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I seem unable to play a song without making a glaring mistake.

Bassaga

Bassaga

Sep 4, 2015
444
1,186
Arizona
#1
Any song. Any difficulty. No matter how familiar I am with it and how many times I"m done that part correctly before. Bass or guitar or voice. Just about every dang time I play a song, I screw something up in a jarring way. Forgetting or mixing up lyrics, going for the wrong chord, one or both of my hands blanking on which string they're trying to play for just a second. Then I recover and play the rest of the song just as well as I was playing before.

Rarely the same mistake more than once, which tells me I'm not having this hiccups ingrained. It happens however I'm performing on whatever instrument, singing or not. It happens when I'm playing a song I can barely keep up with the same as when I'm strumming through a 3-chord "King of the Road" for the thousandth time, so it's not a "practice moar, duh" thing. I just can't often seem to get through a freakin' song beginning to end without a big screw-up.

I don't know if this is some deep-buried self-sabotage thing, or just plain being a mediocre musician, or what, but.... anybody experience this? and ideally overcome it?
 
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#6
Hmm, that mistake sounds like Fills to me. And everybody else! Just break it apart and slowly stitch it together. Practice makes more confident, nobody is perfect. Especially me! Don't stress making a mistake, just work through it.
Everyone clams notes once in a while except Pat Metheny, his trick is to not apply any patterns, might not work in your case.
Worst case just look at your amp and pretend to turn a knob if you mess up at a gig.
 
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#7
You’re overthinking while playing or singing.

What’s worked for me is thinking of the song as a story, three verses, three parts of the same story then I can remember the whole song.

On playing I don’t really think of patterns and strings but the feel, I try and adopt the feel of the player who created the line. Then I find it’s just a mindset, you start to think like that player so you start to play like that too.

I try not to think while I play if that makes sense, I do the thinking when I’m learning then just throw it out the window and just play. I hope this helps.
 
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#9
Yup. Plenty. I play keyboards and bass in band situations. This summer, had an outdoor keyboard gig. I’ve played this particular song perfectly forever. I really botched the signature solo — it’s just over 8 quick measures. Don’t know why I did it. Never do. Bandmates pointed it out to me at break (like I didn’t know it already). I turned, and pretended to moon them and walked away. Mistakes used to really bother me and I’d linger on them (I have a horrible perfectionist disorder). It’s going to happen to me. Maybe more than some others. I’m good, but not one of the “greats.” So, batting average. If you can get into the Hall of Fame by hitting only 3 out of 10 balls, then by my calculations, I’m successful 95 out of 100 times. Legend.
 
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#10
In addition to all the sage words above, I proffer the following:

A) Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
B) Don't practice until you get it right; practice until you don't get it wrong.
C) In performance, the only people who will notice your clams are you and maybe your bandmates. Anyone in the audience who notices will have forgotten within seconds, especially if you're grooving. Anyone in the audience who remembers your clams and won't let go of them is a funsucker who should be shot into deep space.
D) Go easy on yourself. This is supposed to be fun.
 
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#13
Bassaga said:
bruh I'm just pursuing "reliable" for now. whatever my problem is, perfectionism ain't it, and thank goodness for that 'cause I'd be screwed :laugh:
Click to expand...
Are you singing and playing bass? If so you just arent good enough to do both. I am not being mean as I am not even close to good enough to do both either. In my opinion that ability is close to godly.
My understanding is to do it well you have to have both parts so well down that you could do them without even thinking about it. 150% down. Sting and Geddy are not mere humans.
 
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#14
I’m going to ask the obvious question: how well do you know music?

You see, if you are memorizing specific lines (be they on vox or instrument) and you flub, and you DON’T know music, then indeed the error will be glaring. And might, because you don’t know the escape hatches, be nearly unrecoverable.

If you know music, then they are easy to recover from! You can just transition using the ‘rules’ of harmony. And then you can make it like it was deliberate, by repeating the mistake at exactly the same point the next time that phrase of music is played. Or making an even more obvious mistake (deliberately). In other words, let the band - and the audience - in on the joke.

Ritchie Blackmore, after Smoke On The Water hit in 1971-2 and it became the one thing every wannabe guitarist in every music store around the globe played/butchered when they got handed a guitar, deliberately butchered the opening of that song in most of their performances.

A final thought, courtesy of Miles Davis:
  • It's not the note you play that's the wrong note - it's the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.
 
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#17
I'm a late bloomer and didn't join a basement jam until I was 50 and I played my first show in a gigging band when I was 54, so I'm always the least experienced person I play with. Usually by a lot. So I don't have the advantage of having learned when my brain was young and sponge-like and then had decades of experience to be able to just feel where we are in a song and create magic. For me, I find that I have to stay sharply focused on that balance between "being in the moment" while still paying close attention.

Some things that I've found help me:

- Pay attention to the structure of a song. Nothing I've ever played was one random measure after another, so there's always structure in the song. For example, a verse might be one or more repeats of the same progression, the bridge will be its own thing you play maybe a few times, and the choruses are generally all the same, etc.. Recognizing that, working on those patterns/progressions, and then working on the transitions between them helps me learn songs faster and also give me "signposts" that I can recognize when we're playing a song. Might not work for everyone, but it simplifies things for me because now I only have to learn a few relatively short passages and I'm 90% of the way there with a new song. Then it's just making sure I can put the parts together in the right order.

- A couple of guys in my gigging band do occasional backing vocals but I'm in on all backing vocals and our BL/singer also has me doing an increasing amount of lead vocals or sharing LV with her. Well, playing while singing is a lot harder for me (as it seems to be for a lot of us). But seeing the flow between lines in verses and in the chorus, hearing what word ended the line I last sang and remembering the next line that rhymes with it also helps me keep focused on what the next line is. Also, remembering that a verse is like a paragraph in a book, so seeing what that "paragraph" is saying helps me more easily see what the next line will be.

- I find it easier a lot easier to work on playing and vocals separately until I'm pretty comfortable with both. Then I start working on putting them together. For lead vocals, I sometimes make minor changes in the cadence or I sometimes slightly alter what I'm playing in order to get to the "that'll work" point quicker. Over time, I'll work on getting closer to playing it the right way. That won't work in a tribute band, but we're not a tribute band.

- Some things, like a signature line, need to be played right. So I focus on them first when they're in a song and I get to the "that'll work" point for the rest of it. Then, over time I work on getting the rest closer to the original. Some bands might not give you that flexibility but we're a bar band. It's OK.

- Maybe it's nerves? Some people might say have a drink or two before playing to loosen up, but I treat a gig like I'm working (I still have fun, but I'm there to put on a good show) and I don't drink when I'm at my day job. I want to have all my faculties so I drink only water. I also learned that I can channel that nervousness into focus. A little bit of nerves to go with the adrenaline isn't necessarily a bad thing.

- And, seriously, practice helps. I do NOT play every song perfectly. But, by regularly practicing our gigging material, I get more comfortable playing them live. Also, NEVER stop and re-start a song when you're practicing. If you make a mistake, recover as best you can and keep going. That will help a lot when you're in front an audience. It will also help you work on that line between focus and being in the moment so it will get easier to maintain it while playing live.

- Realize that no one else out there is perfect, either, and sometimes those bits of truly inspired playing you hear are accidents. Even the so-called gods are actually mere mortals. And, if you mask your disgust at yourself, few people will notice the mistakes you made. Even your bandmates! ;)

Sorry for the long post but, as a relative newbie who's working through something similar, I figured I could pass along things I'm doing that work for me.
 
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#18
I know you said don’t say practice more but...

what do you practice?
Do you practice everyday?
How many hours per day?
Do you work hard on the details of what you struggle with and have constant new challenges on core skills. Fretboard knowledge, technique, new styles?
How is your core technique? Look at left and and right hand in isolation check wrist angle, relaxation level, fretting hand details like do all fingers stay close to the fretboard or so you have a flying pinky?

I truly think the solution is breaking down the core elements of your playing, examine technique, and being honest with how you approach what it means to practice. You may not need more time but a clear education plan.
 
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