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I went for an audition ,but got a mental block


kevvo66

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Well as mentioned above ,great band lovely chaps to boot .these guys have been together along time ,set up then it went tits up big time don't know if I was overwhelmed by it all ,I was awful and I mean awful they play in drop D, I'm a standard eadg type of fella they tried to reassure me it was nerves ,think they were just being nice and asked if I wanted to come back and give it ago again ,I made my excuses and left ,oh balls 🙄

Edited by kevvo66
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3 minutes ago, skidder652003 said:

couldn't have been that bad if they asked you to come back for another go, take 'em up on the offer!

This. If they didn’t like you they wouldn’t invite you back just to be nice! Clearly you did something right.

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Maybe it was just a bad day at the office or you wanted it too much and nerves got the better of you.  With all been there.  I think you got asked back again because you're a nice guy who they want to work with, can obviously play well but had some brain farts. Try to laugh it off, it's better than beating yourself up.

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It's the same when you go into a music shop. The nice friendly assistant asks " would you like to try anything out?" You pick up a nice bass, plug it in and forget everything you know. All the fancy show off bass licks are forgotten, or you have to try them umpteen times to get them right, even although yesterday, you could play it backwards!

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9 minutes ago, ubit said:

It's the same when you go into a music shop. The nice friendly assistant asks " would you like to try anything out?" You pick up a nice bass, plug it in and forget everything you know. All the fancy show off bass licks are forgotten, or you have to try them umpteen times to get them right, even although yesterday, you could play it backwards!

This is so true. I usually struggle to even remember what songs I can play.

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3 hours ago, aDx said:

Our first number and first gig this year.... i suddenly got nervous and completely mucked up alright now!!  ( i have played it for years!)

 

yep been there, I've even played the whole of Blitzkieg Bop A C D instead of A D E and it was video'd :sad:

I should add, it didn't sound that bad, not quite right but not obvious bum notes, which is why I probably didn't notice (and I couldn't hear the guitarist) 

Edited by PaulWarning
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Agreed, performance nerves are an awful thing. I have always struggled with white coat syndrome ie doctors, hospitals etc,to the extent I put off a minor op 3 times over the last 10 years through sheer terror. I had the op three weeks ago and coped very well with it and I put it down to reading "The Chimp Paradox" by Prof Steve Peters, the psychologist who helped the British track cycling team win so many medals. It really did help me to put things in perspective and concentrate on the process rather than the outcome of a situation. Give it a try its now on library shelves so you don't even need to buy it.

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3 hours ago, ubit said:

It's the same when you go into a music shop. The nice friendly assistant asks " would you like to try anything out?" You pick up a nice bass, plug it in and forget everything you know. All the fancy show off bass licks are forgotten, or you have to try them umpteen times to get them right, even although yesterday, you could play it backwards!

The last time I went into a shop to try something out I was very pleased that they supplied headphones without my even asking, therefore removing any fear of being embarrassed in this manner.

BTW, the one time I did try to play in public last year my mind went blank and I totally cocked it up. But, this was solo; it was always easier playing with other people.

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1 hour ago, knirirr said:

The last time I went into a shop to try something out I was very pleased that they supplied headphones without my even asking, therefore removing any fear of being embarrassed in this manner.

BTW, the one time I did try to play in public last year my mind went blank and I totally cocked it up. But, this was solo; it was always easier playing with other people.

Thing is, I have played in front of an audience hundreds of times. The largest was about 2000 ( I know, I wasn't big time), so it should be no problem, but I still freeze when I am in a music shop. Fingers get all mixed up and it sounds rotten and you can see the guy thinking, yeah, I can see your level

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2 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

yep been there, I've even played the whole of Blitzkieg Bop A G D instead of A D E and it was video'd :sad:

Man, we used to play in two different tunings ( because of a bloody accordion player, who wanted to play on the white keys) I liked to play E flat for the rest of our set because it sounds meatier, plus easier for the ageing vocal chords. Anyway, it meant changing guitars around, as we didn't want to tune up and back all the time. Started a set for an alcoholics anonymous dance and I had the flat tuned guitar and the song was in standard. I'm the singer, so I had to try and play the song (crazy little thing called love) a fret out, whilst singing. The result wasn't pleasant and I was suitably embarrassed. We managed to save the evening after that, but it was a terrible start!

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6 hours ago, ubit said:

It's the same when you go into a music shop. The nice friendly assistant asks " would you like to try anything out?" You pick up a nice bass, plug it in and forget everything you know. All the fancy show off bass licks are forgotten, or you have to try them umpteen times to get them right, even although yesterday, you could play it backwards!

When I was bass shopping last week, one of the first things I did after sitting down with a bass was to whip out my phone and bring up my set list.

S.P.

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58 minutes ago, ubit said:

Thing is, I have played in front of an audience hundreds of times. The largest was about 2000 ( I know, I wasn't big time), so it should be no problem, but I still freeze when I am in a music shop. Fingers get all mixed up and it sounds rotten and you can see the guy thinking, yeah, I can see your level

Indeed. Still bigger-time than me - IIRC the largest audience I played to was around 250, but it was jazz so that might be considered a huge crowd. ;-)

When doing public speaking (at least in my experience) it's always easy when the audience are people who know little or nothing about the subject and are interested in learning more and/or being entertained, and it's a topic I know well. If they're knowledgeable in it (and worse, if I'm not) and they are waiting for the opportunity to ask "questions" at the end to show their own knowledge then the fear factor ramps up rapidly. Such a treat is in store for me early next month...
Perhaps that's a similar situation to what you're facing, with the music shop staff giving the impression of being able to recognise expertise even if they don't possess it themselves.

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1 hour ago, kevvo66 said:

I was out of my comfort zone 🤔

Did they give you a list of songs to play during the audition? If so, and you worked on them till you had them down then no, you were not out of your comfort zone. You merely let the situation get to you.

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6 hours ago, karlbbb said:

Encouraging to hear I'm not the only one - I've got into music shops to try a guitar and forgotten a basic 4 powerchord progression before!

I can play about 60 songs perfectly from memory and bits of another 20 or 30, however in a guitar shop I can play sweet child o mine, alive by Pearl Jam and Peaches. Nothing more it seems..............

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Their tuning to drop D  threw me out but ,they changed some of the songs some of the songs I can play blind folded standing on one leg with a parrot on my shoulder ,perhaps I need a more sedate type of setting a nice jazz band or something like that 😗

Edited by kevvo66
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33 minutes ago, kevvo66 said:

Their tuning to drop D  threw me out but ,they changed some of the songs some of the songs I can play blind folded standing on one leg with a parrot on my shoulder ,perhaps I need a more sedate type of setting a nice jazz band or something like that 😗

Did you forget to take the parrot, it may have been something as simple as that.

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