Last night I muffed it up

[howdoesitgoagain]

Doh, ok it happens, we all get things wrong... near the end of a long and complex intro section at the start of last nights gig I messed up a change that led to a few moments of chaos in the ranks on stage, I was mortified but the guys laughed it off. I hate totally messing stuff up, how do other players here deal with bad uns at gigs, emotionally later rather than at the moment you do it as you are usually just doing damage limitation...
Of course some lucky bastards have never messed it up

[the_skezz]

Never cocked up to the point that everything's messed up, but when I do make mistakes I shrug them off and maybe apologise to the others later. No point in getting upset about what's already done.

[Protium]

It's normally not my fault, but one of the guitarists counting 6 instead of 7 or something

[PURPOLARIS]

I normally have a laugh if it's me and the same if another band member cocks up.

Can you add "Have a laugh" to the list of options ?

[skej21]

My old tutor gave me a great piece of advice for this.

If you play something that sounds rubbish/make a mistake, then repeat it.

Two reasons why this is successful:

1) People like repetition in music and like to hear something that they recognise (regardless of how bad)

2) Repetition makes people think that you intended to do it (because you surely wouldn't make the same mistake twice in a row! ) and more importantly, think that it was some amazingly complex fill based on some unfathomable music theory!

I only ever did this once or twice when I started playing.

Now, I play nice grooves OR complex jazz, so the "wrong" notes either don't crop up or they are in the right context

Edited November 7, 2010 by skej21

[icastle]

[quote name='howdoesitgoagain' post='1015532' date='Nov 7 2010, 06:47 PM']Doh, ok it happens, we all get things wrong... near the end of a long and complex intro section at the start of last nights gig I messed up a change that led to a few moments of chaos in the ranks on stage, I was mortified but the guys laughed it off. I hate totally messing stuff up, how do other players here deal with bad uns at gigs, emotionally later rather than at the moment you do it as you are usually just doing damage limitation...
Of course some lucky bastards have never messed it up [/quote]

Depends.
I'd class myself as a "fairly lucky bastard who works with very lucky bastards"
If the audience have paid £x each to hear live music then they deserve to get to hear all the right notes in the right places.
If they aren't paying out of their own pockets then they get what they get and they can put their complaint in writing for later consideration...

[Doddy]

Let's be honest-everyone makes mistakes. The trick is how you get out of it.
I know that if I make a mistake,it won't happen again.

[howdoesitgoagain]

[quote name='PURPOLARIS' post='1015542' date='Nov 7 2010, 06:54 PM']I normally have a laugh if it's me and the same if another band member cocks up.

Can you add "Have a laugh" to the list of options ?[/quote]
I dont think I can add an option once the poll has started, the sax player tends to laugh about most things in the band, funny or not, the guitar-voacalist scowls but laughs if drunk, drummer laughs but drummers are usually amused by the situation infront of them and the keyboard player goes a bit pink and carries on

[Matty]

I made the biggest mistake I have ever madew at a gig last week.
As the most technology savvy member of the band (hmm...) I get lumbered with keys as well as bass, and also drum machine for the last song in our set.
We have a live drummer who plays along to this drum machine beat too, so we all need to hear it, and as we are quite a loud band, it can be pretty deafening when the beat kicks in.
Anyway, i digress.

Last thursday, we pound through our set as normal, then theres a quiet-ish ambient song we play, before I hit the start button and heavy rave-tastic beats blast out of the speakers.
However, the drum machine had been switched off by some clump (that MIGHT have been me...) after we had set up to go on stage and got turned back on half way through the set when i realised it had been switched off.

We play the song at 142bpm.
The beat kicked in at 136bpm.
oops.

Edited November 7, 2010 by Matty

[Lozz196]

I find that if I make a mistake, immediately turning around and looking at the guitarist makes the audience think its his fault

No seriously, mistakes happen, but I`m not gonna beat myself up about them, even though I don`t like to make any. If you let them get to you, you can become introverted at the gig, thus pinpointing who made the error, and more importantly, detracting from the rest of the performance. Once a mistake has been made, its history - just learn from it, and make sure you don`t do it again.

It does help in the band that I play in that if any of us make any kind of mistake, the others don`t let it phase us/them - we all know that the person making the error will quickly sort it out, so just continue playing. I hate to see bands stop if one person makes a mistake - to my view thats the whole band making a mistake.

[leschirons]

As it's usually me that gives the glare of death to others who cock up, I make sure I don't make the same mistake twice.

If anybody mentions my cock up afterwards I simply say

"Yeah, thought I'd just try something a little different in that one but it didn't work so I'll just play it straight from now on"

[Bassassin]

I can only think of one gig where I don't think I played a single flub - and that's out of about 29 years' worth! I screw up regularly, never with car-crash consequences, and just laugh & get on with it.

My band plays some pretty convoluted stuff & it has been known to spontaneously collapse into mutual chaos - but we have a knack of pulling it seamlessly back together & I'm pretty sure the audience doesn't usually notice. Or if they do they think it's jazz.

Jon.

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='Lozz196' post='1015791' date='Nov 7 2010, 09:56 PM']I find that if I make a mistake, immediately turning around and looking at the guitarist makes the audience think its his fault [/quote]

When someone else makes a mistake, I am in the habit of looking at them. Not in a mean way, but it's just automatic, maybe to check if they are panicking or something I don't know. But my girlfriend noticed it a while back and told me I had to stop doing it because she probably wasn't the only person who noticed! So now I am training myself to simply smile when someone makes a mistake and not look in their direction.

When I make a mistake I figure I can either stop the song and make the band play it again until I get it right, or just keep playing and in four bars or so it'll be forgotten. So I usually go with the latter.

[Bassman Sam]

In my last band, I cocked badly one gig and one of the guitarists had a Sh*t fit in the dressing room afterwards. The rest of the band took the piss in a good way and when talking to the crowd, no one had noticed. Great feeling at the next gig when said guitarist came in have way though the into in the wrong key, even the crown took the piss, bliss.

[icastle]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='1015918' date='Nov 8 2010, 12:56 AM']When I make a mistake I figure I can either stop the song and make the band play it again until I get it right, or just keep playing and in four bars or so it'll be forgotten. So I usually go with the latter.[/quote]

I honestly believe that if you ask an audience "what was the song we played before the last one?" they'll not remember anyway

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='Bassman Sam' post='1015920' date='Nov 8 2010, 01:00 AM']In my last band, I cocked badly one gig and one of the guitarists had a Sh*t fit in the dressing room afterwards. The rest of the band took the piss in a good way and when talking to the crowd, no one had noticed. Great feeling at the next gig when said guitarist came in have way though the into in the wrong key, even the crown took the piss, bliss. [/quote]

One gig we played, it was the last night of a residency at this club we'd been playing all summer, and we'd got friendly with the staff and these two barmen were determined to get us loaded before we went on stage. Being weak, they got me the best.

Worst mistake of the night was the worst I've ever made: I played the wrong *song* all the way to the first chorus without noticing. I did notice my bandmates staring at me quizzically, but I figured it was because I was being so awesome. Haha. That was about 15 years ago and I haven't drunk before a show since.

[icastle]

[quote name='Bassman Sam' post='1015920' date='Nov 8 2010, 01:00 AM']In my last band, I cocked badly one gig and one of the guitarists had a Sh*t fit in the dressing room afterwards. The rest of the band took the piss in a good way and when talking to the crowd, no one had noticed. Great feeling at the next gig when said guitarist came in have way though the into in the wrong key, even the crown took the piss, bliss. [/quote]

Back in '92 I was playing in a 7 piece Irish band (I'm half Welsh - go figure!?!).
One evening we were booked to play a large Irish pub and duly started to arrive and get setup.
No sign of the drummer though.

We eventually managed to track him down - he was in a pub of the same name... wrong town though
He'd walked back and forth carrying drums, set them all up and then switched his mobile on.
He then took them all down, carried them all back out to his car and drove off... nobody queried what he was doing or said a word to him while he was doing all this.

[bobbass4k]

How big a mistake are we talking? A couple of wrong notes, a completely wrong few bars, or messed up an entire section?

To be honest it's all forgiveabble, unless you make a habbit of massive cockups like playing an entirely wrong riff in an enitrely different key or something.

I used to play quite complicated stuff (odd time sigs, half step key changes and different tempos everywhere) which if you mess it up is like falling off a moving roundabout. If i messed up or lost my place i'd just stop for a few seconds, find the beat, and start back in at the start of a bar.

[Conan]

Classic quote on the subject. I believe it was credited to Wilko Johnson:

"If you make a mistake, just look brash -and the audience will think they heard it wrong!".

[johnny_frog]

As my old boss used to say "show me a man who has never made a mistake and I'll show you a man who has never made anything "

Keep your head and play on

[Low End Bee]

Carry on regardless. Never stop a song no matter how bad the cock up. It's live. Laugh and treat it as a jazz solo.You want no mistakes? Buy a record.

[JTUK]

Depends how important the gig is...and how big the mistake is.

If we are talking local then the banter from it can be quite engaging so laugh it off to all and sundry.

I'd be more upset if I played just plain poorly throughout the gig rather than a one-off mistake, tho.

[Happy Jack]

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='1016001' date='Nov 8 2010, 08:47 AM']Carry on regardless. Never stop a song no matter how bad the cock up. It's live. Laugh and treat it as a jazz solo.You want no mistakes? Buy a record.[/quote]

+100

[waynepunkdude]

I had this on Friday, I f***ed up a few times and the drummer came across and said "your bass sounded good tonight but you couldn't play for sh*t" my response "But the bass sounded good?".

To be fair I had almost no sleep for 2 nights so I knew I wouldn't be on form.

[howdoesitgoagain]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='1015937' date='Nov 8 2010, 01:33 AM']Worst mistake of the night was the worst I've ever made: I played the wrong *song* all the way to the first chorus without noticing. I did notice my bandmates staring at me quizzically, but I figured it was because I was being so awesome. Haha. That was about 15 years ago and I haven't drunk before a show since.[/quote]

I have played the wrong tune in the past, bloody hillarious afterwards but mortifying when you realise half way through. I never have more than a weak shandy before a gig, too many bad experiences in the past, the singer-guitarist is often a bit pissed but no one really cares as long as he keeps it together, tends to talk crap at the audience sometimes though