Thanks to everyone who gave me advice in the "sound & hearing yourself at gigs" thread - I had my first show ever last Thursday and it was a blast!
I'd already come to terms with the fact that there would be mistakes made and I wasn't going to worry about that; I just needed to have fun b/c that's what people like to see and no one would really notice mistakes anyway (which is true, three noticable mistakes went unnoticed, my band did a great job covering one flub and when I kept going one bar too long, on a song it just sounded like a cool bass ending to the song
)
I took advice from my other thread and set up with the drummer on my left so I could see him (and so I wasn't as close to the crowd b/c there was no real stage). although I couldn't really see him b/c he was so far behind me. I had been nervous about singing and hitting my notes right and my friend who's been giving me some vocal coaching came over a little bit before the show and worked on the songs I was nervous about and pumped up my confidence and I ended up hiting everything right at the show. Including the one song I always sing a beat too early. I think it was the first time I really nailed it right. Yay.
Just wanted to share how much fun it was. I was only nervous the 10 minutes before we started. All our friends came out and we had the best following for the night (too bad it won't be like that all the time!). Nothing broke. The drunk heckler we had was funny and nice so that was good entertainment. I wasn't distracted by all the picture taking which I always assumed had to be disorienting with flashes going off in you face. Here are some of the pics my friend took if you're in a picture viewing mood:
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And although the pictures don't support this, I didn't look at my fingers all night either! I was afraid I'd be nerous about getting distracted by looking up/making eyecontact which would make me lose track of what I was playing. But that was much easier than I thought.
And that is all. I'm looking forward to our next gig in a couple weeks and I love reading other peoples' experiences around here. Much more entertaining than doing my real work. =)~
I'd already come to terms with the fact that there would be mistakes made and I wasn't going to worry about that; I just needed to have fun b/c that's what people like to see and no one would really notice mistakes anyway (which is true, three noticable mistakes went unnoticed, my band did a great job covering one flub and when I kept going one bar too long, on a song it just sounded like a cool bass ending to the song
)I took advice from my other thread and set up with the drummer on my left so I could see him (and so I wasn't as close to the crowd b/c there was no real stage). although I couldn't really see him b/c he was so far behind me. I had been nervous about singing and hitting my notes right and my friend who's been giving me some vocal coaching came over a little bit before the show and worked on the songs I was nervous about and pumped up my confidence and I ended up hiting everything right at the show. Including the one song I always sing a beat too early. I think it was the first time I really nailed it right. Yay.
Just wanted to share how much fun it was. I was only nervous the 10 minutes before we started. All our friends came out and we had the best following for the night (too bad it won't be like that all the time!). Nothing broke. The drunk heckler we had was funny and nice so that was good entertainment. I wasn't distracted by all the picture taking which I always assumed had to be disorienting with flashes going off in you face. Here are some of the pics my friend took if you're in a picture viewing mood:
Invalid Link Removed
And although the pictures don't support this, I didn't look at my fingers all night either! I was afraid I'd be nerous about getting distracted by looking up/making eyecontact which would make me lose track of what I was playing. But that was much easier than I thought.
And that is all. I'm looking forward to our next gig in a couple weeks and I love reading other peoples' experiences around here. Much more entertaining than doing my real work. =)~
