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How many mistakes per gig do you make?


The Dark Lord

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[quote name='Len_derby' timestamp='1358700064' post='1943579']



Glad you said yes Doddy. I'm trying to progress beyond the rudimentary at the age of 54.
[/quote]

Right I'm on it tomorrow, day off, got some stuff to learn and will get me books out and set myself a program. Thanks for the encouragement!

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[quote name='mikebass84' timestamp='1358072730' post='1932521']
I am very critical of my own playing so if I dont fret perfectly I might class that as a mistake.

[/quote]

agree..this pisses me right off and would be classed as a bad night...and yes, this is a mistake in my book.

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  • 5 years later...

thought I resurrect this old thread, I'm still making mistakes, the worst one is when I start in the wrong key, trouble it really gets our new guitarist down (doesn't mention his own mistakes though!), says it's embarrassing and goes into a sulk, didn't have a good night on Saturday (mistakes wise), and at the end of the evening this guy comes up to me and congratulates me on my playing, go figure. 

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I don’t think I have made any mistakes for a while, there have been a few times coming up to to section of music where I’m thinking I haven’t got a clue what comes next, but I just empty my mind and muscle memory seems to do the rest whether I can remember it or not!!!

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I make the odd minor here and there. At the last gig I slid too far during Alive by Pearl Jam and I noticed it straight away as did the rest of the band, the annoying part is that I NEVER mess it up in rehearsals and the rhythm guitarist never gets his bit right but was perfect that time. So the one time we could have been spot on I ballsed it up. We support each other well and if someone makes a mess up it only leads to friendly banter.

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Depends on the band  or the gig. If i'm depping in a band which is rare and usually last minute notice then i probably get away with a few mistakes. With my own bands i learn the songs well enough by the time we gig that i generally don't recall making any mistakes at a gig unless something major distracts me of course while i'm deep in thought. Seriously i try to learn the songs to a point i don't need to think too much at the gigging stage and it comes pretty naturally. That's mainly because the band have put the effort in at rehearsals to get to that point.

In all honesty i would accept one or two mistakes from myself or any member of my own band provided not show stoppers. 

Had one in a deep purple tribute band where the keys player started the song in a different key (programming error) and singer stopped the song at first few lines, made a joke about live music it can happen to the best of bands and the audience just laughed, accepted it and we restarted the song with all of us playing in the same key :D  It was a great gig too.

Dave 

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I make mistakes at nearly every gig, everyone in the band does I think. It’s never anything major, and probably only we notice it. 

I aspire to make no mistakes, but I don’t beat myself up about it if I do. I’m sure the pub crowds we play to wouldn’t notice anything but a complete howler anyway.

My worst mistake was some time ago when we played Seven Nation Army. I start the song with that famous bass riff, but on that occasion I played it in the wrong key somehow. The drums follow, then the vocals, which follow the key of the bass line. It wasn’t until the guitar came in that we realised something had gone badly wrong...  

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11 minutes ago, BrunoBass said:

I make mistakes at nearly every gig, everyone in the band does I think. It’s never anything major, and probably only we notice it. 

I aspire to make no mistakes, but I don’t beat myself up about it if I do. I’m sure the pub crowds we play to wouldn’t notice anything but a complete howler anyway.

My worst mistake was some time ago when we played Seven Nation Army. I start the song with that famous bass riff, but on that occasion I played it in the wrong key somehow. The drums follow, then the vocals, which follow the key of the bass line. It wasn’t until the guitar came in that we realised something had gone badly wrong...  

that's exactly my position as well, like you say it's surprising how the audience doesn't notice mistakes, on the very odd occasion we've had to start again the crowd don't mind they think it's amusing. According to our singer it happened to the Manic Street Preachers at a recent gig.

I once played the whole of Ace of Spades in the wrong key (I'd just change basses because of a broken string and the preplacement hung in a completely different way) I suppose because of the heavy fuzz effect, nobody noticed.

Far better to be entertaining than perfect and boring, not saying entertaining and perfect isn't the ideal though, just don't think I'm good enough

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13 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

that's exactly my position as well, like you say it's surprising how the audience doesn't notice mistakes, on the very odd occasion we've had to start again the crowd don't mind they think it's amusing. According to our singer it happened to the Manic Street Preachers at a recent gig.

I saw Muse do the same thing, Chris Wolstenholme totally tripped up on the bass intro to Hysteria. In some ways it was reassuring that even bass monsters get it wrong sometimes...

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I had a complete blank while playing Lenny Kravitz Are You Gonna Go My Way. Just before the guitar solo there is a little bass lick played in the upper register. Could I remember it? - Could I f***

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11 hours ago, BrunoBass said:

My worst mistake was some time ago when we played Seven Nation Army. I start the song with that famous bass riff, but on that occasion I played it in the wrong key somehow. The drums follow, then the vocals, which follow the key of the bass line. It wasn’t until the guitar came in that we realised something had gone badly wrong...  

On that particular occasion if the guitar player was worth his salt he really should have just switched guitar/vox parts to new key unless you'd started it miles higher than he was capable of singing.

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Some gigs I make more than others. With little bum notes here and there ..It happens and I move on. No big deal.

Occasionally however, if its a really bad one I'll make sure I go over that issue so I don't do it again. Its usually something where I should of known better.  Probably down to being too overconfident or cocksure because last gig it was ok.   If there are distractions like a lousy boomy room, rubbish(to me)bass sound or one (or more)  of the band is having an off night it can creep in and cause multiple crashes. Then we get a confidence problem across the board and it can be a complete mess.  Doesn't happen that often thankfully but when its a lets all donald duck this up together gig, we could be competing for the most mistakes each.

 

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what is a mistake though? If I play a wrong note but it fits and sounds ok is it a mistake? If I go in to the chorus too early on Jene Genie is that a mistake?

If I'm doing a bass solo (yup, I've done 'em!) that doesn't quite work, is it a mistake even though I fully intended to play the notes I played?

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4 hours ago, KevB said:

On that particular occasion if the guitar player was worth his salt he really should have just switched guitar/vox parts to new key unless you'd started it miles higher than he was capable of singing.

He did. I got the stare at the same time. 

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Quite a few every gig but I don't let them bother me. Played with a guitarist years ago who would crack up laughing at his mistakes & noticed the audience were amused too by him not taking himself too seriously. If you get too down on yourself it can seriously affect your playing I find. I've trained my current band to laugh about our fook ups & it works, we don't fall apart when one happens & we've even stopped a song due to a complete de-rail & started it again, smiling & laughing whilst telling the audience what happened, it has helped to break ice with the crowd.

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Imho it's not so much about making mistakes as about recovering from them. My teacher has a regular technique of playing his guitar part just a bit too fast for me, so I fall behind or drop into mistakes and have to recover quickly. I want to hate him for it, but it's the best possible practice for playing live, especially in a jam, and I've thanked him for it many times.

The keys player in my band has a habit of speeding everything up (we don't have a drummer atm), and if he doesn't hear me shouting at him to slow down I just give up on my nice walking lines and drop back to root notes so I can keep up accurately. I b0ll0ck him later :-)

A virtuoso harmonica player friend told me that when he's learning a new song, he figures out what mistakes he's most likely to make and practices recovering from them.

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