was about two years ago (I think less actually). Me and my good buddies started a band playing classic rock covers, and by then, we were decent. it was one member's mom's birthdays. him and his family organised this huge, extravagent, well organised/planned surprise party that took place at a golf cours's main building or whatever. it was a pretty large room, and actually a lot of people now that I think about it. it was a huge mexican family, along with husbands family, and tons and tons of their adult friends. anyways, we played a set for her- our first gig. I was soooo, unbelievably nervous! I went through the exact same things your describing. I was still a very very new bassist (had only started playing bass when this band started and needed a bassist), and the songs we played weren't that complicated at all, so remembering/playing all the songs wasn't much of a problem. but I swear- I did not move at all from the moment I set up, to the moment I got off the stage area. I was like a statue, I was so nervous. and for some reason, the nervousness also caused extreme persperation in of my hands. my hand was sliding all over the neck because of how sweaty it was. I had to wipe it off on my clothes between each song. anyways, besides the lack of a visual performance on my part, and being a nervous wreck through the whole set, the gig went very well. the husband of the wife (father of the bandmember) also plays in a band and has been gigging since he was a teen, so him and his band played right after us. I got to sit back and relax with my friends/band mates and watch some experienced musicians at work. they're bassist-cool guy- also complemented me on the gig after we had finished playing, which was a very nice thing to do (cuz he could probably tell how nervous I was).

compared to a lot of members here, I haven't gigged a lot. but trust me- the first gig's the hardest and with each new one, you get more confident/less nervous and they just keep getting easier and funner.

[chaosMK]

My first show was with a progressive metal band that I'd rehearsed with about 3 times. It was a huge house party (maybe like 100 peope) and the stage was an elevated back patio.

We opened with a cover that I'd never even heard before! Jerks!

My guitarist used to puke before shows and he said his legs would always be about to give out on him.

[professor_bills]

Still waiting for my first live gig...But sometimes we get enough people hanging out and drinking in front of the garage we play in that it's like a mini-concert. But Kudos to you Eric for staring fear in the face and doing it anyway. Life is an adventure. GO for it.

[::Saint::]

My first live gig was in front of my high-school when I was 16 years old.. I went to a fairly conservative Christian school and no one had ever really formed a real rock band before.. so we were really pioneers. Of course, we weren't very good at the time, either, and we had no concept of HOW to play live.

We were big into U2 at the time and spent so much time make the stage look "cool" that the rest of the students were filing into the gym before we had a chance to tune-up.. and none of us had electronic tuners at the time -we always tuned to our keyboardist's keyboard. Anyway.. none of us owned amps either, so everything was plugged directly into the board.. and not through DI's either.. it was a real mess. We also had the drums miced REALLY loud for some reason.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, as the case may be) I actually have this on video tape. We had this long keybaord intro (ala 'Where the Streets Have No Name') with the curtain closed and just lights shining through underneath.. the curtain finally opens and the first thing you see is our keyboardist sweeping back his long hair. The music kicks in, starting with an oddly country-style guitar intro (I say odd, because we all mostly hated country music and were trying to be very U2 .. I guess it was a Rattle & Hum inspired piece haha) .. the drums are BLAZINGLY loud .. and the bass is non-existant. Suddenly the keyboard kicks in and you can almost SEE WITH YOUR EYES just how out of tune the guitar is... it is quite literally painful. A few bars in, the keyboard sound mysteriously stops, and you see our keyboardist's confused looks as he first checks the power connection and then continues playing as if everything is fine (at this point the keyboard was completely dead, and he was playing along just to keep up appearances).

Turns out we had overloaded and blown a few channels on the board and all that was coming through was the VERY loud drums.. our singers "vocals" .. and whatever odd bits of extremely dry-sounding guitar he managed to play between verses. It was.. spectacular.

Anyway, fast forward to the future and with my current rock band, after my own years of experience playing in front of a church congregation, I'm a little more savvy on-stage, and little more in the know about how to setup a live show. Even though I love playing live, my fingers STILL seem to lose all dexterity as soon as the music starts, and I sweat profusely.. gotta get one of those sweat bands for my forearms so that my fingers stop slipping off of the strings so much

[Vanceman]

Originally Posted by cutthroatmolloy

to me playing an improv sort of deal for a first gig infront of people sounds more challenging than playing with a band youve rehearsed with and such.

good work!

+1

I used to go watch a Sunday night blues jam at the local bar with a guitar player friend who would get up and play. The place was full of musicians, all taking turns, really cool. He talked me into getting a bass and learning some easy songs so we could get up there together. A few weeks later I got up and played 3 songs. Didn't bring my bass, so I played with an unfamiliar bass. My mouth was so dry, and my drink was just out of reach the who time. Very nerve racking experience.

[IAmTheDood]

started playing in december ... a local cover band got me to sit in for a song in february ... asked me to bring my bass up ...

was a nervous wreck .. played descent enough where they've let me sit in 3 or 4 more times since!

[darkfinger]

Originally Posted by Foxworthy925

the first gig's the hardest and with each new one, you get more confident/less nervous and they just keep getting easier and funner.

+1.

Kudos man, playing live is the most rewarding experience ever, in my opinion...here`s to you and keep it up!

oh yeah, as is quoted above, I would like to add that gigs get easier and funner....and funnier. You never know what`s going to happen on stage, from missed notes to exploding amplifiers to drunks jumping on stage to dance with the band... if you can laugh off even the wackiest situation than you will enjoy yourself so much more, and so will the audience...just remember to keep things in perspective(sp?), it`s all about having fun.
I hope that makes sense...

[rreynoldsbass]

We were playing for this girl's end of middle school party after, 10 months prior, our then singer said he'd put together a band. We practiced for the 5 months before, wherein I bought a bass.

It was a three-piece with very little talent and a whole lot of bad sound. Our guitarist played thru the board, and I blared a Crate amp.

It was horrendous, and I'm glad those tapes were destroyed by flooding.


And today, it's an awesome band on brink of signing.

[tomato_katsup]

My first was playing with my now ex-band, and it was for the launch of our first demo. Over a year later, they're still re-recording the same songs that were on that cd, with better wuality. Anyway, I got the standard stage fright, because even though everyone else was playing infront of friends, because I'd only recently moved there, I knew noone apart from the band themselves. I forgot parts to songs, and stood there as still as I could, staring at the fretboard the whole time. Afterwards, the owner of the house we played at (the rhythm guitarist's dad) came over and said "I loved what you did! You were just like the bass player from the Eagles, standing there not moving!" But he's a bit of an eccentric, so I guess it was a compliment too

[alfredpunkjazz]

LOL... My first gig was with a rock band, more of an indie rock band, and we played on this place, a band war, or something like that... Let me tell you, the audience looked like bad guys who will try to kill you... I remember being so nervous, thinking, this is not happening... LOL. At the end, things were very good, (I could play trough an Ampeg fridge that was like being in heaven), and people loved our show... I was just 13, my band mates were older than me, that was something cool too, they were very cool with me. People asked us where we were playing regulary and stuff like that, we were like... huh???? Extremely cool gig to open a life of music.

[Scourge441]

My first live show was with my Fundamentals of Music class sophomore year. The Winter Concert was coming up, and the band director asked the class if they wanted to do some Christmas carols at the concert. We liked the idea, so we set it up with myself on bass, my cousin and his friend on guitars, a drummer, a conga player, and everyone else sang.

We worked on a medly of carols, starting with Carol of the Bells (TSO-style), going into an R&B style of Silent Night, a jazzy version of Rudolph that turned Latin halfway through, then a standard version of Jingle Bell Rock that would interrupted by one of the singers saying they should mix it up a little bit, at which point they would change the vocal line to some pop singer's version (I think it was Mariah Carey or Christina Aguilara). The drummer would play along, and after they stopped singing he would keep going, and after a little bit the conga player would stand up and yell "Carol of the Bells!" at which point we would go back into-yep, you guessed it-Carol of the Bells.

After a few weeks of learning the songs, getting them down, and pissing off the director by playing Tool and AC/DC instead of the stuff we were supposed to be learning, we were finally ready to play. Come concert day, we had a dress rehearsal of sorts during school (the auditorium was packed, we got the biggest ovation), and practiced one last time afterward. As I put my bass down as class was ending, the input jack fell out! I didn't have time to fix the problem, so I put the pieces on a table near all of the instruments and went to my next class.

After returning to school later for the actual concert, I scrambled looking for a screwdriver. I finally found one about about 5 minutes before we supposed to play, which was enough time for one of the guitar players to fix it for me (which he was nice enough to do, me not being good at fixing stuff) while I set up his amp and such. The show went off without problems (except for the singers all singing in the wrong key), and we again got the loudest ovation.

Moral of the story: Always have a screwdriver.

[ericmknight1906]

Originally Posted by darkfinger

+1.

just remember to keep things in perspective(sp?), it`s all about having fun.
I hope that makes sense...

It makes a lot of sense actually, When I finally got the nerve to look away from the fret board and into the very small crowd, i could see people smiling. I don't think it was because I was playing that great but because I appeared to loosen, smile and have fun with it. I quickly learned that the audience's mood is dictated by your mood. And plus, when you appear to "feel" your music, so will the audience....I think

[OhThePeacock]

My first gig was when I was about twelve...I was a nervous wreck. I got really warm and felt like I was gonna pass out but it went pretty much as good as it couldve for the material 12 year olds could make up.