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How to avoid onstage mistakes?

#21
I get a case of sound fatigue at the end on my shows sometimes. It can be hard to hear what I am playing..
To combat this I practice my whole set list every other day...even thought I am sick as hell of the songs I play sometimes...I find that set list practice ad naseum allows me to trust my auto pilot skills..
Other things that make me suck are as follows; alchohol, coffee, sugar, weed, pills, greasy fast foods, poor sleep fighting with my girlfriend and not eating right can blow my night to pieces...so dont do any of these "other things" and you shoud be fine.
 
#23
I am terribly ashamed to admit that towards the end of my playing days, I went onstage so out-of-it, that I forgot my place in a 12 bar blues, and even fell over more than once!!!

Another time I was stopping mid-song to swig on a bottle of Jack Daniels- ,understandably; the singer told me to "Get off his faarkin' stage!!!" -he bellowed it through the PA-....and the place was packed. (I woke up the next morning, naked in a stranger's house that I had half wrecked).

I got sucked into the partying side of playing in a band, and my music went to sh!t.........definitely watch out for the party factor if you want to be professional.

 
#26
Low light can be a problem. Most of the time I can play without looking, but we have one song that starts with a melodic bass figure high up on the neck, and it's in Eb. If I can't see to find the starting position there's a good chance I'll blow it. Which reminds me, I need to address this with the person who runs our lights.
 
#28
Personally, I would stay away from coffee or any kind of caffeine before playing--getting wired in any way just makes me jittery and tense. DRINK LOTS OF WATER, both before you play and onstage (and especially if you're an alcohol drinker). Dehydration causes more problems in the human body than almost anything else, and one of the first problems that pops up is a decrease in your ability to concentrate, which of course leads to mistakes. Also make sure you get enough sleep (which I often don't do). And of course, know the material backwards and forwards--nothing allows me to have a good gig more than being totally prepared....
 
#29
How well can you hear yourself on stage? Are there things about the arrangement of your gear, your EQ preferences, the noise level on stage, or other factors that can be changed to enable you to hear yourself more clearly?

How consistent are the "positions" you play with your fretting hand? There have been times when the sound on stage was so bad that I couldn't hear myself clearly enough to tell if I was playing in tune and had to rely on left hand position for assurance.

Do you have a routine to help you focus your mental energies while relaxing? Trying too hard can be worse than spacing out occasionally.
 
#32
Keep in mind that most of the people listening to you aren't musicians. The average person probably isn't focusing on you, let alone noticing the mistakes. However, the bass players in the audience probably are. :)
 

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