Do you ever/stil make mistakes, when playing live?

[Texdrumr]

Just curious. I would like to hear from anyone, but specifically those who have gigged for a fair amount of time. Say 5+ years?

I've only been playing out for a few years and this band is the first serious one. We've been together for almost a year now. Drives me crazy to make sloppy-playing mistakes during gigs on songs we've been playing for a year now.

It's not anything that derails a song (usually), but just ridiculous sloppy playing that takes a measure or so to get on the same page with the band again. And I'm not alone - all of us in the band have our moments. I guess my question is really...Does this ever go away? The perfectionist side of me can really get 'warm' over it.

Tex

[FlyByNight]

I don't think it goes away. Sometimes I'll throw in a fill that sounds terrible, but it's not enough to screw up the song.

[dangermoney]

I've been gigging since the 70's and I still make mistakes from time to time. Rather than focus on not making them, I prefer to focus on how to properly recover from them. This also allows me to help the band recover from band mistakes when they happen.

[Texdrumr]

I've been gigging since the 70's and I still make mistakes from time to time. Rather than focus on not making them, I prefer to focus on how to properly recover from them. This also allows me to help the band recover from band mistakes when they happen.

I think that's my problem. I'm over thinking it while playing. Constantly worried about making mistakes.

Thanks for the replies.

Tex

[slinky]

I hate it when I draw a complete blank on how a song starts. Granted it hasn't happened in a long time.

[Northern Redneck]

Even the greatest pros make mistakes from time to time. Dont dwell on them at a gig just forget about it and move on, practice is for that. Besides 99% of the time the audience doesnt notice the mistakes anyhow.

[The_Epsicle]

I had an intricate latin beat I wrote for an acoustic cover me and my friends were doing. It involved a cajon, cymbals, djembe, a jungle kick, and a tamborine for the lighter parts. We had practiced it dozens of times together but I started off wrong and ended up staying on the cajon for the whole thing, I dropped meter in the middle of the song too but luckily our pianist had me covered so he was the only one who really noticed, I have no idea what got into me it wasn't the first time I played live. I guess it just happens sometimes, lucky for me the only people who noticed were band members, but I've had other times when it was obvious I done goofed up...

[rickthedrummer]

Everybody makes mistakes, the trick is to learn to recover from them quickly.

[wired]

I had mentioned on the you can't get good musicians from Craigslist thread about this old steel player we used for my dad's country band..he would make a mistake playing songs he didn't know that he had to take a lead on. and he would like grab a wrong chord but his recovery time was phenomenal!

He was so quick recovering from a zig when I should of zag move that most folks didn't catch that he had made a mistake at all. I think that's really a tell tell sign of a professional. to be honest .

[NPYYZ]

"There are no mistakes, just new parts".

[drummer]

Yes, everyone makes mistakes. Though the pros make them less often and when they do make them, they're really good at covering them up.

[Dodeska]

I hate it when I draw a complete blank on how a song starts. Granted it hasn't happened in a long time.

Oh yes. We recently added a new song to our setlist which involved me starting it with a tom intro. I got the tempo completely wrong. Fortunately the other guys came in properly & picked it up to the right speed. As it was an original song no-one knew it was a mistake & it actually fitted quite well, but I was annoyed with myself.

[kay-gee]

Forgetfulness is my biggest problem. Just plain forgetting a cue, or lyrics or an ending. Stuff like that.

all the best...

[8beat]

I make mistakes all the time. It's a live show, that's what happens. There are distractions of all kinds, mosquitoes, biting flies and other insects, dogs that want to play, equipment that might not be working right, and people that want to talk to me in the middle of a song.

[Texdrumr]

Thanks everyone. We do recover quickly in most cases. After a while I think you get to a point where you can read each other's body language and know how to get on the same page again.

Perfect example from Saturday night...I counted off a song and we (drummer, bassist, vocalist) were all together. Our lead guitarist however, accidentally jumped a song on our set list and started playing the next song down. We quickly realized it (him too), and knew it would be easier for us to join him rather than he joining us, so the three of us switched about two measures into the song and pulled it off pretty well. It ended up being a funny moment for us to raz him about.

Thanks again,
Tex

[signia fan]

I rarely make mistakes but they do happen to all of us. Something else to think about. I love to see a really slick band that seems to do no wrong, but more often I see bands who know there stuff really well, they know the parts, where they go, and you know they have been doing it a long time. But it all sounds so safe, so really there is no room for error because everything is played the same or close to the same every night and the whole thing just lacks any excitement or spontaneity.
I saw Deep Purple a couple months ago, and Ian Paice, one of my all time drumming heroes did this to me. I actually saw myself in him, because I have often played that way. Confident, knowing my parts, but in exchange for putting on an enjoyable smooth running show for the people, he lost all his raw drumming emotion.

I don't know,maybe it is a good thing to be so consistently smooth, the rest of the band always knows exactly what is coming. But for me, it is a real snooze fest to watch. I actually left before the last song ended, before any possible encore. There was nothing for me to see.

[inthpktplayer]

Nobody is perfect. Nobody is a machine. Key is how you cover it up/recover.

[marko138]

I found that I greatly reduced my mistakes by not drinking as much beer before we play. Crazy, I know.

[signia fan]

To harp on about it. I think I would rather see the drummer drop a couple sticks and blow a roll here and there in exchange for seeing him stretch his wings.
Narada Michael Walden did that with Jeff Beck when I saw him, and honestly it left a huge mark on me.

[lukesplat12]

I've recently gone into the studio, and when hearing it back I hear that some semi-basic kick patterns are just not quite in time. It's just a bit sloppy.

I have been working a lot just playing pretty simple beats, working on having every beat align right. As far as playing live, the whole learning how to keep going rather than not make mistakes, is totally working for me. Especially at church (where I'll get the songs we are playing 30 minutes before we start), I've found it very important to just keep playing and play in time, no matter what mistake I make.

[N2Bluz]

We make mistakes all the time. Usually, it's the simple songs that we've played for years but have skipped over during several of our weekly practice sessions......because "they're easy and we know them". It always comes back to bite us. Sometimes I feel like pulling my hair out....like, "Really guys? This is a 4 chord song that we've played 1000 times and we screwed it up??".
Our lead singer has a little of the Willie Nelson syndrome; he tends to do songs different from time to time, and you need to stay on your toes until you find out he's going with the song, LOL. That has caused us to become very proficient at staying alert, thinking quick, reacting, staying tight and covering up mistakes. We always joke that we never actually play songs the same way twice; we just jam for 4 hours.

[Bish]

It's all planned, part of the show.

Yeah, that's it, part of the show.

[Olimpass]

I usually may play the mistake again like I meant to do that...lol.

[Ricardo]

I make mistakes, sure............but (like Tom mentioned) I can usually cover it up................the audience is unaware.
I'll get a sly smile from band-mates at times............and I can pay them back just as often.

[gdmoore28]

I think that's my problem. I'm over thinking it while playing. Constantly worried about making mistakes.

Tex

This has always been a biggie for me, too. I've been playing for over fifty years, but I still have to remind myself to stop thinking about a song and just play it. When i make a mistake, I will start fretting over making another one, then it snowballs. I have to force myself to stop thinking!

I hate it when I draw a complete blank on how a song starts. Granted it hasn't happened in a long time.

Yep. When this happens, I make a joke about it in front of the audience and everybody gets a big laugh about it.

Forgetfulness is my biggest problem. Just plain forgetting a cue, or lyrics or an ending. Stuff like that.

all the best...

I can't remember my own kids' names sometimes, so forgetting parts of songs is just one of those things. Lyrics is the real biggie for me. I've completely stopped singing lead vocals simply for that reason. Lyrics I've sung for years just go away. The last straw was at a wedding several years ago, and I stupidly volunteered to sing some corny George Straight song for the father/daughter dance. We were not a country band, and nobody wanted to sing the song. I even wrote the lyrics on paper and taped the paper to my upper tom. I STILL flubbed them badly. That was it for me.

By the way, the last three bands I've been in all went by a suggestion I made at our first rehearsal - If somebody in the band makes a mistake, nobody acknowledges it in any way. The only way the audience can be sure that somebody made a mistake is the band's reaction to it. But our policy was that when a blooper occurred, nobody else in the band would smile, look around at the offender, show any signs of distress. The audience will shake it off and figure that it must have been part of the show.

GeeDeeEmm