This. Practice and performance are two very different things. You just have to spend more time playing with other people and for other people.
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trouble with playing live
- Thread starter the_hook
- Start date
This. Practice and performance are two very different things. You just have to spend more time playing with other people and for other people.
The best advice I've seen for Stage Fright/Performance Anxiety comes from Hal Galper; Hal Galper
click the Articles tab & scroll down to "Stage Fright and Relaxation"
+1
What you describe are all relaxation issues. You just have to give yourself a chance to become comfortable playing live.
I know that the first few times I played live, I could have wrung the sweat out of my clothes I was so nervous. But it really helped that I was playing in a relatively "controlled" environment (church). So I felt safe.
But eventually it just becomes second nature to play for others. You get to look forward to it. I do.
Good luck and stay relaxed buddy.
Ed
+1 on hydration. Out of nowhere my left hand started cramping up. It wasn't from digging in, or over playing. So when I figured it was hydration, it stopped.
and +1 on relaxing and similar bass position while at practice and live, sitting or standing.
and +1 on relaxing and similar bass position while at practice and live, sitting or standing.
All this, plus one more thing---fugettaboutit. That is, don't worry about it. We all get a little jittery or distracted sometimes, and we ALL make mistakes. Laugh about it. Don't concentrate on everything so much, don't worry if you're gonna forget when to go to the birdge, or whatever. I played with a band once where it was a SIN to miss a note. It was almost impossible to NOT miss one due to thinking about it so damn much. Not fun at all. Quit thinking about it and just go for the fun.
This looks good, I'll have to check it out.
I always bring water with me and drink between songs, so I don't think it's that.
I thought back today about my my first time jamming with a guitar player (friend of mine) and even then I had the fudge fingers and grip of iron. My fingers felt like clunky bricks and the bass sounded lousy to my ears, with high fret noise and string slapping.
I wasn't thrilled with how things went down. The thing is, I knew the notes and pieces of each song but I felt awkward trying to play with unco-operative fingers.
The new jam group has only been meeting a few times, so there most likely is hidden nerves, wanting to play and sound good each time, and my lack of experience playing live is falling off under pressure.
