Too Many Mistakes

[Mykesbass]

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1340474663' post='1705076']


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]

No, you're just a Jazz fan

[surfinbernard]

I agree with some of the advice posted so far, mistakes are a normal part of playing an instrument and there are a couple of things you can do. Firstly practice, if you notice you are playing repeated mstakes this is a 'learned mistake' from incorrect practice method, you 'unravel' these by reprogramming yourself to play it correctly at a slower speed, then accurate repetition and then speed it up. Random mistakes also all but disappear with regular practice. The other thing is recovery, there are some tricks to smoothing over mistakes o make them sound intentional such as in the Wooten video, but the single most important thing is to quickly move past it, most listeners won't notice a small slip if you carry on regardless, and even if they do it won't sound as bad as you think, it's easy to make it more obvious than it has to be by freaking out or shrivelling up for a second rather than ignoring and continuing.

[xgsjx]

My advice, just play originals and "your" take on covers. Now there's no mistakes.

[Green Alsatian]

I've also been out of action for some time - playing songs I haven't heard for two years at my mate's wedding last night (and not enough rehearsal time!)

I usually throw in an up/down slide if I hit the wrong note - so plenty of slides at last night's gig!

On stage, the worst thing is to acknowledge the bum note - I remember years ago, one of the bands were wincing/looking really awkward at their mistakes with the singer apologising for stuff that went around in between songs. Sucked the fun out it for me, as a spectator. That said, I usually laugh when I cock up!

[discreet]

[quote name='Cameronj279' timestamp='1340469768' post='1704957']
Practice and said mistakes shall disappear![/quote]

^^ This is all you need to know.^^ Practice and more practice. I forget who said it, but 'amateurs practice until they get it right - professionals practice until they can't get it wrong.'

[Phantomnin]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1340531713' post='1705596']
^^ This is all you need to know.^^ Practice and more practice. I forget who said it, but 'amateurs practice until they get it right - professionals practice until they can't get it wrong.'
[/quote]
That is a great quote. I pracitce my grades until they are right, but if nerves set in during the exam I can make mistakes.

[jezzaboy]

A wise man once said "The man who maketh no mistakes has not played a saturday night at the dog and duck"


Don`t beat yourself too much, all gigging muso`s make mistakes. Punters don`t usually notice or if they do they are usually in a band themselves and they don`t count as you are the one up there putting it on the line and they are scratching their chin with half a bitter wishing they were up there making mistakes.

[discreet]

It's one thing to practice on your own at home to .mp3s or whatever, or with a band in a rehearsal room in a safe and familiar environment, but quite another thing when you get 'out there'. If you're not in a regularly-gigging band this can be disconcerting to say the least. What I used to in the first instance was practice in different rooms, in different situations, with loud music on in the next room or the TV news blasting out, or get my mates to listen to a few numbers - to deliberately distract myself.

It's also useful to practice with your .mp3s way too loud so you can't hear what you're playing - and/or way too soft so you can't hear the kick drum - situations that are likely to happen in the field. Anything, just so you're not always practising in the same situation.

When you're at an unfamiliar venue, maybe stressed out from the journey, you've just had an argument with the missus, the landlord is an asshole, the place is filling up with shouty drunks taking the piss, the PA sounds sh*t, the stage is too small, there's not enough power points and the drummer is still 'on his way', everything you learnt will go straight out the window! Be prepared! YMMV, IMHO, etc.

[mushers]

in the building trade we call them features

[spinynorman]

We played in the street on the Monday of the Jubilee. We'd been pretty much laid off since February, due to illnesses and other problems and had only managed one rehearsal. I started enjoying the atmosphere and the large crowd, and stopped concentrating at all on what I was supposed to be doing. By the second song, mistakes were coming thick and fast, and there didn't seem to be anything I could do about it.

At the end of our set I was looking for a hole to crawl into when the singer bounds up grinning from ear to ear because of all the people that had been telling her how great we were. And a couple of days later we had an email from a festival organiser miles away, offering us a slot because she'd heard how good we were at the street party.

What can you do? Unfortunately my daughter videoed some of the set, which just confirms I was as bad as I thought I was, but it doesn't seem to matter.

[rogerstodge]

We don't call them mistakes, we call them beer notes..

[norvegicusbass]

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1340529347' post='1705555']
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]
Excellent post though this bit " Sadly, there's an age aspect here " made me cry a little.

[norvegicusbass]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1340531713' post='1705596']
^^ This is all you need to know.^^ Practice and more practice. I forget who said it, but 'amateurs practice until they get it right - professionals practice until they can't get it wrong.'
[/quote]
I have been looking and looking to who said that and cant find it. It wasnt you was it and wanting to remain discreet?

[discreet]

[quote name='norvegicusbass' timestamp='1340544715' post='1705858']
I have been looking and looking to who said that and cant find it. It wasnt you was it and wanting to remain discreet?[/quote]

Heh. Nice thought, but I'm not that profound, as you may have noticed.

[norvegicusbass]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1340533205' post='1705623']
It's one thing to practice on your own at home to .mp3s or whatever, or with a band in a rehearsal room in a safe and familiar environment, but quite another thing when you get 'out there'. If you're not in a regularly-gigging band this can be disconcerting to say the least. What I used to in the first instance was practice in different rooms, in different situations, with loud music on in the next room or the TV news blasting out, or get my mates to listen to a few numbers - to deliberately distract myself.

It's also useful to practice with your .mp3s way too loud so you can't hear what you're playing - and/or way too soft so you can't hear the kick drum - situations that are likely to happen in the field. Anything, just so you're not always practising in the same situation.

When you're at an unfamiliar venue, maybe stressed out from the journey, you've just had an argument with the missus, the landlord is an asshole, the place is filling up with shouty drunks taking the piss, the PA sounds sh*t, the stage is too small, there's not enough power points and the drummer is still 'on his way', everything you learnt will go straight out the window! Be prepared! YMMV, IMHO, etc.
[/quote]
All great suggestions but to be honest I will only ever be a player who never ventures up onto stage. I have been told by many bands who were advertising for bassist that I am far too good looking to be a gigging bassist. I look like Danny Devitos shorter fatter brother so they are either being kind in their rejection of me due to my poor playing not being of gigging standard or bassists in general are the ugliest people on the planet. John Taylor was a pug bastard come to think.

[discreet]

[quote name='norvegicusbass' timestamp='1340545197' post='1705872']
...I have been told by many bands who were advertising for bassists that I am far too good looking to be a gigging bassist...[/quote]

I have this problem all the time! Still, we must do what we can, and struggle on regardless in a world of ugly bastards.

[norvegicusbass]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1340545342' post='1705881']
I have this problem all the time! Still, we must do what we can, and struggle on regardless in a world of ugly bastards.
[/quote]
Maybe we should take up a six string instead

[pietruszka]

[quote name='Ben Jamin' timestamp='1340499586' post='1705425']
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]
My dad told me this! "Play it next time round, people will think its part of the song!". I make stacks of mistakes, it doesn't matter, it's how you mask them, that's the trick.

When I was 18 my dad put me in a session band for a friends birthday do, and these were working London players who were annoyed that they had to turn up for a rehearsal the morning of the gig. The guitarist spoke to me afterwards as he new it was my first real world gig, I told him I made a couple of mistakes and he said a wonderful thing, "It doesn't matter if you make a mistake, it's only your own grave your digging". People make mistakes, it's part of being human!




Dan

[norvegicusbass]

[quote name='pietruszka' timestamp='1340545745' post='1705894']
My dad told me this! "Play it next time round, people will think its part of the song!". I make stacks of mistakes, it doesn't matter, it's how you mask them, that's the trick.

When I was 18 my dad put me in a session band for a friends birthday do, and these were working London players who were annoyed that they had to turn up for a rehearsal the morning of the gig. The guitarist spoke to me afterwards as he new it was my first real world gig, I told him I made a couple of mistakes and he said a wonderful thing, "It doesn't matter if you make a mistake, it's only your own grave your digging". People make mistakes, it's part of being human!




Dan
[/quote]

I reckon if I tried to make a mistake twice I would make a mistake in the attempt and maybe play it correct.

[JTUK]

Seems like you aren't hearing the song and you rely too much on getting sequences right rather than just playing what you hear.

If you can't remember where to go when, you need to write it down and read it.

[Bassman Steve]

As soon as you make any mistake it's history. I was playing with ex Marine bandsmen in jazz bands when I was 17 and they all said 'just keep smiling and no-one will know' and they're right. A mistake dosn't mean you're crap, it means you're human. Watch the Strat 50th anniversary gig and watch David Gilmour. He fluffs a note but just carries on.

Everone makes mistakes, it's how you deal with those that's important. Learn from them but don't beat yourself up about it.

[JTUK]

No excuse for them tho..either lack of concentration...most likely.. or you can't play what you went for.

[bigd1]

Live music is NEVER fault free, that's what makes it live.

Edited June 24, 2012 by bigd1

[pietruszka]

Mistakes happen though surely? Have you never played a mistake? Everyone does them, the Bowie 'one back' mistake springs to mind.



Dan

[Judo Chop]

I make mistakes all the time because I start daydreaming, then when I snap out of it I forget what I'm supposed to be playing and cock up.