norvegicusbass Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 After a hell of a long layoff from playing I picked up a bass again some eighteen months ago. I love playing it but cant seem to get through a song without making a mistake here and there. I would class the songs I play as beginner to intermediate, songs like Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well, The Stranglers Nice N Sleazy, Led Zep's Ramble On and Celebration Day and songs of that ilk. When I played as a young lad I cant recall making so many mistakes but I seem to get a bit self conscious even when playing by myself. Eighteen months seems long enough to me to be able to play songs a bit more fluently than I do. Anyone else plagued by mistakes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gungr Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 You say mistakes, I say jazz notes! I make plenty of them when it's just me by myself. That's the best time to make them, you can correct what is going wrong. Once i'm playing with another person things generally go well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameronj279 Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Practice and said mistakes shall disappear! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norvegicusbass Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 [quote name='Gungr' timestamp='1340469564' post='1704950'] You say mistakes, I say jazz notes! I make plenty of them when it's just me by myself. That's the best time to make them, you can correct what is going wrong. Once i'm playing with another person things generally go well. [/quote] Love your description of a mistake "Jazz Notes" ! makes me feel better already. Do you think players are more prone to making mistakes when by themselves? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameronj279 Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 This video springs to mind... [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_jFAhN6V9s"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_jFAhN6V9s[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssentialTension Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 [quote name='Cameronj279' timestamp='1340470201' post='1704971'] This video springs to mind... [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_jFAhN6V9s[/media] [/quote] That was very nicely done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssentialTension Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 [quote name='norvegicusbass' timestamp='1340469368' post='1704946'] After a hell of a long layoff from playing I picked up a bass again some eighteen months ago. I love playing it but cant seem to get through a song without making a mistake here and there. I would class the songs I play as beginner to intermediate, songs like Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well, The Stranglers Nice N Sleazy, Led Zep's Ramble On and Celebration Day and songs of that ilk. When I played as a young lad I cant recall making so many mistakes but I seem to get a bit self conscious even when playing by myself. Eighteen months seems long enough to me to be able to play songs a bit more fluently than I do. Anyone else plagued by mistakes? [/quote] 1 Practice. 2 Don't panic. 3 Keep calm and carry on - almost all of your audience didn't know it was a mistake anyway and those who did know it was a mistake have probably made it themselves. 4 Remember the mistake and try not to repeat it, unless it's in the way VW repeats it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norvegicusbass Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 [quote name='Cameronj279' timestamp='1340470201' post='1704971'] This video springs to mind... [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_jFAhN6V9s[/media] [/quote] Thats a great clip never saw it before. My mistakes dont sound like Wootens mind but it has made me think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len_derby Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 (edited) Ah. Mr Cameron was ahead of me on pointing you to Victor W. If you're the reading kind, I can recommend his book 'The Music Lesson'. Fairly cheap in paperback from a certain Amazonian reseller. I've been playing 'live' for about 40 years now. Most of my work is now done in a church setting (average twice a week), but I still set myself high standards. I reckon that I've never played a set without making at least one mistake. But, the thing is, [i]generally no one apart from me notices.[/i] I sometimes think that the curse of recorded music is that it has made us all expect perfection. Don't despair - onwards and upwards! Edited June 23, 2012 by Len_derby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameronj279 Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 [quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1340470665' post='1704979'] That was very nicely done. [/quote] Seems like a pretty good lesson in life as well as bass to me. Learn from your mistakes, make a negative into a positive etc etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassy Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 The expression 'If you've never made mistake you've never made anything' springs to mind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norvegicusbass Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 These answers have really lifted my spirits. The point made about recorded performance giving us expectations of perfection is a good one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottomE Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 I never make mistakkes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norvegicusbass Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 [quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1340472648' post='1705036'] I never make mistakkes [/quote] Good for yuo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dom in Dorset Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 A potter once told me that the ancient Chinese believed that only the gods could create perfect things so Chinese potters deliberately build imperfections into their work to avoid offending them. My playing has never offended the gods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norvegicusbass Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 [quote name='Dom in Somerset' timestamp='1340473256' post='1705046'] A potter once told me that the ancient Chinese believed that only the gods could create perfect things so Chinese potters deliberately build imperfections into their work to avoid offending them. My playing has never offended the gods. [/quote] LOL My playing wouldnt offend the potters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottomE Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 I want to shoot myself after some gigs because of my errors in playing. The someone says "you played a blinder" This country! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigman Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muB957FxcA8[/media] Littered with mistakes - I really am not comfortable playing this song but even Mr Wootten couldn't escape the final note!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 [quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1340472648' post='1705036'] I never make mistakkes[/quote][quote name='norvegicusbass' timestamp='1340472917' post='1705039'] Good for yuo[/quote] +£ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norvegicusbass Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 [quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1340473980' post='1705063'] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muB957FxcA8[/media] Littered with mistakes - I really am not comfortable playing this song but even Mr Wootten couldn't escape the final note!!! [/quote] Sounded great to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 I make heaps of mistakes, to the point I sometimes wonder how I maintain my place in a band. A gig I did last year the covers band I was in did Layla and I remember looking at the fretboard and forgetting how to play the verse, I knew the notes but not the order so sort of fudged it. There were other mistakes. At the end of the gig the bass player from our singer's other band, who's a very good player, came up and said I was awesome... Everybody makes mistakes, if they say they don't they're probably lying Great little clip from VW, I did like that. I must be odd though because I thought that 'wrong' note sounded interesting from the start Perhaps that says something about my own playing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garethfriend Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 (edited) so long as it doesn't throw the rest of the band in any way mistakes usually go unnoticed. Did play with a guitarist who once came in early and left the rest of us trying to figure out how to get back on the right chords/sections on the fly. That one nearly actually stopped the show and must have been noticable, thankfully not me though. Twigman - you totally got away with that, didn't notice a thing until the end and then only because you mentioned it. Edited June 23, 2012 by garethfriend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChick Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 OMG I love that bloke who took the G flat and made it sound right a lesson I will remember! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Jamin Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 I think it was Miles Davis who said something along the lines of: "If you play a wrong note, play it again twice as loud and people will think you meant it". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassTractor Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 [quote name='norvegicusbass' timestamp='1340469368' post='1704946'] After a hell of a long layoff from playing ... Anyone else plagued by mistakes? [/quote] Here's my take. YMMV. From the look of it, my first guess would be that your brain needs to be reprogrammed again. Larger parts of the brain than available now need to be programmed for this job. Only concentrated practice will do that. As always, do not practise at full speed, or practise for speed. Practise for correctness. Thus you press the brain to set apart more cells for this, and the brain processes thus get stronger and quicker. Sadly, there's an age aspect here, but happily even old brains can still learn. Of course you know that getting inhibitied or similar is not helping, so you'll need to find ways to do away with it. You know yourself best, but an example might be to keep telling yourself that making mistakes is both OK and temporary. Maybe not related to your case, but I feel there's a devil in practising too early at full speed, as is often done when one plays along the CD track. Each error gets programmed, each negative feeling about errors gets programmed. It's simply not the way to do it, and very inefficient. Since I'm on a rant at any rate, here's an alternative approach that some might benefit from. It can be trained, and I would advise doing it on one song only, to start with. How about just reading the part without playing it, again and again, thinking through what the part needs to convey and how it should be played technically (which finger when where how), making notes in the score/tabs, and producing stronger and stronger mental images of you playing the song. Again: [b]slowly[/b]. For every concert I needed to prepare back when I was a musician, I would have one piece that was trained like that whilst I was commuting by train. I'd need three to six months to build a concert program, but that one piece would only be physically played during the last week or so, just to check and iron out stuff. My fingers (the brain really) were already programmed before that last week. I hope this can be of help to you or someone else. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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