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Mistake free playing

#101
I have found (and still do) that my tendency to consciously 'not make mistakes' actually sabotages my performance more than that it helps. In my case I really had to learn to, yes, practice at home - but on stage just let go and just play, solving issues along the way. That way overall I'll sound better, I'll phrase better, I'll fit in the band better, I'll listen to my co-musicians better, I'll feel better, and therefore the audience has a better time too.
 
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#102
According to an old old German guy (Ludwig von Beethoven):

"To play a wrong note is inconsequential. To play without passion is inexcusable"

Practice and playing are two separate things - at home, I woodshed like mad, trying to remove mistakes, and doing everything many, many times, to get it all locked in my head. When I'm playing a gig, if a mistake happens, it's in the past as quickly as it came; I keep looking ahead.

After a few decades at this, I realize I will never play a performance without some kind of mistake - yes, they're much smaller than they used to be, but you can always find something that you could have done a bit better - the timing of a note, the way your finger struck the string, etc.... I no longer judge my performance by technical mistakes - I judge it by whether or not I "left everything on the field" - whether or not I was able to put everything I could into my performance.
 
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#103
What you call a mistake is what I call an unexpected spontaneous avant-garde jazz fill.

You can shorten it to USAGJF which sounds a lot like a sneeze when pronounced as a word.

I'm not sure how this helps, but you're welcome!
 
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#104
I've made mistakes playing songs that I'd played for years - and if someone wanted to play a song we hadn't played in a long time I'd flub up all over it. Live audiences won't notice your mistakes unless its a sour note that really stands out. I would just forget parts. Bridges especially. It's easy to fake with a root note or a chord or just drop out for a second and act like that's what you're supposed to do. Rush and The Who are two bands who come to mind that I've seen make mistakes live. Alex Lifeson just laughed and shrugged it off while Entwistle and Townsend looked at each other like one or the other had just farted. Don't call attention to your goof up by making a face and no one should notice.
 
#105
An amateur practices until they get it right. A pro practices until they can't get it wrong. (Julie Andrews - who got it from one of her teachers IIRC).

What level of mistake? Some mistakes are shameful in my book. For instance not learning the heart & soul of the song. Just playing the same pattern for every song because you're too lazy to invest the time to learn something new. Ignoring what others are doing and just pushing ahead with what you want to do (results on instrument clashes). A band playing with no dynamics - everyone playing full-on all the time. All three guitars just strumming the same chords.

Other mistakes are to be expected (occasional wrong notes or missed parts) and have little impact - PROVIDED the rest of the music is in good shape and the basic sound / song is sound good.

In my case I get lost because I'm caught between the world of reading and memorizing. I have the song 1/2 memorized so I'll just be playing along and then we go to the bridge or something and suddenly I can't remember it so I'm scanning the lead sheet to find the bridge. I have to really fight with myself to keep my eyes on the iPad to not get lost.
 
#106
Minimizing mistakes and covering mistakes is what the best players do. There are no guarantees that you'll never make a mistake.

I go nights where I am spot on, I feel like I can't make a mistake, then someone else will flub, then I flub...maybe it's a sympathy error, who knows? Then other nights it seems like I'm covering up more of my own flubs.

The trick is, and this just comes with experience, is to make mistakes flow seemlessly into where the music needs to be.

I don't know that it's anything you can practice, it just comes with a lot of doing, but the better you know your fretboard, and your understanding of many ways to get around it, not just with scales, the easier it will be. Then you don't really think of your "mistakes" as a crippling device... it hapoens, you easily cover it, and move on.

Years ago I heard "If you make a mistake, do it twice so they'll think you did it on purpose."
While that's humorous, it's not too far from what needs to happen... when a misrake occurs, you have to be good enough at improvising to pull it into a something else.

Know your material by heart, know it so well you can do it in your sleep, really while thinking about other things.

When you've practiced your stuff thoroughly, and know it well. then let it happen on stage. If you try too hard you set yourself up for more mistakes.

It will happen... none of us have any magic other than what we are all imbued with.... You'll get there!
 
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#107
"Impromptu Experimental Fill (or, Fail)" - IEF... it rhymes with "knife". Usage- "It was great before I stuck that IEF in the chorus." or, "I totally IEFed up that bridge."

:D

Nev375 said:
What you call a mistake is what I call an unexpected spontaneous avant-garde jazz fill.

You can shorten it to USAGJF which sounds a lot like a sneeze when pronounced as a word.

I'm not sure how this helps, but you're welcome!
Click to expand...
 
#109
farmertom said:
How do I get there ? Is it possible to play an hour long set without making a mistake here and there? And if it is possible is it necessary for playing in a cover band? I goof from time to time but can recover pretty quick.

Goals: basically good enough to play 15-20 songs in a Hard rock cover band.
I don't want to be Jaco, or Flea or Geddy.

video of my playing.



thanks
God Bless
Click to expand...

I think your enjoyment playing and your attitude while playing will get you over any rough spots. When you're practicing and having trouble with a particular passage, practice it until you can play it 10-times in a row without a mistake and then move on to something else that's causing your trouble. 10-times in a row without mistakes means you've got it, so move on and don't sweat the small stuff.

ON STAGE...never acknowledge a mistake by you or any of your band members. Smile and keep playing if it's your mistake. Avoid turning towards your bandmate with a shocked look on your face if it's his or her mistake. You must play on! I think about the only time that I used to play entirely mistake-free gigs was when I was touring with a nightclub group back in the early 70's. We played 4-hours per night, 5-nights a week, 50-weeks a year for 3-years. Yes we kept adding new songs but with that many performances, you could almost play most of your songs in your sleep. That's where I learned to trust my fingers and not keep my eyes glued to the fretboard.

You're doing fine. Go find a band that needs a bass player and ROCK ON!

Occasional mistakes are no big deal as long as you can recover from them quickly and keep smiling!
 
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#111
If the feel is on target, the mistakes are negligible. Sometimes they even leave them in. It's more important to sound fully engaged, rather than playing by rote.

Gradually, with due diligence, mistakes gradually decline to a point where you are the only one who notices them. So, keep smiling.
 
#112
I find at my age (47) my brain just has too much going at times with life's impact. Add to that that it's harder to get guys in this age range to rehearse consistently to get that nice super tight feeling overall. One good thing tho is when I make the odd flub I can cover them up pretty fast :D:bassist:
 
#118
The big thing is not to make the same mistake twice - if you're focused on the crowd, the drums, the song, etc, sometimes your mind might wander and you'll slip up. Practice to the point that you can play the song mistake-free in an ideal setting, then practice some more, and then accept that you're human and nobody gets it right 100% of the time and go have some fun.
 
#119
Paulabass said:
Love em or just tolerate them, the Grateful Dead (and now Dead and Co.) have been one of the most popular bands on the planet for 50 years. The audience cheers when they make big-assed mistakes. Mistakes mean you are stretching out, not just stuck in the 'I do this for a living' rut.
Click to expand...
I really do love them, and they all take complete faceplants as the cost of getting out on the edge, of never playing it the same way twice. It does bring some electricity to the party!
 
#120
For a game, I used to try for the elusive 'perfect set'. Came darn-tootin' close a couple times back in the day. I may have hit such a high mark nobody ever heard the tiny clam but me.

These days, I'm playing bass guitar in a newgrass/jamband thing. Covering the mistakes is half the challenge. Half the time, I don't even know what song is coming next. :help:
 

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