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Scowly McScowlface

Ox Boris

Ox Boris

Inactive
Nov 23, 2015
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Australia
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#1
It's my first ever gig as "the Bass player" tomorrow night. It's only one set, I'm nicely nervous and decently confident that I've practiced enough. It's mainly fear of "that dude's bloody kidding himself," coz in the back of my mind, I'm always close to feeling that anyway.

But I wonder if any of you have had the following problem and what you did to overcome it? What I really have to do is stop myself scowling and eye-rolling when I make mistakes. I do it to "immediately acknowledge wrong-doing and, "look! I'm punishing myself by being angry with me!" but it looks awful. I must learn to just get on with it, without feeling like a "covering-up, self-denying weasel". (Geez my neuroses will be the death of me....)

I must embrace my inner weasel, my closet sneak and carry on as if nothing had happened. Any tips?
 
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#8
+1 to replacing the scowl with a laugh and a smile. And how do you do that, you ask? I can't tell you exactly how to accomplish this, except to note that it's a lot easier if you are actually having fun. (Unfortunately, I can't tell you exactly how to accomplish this either.)

Maybe this will be more helpful: Try to keep in mind that (1) many mistakes will go completely unnoticed by the audience, and (2) if they do notice, they won't necessarily recognize it as a mistake. Go completely off the rails for a few bars and they'll think you were just injecting a little jazz into your part. And then, when you find your place again and get back in sync with the band -- bam! -- you've inadvertently created a tension-and-release that can really propel the rest of the song.
 
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#9
Lobster11 said:
+1 to replacing the scowl with a laugh and a smile. And how do you do that, you ask? I can't tell you exactly how to accomplish this, except to note that it's a lot easier if you are actually having fun. (Unfortunately, I can't tell you exactly how to accomplish this either.)

Maybe this will be more helpful: Try to keep in mind that (1) many mistakes will go completely unnoticed by the audience, and (2) if they do notice, they won't necessarily recognize it as a mistake. Go completely off the rails for a few bars and they'll think you were just injecting a little jazz into your part. And then, when you find your place again and get back in sync with the band -- bam! -- you've inadvertently created a tension-and-release that can really propel the rest of the song.
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That's done me the world of good! Thanks.
 
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#12
The mistakes came, inevitably, but very few and I genuinely didn't feel like scowling. Too excited, too busy getting back into it. Occasionally, I remembered to smile at it.
Now I have to work on losing the lips-tucked-in concentration face. The photos from last night are hilarious: loads of great body positions, same face.
 
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#15
I saw Geddy Lee make a mistake once at one of his shows --No Honest! It really Happened!!! and he just grinned and made a motion with his hand like he punching his head as if to say "You Idiot!!".

I think he knows that an awful lot of his fans are musicians, know every note by heart and are watching him like a hawk, so pretending it didn't happen is not the smoothest option for him.

I learned a huge lesson that night. First, EVERYONE makes mistakes. Second, don't take it too seriously and have fun. It's only music. No one is going to cry or have a ruined night because you play the wrong note.
 
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#16
Lobster11 said:
You know the rules: Pics or it didn't happen!
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Ok, here we go.

Exhibit A.
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Same face and my RH fingers look weird.
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Seriously, what's going on with my fingers? On the left now!
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Phantom Hand! Usual face.
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Show off! My owl T-shirt looks awesome, though! Note face.
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And here's one from tonight, just a couple of songs with my friends' band.
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This is why we play Mustang Sally, by the way. When these types spring out of the audience, Ride, Sally, riding.

To be fair, I saw some videos tonight and I'm not stock still as the photos would have one imagine. I'm groovin' and strolling around, it's an "in to it" face. But it's still too much. My wife's promised to blow me kisses as a reminder to get those lips out.
 
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#17
If you hadn't said anything about the face/lips thing, I honestly wouldn't have thought about it after looking at these pix. It seems to me that the precise position of your lips is down around #2458 on the things-to-worry-about-list. You look to me in the pix like you're relaxed, comfortable, and having fun. The only thing about the photos (except for that great last one!) that caught my attention was the fact that in all five photos, you are staring down your left hand as if you're afraid it will leave or something. I hasten to add that I'm guilty of that way too much myself, so trust me, I'm not throwing stones from my glass house. But I think that's something that's much much more important to work on than the lip thing. (I've been trying to work on that recently myself, and finding that it's harder than it sounds.)

What I most want to hear about, though, is the issue you brought up in your O.P.: How did you respond when you made mistakes? You said you didn't think you "scowled," which is good, but what did you do? Did you not react in an observable way at all? Did you smile or laugh? That was the thing you seemed most worried about.
 
#18
Congrats on the first gig.

As to the question, if I'm smiling or laughing on stage, that means I just messed up.

Or the singer fell down.

I used to look at my amp with a "what is that thing's problem"? expression on my face when I screwed up. Nobody bought it, so now I smile.
 
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#19
Dude, I don't know what your playing sounds like but your sense of humor rocks. As far as your Scowly McScowlface, play it up for all it's worth.
HAIM-2.gif
 
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#20
Lobster11 said:
What I most want to hear about, though, is the issue you brought up in your O.P.: How did you respond when you made mistakes? You said you didn't think you "scowled," which is good, but what did you do? Did you not react in an observable way at all? Did you smile or laugh? That was the thing you seemed most worried about.
Click to expand...
Well, the lips-tucked-in look certainly curtailed the lip-curl necessary for a scowl! But I discovered that either my scowling is confined to practice with the boys (to apologise-in-the-moment for wasting 3 secs of their time); or, that a "Game Day" attitude prevailed and I simply didn't feel like it was a big deal. On occasion, I recalled this thread's lesson and smiled, here's an example:
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As to the looking at my left hand, you're right, that needs to stop! I think I was just making sure of things (fultile!). I'm sort of like a newsreader: I occasionally look up and around, which in real time, breaks things up so it doesn't appear as if I'm constantly looking down, but it's hard to get a photo of those moments, as they are short.

The main thing that helped me was a conversation with my best mate and Bass player in our old band who said, with real conviction, "Mate, nobody gives a shag about the Bass player." The objective truth of this was apparent to me and I realised that, for 20 years I've been the lead singer, all eyes on me; of course I'm going to feel like that! And as soon as I realised...I didn't. Bassist, heal thyself.
 
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