Playing live and making mistakes

[Max Bogosity]

I once got so badly lost I played most of a verse as dead notes. Apparently as long as something goes thump at the right time, nobody notices.

 

[dbase]

On my set list, every song has a + (for bass starts at the head), or a - (for bass comes in after an intro), and the first note I play in the song. Some have reminders for specific effects.

The patterns are all pretty well emblazoned in my brain, I just need a little push start sometimes. My mistakes come when my mind wanders. Sometimes as I near the end of a song I’ll start to think about how great it is that I haven’t flubbed yet, and then screw the pooch.

Sounds like me ... we should talk

 

[Joe Nerve]

I've written about this and deleted it about 3 times now, cuz I can't find a way to not make it make me look bad in one way or another , but I feel it's an important addition to add to this thread.

A long story.

2 weeks ago I had the worst gig of my life. So much so that I honestly, for the first time ever thought it might be time for me to hang up my bass. There's a lesson in the story, not 100% sure what it is yet.

I was playing a wedding. I pride myself on nailing songs and knowing them inside out. Maybe too much so. We were doing Scenes From an Italian Restaurant. We do that song with guitars, bass and drums only. This was the 3rd time I was playing it with the band. Singer skipped a verse in the beginning, guitarist flubbed a wee bit to catch up with what was going on - and it was over for me. I had no clue what was happening in the song. Drummer was giving me death looks, so I tried several times to jump in, but over guitar solos playing other instrument parts every attempt was bad. Really bad. My heart is racing thinking about it now. I would have been better off just not playing at all. I finally caught on about a minute or so into the flubbed song, but that minute felt like Inna Gadda Davita.

But it only started there.

I let that song rattle me because well, I love my band - and I knew they weren't happy. I'm sure I made it much worse in my head than it actually was, but I couldn't let it go. Next set, it was still following me, and I can't even tell you why. Too much coffee maybe? Anyhow... we do a 3 song Motown Medley that we just added a song to. 2nd song is Sugar Pie Honey Pie, and for whatever reasons (Joe's Nerves?) I flubbed the first note. I picked it up immediately after (was a simple relatively unnoticeable glitch), but when the singing started we were way off with the track. At a wedding this is unacceptable. Band is looking at me again... and I just wanted to go home. Drummer runs the tracks, so he rolled his eyes and just cut the last tune as we couldn't recover.

I went home and spent a week unable to let this go. I went through any questionable tunes relentlessly, and was dreading the upcoming gigs. So much so that, as mentioned, I honestly considered throwing the towel in. Not so much for the mistakes, but because of how neurotic I was getting about them. I was not at peace. I had to start reading my book , and put an extra effort into everything I wrote about.

Next gig comes up. We're doing both tunes again, but get to the venue early to run through them.

Scenes From an Italian Restaurant - GUITARIST IS ALL OVER THE PLACE!!!!!! HE'S MESSING IT UP! Which the week before was making me question what I did! It was his fault, not mine - or at least a team effort on the train wreck!

But then even better - we didn't have time to go through the Motown tune, but we were all confident. We play it during the event, and we're off with the track again! Our singer managed to direct us back on this time, and we all gave each other puzzled looks. We didn't hear anyone flub??? We checked the track, and realized that when the guy who does tracks for us added the new song, HE FLUBBED! He added a measure or something. The train wreck the week before wasn't my fault at all.

So... I wrote about this and deleted it when I was ready to quit music altogether. But then I was concerned about my reputation here . Then I wrote about it when I found out it wasn't me and realized it sounded like an ego thing . Yeah, I know - doesn't matter what people think, but we all care at least a little bit. Anyhow...

Yes I flub. We all flub. Yes at times I train wreck. I think my lesson here is to practice consciously letting this stuff go way sooner. We can sometimes have no clue who's fault something is even if we think we're certain. I learned too from this experience that I want to know the songs I'm doing better than inside out, and note for note. I learned Scenes n4n and really didn't have a clue what I was actually playing regarding roots. After that wreck, I spent time learning the song in different positions on the neck, and knowing all the roots. I won't have time to do that always, but it will be the goal from this point on. Not being the greatest reader, and not even really knowing the notes all that well past the 6th fret, I can't always trust my ears and fingers.

The bragging Joe says I learn my sheiit and rarely mess up like described above. Humble me says I have a whole lot to learn on bass again. Maybe it's time I start diving into reading and theory again.

That's my story.