First Gig Sloppiness

[Clanger]

Played my first ever gig tonight (if you call a 30th bday party a gig?). It was only me on guitar, a friend on drums and someone I've only known for two weeks on bass/vocals (workmate of the drummer).

I sucked quite bad. I was using a borrowed amp, that was a dark sounding POS - not that it would've mattered much what I was using, as my nervous tension had me wanting to exit, stage left after three songs. We played songs I could usually play blindfolded, blind drunk or with my eyes closed - but playing in front of people gave me the heebie-jeebies.

What do other people do to help this? Or is it just a matter of getting used to playing to an audience? I'm glad I gave it a go, but... It was the solos I ballsed up (two out of the five songs we played).

[Eruera]

My live music philosophy is that your average audience doesn't really know anything about music and seems to be fairly tone-deaf. This means that their experience consists mostly of the energy, the groove, and the melody (in that order).

For guitarists this means we have to be very out of tune or the chords have to be completely wrong before people notice that something isn't right, they don't notice if your tone doesn't match the record and they don't notice a little booboo (remember that we're concentrating very intently on our playing, they're sinking piss and trying to have a good time). What audiences DO notice, almost 100% of the time, is when your body language says that you are unhappy, not playing well and not having a good time. Then they stop having a good time, and may even notice some of your mistakes.

On the other hand audiences notice much faster when bass players mess up, because there is generally a big dissonance or rhythmic lurch and the singer starts going off key. Audiences are also very sensitive to drummers mistakes because they kill the groove / make it hard to dance, AKA "this band sucks!" Unless your audience is there to see you as a guitarist, not to listen to the songs you're playing, then you'd be surprised how badly you can cock-up solos and get away with it. If you look like you're having a rockin' good time they'll probably be impressed with what you play (doesn't everyone wish they could be doing a GUITAR SOLO!?). When in doubt, go pentatonic and play faster

So the most important part of playing live IMO is to keep a positive energy and have fun, moods are infectious. Eventually you'll stop worrying and start playing like you can when you're alone.

DISCLAIMER - This does not apply when you have musos in the room, but if they're judging you then they just need to pull their heads out of their asses. Everyone starts somewhere and everyone has bad gigs.

[dylan]

another 5 gigs and you will have a whole new perspective. another 20 and it might even start getting boring!

when gigging its very important that the band appears relaxed and having fun to the audience. even if your ultra stressed by before gig crisies, you need to project a non grumpy vibe.

making music thats in the moment is a hell of a lot harder live. the telepathy that you get used to in the practise room is far harder to channel live. only way to achieve it is heaps of gigging - and practise.

dire gigs suck at the time, but redefine your limits of "shame" and overall make you a better musician.

when people are dancing it feels to me like their body rythm becomes part of the bands timekeeping, and sometimes playing along to people dancing makes the band funky.

after setting up the gear, tuning, and possibly soundchecking its nice to have a sit down and mellow out, giving yourself a chance to change from engineering headspace (setting up the p.a) to music headspace.

try not to fall off tall stages.

when you start playing live it can be very hard to hear the other band members properly. or at all. learning how to set your amps up live is part of the process.

try not to have screaming interband arguments on stage just before the first song:)

[Bg]

its all about practice, yeah gig practice... you'll probably get used to it. At first I used to be really uptight about mistakes and stuff, then I realised that it was only really me that was feeling like that and I use them to my advantage to go on a different tangent. So yeah just laugh them off, they can be endearing too

Disclaimer: my last solo gig sucked balls big time, I was uptight for the whole 20 mins and just wanted the bloody thing to end. Maybe I'll do another when I've lived with the shame for another year or two haha.

[higainer]

Anyone that tells you they haven't had a bad gig are full of it.
EVERYONE has them, I've had my share.

The key is to relax & have fun.
Don't stress about your playing, chill out & things will be fine.

Oh yes, for the most part punters are usually far too busy yapping or swilling piss to notice anything you might be thinking.

[crowbgood1]

You are normal. Don't sweat it.

[Slowy]

i
Disclaimer: my last solo gig sucked balls big time, I was uptight for the whole 20 mins and just wanted the bloody thing to end. Maybe I'll do another when I've lived with the shame for another year or two haha.

All of the above.
And I was at the gig His Lordship mentions here. Being a muso, it was obvious to me that he wasn't comfortable but it didn't suck nearly as much as he imagines.

[Rog]

I used to get stage anxiety and used to also make the mistake of having a couple of drinks beforehand to steady my nerves. For a bassist, timing is everything and anything you take to alter that is bad. So I stopped drinking. Funnily enough, my anxiety had stopped years beforehand, I just hadn't realised it.

Today, I never get stage anxiety. Yep, I make blunders, but I just laugh them off and we move on. Once a bad note has been played, you can't do a damn thing about it. I'll look at the drummer and say "SO close" and he'll laugh and the audience just sees us as laughing and enjoying ourselves, so they do as well. I'm mainly playing keys and guitar rather than bass these days, so the chances of cocking things up are that much higher. Since I play clean all the time, the notes can stand out more, as we all know distortion pedals can hide a multitude of playing sins. The last time I forgot my planned solo, I just kicked the wah pedal in and played some bullshit instead. The audience thought it was great and I got good comments from them - little did they know!

As everyone had already said - you are doing something that almost everyone in the audience can't do - you just have to make a cock-up look as though its all part of the fun. Stay cool, don't frown. Laugh at yourself. Taking yourself too seriously is silly putty.

[Cdog]

My live music philosophy is that your average audience doesn't really know anything about music and seems to be fairly tone-deaf. This means that their experience consists mostly of the energy, the groove, and the melody (in that order).

^this. so you can relax a bit, and make sure you're having fun... you set the fun limit, they'll usually never have more fun than you

[Kiwiaxe]

Rule number one. No matter how big a fuckup you make, never show it. Most people would only notice it because you react to it.

Remember if anyone asks afterwards you just tell them that you were experimenting with dissonant harmonies, playing outside and altered rhythm following your recent interest in jazz

IIRC one of the solos in sweet home Alabama was accidentally played in the wrong key but it sounded cool and different so they kept it. There's more than a few notes on recordings I've done where I hit the wrong note and others liked it so it was kept.

Visibly having fun takes you 90% of the way. Fake it til you make it!

[Vince]

Well, I've been playing in front of people for decades but when I started the solo bass thing I had no idea of stage craft at all: I'd never had to be my own frontman, so to speak.

So I started going to open mike nights and just playing to people, gauging reactions. If people responded to something, do it the next week, if they didn't, leave it out.

Open mikes do wonders for you, and because it's frequent, it's like a speed course.

[Bg]

i
Disclaimer: my last solo gig sucked balls big time, I was uptight for the whole 20 mins and just wanted the bloody thing to end. Maybe I'll do another when I've lived with the shame for another year or two haha.

All of the above.
And I was at the gig His Lordship mentions here. Being a muso, it was obvious to me that he wasn't comfortable but it didn't suck nearly as much as he imagines.

See there you go, it's never as bad as you think it is.

p.s. it sucked balls

[Danger Mouse]

i
Disclaimer: my last solo gig sucked balls big time, I was uptight for the whole 20 mins and just wanted the bloody thing to end. Maybe I'll do another when I've lived with the shame for another year or two haha.

All of the above.
And I was at the gig His Lordship mentions here. Being a muso, it was obvious to me that he wasn't comfortable but it didn't suck nearly as much as he imagines.

See there you go, it's never as bad as you think it is.

p.s. it sucked balls

When I first started gigging, I was fortunate to have a few gigs that were filmed (battle of the bands, gigs with overly proud parents in the audience with video cameras etc). It was fortunate because no matter how nervous I was and how much I thought I sucked, I got the chance to see the footage and could see what the audience saw... and those monumental, face immediately glowing red, "I should just give up now" mistakes were actually either barely noticeable, or not even noticeable. Luckily the gig where I fell off the back of the stage wasn't filmed, I think the audience spotted that one...

But anyway, as a performer, you are 1000% more critical of your performance than anyone else, even if there are other musos in the room. And even the best guys get stuff wrong, I saw Metallica in the UK a few years ago and James was really having an off day with his playing, but he didn't care, nor did the audience.

[Vince]

But anyway, as a performer, you are 1000% more critical of your performance than anyone else, even if there are other musos in the room.

And it's right that it should be so. Nothing good ever comes from complacency.

But the point is to learn from your mistakes, not be governed by them.

Not disagreeing with anything you said, btw, just commenting on that single point.

[Danger Mouse]

But anyway, as a performer, you are 1000% more critical of your performance than anyone else, even if there are other musos in the room.

And it's right that it should be so. Nothing good ever comes from complacency.

But the point is to learn from your mistakes, not be governed by them.

Not disagreeing with anything you said, btw, just commenting on that single point.

Fair point and a good thing to add, you should be critical of your own performance and want to improve, but just don't talk yourself out of playing, because you've convinced yourself the audience think you're a talentless bozo. They won't.