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Playing live and making mistakes
- Thread starter Mata Leao
- Start date
Even Sir Paul occasionally forgets the chord progression to his own songs.
I screw up sometimes it happens. Usually it is a timing issue if I lose my connection with the drummer, more recently and I still take the blame I am working with a new singer ( old one passed away after playing together since 2003 
and his delivery is sometimes different, but again I need to adapted to the situation
and his delivery is sometimes different, but again I need to adapted to the situation
madbass6
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- Jan 13, 2009
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its ok to make mistakes sometimes after all we're only humans! as long as we learn from them!
Note key word " sometimes"! Not to be confused with just not giving a sh*t!
Making the same mistakes over and over show after show is not ok! it's like tripping over the same rock over and over instead of just removing the Damm thing and dealing with it !
lol This thread has made me feel much better...
As most have said, I normally make a flub or 2 during a show, but other times, I wonder if I should even own a bass at all.
Either way, it's something you just roll with.
As most have said, I normally make a flub or 2 during a show, but other times, I wonder if I should even own a bass at all.
Either way, it's something you just roll with.
They especially cheered when Jerry or Bobby would forget the lyrics. I play a lot of jam band stuff and a fair amount of Dead and listening to them has helped me to stop beating myself up after a clam. The Dead were fearless about mistakes. This freed them up to really explore the different ways they could play their tunes. A number of their songs are actually quite complex, especially some of Bobby’s tunes, so playing them freely and openly is actually tough. But I will say the other side of the coin is that there are trainwrecks, quite a few face plants, and lots of one or two guys muddling through while everyone else kept it together. They seemed to have accepted that that was how they were going to do it. They were going to accept failures along the way to allow for breakthrough success. They were perfectly willing to completely face plant. In a Bass Player Mag interview Phil said a true complete trainwreck is his favorite thing because it makes everyone listen closely and anyone can grab the ball at that moment and take the music somewhere else completely different. And now they seem to be more popular than ever before.
Skip step 4 - it does no good. If won’t improve your dedication to error free playing. Instead it will distract you and sap your confidence. I am learning this now gig by gig, mistake by mistake.
I will say I have played error free gigs, and it is very satisfying. Some of those gigs were even great gigs where we took the crowd on a real nice journey. But a lack of mistakes does not equal art, or in music, it is not even perfection. Perfection is a performance that leaves a lasting favorable impression on most of the people listening.
One band I play with just got done recording 11 original tunes in 3 days: all overdubs, fixes, punches, and vocals. We recorded live to achieve this and two of the tracks are first takes. The engineer, an older guy who has been recording music for decades, was pretty stoked. He was happy we were “the real deal, doing it the old fashioned way”.
Since recording, during mixing, he has been defending various minor imperfections from bum notes to missing notes (I completely wiffed the first note of this unison hook the 2nd of three times we play the hook in the tune) to some vocal intonation issues. It is digitally recorded so all of these things could be fixed, given time and money. But the engineer has been fighting to leave them in. He says, like fine hand-tooled leather, the slight imperfections make it authentic and draw listeners into the recording. He has a point - perfection is not what makes my favorite recordings my favorites.
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I generally play clam-free gigs in the winter when there's no Major League Baseball to distract me from picking up a bass and practicing in my free time.
In all seriousness though, most clams for me stem from either missed cues, or new material that I need to be consciously thinking about as I'm playing.
In all seriousness though, most clams for me stem from either missed cues, or new material that I need to be consciously thinking about as I'm playing.
All the time. I'm a devoted member of the Crappy Bassist w/Expensive Gear club.
I’ve been guilty of distraction mistakes on stage but I’m 65 and they’re never serious and I’m okay with it. Sometimes when doing a jazz gig with my guitar friend we have slight timing issues when either of us solo. He likes playing in front of the beat and I behind it. It’s all good
all the time, but we all try to limit the mistakes, it's part of "continuous improvement".
about the worst recent one was, my CR cover band was playing a typical dive bar gig. somebody called for some Santana, which is one of the signature things we do in that band, and sneak some Santana into every set. so the band leader called out "black magic" and the drummer starts with the drum roll for "evil ways" over my organ start for "black magic". You can imagine, sounded like cr-p. That's the time when you just stop. catch your breath, and say, "we're going to start that one again".
about the worst recent one was, my CR cover band was playing a typical dive bar gig. somebody called for some Santana, which is one of the signature things we do in that band, and sneak some Santana into every set. so the band leader called out "black magic" and the drummer starts with the drum roll for "evil ways" over my organ start for "black magic". You can imagine, sounded like cr-p. That's the time when you just stop. catch your breath, and say, "we're going to start that one again".
I make mistakes all the time. It’s rare when I have a total crash and burn, but missing a fret, a poor choice in a note sequence, fingers just don’t work they way my brain has calculated it, fellow player distractions, yep they happen, and way more than I’d like.
Sometimes I clam so much that I feel I should bring a loaf of sourdough!
Outstanding!!
that's what I was thinking myself since they didn't have the recording gear they do now. They went with the best take.
Let me add, most people you play for will not know the difference. There will be some that can tell something is wrong, there are very few that on the way home from your performance will say, you know on the third song in the second set, the bassist hit the 5 chord flat, and used the wrong modal scale back to the root chord.
im never more than one fret or one string off the correct note, and within a few milliseconds of the correct beat
I make mistakes all the time also. Happy to see I'm not alone, and many of you are far more experienced than me.
My biggest thing is to try and blend with the kick, it has saved my bacon several times
My biggest thing is to try and blend with the kick, it has saved my bacon several times
