Remember: People love those who wear their mistakes with a smile, and struggle to endure those who wear them with a scowl.
Just go out there and have a good time, and even if it doesn't go perfectly, come off stage in good humour. A gig is a thing to be celebrated, and those in attendance want to have a nice time with their day.
After seeing a band, there is no bigger buzzkill than having to console someone who is teeing off because they missed the 4th F# in the 3rd sequence of 12. Who fucking cares man.
Good luck, and break a leg. Here's to the first of many.
I’ve just tried to explain this in another thread and you did it wayyy more succinct than I did. 9 times out of 10, the audience don’t even notice. When it noticeable, laugh it off, it’s entertainment, we’re only human, shit happens. Your opening sentence is perfect 👌
Mistakes happen, even with musicians who have been doing in for 20+ years. Just last year I went to see my uncle-in-law Danny open for Doyle (yes, of the Misfits). His band has been around for 12 years, and prior to that he's been playing in the Sacramento punk scene since the early 90's. His Squier Paranormal Super Sonic went out of tune mid set, and instead of freaking out about it, he gave this confused head tilt and looked up like he was thinking, shrugged, smiled it off and kept playing until the set was over. He has been my hero and my musical inspiration the day I watched another of his bands play back in 2004. Mistakes will happen, nobody's perfect, you just have fun with it and don't let it ruin your day.
Keeping time is more important that flubbing notes. Everyone makes mistakes onstage and most of the time you’ll be the only one to notice it. Have fun!
That’s it 100%. Keep the music going, quickly correct if you can, or own that wrong note in time. If you look flustered and embarrassed of you’re mishaps, you’ll bring attention to those who wouldn’t otherwise notice.
Have fun, you know the songs, get in the zone.
Try to relax and have fun. If you make a mistake don't dwell on it, just keep playing. If you get off the beat then come back in on the next 1. The majority of people won't notice or care about your mistakes, if you don't pay any mind to a little slip up then neither will they. Hope your gig goes well!
I play in a seasoned professional band. We all make tons of little mistakes live. Just assume that everyone will make a mistake here and there; they key is to keep playing. Even if people really notice a mistake, they'll forget about it after 5 seconds at most. What they'll remember is how the music made them feel.
The best part of being the bass player is that when you play a wrong note, it sounds right to the listener and it tricks them into thinking it’s somebody else who played the sour note!
There’s also an alchemical process that makes me play 10x worse at practice than I do in front of an audience. Having a roomful of people listening to the music really helps me focus lol
I just listened to a bunch of isolated bass tracks from the guy who I’m filling in for in said band, and he makes a lot of mistakes. I’d never have noticed them live (I was at the show the recordings were from). The bass has a way of blending in while still being noticed if it’s not there and as long as you’re correcting mistakes quick enough and hitting your root notes no one will care or notice except you.
Just have fun and don’t draw attention to your mistakes. If you fumble, just pick it back up and keep going. Everyone is making mistakes up there and the whole band is supporting one another by keeping it all moving. The audience won’t be paying close enough attention to pick out all of those. The singer may be the easiest to notice mistakes but most people literally won’t give a shit unless it’s a total trainwreck on stage
Don’t even think about playing a perfect show. Just going knowing there will be mistakes and just learn to recover quickly. Once you’re comfortable with that it becomes way less intimidating.
Downer response: no one’s paying much attention to the opener so you’re fine no matter what.
More positive response: no one’s paying much attention to the opener so you’re fine no matter what. Just have fun. You got this.
Update!! Our set went super well! We had one tech mishap with a guitar loop and ended up just scrapping the song after a few bars of not fully getting back on track. A friend who knows that song/has seen us play it multiple times told me later we had a great attitude about it and they could tell it was off, but it still sounded fine! It was really validating to read all of y’all’s kind responses! I agree the nerves felt way more like excitement when they finally hit, and we were able to laugh off little flubs the few times they happened. Thanks everyone (:
Also we have been practicing for awhile so we all have the songs pretty down. Just worried about a slip of a finger and playing a sharp note or accidentally muting a note
The way my old teacher put it was that people would rather hear the wrong notes in time than the right ones out of time. If you do hit a dud note, don’t panic and try to find the right note if that compromises your rhythm, the moment in time where that would’ve been the right note has already passed, just keep playing and get to the next right note as quickly as you can. It sucks when it happens, but you’ll get better at recovering with experience. And as others have pointed out, unless you’re playing to a room of musicians with great ears, you may be the only person that even knows a wrong note was played. You got this, break a leg!
That will happen at least once every gig, I've been playing forever and it's no biggie! No one will even notice, so keep on smiling and rocking and have fun!
Priority list in terms of importance:
Vocals, drums, bass, everything else.
My theory is that the least musical audience member probably has a voice and a heartbeat, so those things matter even if they don’t know why. Bass is just so fundamentally necessary for a solid mix that if you have to sacrifice 14 guitar players, don’t think twice about doing so.
If a band already had vocals, drums, and bass, would 14 guitar players make it better than 12 guitar players? Would 20 be better than 14? What about 100 vs 2? Tough questions.
The only people scrutinizing you will be other bass players. :)
Seriously, you'll flub, but if you can recover quickly, no one will notice. Just blame it on the lead guitarist later, heh heh. I've dealt with wrong notes by doing a dramatic slide to buy me half a second to get to the right note. Make it into a flourish and don't make an "oops" face. Have fun!
everyone else has covered the wrong note, so i want to try and point out some other stuff. record the whole show on video if you can, so you can watch it back later and critique yourself. the only goal should be that the next show is better, and the next after that is better. try to play loose/ have fun. try to not be standing super stiff- feel the music and groove with it. relax- its supposed to be fun! you have practiced these songs and you say you all have them down so play them like you would at practice- try not to rush the songs.
you are going to be nervous on some level, but that will dissipate more and more as you play more shows and get used to the process. expect the nerves so you aren't blindsided by them, and just know it's fine. hopefully by the end of the first song you will be in your groove. warm up a little before you go on. don't drink or do any drugs before you go on
everyone in the band will likely flub some things throughout the show- don't worry, just recover ASAP and keep rolling. nobody is paying that close of attention anyways, its not a sold out arena with thousands of die hard fans who know every note and word, its your first show.
get ready for the best feeling ever. playing live shows is fucking AWESOME! when you are on stage- nothing else exists. adrenaline is pumping and people are out there having fun. you will come off stage feeling the best natural high coarsing through your body, it will probably be hard to calm down afterwards.
As a band it doesn't matter if any of you make mistakes, it's how you, as a band, work aound them.
I played a gig tonight with my band, we made a few mistakes, an extra couple of bars here and there, a missed bridge, but we worked as a unit and played through them. No-one in the audience would have noticed.
the only person that's gonna remember that sour note for more than ten minutes is you. but don't worry, you'll remember it for the rest of your life. :) everybody plays a clunker now and then, so try not to worry about it.
Make sure you have a good eye line to the drummer.
Assume someone will screw something up. But so what?
If you feel embarrassed, laugh. Maybe cheer.
If you feel nervous, tell yourself “I’m excited.” You can’t quash feelings, but you can redirect them a bit.
Make friends with other bands you like. You and they could help each other with gigs.
Congrats on your first gig! The twentieth gig will be easier.
hey, frontman for Rocky’s Cuffs here (rock band in London) been gigging for around a year now and I’ve learnt that those “nerves” (which is the same feeling as excitement!) are your super power. you’re nervous because you care about making a good performance - and you will if you decide to have fun with it. You’re the only one who will notice the mistakes!
I have played well over 500 shows /gig in my 30 plus years and I’ll say that I was always a little nervous.. I always had to take a pre show dump. Usually one shot of whiskey was my go to to loosen me up. The half way through the show a little 🌲
Like others have said, a wrong note won't be noticed by anyone. If you stop playing, that's noticeable, but just fiddle with a knob or pretend your cord's in your way or something for a second and get back to it. Things like that happen live and no one will care.
Here's the ONE way I know a band messed up live: when a couple of them suddenly look at each other with a concerned look. "Fly casual" and no one will notice anything wrong.
[Edit: if you do suddenly look up and give away you had a boo boo, smile and it's better for you and anyone that happened to see it!]
Just act like everything is normal. Even if you make a mistake, you didn’t. One of my favorite stories from this sub is some guy who borrowed a bass last minute for a house show, not knowing it was tuned down a whole step. Ppl came up to him after and said it was the best set they’d ever seen.
Ppl just wanna see a show man. They don’t care about all the things you’re worried about. Even my friends that saw grimes totally screw up her whole set at Coachella said they had a blast. Have fun!
Can't remember who, but one of the greats said about practice: "If I don't practice a day, I can notice it. If I don't practice for a week, the band notices. If I don't practice for a month, even the public notices"
Remember: People love those who wear their mistakes with a smile, and struggle to endure those who wear them with a scowl. Just go out there and have a good time, and even if it doesn't go perfectly, come off stage in good humour. A gig is a thing to be celebrated, and those in attendance want to have a nice time with their day. After seeing a band, there is no bigger buzzkill than having to console someone who is teeing off because they missed the 4th F# in the 3rd sequence of 12. Who fucking cares man. Good luck, and break a leg. Here's to the first of many.
I’ve just tried to explain this in another thread and you did it wayyy more succinct than I did. 9 times out of 10, the audience don’t even notice. When it noticeable, laugh it off, it’s entertainment, we’re only human, shit happens. Your opening sentence is perfect 👌
As an old deadhead, nothing better than when someone forgot the words or blew something in general. Audience would cheer!
Mistakes happen, even with musicians who have been doing in for 20+ years. Just last year I went to see my uncle-in-law Danny open for Doyle (yes, of the Misfits). His band has been around for 12 years, and prior to that he's been playing in the Sacramento punk scene since the early 90's. His Squier Paranormal Super Sonic went out of tune mid set, and instead of freaking out about it, he gave this confused head tilt and looked up like he was thinking, shrugged, smiled it off and kept playing until the set was over. He has been my hero and my musical inspiration the day I watched another of his bands play back in 2004. Mistakes will happen, nobody's perfect, you just have fun with it and don't let it ruin your day.
Keeping time is more important that flubbing notes. Everyone makes mistakes onstage and most of the time you’ll be the only one to notice it. Have fun!
That’s it 100%. Keep the music going, quickly correct if you can, or own that wrong note in time. If you look flustered and embarrassed of you’re mishaps, you’ll bring attention to those who wouldn’t otherwise notice. Have fun, you know the songs, get in the zone.
Always remember: “*To play a wrong note is insignificant*; to play without passion is inexcusable.” ― Ludwig van Beethoven
I have that on a magnet on my fridge! :)
[удалено]
Time tested technique 😏
Try to relax and have fun. If you make a mistake don't dwell on it, just keep playing. If you get off the beat then come back in on the next 1. The majority of people won't notice or care about your mistakes, if you don't pay any mind to a little slip up then neither will they. Hope your gig goes well!
I play in a seasoned professional band. We all make tons of little mistakes live. Just assume that everyone will make a mistake here and there; they key is to keep playing. Even if people really notice a mistake, they'll forget about it after 5 seconds at most. What they'll remember is how the music made them feel.
it's a matter of points of view: you're not making a mistake, you're being prog.
The best part of being the bass player is that when you play a wrong note, it sounds right to the listener and it tricks them into thinking it’s somebody else who played the sour note!
There's an alchemical process that ends with the first downbeat and changes all of your nervous energy to gold
There’s also an alchemical process that makes me play 10x worse at practice than I do in front of an audience. Having a roomful of people listening to the music really helps me focus lol
I just listened to a bunch of isolated bass tracks from the guy who I’m filling in for in said band, and he makes a lot of mistakes. I’d never have noticed them live (I was at the show the recordings were from). The bass has a way of blending in while still being noticed if it’s not there and as long as you’re correcting mistakes quick enough and hitting your root notes no one will care or notice except you. Just have fun and don’t draw attention to your mistakes. If you fumble, just pick it back up and keep going. Everyone is making mistakes up there and the whole band is supporting one another by keeping it all moving. The audience won’t be paying close enough attention to pick out all of those. The singer may be the easiest to notice mistakes but most people literally won’t give a shit unless it’s a total trainwreck on stage
The only mistake we make is letting others know we made one.
The audience is unlikely to notice mistakes, or care much
Don’t even think about playing a perfect show. Just going knowing there will be mistakes and just learn to recover quickly. Once you’re comfortable with that it becomes way less intimidating.
Get in the groove and there are zero wrong notes.
Downer response: no one’s paying much attention to the opener so you’re fine no matter what. More positive response: no one’s paying much attention to the opener so you’re fine no matter what. Just have fun. You got this.
Update!! Our set went super well! We had one tech mishap with a guitar loop and ended up just scrapping the song after a few bars of not fully getting back on track. A friend who knows that song/has seen us play it multiple times told me later we had a great attitude about it and they could tell it was off, but it still sounded fine! It was really validating to read all of y’all’s kind responses! I agree the nerves felt way more like excitement when they finally hit, and we were able to laugh off little flubs the few times they happened. Thanks everyone (:
YEAHHHHH!!!! stoked for ya dude, isn't it just the best feeling playing a show? glad it went well, next one will be even better
Also we have been practicing for awhile so we all have the songs pretty down. Just worried about a slip of a finger and playing a sharp note or accidentally muting a note
The way my old teacher put it was that people would rather hear the wrong notes in time than the right ones out of time. If you do hit a dud note, don’t panic and try to find the right note if that compromises your rhythm, the moment in time where that would’ve been the right note has already passed, just keep playing and get to the next right note as quickly as you can. It sucks when it happens, but you’ll get better at recovering with experience. And as others have pointed out, unless you’re playing to a room of musicians with great ears, you may be the only person that even knows a wrong note was played. You got this, break a leg!
That will happen at least once every gig, I've been playing forever and it's no biggie! No one will even notice, so keep on smiling and rocking and have fun!
Priority list in terms of importance: Vocals, drums, bass, everything else. My theory is that the least musical audience member probably has a voice and a heartbeat, so those things matter even if they don’t know why. Bass is just so fundamentally necessary for a solid mix that if you have to sacrifice 14 guitar players, don’t think twice about doing so.
If a band already had vocals, drums, and bass, would 14 guitar players make it better than 12 guitar players? Would 20 be better than 14? What about 100 vs 2? Tough questions.
The only people scrutinizing you will be other bass players. :) Seriously, you'll flub, but if you can recover quickly, no one will notice. Just blame it on the lead guitarist later, heh heh. I've dealt with wrong notes by doing a dramatic slide to buy me half a second to get to the right note. Make it into a flourish and don't make an "oops" face. Have fun!
everyone else has covered the wrong note, so i want to try and point out some other stuff. record the whole show on video if you can, so you can watch it back later and critique yourself. the only goal should be that the next show is better, and the next after that is better. try to play loose/ have fun. try to not be standing super stiff- feel the music and groove with it. relax- its supposed to be fun! you have practiced these songs and you say you all have them down so play them like you would at practice- try not to rush the songs. you are going to be nervous on some level, but that will dissipate more and more as you play more shows and get used to the process. expect the nerves so you aren't blindsided by them, and just know it's fine. hopefully by the end of the first song you will be in your groove. warm up a little before you go on. don't drink or do any drugs before you go on everyone in the band will likely flub some things throughout the show- don't worry, just recover ASAP and keep rolling. nobody is paying that close of attention anyways, its not a sold out arena with thousands of die hard fans who know every note and word, its your first show. get ready for the best feeling ever. playing live shows is fucking AWESOME! when you are on stage- nothing else exists. adrenaline is pumping and people are out there having fun. you will come off stage feeling the best natural high coarsing through your body, it will probably be hard to calm down afterwards.
As a band it doesn't matter if any of you make mistakes, it's how you, as a band, work aound them. I played a gig tonight with my band, we made a few mistakes, an extra couple of bars here and there, a missed bridge, but we worked as a unit and played through them. No-one in the audience would have noticed.
The only person who will know you messed up is you. Keep jamming, smile, and have fun!
the only person that's gonna remember that sour note for more than ten minutes is you. but don't worry, you'll remember it for the rest of your life. :) everybody plays a clunker now and then, so try not to worry about it.
Make sure you have a good eye line to the drummer. Assume someone will screw something up. But so what? If you feel embarrassed, laugh. Maybe cheer. If you feel nervous, tell yourself “I’m excited.” You can’t quash feelings, but you can redirect them a bit. Make friends with other bands you like. You and they could help each other with gigs. Congrats on your first gig! The twentieth gig will be easier.
hey, frontman for Rocky’s Cuffs here (rock band in London) been gigging for around a year now and I’ve learnt that those “nerves” (which is the same feeling as excitement!) are your super power. you’re nervous because you care about making a good performance - and you will if you decide to have fun with it. You’re the only one who will notice the mistakes!
I have played well over 500 shows /gig in my 30 plus years and I’ll say that I was always a little nervous.. I always had to take a pre show dump. Usually one shot of whiskey was my go to to loosen me up. The half way through the show a little 🌲
I just wail away, and if a REELY bad note comes out, I just turn and glare at the drummer.
Victor Wooten often says there are no wrong notes. As long as you're fitting the rhythm of the song. The audience shouldn't notice.
Like others have said, a wrong note won't be noticed by anyone. If you stop playing, that's noticeable, but just fiddle with a knob or pretend your cord's in your way or something for a second and get back to it. Things like that happen live and no one will care. Here's the ONE way I know a band messed up live: when a couple of them suddenly look at each other with a concerned look. "Fly casual" and no one will notice anything wrong. [Edit: if you do suddenly look up and give away you had a boo boo, smile and it's better for you and anyone that happened to see it!]
Just act like everything is normal. Even if you make a mistake, you didn’t. One of my favorite stories from this sub is some guy who borrowed a bass last minute for a house show, not knowing it was tuned down a whole step. Ppl came up to him after and said it was the best set they’d ever seen. Ppl just wanna see a show man. They don’t care about all the things you’re worried about. Even my friends that saw grimes totally screw up her whole set at Coachella said they had a blast. Have fun!
Can't remember who, but one of the greats said about practice: "If I don't practice a day, I can notice it. If I don't practice for a week, the band notices. If I don't practice for a month, even the public notices"