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Have you ever messed up at a gig?

#61
Welcome to being a musician. We all make mistakes, and I've had my not so wonderful moments over the years. It's only the folks who don't do anything at all, or take a risk that make the fewest mistakes in life. They also lead dull and boring lives for the most part. Just chalk it up to experience and move forward.

I've been with my current band for a number of years now and while we have some incredible gigs as a band, we also get those off nights where nothing seems to be coming together, and everyone is just phoning it it in performance wise at best. Yep mistakes are part of the deal I hate to say, but you can control how well you handle them.
 
#62
thumpbass1 said:
Yep mistakes are part of the deal I hate to say, but you can control how well you handle them.
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Wise words here, folks. And just HOW do we handle them? Two ways:

1. Do nothing out of the ordinary. Just act like it never happened.

2. If it's a mistake so bad that it can't be ignored, laugh about it. If someone in the band gives you a dirty look, blow them a kiss.
 
#63
JimmyM said:
Wise words here, folks. And just HOW do we handle them? Two ways:

1. Do nothing out of the ordinary. Just act like it never happened.

2. If it's a mistake so bad that it can't be ignored, laugh about it. If someone in the band gives you a dirty look, blow them a kiss.
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#2 doesn't work for me, as I blow kisses to the boys in my band all the time. :eek::eyebrow::smug::ninja:

I am guilty of looking skyward and to the left when I make a stupid mistake, kinda like Charlie Brown. I dunno how many people are paying attention to my facial expressions, but it's a habit I need to work on.

'Course, I RARELY make mistakes, so it's a hard habit to practice... :hiding: :p
 
#64
fretlessman71 said:
#2 doesn't work for me, as I blow kisses to the boys in my band all the time. :eek::eyebrow::smug::ninja:

I am guilty of looking skyward and to the left when I make a stupid mistake, kinda like Charlie Brown. I dunno how many people are paying attention to my facial expressions, but it's a habit I need to work on.

'Course, I RARELY make mistakes, so it's a hard habit to practice... :hiding: :p
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Just got back from a gig with someone who has a couple platinum albums under their belt. Anyway, I realized, as I was messing up a lot during the first set, that I sort of consciously draw attention to myself when I mess up. Its kind of odd, but I feel like if I mess up and call myself out on it, it...I don't know...seems to make me more human or something. My favorite part of the gig tonight was when, during a song, the drummer turned to me and and said: "man, I just f-ed up", and I turned back, during the song, and said: "hey if I didn't notice, I doubt anybody else did".
 
#66
dave88 said:
Just got back from a gig with someone who has a couple platinum albums under their belt. Anyway, I realized, as I was messing up a lot during the first set, that I sort of consciously draw attention to myself when I mess up. Its kind of odd, but I feel like if I mess up and call myself out on it, it...I don't know...seems to make me more human or something. My favorite part of the gig tonight was when, during a song, the drummer turned to me and and said: "man, I just f-ed up", and I turned back, during the song, and said: "hey if I didn't notice, I doubt anybody else did".
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That's the problem with being the only bass player. It can only be you. When I used to play tuba in the band, I could play a clam and give a quick stinkeye to second chair.
 
#67
I agree with jimmyM just obsess over other peoples mistakes at the last gig i got stopped halfway through doing a bass fill going into a song by the drummer and then after the sing/guitarist says i'm rubbish at intros but i'll never let it drop that he picked up the wrong guitar (two guitars two tunings) and didn't realize untill after the gig. so if soemone in your band does something wrong, even ifits just the tinyist thing just obsess over it make them feel guilty for obsessing over your mistake, its rather fun.

o i forgot to mention at that same oen i didn't go into a chorus which involved only me playing but i do't think anyone noticed.
 
#68
I feel like there are two or three different threads going on here at the same time. The most important probably being what to do to recover when you "f" a note or a line or a change, if it hasn't been done before. I haven't searched, but I feel it could almost be a "sticky". I mean, we all could handle some advice on what to do post f-up.
 
#69
did a gig a while back in a pub and for some reason the whole band nervous and we were rubbish.started the 2nd set and in walks their old bassist(he sent me a load of insulting texts about a month before the gig)started song A i played song B and then i realised wrong song and key.AAARGHHH.the band were looking at each other as if to say whats going on?i eventually get it right and find their old bassist grinning at me.i know my face was as red as beetroot.owner of the place said we were brilliant.figure that out?
 
#70
mike.b said:
did a gig a while back in a pub and for some reason the whole band nervous and we were rubbish.started the 2nd set and in walks their old bassist(he sent me a load of insulting texts about a month before the gig)started song A i played song B and then i realised wrong song and key.AAARGHHH.the band were looking at each other as if to say whats going on?i eventually get it right and find their old bassist grinning at me.i know my face was as red as beetroot.owner of the place said we were brilliant.figure that out?
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Ya know there's some great classic jazz quote about how the best solos you've ever heard end up with the soloist ending a bar or more too short or long. Being off opens up your ears.
 
#73
bradjonesbass said:
"...play it 3 more times and call it jazz..."
:hyper:

I play a lot of jazz:smug:

Seriously, the difference between a pro and an amateur is how well you cover up mistakes. A pro guitarist hits a wrong note, holds it for two beats THEN bends it up to the right note. An amateur pulls his finger off the note and the stumbles into the next right note. A pro bass player hits a wrong note and immediately recognizes it and plays a little walk up to the right one. If you're off by a half step, walk around it then hit the one on the next strong beat. Do it really well and your bandmates will smile because they think you just played the coolest part on earth. THEY won't even know you screwed up.
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+1!! or they'll turn around to you after the gig and tell you that you pulled one hell of a save! :)
 
#74
It always amuses me when people tell me they never hear me make a mistake because I guarantee you I make mistakes EVERY GIG! I guess I've gotten real good at faking (slides are wonderful things). Also, I've found that a mistake made with authority and then covered will be forgiven a lot sooner than if you just kind of wimp into a clam and then clamp down and get all tentative afterwards. Oops, you biffed something, oh well, keep going.

It is really true that if you don't LOOK like you've screwed up, no one in the house probably will know. Actually just this morning I got reminded of that again... I was playing on our church worship team and the drummer started a song way too fast and I guess I must have kind of screwed up my face and yelled out "SLOW IT DOWN" -- deal was, this is one of those churches that has the jumbotron screens and apparently the camera was on a close-up on me right when I did that. Oops.
 
#75
Me, I screw up at least twice every gig. Luckily everyone in my band does too. We never get mad or uptight about it. We may needle a little bit, "What the hell were you playing?" "A song ending means we all end at the same time." That sort of thing. Mistakes happen so no use in getting mad about it. Just try to not do it next gig!
 
#77
Half the enjoyment of live music is that - it's live. There will inevitably be mistakes but that's part of the performance.
I've seen loads of bands who've f**ked up intros, been out of time or tune or whatever and STILL put in a great performance, because they've carried it off and recovered.
As others have said - it's not whether you make a mistake, because you inevitably will, it's what you do about when you've made it.
 
#78
My most well-known metal band when I was in high school I joined after the original bass player quit. I blew them away at the tryout because they gave me a week to learn the material (they had a full length cd at the time) and I re-wrote it all in that time. They were amazed that this, which amazed me, because all the old guy did was play root notes. Course, they were also under the impression that I needed to use a 5-string when I did all of their songs with my trust Ibanez EDB-600. (Have since sold that one and gotten a new one off of ebay after I found out they stopped making them) Aaaanyway.......

We have a few gigs after that, write some new more progressive material, cut a demo, and we plan to release this demo at the ISU (Indiana State Univeristy) battle of the bands. I show up half an hour late to the event starting because I was finishing burning copies of the demos (we were headlining, so we didnt have to play for another five hours or so) in my black two piece suit, black silk shirt, red tie, black dress boots. I was feelin sexy, feelin good, goin around and promoting the band and handin out free demos. Everyone I came up to wanted to go out and blaze up. So, for the next five hours, I'm handing out demos, and smoking all of the various types of pot that happened to be in the Vigo County area. By the time came to play, I was rippppppppppped........Things went well into the first half of the set, but in the middle of one long slap section, somehow I managed to get my thumb underneath my A string and (I'm guessing its a mix of the THC and adrenaline) I somehow managed to pull up fast enough and hard enough that when my thumb came out from under the string, it had landed back on the nut and broke it and put a nasty blood blister on my thumb. However, I always believed in bringing a backup EVERYTHING, so I pulled my Gavelston 4-string fretless out and continued on with the set. I managed to come back around and everyone seemed to forget that happened when 1) I'm the only metal bassplayer in town jammin a fretless and 2) I'm nailin these sweet fills and slap sections while running up to people in the crowd (wireless wins over the crowd in a small town) and giving them a demonstration of my skills.

So, remember that if you do make even a BIG mistake, you can always come back around on it. Just don't stop playing no matter what. :bassist:
 
#79
I am trying to tell myself (to get over that fear) that half of them are probably too drunk to notice.
They are all gonna mess up. The two bands I hang around with does...I heard them. My issue is that when I play at home, and I mess up I sometimes stop (starting to keep going now) and sometimes I curse...lol! Don't need to stop in the middle of a song on stage!:rollno:
 
#80
My brother is a serious motorcycle rider. He says you look to where you want to go, not to where you don't want to go. If there's a tree in the middle of nowhere and you watch the tree, you're going to hit it.

I think this applies to most performances, musical or other. I put mistakes behind me and stop thinking about them as soon as possible. It I think about them, I'll repeat them.

I also think that consistency is more important than occasional greatness. I'd rather be consistently solid than occasionally great and occasionally sucky. In manufacturing they look for consistency first then they try to improve the quality of their product. I think that applies to performance as well.

KO
 

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