How not to mess up when gigging?

[mikey2000]

Here I am again looking for some more advice….

Who can give me a steer on how not to mess up when playing live?

I can play a song spot-on at home but when in a gig, there's a good chance I'll play a seriously bum set of notes (correcting myself with style and panache so Joe Public might wrinkle their noses for a moment but not halt the song altogether!) or leap into the wrong section of a song (again with a swift correction)

I'm 100% sure it's because I'm being distracted by goings-on in the crowd so I lose my focus momentarily.

Any tips on how to improve my live reliability?

I had these ideas:
1) leap around a little while practising at home
2) try and talk or watch TV while playing a song
3) play blindfolded or in dim light (sometimes I can hardly see the fretboard in the dark)
4) simplify some baselines a bit- give myself a chance (but won't stop me leaping into the wrong section)
5) announce out loud what section is coming up next (eg calling "two more bars then the quiet verse!")

Any other ideas? I don't want to stand like a statue locked in a bassworld all of my own . Ps - I'm not nervous or tense on stage - perhaps even enjoying myself too much!

I'm ok with my technique/tone. I have built a good practice routine for all that as well as many many playthroughs of the songs. I'd like to come up with a practice item to improve my live resilience


For context, I've had about 25 years off and only really took it up again last summer, joined a band in October and playing 2 hour gigs now (but only had 3 so far with a gig/month until for the rest of the year)

 

[JonathanPDX]

Practicing at home as you would on a gig is really helpful. Standing up, in front of your amp, even wearing the same clothes can be helpful just to get your head into the same space. If it's a cover gig, play through the songs along with the recording, one after another, no breaks or stops even if you make a mistake. If it's original material then either record a rehearsal/gig and play along to it, or structure some rehearsals where you run the whole set/show exactly as you would live.

If you tend to stare at your hands while you play then playing while in dim light, or reading from a music stand, can also force you to adapt.

Lastly, check in to make sure you aren't too far in your own head. Some people get nervous or anxious before going on stage, my approach is to consider it a temporary medium where everything is gone immediately after it happens. Every note is throwing a rock into a stream: there's a splash and some ripples, but even a big splash fades away quickly. Nobody remembers the mistakes unless you throw yourself in the water.

 

[Gopherbassist]

The only way not to mess up is not to play.

If you want to get better, learn to do things like play through mistakes, slide or bend from wrong notes and resolve them into correct notes. Learn to repeat mistakes in musical ways that make them sound intentional.

The ideas you suggested in the OP sound like productive places to start. If they work, keep doing them. JohnathanPDX's suggestions sound good too.

Get in to the habit of practicing gig tunes faster than you're going to play them live. If you're used to playing them faster, you'll develop a quicker sense of reaction time and can catch some mistakes before they happen. That doesn't mean to neglect to practice them at speed though; you still need to be familiar with the feel of the correct speed.

 

[SpiderBass1965]

Practice the songs over and over. Repetition. Do you practice with the band frequently? That is a great way too find the flaws and fix them at home before a show. Finally, confidence. Play with confidence.

 

[Kansas]

Practice the songs and then practice some more until you know them by heart. Memorize and internalize the material and ditch the music stand. Never call attention to your mistakes when they happen and keep going like nothing happened. You will do better next time.

 

[OkayistBassist]

When I'm gigging, I find a few focal points beyond or above the crowd to look at during a show. I kind of cheat a bit because 90% of the time I'm wearing sunglasses (either due to stage lighting or it's a beach gig).

Play your songs in your practice area and try playing without looking down at the fretboard. Look at a doorway, lamp, picture on the wall… whatever you can look at.

Live - I usually look for some sort of funny decor. Lots of the bars / venues around here have them. Otherwise, anything beyond where the crowd is.

 

[brianrost]

Working on not having to look at the fingerboard is very helpful. Easy to do…just start with running scales and arpeggios at slow tempos until you can play them with your eyes closed. Then speed it up. Then start doing the same with bass lines you know well.

Singing the bass line in your head (feel free to hum it, or just move your lips) helps even more. I do this on songs that have tricky, fast passages. Many teachers wil ltell you that if you can't sing the line (doesn't have to be perfectly in tune) you don't really know it. Most of us have experienced band mates singing out parts to us at rehearsals and jams.

Go watch some videos of jazz musicians to see them mouthing the line as they play…obviously brass and woodwind players can't do this. Pianist Keith Jarrett was notorious for humming along, you can hear it on his many recordings.

Skip to 1:45


Jazz bassists Slam Stewart and Major Holley sang along when soloing…with a bow!!!



Rockers, too...

Skip to 0:55

 

[el murdoque]

The amateur practices until he gets it right. The professional practices until he can't get it wrong.



Practice songs until it feels boring to play them. Always play the whole song from intro to end, so you also practice the arrangements.
Practice the material in a higher tempo than they are played.

Know the easy parts and the hard parts. Lock in and stand in place for the hard parts, fool around on the easy ones.

 

[Zooberwerx]

4) simplify some baselines a bit- give myself a chance (but won't stop me leaping into the wrong section)
5) announce out loud what section is coming up next (eg calling "two more bars then the quiet verse!")

As above. My mind is always doing recon 1.5 measures ahead and announcing what's around the next curve for the benefit of all. Until the tune is burned into your brain, leave the "flash" at the curb.

Riis

 

[Tj smith]

You're gonna make mistakes. I've been playing the same songs for 3 years and still mess up.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Practice more and worry less. Not much else to say.

 

[InnerCityBass]

Here I am again looking for some more advice….

Who can give me a steer on how not to mess up when playing live?

I can play a song spot-on at home but when in a gig, there's a good chance I'll play a seriously bum set of notes (correcting myself with style and panache so Joe Public might wrinkle their noses for a moment but not halt the song altogether!) or leap into the wrong section of a song (again with a swift correction)

I'm 100% sure it's because I'm being distracted by goings-on in the crowd so I lose my focus momentarily.

Any tips on how to improve my live reliability?

I had the same problem for the first 10 years of my professional career, but haven't had it the later 10 years. I've found two things that changed things for me.

The first is that I started practicing 'single point meditation', as in focusing on the same thing for a longer stretch of time.

The second is that when I'm performing with a band where I'm either the bandleader, or simply the one knowing the songs the best, as I composed and arranged them, caring for a lot of minor details I find important, as for what 'makes the song', I find myself being very focused on giving cues and keeping the overview, basically taking charge of the situation of playing the music. In the later 10 years, where this has often been the case, I still work as a pure sideman as well, playing others music, where while rarely, occassionally my mind will still wonder off with whatever happens in the room. I spoke to one of those other worldly talented musicians that I know, and he said that he actually experience the same thing, saying that when he's the front person, performing in his own name, he never misses a single note ever, but when he's occasionally performing as a side man, he regocnise that feeling of 'slipping out' once in a while. He said that he believes it's because there's a lot more in stake, when it's your own music, and one self on the top of the poster - so in other words, simply how much you honestly care for the situation.

 

[FullumMusic]

Rehearse how you play and play how you rehearse. If you always rehearse standing still watching your hands, when you get on stage you'll play standing still watching your hands. If you want to do stage-presence-moves while you play, you have to practice stage-presence-mores while you play. You don't necessarily need to fully choreograph a routine. You just need to practice playing and doing stage stuff enough that when you do both at the same time, the playing doesn't suffer.

And you seem to know this already because your list of possible practice ideas is pretty spot on"

1) leap around a little while practising at home
2) try and talk or watch TV while playing a song
3) play blindfolded or in dim light (sometimes I can hardly see the fretboard in the dark)
4) simplify some baselines a bit- give myself a chance (but won't stop me leaping into the wrong section)
5) announce out loud what section is coming up next (eg calling "two more bars then the quiet verse!")

1 - Absolutely. This is what you want to do on stage. Practice it at home.
2 - This may or may not be a direct fix for this problem, but it's a great way to develop brain and limb independence and help if you ever want to sing and play.
3 - Absolutely. The ability to play without staring at your hands is a great skill regardless of the situation.
4 - Sure. I mean, if you get the other stuff down, you probably won't need to simplify any bass-lines. But thinking of different approaches to play songs is always a good exercise.
5 - I would almost suggest the opposite of this... just keep track in your head where you are and what's coming next. You do what you practice. So, if you practice by always saying out loud, you'll wind up relying on always saying it out loud. So absolutely keep track of where you are and what's coming in the song. Just, in your mind.

A few more thoughts:
- Learn the songs and the moves separately. Get the songs down until you can play them without thinking. Then practice stage-presence-antics with the bass without playing. Then put them together. Don't try to do everything all at once. Our brains like small bite sized chunks of learning.

- Mistakes happen. Obviously minimizing how many is idea. But they happen. If you hit a bad note or flub something, just keep going and laugh it off. Don't dwell on it. It's in the past and there's no way to go back and fix it and the song's already moved past it. Minimize how many mistakes you make and don't stress over the ones you do during the song.

 

[Stylee Mousse]

Playing well live is a skill that is built up from all the smart things suggested upthread. Tons of solid suggestions.

It can be hard not to get sucked into audience activity, especially if they are fixing to fight, expressing hostility to the band (or just crazy/completely drunk).

That's survival 101. Hard to stop that from distracting. Or "lower brain" distractions….

I also find that singing along with the song lyrics can help keep the arrangement solid in yer mind.

 

[rodak]

2) try and talk or watch TV while playing a song

FWIW, I absolutely cannot talk and play at the same time. Never have, and I've been playing nearly 60 years. Sing yes, but talk? No way. So i wouldn't sweat that one much

 

[brianrost]

By the way, if you only practice against recordings…don't. Once you are secure playing a line, then practice it without the recording.

If you are stumbling mid-song, don't just start again from the top, start just before where you're stumbling. I recall one song I learned with a very fast syncopated repetitive part that accounts for about 90% of the whole song. I practiced just that part (four bars) endlessly at a slower tempo and then sped up once I could play it perfectly for five minutes, kept going up in tempo until I could play even faster than the recorded tempo (use a metronome if needed to measure the tempo).

I started playing along with the recording in a loop using software that let me control the tempo, first at 75% and then up in 5% increments. It took me about four days of practicing it for about a half hour a day to nail it.

I sang along where needed. I looked at the fingerboard at first, then stopped looking after a while. I tried different fingerings to find the one that was most efficient. Any time I stumbled, I'd stop and slowly work through the fingering.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I'll make this really simple.

Make sure you know your parts in every song in your setlist, and have them down cold.

This also allows you to enjoy the gig as well.

 

[John Sparkman]

Great advice all around!

I myself practice at home precisely like I want to perform at the next gig.

No shorts and sandals. I practice while wearing a nice shirt, long pants, and shoes and socks.

I practice playing and singing with the music room PA turned on, standing up to the mic stand, guitar strapped on and plugged into my usual rig.

While playing and singing, I look out at the far walls like I'm maintaining cheerful eye contact with various members of the audience.
(barely glancing down either at the lyrics sheet or my hands on the instrument)

I play and sing complete songs, not just portions or snippets of them.

Does all of this guarantee that I won't slip up at the next live gig?
No, of course not.
We played a gig yesterday (the 2nd Annual Polynesian Festival in Madison).
I messed up a couple of times.
But like the OP inferred, I cheerfully corrected things and continue to play.

 

[dune]

I was working on cruise ships and behind this "star act" in the packed main theater. It was a a quiet passage. I had been resting for 8 bars or whatever and was going to come back in by hitting a chord and then swelling it in with the volume knob. It was going to be so slick. If only I'd remembered to turn it down first.

 

[HolmeBass]

It's only music, trust me, no one died.

Your practice ideas are solid - practice like you intend to play.

But, perhaps counter-intuitively, focussing less on minor errors will help clear them up.