Playing live and making mistakes

[filmtex]

I make multiple mistakes (missed notes, wrong notes, flubbed notes). Sometimes I play the wrong pattern (then repeat it) makes it sound intentional.
I stopped being concerned years ago; playing a good show is all that really matters.

Yep. That's my approach as well. I play with a bunch of different bands, so misteaks happen!

 

[cnltb]

Playing live and making mistakes
Is normal within reason.

 

[ChazFilter]

The number of mistakes I play is proportional to the number of attractive women on the dance floor. I call it the "distraction fraction."

In all seriousness, I remember when my first music teacher (classical guitar) taught me: "Playing the right rhythm is far more important than playing the right note." As long as I am synched up with my drummer, most of the mistakes are not noticed by anyone, even those on-stage.

 

[dbase]

When I make a mistake, I usually turn around on stage and look at the Drummer like it was his fault.

 

[Ewo]

I make no claim to perfection, in _any_ area of my life. To me, perfection is a relative concept--as contradictory as that might sound. A "perfect" execution is only a _peak_ performance, relative to my ability at that moment; hopefully I'll be able to surpass it at some time in the future.

That said, I do like to think that age and experience have taught me how to better deal with the mistakes I inevitably make in a live performance.

Kinda reminds me of that old joke that a doctor buries his mistakes, and an architect advises his client to plant vines...

 

[ElMon]

Played a country song in 'A' ... kick mike emitted a very audible Bb through our monitors. Entire band looking at me yelling 'A', and I even dropped my left hand off the neck to demonstrate that I clearly wasn't playing a Bb.

Still tried (and failed) to blame it on the guitar player.

 

[bolophonic]

Plenty. Most are tiny. Some are gigantic. But I strive for perfection.

Pro attitude.

 

[Neil Martin]

Mistakes happen to the best of them. Heard an interview recently with Nicko Mcbrain (Iron Maiden drummer had the pleasure of meeting him once hilarious guy). Not so long ago during a show he started playing the wrong song someone just nudged him and said you may want to have another look at the setlist Nick. Forehead slapping moment. Anyway moved on at the end of the night probably no one cared.

 

[eJake]

Plenty. Most are tiny. Some are gigantic. But I strive for perfection.

Ya I'm w Jimmy. I make mistakes. Normally with a crew that I play 3x per week with. Sometimes I find myself turning my brain off figuring that I know these tunes backwards and forwards. I guess I don't..... but I never feel ok about making multiple glaring errors at a gig.

 

[two fingers]

Plenty. Most are tiny. Some are gigantic. But I strive for perfection.

This.

That being said, in my over thirty years of stage experience I have yet to make a single mistake on stage.......













I think I just broke my sarcast-o-meter.

 

[Tom Howland]

Never like the crowd know you made a mistake. I feel unless someone is a musician in the crowd. They never know. Sure we all flub a note once in a while.
Playing fretless helps, a good slide to the correct note can be considered art .

 

[jaco944]

"When you make a mistake, play it again the second time round. People will think you meant it" . Best advice ive ever had from a muso friend. It really fekks with the musicians in the house watching.

This right here ^^^^
It really does work, if you repeat it 3 or 4 tines it becomes “cool”.

 

[Savage_Dreams]

everyone makes mistakes, even the pros. the difference between a pro and an amateur is how you recover.

 

[jaco944]

My favorite mistake is the one where I have to just quit playing and reset.....then it becomes a breakdown or a (shudder) drum solo. Lol

 

[flam]

A few here and there, mostly small stuff. My biggest issue is that our drummer will absolutely not learn the songs. He's a good drummer in timing and all that, but tends to change patterns at absolutely random times. I've played chorus' during verses because I was focusing too much on him, and not everybody else.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

Mistakes for a musician are like Freudian slips to an orator. (akin to flipp'in off the BL/guitarist)

 

[Wfrance3]

if you do anything 3 times in a row with purpose it's no longer a mistake. It's your interpretation of the tune.

 

[RichardW]

I make plenty of "mistakes" during a gig, though my definition of mistake is different from the audience's maybe. I'm thinking about the right note, of course, but also the rhythm, tempo, speed, attack, sustain, etc. and there are plenty of times I'll think while I'm playing "I didn't quite hit that the way I wanted."

Hitting the absolute wrong note or losing my place in a song--probably happens about once a gig.

There have been a few times when the band has started a song in the wrong key. We just laugh it off and start over and the audience never seems to mind.

 

[bluesblaster]

You just stumble into "free jazz" territory now and then

 

[TigerInATrance]

The worst mistake I've ever made was at the last gig. It really wasn't that bad. In the middle of the jam I got totally lost and couldn't figure out what key I was supposed to be in so I just played whatever was beneath my fingers (The gamble paid off as I couldn't have been further from the right place.) I fumbled around for what felt like hours and eventually found the spot but was unfortunately too flustered to remember that I needed to start singing the third verse. So I invented a melodic bass solo to bring us back around to the start of that verse and came in singing the second verse instead of the third. which caused me to start laughing uncontrollably. I did my best to sing through the laughter did a giant "Woooooo" at the end of the verse and muddled through the chorus a few times before finishing the song. The audience cheered and laughed at me and we decided to move swiftly into a song about a trainwreck which is how we celebrate such blunders.

That was not the biggest flub of the night, though. 3 songs later The keyboard player decided that, since he couldn't recall whether or not we had done all the verses (we had and were actively engaged in playing the outro with ritardando) that he would do the last verse again mostly acapella while glaring at me with this "what the Hell am I doing and why aren't you stopping me?" look in his eyes.

Neither of those seem all that terrible in hindsight (though listening back to the recording is a cringefest), but do make for some great opportunities to lambast either one of us with merciless mocking to the delight of everyone who was onstage that night...