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How to improve the most important skill a musician needs?
- Thread starter Matthew_84
- Start date
One suggestion that I have is to use a metronome when practicing by yourself, unless you are playing to a backing track. Do not stop if you make a mistake, just play along with the metronome or track. If playing with a band, keep going. The only time that I stop when playing with my band during a rehearsal is 1) if I am really unsure of the chord changes that someone is playing, and want to go over them, or 2) I believe that someone else in the band has something wrong and doesnt seem to notice , and I stop them to flag it to see if we can correct it
Everyone makes mistakes. Some folks do it more often than others. Of course, the important thing is what they do with it. The great Doc Watson said if you hit a wrong note you can call it "jazz." He went on to say if you're fast enough just take it back. If you're not that fast just play it again the next time it comes up and everyone will think that's the way it's supposed to be. Years ago I was playing a gig with a neighbor who was an internationally known athlete who had competed in front of hundreds of thousands of people. It was his very first time on stage playing music so I asked him if he was nervous. He looked at me and asked the right question. "If I hit a bad note, what happens?"
I may screw up, going for the wrong fret, but I know that as long as I've hit it in the right place, the only person besides myself who'll notice is one of our guitarists, who has the Big Ears (this is an endorsement, by the way). It has taken me only seven years to convince him that if I'm going to screw up, better I miss the note than miss the beat.
It doesn't matter if you make mistakes when playing at home. Just run through the piece until you can play it without mistakes. That's what practice is.
When you are gigging you can't stop playing in the middle of a song, so you just have to play your way out of any mistakes. Do that well enough and the audience won't notice. Get even better and maybe the band won't notice either.
A band leader I know says, the audience hears all the good notes. Musicians hear all the bad notes.
When you are gigging you can't stop playing in the middle of a song, so you just have to play your way out of any mistakes. Do that well enough and the audience won't notice. Get even better and maybe the band won't notice either.
A band leader I know says, the audience hears all the good notes. Musicians hear all the bad notes.
I saw a quote, I think from Victor Wooten, along the lines of: If you play a wrong note, it's only a wrong note when your face reacts and lets everybody know.
It's a bit like the "call it jazz" comment from an earlier poster. I don't think most in the audience would notice a wrong note, but I bet they definitely would notice if the bass player drops out completely for a couple of beats.
It's a bit like the "call it jazz" comment from an earlier poster. I don't think most in the audience would notice a wrong note, but I bet they definitely would notice if the bass player drops out completely for a couple of beats.
A long time ago I was at a clinic with Victor Wooten. He said "if I trip while walking down the sidewalk, I don't stop, go back where I started, and walk over that spot without tripping". The same thing applies with music. The "wrong" or "bad" note you think you hit is just an unintended note. Learn to melodically work to the note you want to be on from whatever note you hit. Even Marcus Miller says he tries things live that don't come out right, but the way they did come out might be really cool and he'll make something out of whatever just happened. This concept is in all things--I'm a woodworker also, and one of the things you get good at in woodworking is recovering from mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes turn out to be beautiful things. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if blocked fretboards didn't get invented because someone messed up and drilled a bunch of dots off center. It takes some deliberate practice along with a little bit of dexterity to handle the occasional unintended note, but you'll get there.
Well ok, don't stop but also DON'T PLAY in a band setting until you're SURE you're back on track. The audience hearing NO bass notes for a few beats is ALWAYS better than the audience -- and your band mates -- hearing the WRONG bass notes!
Wrong notes with the right rhythm would be better than no bass.
There's no way to learn any new skill on this earth without making mistakes.
It's not a flaw or a sign of incapacity or lack of talent, but an intrinsic and inescapable part of the learning process.
C'est la vie.
It's not a flaw or a sign of incapacity or lack of talent, but an intrinsic and inescapable part of the learning process.
C'est la vie.
Many years ago my guitar teacher who was a professional Jazz player told me; "never stop playing when you make a mistake". He went on to agree with what others here have said; "the audience will probably not know you made a mistake until you point it out by stopping, or reacting in some manner that gives it away".
When I make a mistake I will sit out for the rest of that measure and pick it up at the beginning of the next measure, rather than trying to catch up. Once you start trying to catch up, you're out of time with the rest of the band and the audience then notices. When you don't "chase" the band the audience just accepts that this is how you intended to play the song.
Thump on,
One_Dude
When I make a mistake I will sit out for the rest of that measure and pick it up at the beginning of the next measure, rather than trying to catch up. Once you start trying to catch up, you're out of time with the rest of the band and the audience then notices. When you don't "chase" the band the audience just accepts that this is how you intended to play the song.
Thump on,
One_Dude
+1000....OP: Learning how to hide a mistake (or making it sound intentional) just takes confidence in what you do and 'selling' it as is.........Modern popular music is the art of imperfection: Embrace it, dont be so hard on yourself, and just enjoy playing
You mention getting a "shock" from playing a wrong note but I'm wondering if the real problem is perhaps that you are analysing what went wrong on the spot, instead of letting it go and moving on with the music. Are you aware of doing this?
Practice at a slower than normal tempo until you can play the parts error-free. I like to play the song over and over for about 15 minutes with no errors/ Then take a short breal (no more than 5 minutes) and start up again at a higher tempo. As you play, sing the bass line, hum the bass line or just keep listening to the line in your head. I find with tricky passages, this quickly reduces mistakes both when learning and later on the gig.
The last song I learned this way was 180 bpm on the recording. I used slow down software to play starting at 80% (144 bpm) then ratcheting up in 5% increments. It took a few days to get it up to full speed.
Practice is for figuring out how to do it better. Therefore when I'm practicing at home, if I make a big mistake I'll stop and go back to the place prior to the mistake to play through it again, and I'll keep doing that until the mistake is no longer happening.
Once I have that phrase under my fingers its generally easy enough to play through the piece. There's no reason you have to keep going, what do you learn by doing that?
Now, in a performance situation, I will just let the mistake go by and figure out where I am to drop back into rhythm as soon as I can.
Once I have that phrase under my fingers its generally easy enough to play through the piece. There's no reason you have to keep going, what do you learn by doing that?
Now, in a performance situation, I will just let the mistake go by and figure out where I am to drop back into rhythm as soon as I can.
I practice with a metronome at a pretty quick pace running scales, modes, scales in thirds. All that stuff. I focus on having the 1 be the correct note no matter what. Some mistakes sound good if you keep going. Good luck.
i'd suggest you practice playing wrong notes - play along with something but in the wrong key, so you're playing a LOT of wrong notes - the point is to intentionally play wrong notes but in time. This might help you un-program your reflex if you keep at it.
I play lots of gigs - the mindset when you play a wrong note is "that WAS interesting - emphasis on the past tense. If you can think of a mistake as something you made in the past, you shift your focus to the next note ( the one you can do something about).
A wrong note that's in tempo is better that the right note played at tge wrong time any day.
I play lots of gigs - the mindset when you play a wrong note is "that WAS interesting - emphasis on the past tense. If you can think of a mistake as something you made in the past, you shift your focus to the next note ( the one you can do something about).
A wrong note that's in tempo is better that the right note played at tge wrong time any day.
Try thinking of music as two things going on simultaneously. Notes and rhythm. If you make a mistake on a note (like we all do) you keep the rhythm going. If you make a mistake on the rhythm, you cause a chain reaction trainwreck. What's worse? Did you ever take a test where there isn't time to finish so you answer as many right as you can and in the remaining time (if any) you go back and try to guess the rest? Music is like that only you don't get to go back and fix your mistakes and you don't get graded on it. I just flunked the analogy test! 
Seriously, as a part of the rhythm section, rhythm is job number one. Learn to play ghost notes in time to the music until you can jump back in if you have to. Hope this helps.
Seriously, as a part of the rhythm section, rhythm is job number one. Learn to play ghost notes in time to the music until you can jump back in if you have to. Hope this helps.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Remember, many mistakes won't even be noticed by thr audience, but a break in the groove will. Priorities.
