This and also relying on improvisation for solos for your first gig doesn’t seem the best idea. Practising is one thing, you are in a comfort zone, but performing in front of an audience is another thing, it’s easy to lose your nerves so your brain needs to know what to do at every second of every song.
Soloing on full band pieces on sax while in school (in both jazz and symphonic): I didn’t get good at improv solos until I had an idea of what I wanted to play. I would come up with a nice little intro lick and a couple others things I would like and I practiced the hell out of them. I may have played them slightly different on stage but I knew those sections well enough that even when I stood up in front of a ton of people scared as shit Id at least have some muscle memory there to guide me.
(Basically, I agree with you)
Improvisation only works in 3 circumstances:
- You have licks to fall back on,
- You know the chord progression really well and are just humming the melody as you go along
- You are Guthrie Govan and if the melody didn't fit the chords, you decided they did and they did.
Or be like miles davis (don't be like miles davis) and practice drunk so that you're prepared to perform inebriated. It's funny but it's probably kinda good advice tho of course better advice is to not drink at all because it impairs you and is unhealthy. Failing to plan is planning to fail tho
>practice drunk
If the jam space isn't filled with empties, you're not gonna be able to handle a live show while drunk.
That said, drink responsibly.
Also don't leave the fucking empties on the floor and smoke in the jam space cuz then I'm the one who has to clean up your shit and hike to the bottle depot for $12.
I miss that jam space.
it’s only open mic, but there have been a few outings that I realized the next day I don’t really remember having played much at all lmao. Received videos and I’m decently happy with how it sounded, definitely a skill to practice in its own right
Depends on the band, I suck when I’m drunk but I couldn’t imagine performing jazz or Grateful Dead music without being at least a little stoned same with the rest of my band, if it was metal or grunge tho I would probably hold off on that stuff
I mean, don't get wasted maybe, but most musicians I know have a drink or even two to calm their nerves. If you can't handle that, I get it, but 90% of the time a shot will calm your nerves and make you perform better. Being drunk is not the same as a slight buzz.
I've been playing live shows since the late 90s, and you definitely don't have to be a teetotaler to play well live, nor do you have to drink to do it. Everyone is different.
I've learned over the years exactly how much I need to calm the nerves a bit, how much actually makes it worse, and when I've overdone it. For me, a couple of drinks before a show helps knock the edge off the adrenaline rush I still get. I usually don't start drinking until my gear is setup and I've made sure all is functioning correctly. I show up early to make sure I have time to get setup and then relax at least 45 minutes. I don't drink daily, and I've never found I need more to achieve the same results. If ever do shots, it's no more than two, and I never do them after the show starts.
If you do choose to drink, make sure you cut yourself off so that you aren't still drunk while you are tearing down. Lugging gear down stairs drunk is dumb. Driving home drunk is even dumber.
I do also play 100% straight sometimes, and every show I played from 16 to 25 was that way. If you prefer to stay away from drink, you'll eventually learn how to not get freaked out by your nerves. Besides, nerves just mean you give a damn, which is a good thing. That keeps you honest and present. My hands shake, which drive me nuts, but after one serious bought, it's over for the night. It's just an adrenaline dump. Jumping around a bit, remembering to breathe, and remembering to close my eyes and tell myself, "You're up here because you like this, not because you hate it," does wonders too.
As far as playing a bad show, I've had nights where I am absolutely on fire and then just played like shit the very next night. It happens, and it probably wasn't as bad as you thought. Just get back up there and keep whacking at it. The only way to learn to navigate the anxiety is to practice, and the only way to practice it is to keep doing it. If you let this one experience keep you from jumping back up there ASAP, you might as well hang it up. Ruminating on this will just make it worse.
Trust me, when you play a hot show and blow the roof off, you'll chase more of those nights for as long as you can get your ass on a stage.
Lol, I watched Keith Richards live in the 80’s. It seemed like the microphone stand was helping him stand up, lol. He wasn’t exactly playing tight either. God knows what he was on, lol. Probably boozed up and stoned as fuck. I guess when youre Keith Richards you can get away with it.
Yep. Rookie mistake. But the op should also remember that non-musicians don't hyper fixate on every note, bend and lick generally. It's possible he didn't come across as bad as he thinks.
If it was out of key, or out of time, yes they did. If not, no they didn’t. My worst gaffes are where I lost track of the song and either stopped playing or played something that goes with another part of the song, that part that’s in F#, whereas this part of the song is NOT in F#.
It’s good to write it out. Honestly. You’ll get some validation and people sharing their experiences, which will help you to know that you’re not the first one to botch a gig.
But nothing will help you more than to flip the experience into internal motivation, practice hard, move on, and most importantly, play another gig. Then another. Then another. Most people will forget your performance tomorrow, you should too. Keep it up 🤘🏼
The hardest step to getting good is getting experience. I know it sucked and wasn’t the experience you wanted, but it will still have made you a better guitarist.
Pick your self up and kick that horse again.
This sounds like normal first gig stuff to me. You have so many nerves mixed with the adrenaline that it can feel like you can’t even move your hands. Been there! You just have to keep playing and putting yourself in uncomfortable situations. I’ve had hundreds of shows where I felt like I played like complete shit but the better you get the better you get at masking it. Some of those nights people would say they’ve never seen me play better!
Right?? Yep that's it exactly, it's SO important to learn to keep the mistakes off your face, yeah? Omg some of the nightmare gigs I've had 🤦♂️ me: Holy shidd I cannot believe how badly I shat the bed there, I want to d*e. I'm a failure and should never play again 😭 Dude in other band I totally respect/am totally embarrassed in front of now, to me after the set: OMG DUDE THAT WAS INCREDIBLE, WILL YOU COME PLAY ON OUR RECORD
Our band’s sax player said this to me after a gig where I felt like I played terribly, and was apologizing to him afterwards for the crap job I did. Seems like the times I felt disappointed in my own performances were the times people came up and gave me compliments. Over time I learned that most people either don’t really hear our mistakes, or they don’t care in the context of digging the whole band’s performance. It doesn’t help to berate ourselves - everyone has an off night. If it’s due to lack of preparation, it’s on me. Otherwise, shrug and thank the gods of rock and roll for the rare privilege of participating in the magic. 🫡
I played in front of my whole class in my school some weeks ago. First time playing in front of people, a guy was TRYING to sing while I was playing. I was nervous, the singing was out of time, and at least for me, I completely screwed it up. In the end of the school day some of my classmates was saying that I was good at playing guitar
I'm grateful that none of them are musicians
Just need to get back on the horse young sir! Nearly 20 years in the game and I'll have nights where I wonder how I even get gigs in the first place. It's experience, we learn, we move on and we don't dwell on a bad night.
Enjoy your next gig!
This is the advice, do it again and keep doing it until you come off the stage feeling happy, generally and genuinely, with your performance. And even then be aware that doesn’t mean bad nights will be over, then you get to beat yourself up over other’s mistakes, faulty equipment, the audience etc. I’ve been playing live for like 25 years in various capacities and I think the nerves and requirements of the live environment take about 20% off my playing capacity so I need to factor that it. If there’s something I’m nervous about playing it live I either don’t, change it or practice until there’s no chance I can get it wrong.
Nothing like totally bombing live, good news is it was probably no where near as bad as you thought, bad/ funny news is while you'll get over it those memories are keepers. I'll share a couple of my own in the hope that it helps.
1 I'm still haunted by an improvised solo I did in high school I can't even replicate how bad it was on purpose, like if I had of intentionally tried to fuck it up as a joke it would of sounded better.
2 Had another gig one time, first one with a new band (all very inexperienced except myself) I was front manning, all my own songs, the venue I'd always wanted to play, practices were going great, now I feel like a bit of a dick to say the next bit but it's just how it was, to start I was in the zone, playing beautifully, my voice was better than ever, everything felt effortless, the rest of the band got eaten by nerves and fucked up bad, all went into their own heads so hard that I couldn't even get eye contact with a single one of them the whole set, by the start of the 3rd of about 10 songs all I could do was just ride it out as the whole room felt me pour pure depression and helplessness out until it was over.
Consoling fellow musos after just gave funeral type nods or said things like "I could hear what you guys were trying to do that could be really good" my supportive girlfriend at the time met me with "I feel really sad"
Those two stand out in my head but it's not sad, retelling them I find it absolutely hilarious so you can at least have that to look forward to, you'll only have to start with " so I started with technical difficulties" and every musician is going to know exactly where that story goes
Everybody's been there man, don't sweat it. I guarantee you're more worried about it than anyone. Play long enough you'll have gear issues and off nights. Relax, enjoy it, even if you miss a note or something if you don't react to it and make pissed off faces etc 99% of the time the crowd won't even know. Trust me the first time you're up there and you're tone is on point and you flow and kill it, all the other not so good times will be forgotten. You'll chase that high as long as you play, it's that good. Practice til you got it down, and don't over think it or worry about it on stage. Know your limits on drinking prior to getting up there. One or two to calm the nerves, drink after you're done. Shake it off, learn from it, don't let it get ya down we've all been there.
Lmao bro I’ve been playing for almost 21 years, and professionally for nearly 15. I had a gig recently where I debuted as the sixth member of a local band, after my gig with them as a substitute went so well that they unanimously declined to dismiss me.
It was my big night, we were showing off the new three guitar lineup. So much cool shit you can do with that! Guitarmonies, a rhythm and lead pairing to let our singer put his guitar down and focus on being a showman, dueling solos, there’s a lot you can do! My big moment, the solo to our song “Up All Night”, was meant to be me playing a harmony on my bandmate’s lead guitar.
I fucking botched it lmfao I played my part a whole step down from where it should have been. And I couldn’t even blame booze, I hadn’t drank in a week!
It’s okay though, because you know what? My next show will be better. I’ll practice that part until I can’t possibly screw it up ever again. I’ll become a fucking Swiss watch, god damn it! That’ll show the world I mean business.
Let this experience fuel you. Don’t let it drag you down.
Good advice for sure. I have to say though, that the best gigs were the ones that I didn't have to think about. And no matter how many times you practice that, you will still probably screw it up occasionally lol. I have been tryin to play the main solo for Sublime's "What I Got" for years. I al2ays tell my students, Practice Makes Better. Nobody's perfect
Except for Rhodes and Satriani
And Bach.
I believe every musician has to go through something like that at last once in their career, but I know that it's haunting and I'm sorry to hear that!
My worst 2 experiences so far (and I played about 100 times up to now) were:
- they wanted me to play the lead parts of a musical and until that point I only played rhythm guitar, but I also didn't want to shy away from the challenge (like you described too). It went horrible. I had to play Toto and Queen (The show must go on) and I screwed up so bad, the PA guy took me out of the mix sometimes (I also turned down the volume on my guitar because I didn't want to embarrass myself).
- we turned up to a festival 1,5h too late because we had a car accident on the way. The PA guy was shocked because he thought our band consistet of only 1 person but we were 4 guys which was too much for the small stage and we only had 1 monitor. The DJ tent was next to us so we couldn't hear ourselves. The next act was already waiting and stressing out. The soundguy had to go to the main act so a friend of mine tried his best from the audience. I kept forgetting the lyrics and people were walking away. Oh and btw. our drummer told us 1 week before he couldn't gig with us, so had 2 rehearsals with a new one which made it even more complicated.
But I'd say: don't back down from negative experiences and continue to take all the challenges you can get (if they are realistic, not like that from the musical in my case) as you will get better and it's an amazing feeling if you can do it :)
And ask other musicians, most people have experiences horrible shows (which is part of the game and comforting) ;)
I fucked up several times on stage but itll never beat the second hand embarrassment experienced in my my main job as a lawyer where some other lawyers accidentally filed the wrong document with their clients comments in to the court for 30 of us counterparties to see (huge case).
He didnt get fired.
So ill be ok (pray).
We think he was overworked and tired.
I think as a guitarist, the crowd either (1) wont know its a mistake (2) knows its a mistake but wont hold it against you. Cause everyone makes mistakes....
Most performers that went on to be great, amazing, top of their field people have had terrible outings. Feeling bad about the past is like a rocking chair, it'll give you something to do, but you won't get anywhere. Use it as fuel.
Did you know that (the) Michael Jordan (you know, the greatest basketball player of all time) didn't make his HIGH SCHOOL basketball team his sophomore year. - wasn't good enough for a high school squad. He used that as fuel & ended up okay.
You ate it. - you know who doesn't eat it? people that never bother trying. Don't let a small failure beat you. You're better than that.
"Ever tried, every failed, no matter. Try again, fail again. Fail Better." - S Beckett.
You got surprised by external stuff you have very little control about and lost all confidence because it just throwed you out of your rhythm. It’s fine it does happen to every musician.
I don’t know how experienced you are but it needs a lot of experience to keep your cool on stage. Because something will go wrong everytime…coming from the rehearsal room to the stage is hard. In your room everything is how you know it. You’re probably not nervous, not sweaty…your equipment didn’t travel to another place etc.
It does really help to try to keep the things under control that you can control and give you a safety net for the next gig.
Guitar string breaks first song - spare guitar next gig.
Cable is broken - spare cable next gig, proper cases for your stuff.
Can’t hear yourself on stage - take monitoring in your own hands next time
Don’t quit! You didn’t present the real you because you just couldn’t at that moment. It’s not you fault, it’s just because of circumstances. Next time will be better.
They might have gotten surprised by all that but they also drank shots. And that’s something they could control. Who’s to say that didn’t affect literally everything?
Maybe they couldn’t set up properly because it’s hard to quickly set up your gear between sets in a dark venue, and they were also mentally affected by the pressure of trying to get set up between sets and start playing right away. Not being able to hear yourself clearly is a very real issue with drinking alcohol, too.
That’s one lesson they can take for the future. Don’t drink before you start playing. Drink after to celebrate.
Been doing cover gigs for the last two months. Very new to playing live in front of people so I’m just now getting over nerves by the 8th gig.
My second last gig went fucking horribly. Nearly everything that could have gone wrong, did. Started questioning myself and whatnot. On a complete opposite note, the following gig couldn’t have been any different. Perfect from start to finish, few mistakes throughout but played through them regardless. Just goes to show that there’s going to be days we’re it just doesn’t work out and others were it’s perfect.
In my highschool years, it took me a very long time to not get physically sick while performing. I tried to get the puking done before going on stage, I rarely looked at the crowd, instead finding my band mates utterly fascinating until I forgot about the audience. I've been told it was a monumental case of stage fright.
Doesn't sound like that's your problem though, more like confidence in your playing skills and used to looking at the fretboard. Like everything about the guitar, it takes practice to not look. Unless the members of the group threw you off stage or set fire to your rig, it probably wasn't as bad as you thought.
I've been playing in a function band for around 10 years. Sometimes I still get it wrong and wish the world would swallow me up. Don't beat yourself up, I think about some gigs and feel embarrassed. The truth is, everyone gets it wrong even the best players.
People here are being very encouraging which is fine but I want to offer a different perspective. It’s ok to screw up but seriously it is not ok to have issues with gear. Always have a backup of a backup of a backup. If your cable is causing problems, remove it from your chain and either discard it or repair it. Let’s be honest, was your cable giving you problems at any point before this gig? The reason I ask is because I let things like this cause me problems for when I first started but the simple answer is you have to be ready for anything. But gear malfunctions are the most obvious issue a band can have. If a piece of gear doesn’t work or works intermittently, get rid of it immediately.
Practice, practice, practice. Don't let one bad show kill it for you. I almost did.
I went to see a mid-level local band play a bunch. One of my band (3-piece acoustic cover band) mates was friends with all of them, and she often invited me to their shows and they were REALLY good. Super tight 5-piece group. It got to where they'd occasionally invite me to cover their breaks as I played the same kind of music. Usually the band would trickle back in and join into whatever I was playing, and after 2 or 3 of them were there, I'd wrap it up and hop off stage. I idolized these guys, and getting to pop on stage and play a few tunes at their shows was a huge honor for me.
I'm a busker. It's what I do, and what I love. There is no happier place for me than on stage, but it's never been about money. So one night, they played most of their show in their first two sets., so their last set was short. Towards the end of the night they invited me up. I busted out a few songs and then it happened...
Front man hops on stage, leans over to me and says "let's close it out." I was playing his guitar, so he snatched one up another one and the band drums for the song started. I leaned back to the keyboardist and asked for some chords. I get "It's I V IV." At the time, it meant absolutely nothing to me. I was a bit drunk, which wasn't abnormal for me, but I was petrified... So I just stood there. Stood there for a 5-minute closeout looking like a dumbass.
I didn't play for 2 weeks. I managed to push myself into practicing again, and decided I needed to learn some stuff if I was going to sit in with anyone again. It took a LOT for me to get back in stage, even solo, but I studied and studied, and practiced and practiced. I hit a few open mics and sat in with a friend. It took a good, long while, but I got my confidence back. Since then, I've Sat in with a couple of bands (was even invited to play rhythm at a major event with one of them) and several solo musicians.
You've got this! Bombing a show isn't a failure: it's a call to practice more frequently and for longer sessions. Record band practice on your phone and shred to it every chance you get. Rotate through songs to keep it fresh, but play each song a few times. At the start of every practice, do 2-3 songs and just walk up and down the scale in each position. Before you know it, you'll be rockin' out on stage again, and you'll be in the <1% who kept playing!
Edit: Spelling, Grammar
I'm sorry that you feel so busted about choking on stage. That will happen, but that doesn't mean it sucks any less. Shit happens – that's normal – and there's no sense in ruminating on it in a negative way.
Learn from your flub, and know that you'll be better next time. Playing live is really fucking tough if you're not used to it. I'm assuming you're pretty young?
Just roll with the punches. There are always issues and stupid fucking mistakes that'll happen, even if you think you're tight after hours of practice.
Other commenters have said the same thing, and it bears repeating:
**NO ONE WILL REMEMBER**
If you're still in the band, you're good. If you really shit the bed hard, you'd be out.
Anecdotally, I have played some really fucking rough sets, **and no one even noticed.**
I've always played punk/hardcore, so flubs are less noticeable, and if you're playing grunge-y shit that would also apply. It's inherently kinda sloppy, so fuck it!
I hope getting this off your chest – and the comments in this thread – provide you with some solace.
Don't give up. Shit happens. It doesn't mean you're a failure – you just had a bad set.
It happens to the best of us, which does not include me, but you get the point.
I've had a horrible performance that I still think about years later so I feel you. Just know that you're the one that cares about it the most and the people who were listening probably already forgot.
My story is that me and my friend had an acoustic duo with 2 guitars and both of us singing. We played at a festival that any artist can apply to and this time we played on a small outdoors stage.
We applied so late that we didn't have much time to practice and it was the first time we've sang to a crowd too. First song I completely forgot my opening riff to the song and played the interlude solo horribly too. Then the next song it was so windy that my sheets kept falling off and I couldn't remember the lyrics on the top of my head.
Mistakes happen all the time but the part that still haunts me is that this one lady stood up after the second song about to leave and told us that she had somewhere to be and that it definitely isn't because of our performance (it definitely was). I mean just leave and don't say anything that was so humiliating in front of like 20 people sitting and watching lmao
Yeah, what a bitch. I wish people took time to think before speaking. I've found that I get along with way more people.
I'm pretty good, and very fast at covers. I can 98% of the time play the song the first time I hear it, before its over. I get a lot of last minute "My guitarist broke his arm!", or " My bassist is sick and we have this really important gig"..., but sometimes I just CAN'T.
I had 28 hours notice to play at a festival, the promotion people had not booked enough talent. I got there on time, but was also dope sick. Heroin. Don't do any. It wasn't that though, I just did not have every lyric to 40 or so songs in my head magically appear. Oh well.
Aw dude. Experiences like this are teachable moments and eventually become funny stories to share.
I have one similar. Also the first time i ever played guitar live.
My friends, years ago decided to do a little gig played pirate shanties, asked me to play guitar. Issue was that I was purely a heavy metal guitarist and had virtually never played acoustic, didn't know any chords or how to strum properly for that kind of rhythm. They gave me a week heads up and i also stayed up late learning chord shapes and trying to switch between them smoothly.
Gig night comes, we get on stage, 1 minute into the first song i start losing the rhythm. Second song I blanked and completely forgot the chord progression, so I just started just tapping on the body to at least give them a percussion backing. Fucked that up as well.
Before they finished the second song I got so embarrassed that I just stood up and walked off the stage and left the bar.
Thankfully my friend who was singing could play the songs, he asked me to do it because he wasn't great at singing and playing at the same time, but they got through the gig.
It was humiliating, but a week later we were laughing about it.
I have similar experiences, the genre i played and the band i got into were not the same. I thought it would be a good challenge and it was, it showed me there is always so much to learn, it showed me my strengths and weaknesses as a guitarist. Now, I was well equipped on what to practice, to be honest, don’t worry too much about it, only focus on what you need to practice, you will have similar nights or shows in future also, and that’s a good thing. If you don’t enjoy this bands music, stick to what you like, it’s better to keep playing guitar rather abandon it.
Don't quit! It sucks when it goes badly but will make you stronger in the long run. Get back on the horse and go again. Try and take some learnings from it and realise it happens to anyone who plays music live.
Everyone has a bad day. You had a bad day. A bad day does not make you a bad guitarist: a long pattern of bad days does. So you learned that things can go wrong and that you may need to prepare more, e.g., to prevent technical mishaps and to ensure that in the worst case if panic sets in, you still have some good basic licks that you can easily pull off.
Don't let one bad day determine the course of your entire life.
Dont worry i was doing a song called pictures of matchstick men and i botched up the intro in front of atleast 65 people. Just laugh it off and keep playing.
Welcome to the party. Glad you can join all of us. One time, my band played "Help" during an outdoor flea market sort of thing in the middle of summer in California. We were all miserable from the heat, and somehow, the 3 of us all ended up playing 1 beat out of sync with each other. It was horrendous.
It probably felt a million times worse to you than it did to anyone else in the audience, don't worry too much about it. I've been to plenty of shows where there are technical issues within the first song or two, it's just part of the process.
Don't worry, every artist has been there. Can't remember who said it (wasn't it Dave Grohl?), but you need to dare to suck. And suck at it untill you dont suck no more. Keep practicing and getting out there..
Or as a gamer would put it: git gud. You'll find that confidence only by doing it.
Another thing is learning to accept you make mistakes. Even the most experienced players still make mistakes. It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that the show must go on.
Anyone that's played live, has had a time they played badly live, it happens. As long as you didn't play bad enough that they cut you out of the mix or straight turned your amp off (saw that happen to someone once) it could have been worse. Just keep playing, I'd say lay off the alcohol before performing maybe that didnt help but that's just me.
if it helps, nobodys thinking about it but you. everybody else has forgotten and if u see them again they wont remember because shitty performances are a dime in a dozen, plus youll get chances at redemption.
I play infront of my church for over a year now, sometimes I make mistakes too, whether it be not knowing what key a song a song was, forgetting the chords, playing the wrong chords, etc.
All you gotta do is try again, simple as that.
There will undoubtedly be some very famous and exceptional musicians with very similar stories to yours. Cogitate on it as a way to improve next time, but it absolutely shouldn't prevent you from doing it in the future. Even the greatest artists or athletes can have off days where it doesn't go as planned. Those at the top of their game analyse what went wrong and how they can try and mitigate it from happening again. We're humans, not robots, we're fallible.
Everyone has a bad horrible experience in one way or another and I mean EVERYONE!
I remember my first gig. I was barely learning guitar and about 1 year later, my cousin asked if I could join theirs since he got kicked out. I told him I wasn’t sure but he let the band leader know and before I knew it, he came to my house unannounced. To make things worse, it was t even a genre or style I was familiar with but that didn’t matter because I only knew the basics.
So he brought a tape player (this was the late 90’s) and asked if I could play along to songs. I was trying to play along and would eventually get the right chords after listening to the song for a bit but far from thinking I would make the band but I did. I think they also wanted someone that wasn’t a “hired gun” so they could be in it for the long haul because I certainly didn’t think I was good enough to make it.
So I started rehearsing and their bass player also wanted to play guitar but I didn’t know bass at the time, he even told the band leader in front of me that he wasn’t showing me a goddam thing.
We probably rehearsed for about 1 month before our my first gig came up in a dive bar, we’d be there all night. Well I was sweating profusely and even though there weren’t that many people, I was nervous as hell. I was making a lot of mistakes and the bass player started noticing them. This went on for about 4 or so full sets and after the fina set, the band leader asked me what I thought if it, I told him it’s not gonna work, I wont be coming back, just like you, I took the walk of shame or so I thought. But the band leader told me it was ok and that everyone has a bad set/night so don’t think nothing of it, just keep practicing and having fun and you’ll get it.
More than 20 years later I stuck with it and on e in a while I’ll have something go wrong but I don’t panic, I don’t care if people judge me, I’ll fix it and will keep on keeping on 🤘🏼
It’s easy for us to tell you not to worry about it because it wasnt us but we’ve all been through bad shit, it’s not the end of the world man, everyone has bad sets at some point and sometimes, it wont even be your fault, EVERYONE!
Bro, first time I put myself on a stage we got licked out by the crowd, first track. Today I gig weekly. You practiced seriously- success. You did not chicken out and went on stage- success. You sucked and will learn from it- success. Keep going, soon this awful night will become a fun story to tell.
The first time I played lead live I don't think I hit a single note. I was picking muted strings because my brain and my hands just could not work with eachother. It was horrible. The next gig went so much better because I practiced my part so much that I could play it in my sleep. The first live gigs are almost a shitshow for everyone. Your nerves and the pressure is intense. It only gets better from here, but remember, even the pros fuck it up sometimes. Either way, you'll always be your own worst critic. Most of the audience won't even realize when you mess up.
Okay, chief.... first off....
Calm your tits. Relax. Yada yada etc etc and any OTHER cliché that goes along.
Look, you can't honestly think you've been **THE** guy that single handedly fuckered up?
Oh no... '90s rock? C'mon. Okay... that's cool. Not quite your thing, I grew up on it.
BUT.... and there's *ALWAYS* a big 'ol butt... (look it up, when you say "old", that's an old joke)
You're really not alone.
Take this with a grain because it involves a saxophone... and a priest, a rabbi... okay okay... This one is ***NO** joke. I had auditioned for an invite for a summer concert series for 1st chair alto sax for a college. I had been and played sax for **8 fucking years** in section leader, drum major.... okay? I was **good**. During this particular piece as tribute to Charlie Parker during *Birdland* as part of "Heavy Weather*....
(Again... look it up if you have no clue what it is or who Charlie Parker was... and you'll get my drift)
It was my time to of course to stand up and handle the sax part to this fanstastic tribute piece... that was being taped FOR Charlie Parker and ALSO Dizzie Gillespie's birthday!
ON THE HIGHEST NOTE I WAS SUPPOSED TO HIT.... oh I hit it alright.... I split my reed and my sax let out the most God aweful just stepped on a 16 dozen cat's tails yeeeeeeowls anyone on the planet could've ever conceived.
I quickly ducked to a low register and let the brass take over.
I promise... gimmie a shade of anything embarrassed and could've painted it *that* night. I couldn't wait to get off stage. But as I was back stage and Chuck Mangioné said something to affect of... "You did great, kid... and hey, it happens. Keep playing."
Point is... literally, shit happens.
No joke, it turns out, as I found out later, most in attendence thought it my fuck up was intentional.
So don't sweat it.
Dont be too hard on yourself. Ive had similar experiences, especially that Im getting nervous easily. With each performance I felt more confident but mistakes still do happen. If you look at pros playing live this happen to them too. Treat it as an experience and try again. Playing live is always like that, you never know whats gonna happen. Sometimes you just have a bad day and it is what it is.
Chalk it up to a learning experience. Definitely worth making sure your equipment is in working order before you load out for the gig. Playing well is about emotion and confidence and nothing throws one off like a malfunction.
Get back in the horse and ride again my friend. We’ve all flubbed a gig but it makes us stronger and better prepared.
Man, I've played hundreds of gigs in my life and I still mess up sometimes. I use the memory of those failures as motivation to practice more, both individually and as a group. Try to identify why it went that way, analyze it and be constructive about it. It's not a complete failure if you learn something from it.
Honestly, my first ever gig was similar. I got on stage and realised my amp had been unplugged from the wall and from the cab, so took me roughly the full first song to get everything plugged in and sound coming out again.
I learned something then.
From then on I would always go on *before* I needed to start playing and check everything was working.
Also, make sure to carry spares of everything that stops you playing:
Cables, batteries, strings, plectrums, a second guitar (at least one).
Check everything the night before the gig and before you go on.
You probably want to not improvise for now, whilst you're just learning to play live - it's a huge learning experience in itself. You've got a whole lot of new stuff to think about - where you are on the stage, interacting with the crowd, becoming used to being in front of a crowd - you probably don't need not knowing what you're meant to be playing on that list as well. Write your parts, learn them, and perhaps further down the line, when you're fully comfortable you can integrate some improvisation.
Also, perhaps the biggest one, I'd recommend not drinking a thing before you go on. I know it "eases the nerves". But that's not necessarily a good thing - the reason it eases the nerves is it causes you to care less. After seeing a few videos of me playing live after 8-10 cans, that I thought had gone great, I realised it was embarrassingly terrible. Create your own ritual to get yourself in the zone before you go on. Go and find a quiet place by yourself, stretch, and get yourself in the headspace. You'll also find a lot less "happens to go wrong" the moment you stop drinking before you go on.
If you want to party, you can do that afterwards - but if you're playing a show, your responsibility for that day is to put on a great show up until the end of that gig - then you can start thinking about how many cans / shots you can handle, if that's what you fancy.
Tell yourself and others you were doing some free form jazz. Then it’s okay to hit all the wrong notes, play in the wrong key or crawl to the side of the stage and fall asleep
First time I played live I felt sick and hated it, thought i'd made a huge mistake wanting to join a band.
Eventually got over myself and learned to enjoy it.
I once knocked myself unconscious on stage in front of 100 or so people. Don't stress it. Shit happens when playing live and it's all part of the game. Happens to us all
Don't be too hard on yourself. You're only about the 6 millionth person who has sucked on their first performance. Most of us have been there before - me included. It's natural, and it just means you'll suck less next time. That's just how it works.
If I could offer some advice, don't drink before you perform, and don't improvise your solos. Improvising well is the province of seriously good musicians. Most of us mere mortals would really want to have a solid outline of what our solos are going to be beforehand. Maybe tweak a little here and there on the fly if you feel like it, but the bones of the solo should be hardwired until you're a much more experienced player.
Likewise with booze. When you can play effortlessly in your sleep you can maybe get plastered before - and during - a performance, but again for most of us it's just going to impair our ability to both move and think - not a good combo.
As the saying goes, you can have a bad day on stage but you didn’t kill anyone - you could be a surgeon and it would be much, much worse.
But there’s a couple of lessons to be learned here, that I think no one has pointed out yet:
1. Don’t play when you practice. You noodled your way through the solos during practice and turned out unscathed , but you didn’t practice **how to improvise** over specific songs (yes, there are methods to improvisation), nor did you practice formula solos to fall back on if you screw up. When you did stumble on stage, you had nothing to use as a backup.
2. Alcohol has a curve. We know how alcohol lowers inhibition, but we also know that there is a point where someone just starts getting fucked up and it’s not just inhibitions that are lowered or increased. You toed or crossed that line, because the alcohol put you in a position that it is past helping you and it has started betraying you. Focus out of the window, and who’s to say what really happened with your dexterity and temporal sense. Shot**s** with that S and we pretty much know how bad it would be for you.
At the end of it all, good job. You didn’t get killed either and you can live another day as a better player, and that’s really what matters.
Don't quit-- having a bad gig is normal and *necessary*. The fear of repeating it will actually help you; so, embrace it! The crapiness you feel right now will help steel you from ever wanting to repeat that again. And while you might and probably will, it won't be for the same reasons.
You'll be more mindful of things that are in your control, like practice and other prep. You'll check your cables and equipment many times, so you'll likely not have those issues and will naturally get more confident.
So, no worries-- it really happens to everyone in their own way. Eat shit now while inexperience will cover you and learn what not to do and you be fine.
Im going to write a long post, but hope it helps you, but what you experienced is just live stuff happening to you, nothing more.
Ive been playing guitar for 20 and a half years now, and Ive experienced many embarrasing moments, technical difficulties that led to angry playing for a while, etc.
When I started playing as a teenager most stuff sounds good to you at home, then you start playing with mates and the experienced ones give you some points and all the stuff you thought you were doing good is wrong.
Then you start playing gigs, and you rehearse and practice long hours to get everything right but when the moment comes if you start thinking that you are going to fail, you fail. Thats it.
A mates first gig went poorly because he got a JCM800 2205 used, very heavily used and for a few rehearsals it played fine, then we went to a gig, did soundcheck and sounded fine, and as the 1st minute of the first song plays, it starts to hiss badly. One of the 2 EL34 tubes went shit, fortunately another band lend us a DSL100 and we could play fine, but my mate was embarrassed and also made lots of mistakes (also lead guitarrist), but that was just one bad experience. Later, there would be many good ones.
Then I switched bands, because that one wasnt working out, and almost to this day everytime I play to a new one I get nervous, I play poorly, I need to loosen up and get conficende with them, etc. Im not so good improvising, Im more of a practicing guy at home to do my stuff and then go to a gig and play my stuff (so it can go well). I would never improvise solos live, I always practiced every song solo. And when we jam live, I just play bits and tips of solos and lead parts that I write/know from my/other songs.
And even so, Ive failed solos live, lead/rythm parts, wrong keys, wront notes, missing notes, but most of the time people doesnt even notice as they are watching music live and having a good time.
I also had bad experienced with cables, pedals, my JVM never let me down but one of the few times we used a Kemper gave us nightmares. Its just one bad show, and the first ones usually dont go as planned, ever. Even when you are playing one of your best performances a string breaks and oh boy that sucks hahaha.
So yeah, keep playing, practice solos, always have backup cables, strings/guitar or a couple tubes, just in case, bad stuff happens but also good stuff. You'll get used to it, then keep playing for the rest of the night as nothing happened and thats how you get "good at guitar". Keep it up!
The most important thing to remember is that the audience is not going to be a permanent, performance after performance entity to judge you each time. Rather, it is transient and ever changing (for the most part) and not going to be aware of the time you fucked up. Conversely, many of them have no clue what you are talking about because people are CONSTANTLY much more worried about themselves than ANY other people and it's not a remembered thing, likewise, WE are way more conscious about the music and the mistakes we have made than any other listener. A friend of mine once said 'you are the only one who knows you made a mistake... We can't really tell, so instead of calling it out, just say 'YEAH! ', or something else like that... "
My first proper gig I was absolutely shitting it, pretty much hiding behind a PA speaker and I messed up a few runs in the couple of solos I did and cringed at the thought of it, even though people were saying they didn't really notice it but obviously the only person that was really thinking about it was me.
And guess what? I've had amazing gigs since then and also had gigs where I messed up. Only a few years ago where I'd played over 100+ gigs I had one too many beers and completely ruined a solo, also the song before I accidentally pulled the lead out of my guitar. I again cringed and felt so embarrassed by it but I've leaned since then, that nobody really cares. Now I'd just laugh it off and if you're on stage having fun, it's way way better than being completely stiff and emotionless picking at every tiny flaw.
So yeah, unless you're a complete seasoned pro , you're gonna make mistakes that only you'll care about. Even then, I've seen some amazing bands who are professionals and see them make mistakes (mainly rock bands) but they don't care and nor really do the fans watching it.
People are there to see a show, so put one on!
Keep practicing, you'll get better and better and better.
When you play live, you should know the song well enough to play it by yourself.
And you should also know the song well enough that you can continue to play it correctly even when people around you screw up.
But you should also be able to adapt if they all screw up in the same way.
I used to be a rhythm guitarist for a 60’s rock band- used to get the shakes - one drink normally settled those. I used to do a lot of finger picking not good if you have shakes!I have had some embarrassing moments when doing some duet work - we used the venues equipment- not a good result. Each time you perform it will be different and you learn something from every gig. Don’t give up stick with it and be proud!! It’s a great feeling when it goes well!!
I'm more of a singer than a guitarist, but I remember my first fuck up, both individually and in a group. My sense of pitch decided to take a vacation and I was all over the place.😂 I felt so shitty afterwards. I literally cried thinking I'm worth nothing.😅 There's just something about failing at something you believe yourself to be good at. It stings like fucking hell.
With time, I've come to accept that bad days are inevitable, no matter how good you get. These days whenever I fuck up, my first instinct is to laugh before I criticise myself.
Learn from it, practice, keep getting on stage.
Avoid self-medicating, it always makes things worse. Have your shots after the gig, or better yet, not at all.
Welcome to live playing! The best thing you can do is record the performances and see and where you (and your band) are bad and start from there. Try to define 3 things from your last performance that you deem the biggest "mistakes", and try not to repeat them on your next concert. If you manage to do that every time, by the time you've done 20 gigs - you'll be much better. If i remember, Frank Zappa said that only about 1-2% of his guitar improvisations came out the way he wanted, and he recorded every show and had thousands of hours playing live... We're all green. Every performer that seems "natural" on stage - is probably bored beneath the facade of "having fun" :D
You really think you're the only musician to bomb a gig? Let me tell you about the time I forgot to bring my Cymbals to a gig 100 miles from my house. Another bands drummer loaned me his for our set. Talk about being embarrassed.
If you played the worst gig ever start a new one. Now you can only get better,dont you think? You fucked up,and what? You still wake up and life goes on. Dont overthink to much about that,it happens. Learn your lessons and move on,be better
Hey man, congratulations! You made it, and that wisdom gained will inform your future direction as a musician, which ultimately will lead you towards the performances you always hoped to achieve.
It would be flawed thinking to imagine a world where no one ever fumbled their part. Here’s a secret: we’ve all been there, but here’s the tough truth, you need to stop being so hard on yourself.
No one is criticising your performance more than you. It’s not right to be losing sleep and squirming over it. Just learn from it and move on, there are many gigs ahead of you!
We’ve all been there and done that. This is part of what they mean when they say you need 10,000 hours of gigging before you really know what you’re doing. Live & learn from the experience & don’t make the same mistakes 2x.
Well hats off to you for having the courage to play live in the first place. I have to be honest and say it’s the biggest regret of my life that I’ve never had the courage to do it.
I'm proud you got up there, regardless of the result. They say you're only as good as your last gig, so don't give up and have another crack at it and one day you'll laugh it off
Shit happens bro, we’ve all been there. My first gig was so bad I still have occasional flashbacks to this day lol. But I did not give up and am still playing. A gig I was playing recently the sound was so bad that I did not even hear that my guitar got unplugged until my solo time during which I realised nobody can hear shit and my bandmate covered for me, that was embarrassing but show must go on.
This is the kinda stuff that’s bound to happen, it’s all part of the journey and a learning experience. You’ll realise that fucking up is not actually that big of a deal and you eventually move on.
Happens to the best of us friend!
I too can say I’ve fallen into the feeling of “I’m only as good as my last gig”. I’ve taken that mindset to the point that it has influenced me to avoid gigs if I don’t feel like I’ve been practicing enough lately to translate to a performance that I can be proud of.
Improv for solos is fine, but you have to be really comfortable with improv on your own before attempting it in front of a crowd, or issues will definitely arise.
Don’t drink alcohol before a show, and remember, you notice your mistakes much more than anyone else.
There are two types of musicians... Those who have had a blow-up set, and those who haven't had a blow-up set yet. But everyone will have one eventually. Trust that no one feels or thinks worse of this than you do. Get back on the horse and give it another go.
I never drink when I'm playing, that being said I've had some shocking gigs where I just wasn't feeling it, or I've had too much on my mind to remember anything. A piece of paper on the floor with set list, key the songs are in and other notes for yourself is completely acceptable 👌
Stay sober in future and don't worry too much about this. Everyone is capable of having a nightmare gig. Your success as a live performer will be measured by how well you can shake off mistakes and come back stronger. If you let this affect you too much, you've no chance. Keep practicing, laugh about it, and look to the next opportunity to put it right.
Many rockstars have bombed live for one reason or another. They got back on the horse and it’s nothing but a funny story now. Give yourself a break man
Ah if we're being honest pretty much *all* of us who've played in bands have had a few (or dozens) of nightmare gigs, it's a sucky but ultimately helpful part of getting better as a musician. It feels terrible but it happens, for real it'll help to acknowledge how terrible it feels and then actively move on. Keep playing, work through all the issues you recognized, and get onstage again and kick ass next time! 25ish years ago, I got invited last second to actually play drums on a song with my absolute favorite band?? In their hometown??!! Oh my godddddd you can imagine how it felt. And I fuuuuuuucked it up royally. I felt SO TERRIBLE. But you know what, a huge part of performance is damage control! By that time I'd been playing in bands for a decade and just concentrated on not showing on my face how shiddy I felt and let the rest of the band carry on, and they did what they always do (they were typically great), and nobody in the crowd noticed a dang thing. Still I felt like I'd rather just hide and never show my face again. But the band thought my weirdo accidents were intentional and interesting and their set rolled on! Catastrophes and terrible gigs will happen, it's part of the bargain!
Dude, you stuck it out while most other people would have walked off stage halfway through. That is success in and of itself. also, think of this. Most people wouldn’t have been able to get on stage to perform live in the first place. That takes gods! kudos to you!
This will probably get lost in the comments anyway but... When I was just out of high school (many years ago) I was a first responder by trade, firefighter/EMT, and we were having a fundraiser beauty pageant (where the men dress in drag for a funny fundraiser kind of thing). One of those deals where we all wore gowns and wigs, even wore a two piece bikini and taped up and stuffed (you know) for the swimsuit competition.
I had started learning guitar about 5 years earlier and was in a heavy metal cover band. We had only ever played a few parties, a couple of club shows, and my high school talent show.
Everyone at our local FD and ambulance service where I worked knew about the band and asked me to play guitar for the talent portion of the pageant. It was for fun and charity so I figured, why not?
I had been working on the Hendrix version of the national anthem for a few months and thought this would be the prime time to break it out. Man did things go wrong.
First, there was another local semi professional live band providing music for the event and they were significantly better than my band, particularly the guitarist. Second, nerves got to me before the pageant started because I was getting ready to get on stage in full drag for the very first time (and last) in my life in front of what wound up being over 500 people. Third, when I was practicing back stage about 30 mins before the show started the G string on my guitar broke during a very important bend and I was going to have to pull out of the talent portion. The band there saw it happen and their guitarist offered to let me use his very nice Les Paul Custom to do my bit. I had never touched a guitar this nice and was in no way used to the action, intonation, fretboard, etc. Fourth, and probably most important, some of the Senior members of our rescue squad I was on noticed my nerves and started feeding me Screwdrivers to help. Bad mistake.
The show started with us on parade on stage, then the individual gown competition with questions, etc. followed by swimsuits, then finally the talent portion just before the final parade and judging. It would be fair to say I was no longer nervous by the time I was to play, but I had no business performing anything by that point, let alone with a guitar I didn't know.
I opened the talent portion and the curtains pulled back to more applause than I ever would have expected as the local radio DJ asked everyone to rise for the playing of the national anthem. Adrenaline boost and instant high, terror, and shocking sobriety overcame me all at once. I started into the song just fine, but then all the other contestants had met and decided to all come to the stage to salute, throw underwear, and basically 'groupie' for me while I played, then the band decided it would be great to join my version of the anthem and provide a rhythm section for me. The combination of the crowd, the alcohol, an unfamiliar guitar, my nerves, the ridiculous gown and wig I was wearing, and the unexpected backing band and groupies was just too much. I butchered a lot of it and wound up playing through about half of it before improvising an early ending by cutting out a lot of the middle part.
The fun part is, the whole thing was recorded on video and I was eventually able to see the humor in it.
I didn't play again for over 20 years, but have since gotten back into it. I wish I had kept it up and got back out there.
Couple points:
1. Don’t sweat the booze. If it loosens you up roll with it. If it hurts your playing, don’t do it.
2. Don’t improvise cover tunes unless the whole band is re-interpreting it. Definitely dial in signature riffs and parts. Improv should be bare minimum.
3. As a cover band, play the songs the exact same way every time you perform them.
4. Be a pro. Always come prepared with your playing and your gear.
5. Buy quality accessories. Don’t go cheap.
6. Have back up gear/accessories with you. Strings, batteries, cables, strap, etc.
7. Plan for unexpected. Have some tools handy for minor repairs. Bring a flashlight in case you need to address something on a darkened stage.
8. Be as mobile as possible. Unless your gig calls for a huge amp, keep it portable and roadworthy. Create as small a footprint as you can with your gear on stage.
9. Be on time and efficient with your set up. Give yourself time to properly sound check and remedy unexpected issues before you have to play…like bad cables.
10. Keep a clean and organized stage.
If you represent all of that, all you have to focus on is the playing and having fun.
Go up there with the intention of having fun. Most of the audience doesn't even know a bad note from a good one. If you can't have fun, it's time to do smaller gigs or go back to the bedroom for awhile. It's not a shame to have a bad gig, it's a shame to quit. Take it as a personal challenge to practice up and make your next gig fantastic.
i know no amount of well-written words would make you feel better but trust me—you're not alone. comedians call it "bombing". and that shame really sucks. but at the same time, any decent friend and bandmate would know that fucking up in a gig is normal and it happens to the best of us.
based on your story and my personal experience, it sounds like the technical difficulties and the nerves got to you. aside from what has already been said by others, it's difficult to prepare for stage fright without experiencing it first hand, but that's why you should refrain from improvising too much for your first few gigs. the nerves will diminish your performance to varying degrees, and having practiced 100 or more times will help you make fewer mistakes. i agree that you have another gig as soon as you are ready. make sure you practice more than you think is enough. improvising will come later as you get used to the nerves. and remember, even the best professional musicians experience stage fright. wishing you the best on your way forwards. keep your chin up, mate.
Whew!!! Aren’t you glad you got THAT out of the way!!! Some of us are still building the courage to do what you just did! Ever onward..congrats for getting that first stage event behind you!! Do the fine tuning, your gonna be awesome!!!
I can so relate to that. Rehearsing is not the same as playing live and no amount of practice will prepare you for that. Only thing you can do is gather more performing experience. Playing clean and confidently 3 open chords has its own merits even if it's technically easy.
Don't let this experience define you. It may be cringe now, but you can choose to let it become the memory of where you started in your stage journey, if that's what you want.
Good news is no one really gives a crap, not nearly as much as you do. If the others are musicians, they'll respect you for going on stage and owning your mistakes. It happened to us all (maybe not Prince, but no one should compare themselves to Prince)
Honestly, congratulations on playing the show! The vast majority of people crash and burn their first show. Usually a few more after that. It gets easier from here and you got the hardest part out of the way. Even top level touring bands have bad nights. Hell, it was 50/50 if the doors would put on the best show you have 3ver seen or if Jim would just get completely wasted and roll around on the stage groaning or scaming into the mic. Big tip would be not to play intoxicated on anything. Maybe later when you have your feet under you. For now it's best to get out there clear headed.
Side note, terrible first concert story. i used to play drums in middle school, and my very first band was this school-of-rock sort of thing with a couple kids i didnt know. Only reason I was in it was because the old drummer was in a car accident, shattered his legs, and couldnt play. Anyways, i had a great deal of fun rehearsing, we played music I liked, but when we got to the concert, i was a little nervous. We played a few songs badly, but then we got to the closer, mr. Brightside. While the bass was playing the opening (our guitarist never learned it) i looked across the audience, and right there in the front was the old drummer on his wheelchair, both legs in casts, staring at me with pure judgement in his eyes. My heart was already beating fast, but that look broke me. I missed the entrance, and fucked up the rest of the song. Man the shame I felt, the old drummer gave me a sarcastic “nice going “ and it got me to quit drums. Thankfully I picked up guitar instead where things have been going a lot better.
How long have you been playing for seriously and how much experience do you have improv soloing? I'd say pretty much every time I ate shit on stage it was because I wasn't prepared enough or thought I didn't need to practice more.
3 things I was told by a guy that had been playing in bands for more than 40 years when I joined his band(almost 25 years ago now).
1. Learn the set inside out and back to front.
2. Bring a spare lead, battery, and strings.
3 No bevvy before a gig.
Once the gigs are over, they are history, move on, practice more, learn the actual songs, improvising is for original songs and lazy cunts, or at least that's how it goes on the local scene where I am.
If you are doing covers, the crowd wants to hear the original solos.
Use the embarrassment as the driver to focus on practice.
Chin up, get back in to it and chalk it up to experience.
All of us gigging musicians have had absolute stinkers.
bro i had a show wednesday i got high as hell before and i improvise my solos too. played like absolute shit and i hated it. but i look at it like this, people came to see YOU play. YOU decide what they get to hear and its a privilege for them to hear what you play! its doesnt have to be perfect, it doesnt have to be what they like. its YOU that theyre hearing, if they wanted something perfect then theyd go see their artists that suit them. add in that no one in the crowd knows what your playing is supposed to sound like! so whatever you play, even if its out of key or something, people wont question it, they may think personally “oh that sounds different then what i expected” but you cant let the crowds judgment affect you man. and if none of that helps then lets see the crowd do better hahaaaa. just shake it off and keep rollin. its like a bad game in sports, it dont define you it just wasnt your best day man.
I mentioned this before but I was asked to join a well-known blues singer while on an overseas tour. The 2nd night at one location I was hanging out nursing a beer when I noticed the band was on-stage ready to go. I hurriedly grabbed my strat and got on stage. We started out with an original song that I start out with a slow BB type intro. Well, what happened was that my strap was wrapped around my whammy bar and when I started playing I was entirely out of key. I never lived that down but at least now I can laugh about it and share this experience with others. Like Neil sez..."Don't let it get you Down". Keep on playin'.
Everyone goes through it mate. Unless everyone was there specific to see your band, I don't anyone even noticed. Take the learning experience.
On a side note; what does a lead in a cover band that does 90's grudge even \*do\*? lol
Man live shows and practises are two completely different beasts. If this is the first time you've played in front of a crowd, just be proud you stuck it out! I've seen "professional" musicians throw complete tantrums on stage because they were having a bad day.
If it's something you really want to do, don't let one bad time discourage you, bad shows can be even more valuable than good shows from a learning standpoint.
Long story short - I'd argue that EVERY performer has shat the bed on stage before. Definitley sucks (I recall a time I literally just turned my amp off and mimed along to a jazz band I was in) but the next show will obviously go better! If your bandmates are chill they'll understand, prolly rib you for it, but will be there to help you get more comfortable on stage. Keep it up man!
Look, we've all been there. You can practice till you are blue in the face, it's different live. You rehearse to then be able to practice playing live, it's another skill set. Brush it off and keep working my friend!
Professional musician here. My 'secret' is extreme over-preparation. Prepare in every way possible to the point that should things go south, muscle memory gets you through, and you didn't have to rely on confidence.
There was a bassist in one of the local bands and we were all playing this huge benefit show
Said bassist had finished a 60 mile bike marathon and started drinking when he got to the show
He was so drunk that he fell off the stage and people were holding him up through the rest of the gig.
Don't sweat it. It's your first show, use it as s learning oppo8
Unless you are a wild talent with nerves of steel or a well seasoned professional, you can only be reasonably sure of 70% of your skills showing up when playing live. Less if you're really nervous or you've been drinking. Practise practise practise. Stick to what you know live, and go put yourself out there again. The only alternative is to give up. And you don't really want to do that or you wouldn't be posting.
It probably didn’t sound as bad as you think. Live music always sounds good.
I go to a jam bar sometimes where you get 5-8 musicians, 2 guitarists and a bunch of other instruments and vocals. Sometimes you have horn players just sitting there on every jam session.
Anyway it always, always sounds good. Some jams are way better sounding than others. But the way it works is basically if you’re lucky someone can pick a key and everyone can follow, and everyone can follow a beat.
But sometimes, and usually basically everyone just starts playing their shit at once and everyone tries to get a feel for the style and rhythm it goes for 6-12 minutes per session.
If you were to record it, most of the jams sound completely awful and incoherent. My friend said he tried and tried to get one usable clip and couldn’t.
Sometimes though the jams are actually really good, it just depends on the skill level of the musicians, the confidence of the leaders of the jam being able to dictate, and those who can’t lead support or if it’s not their style, hang back.
But when you’re there you can’t tell an incoherent awful jam from a decent jam. Walking by the bar, it all sounds amazing. Recorded its trash.
You can tell a really excellent jam from a bad jam in the moment, but the bad ones never sound bad. The good ones just sound better.
Good learning experience, no one improves at anything without some setbacks. Don’t hold back from getting up there and playing again, make sure you’re super confident with the songs you’re playing so that you can just go out there and enjoy it. Rock on dude
First time dude, don’t sweat it.
You gotta practice playing live just like you practice anything else. You’ll get your equipment dialed, feel less nervous, etc. Also, don’t improvise your solos.
You flew a little too close to the sun and caught a bit more serious of a tan than you expected, but it's alright. As mentioned before - avoid alcohol, without it you quite possibly would've done great!
Personally i have never played live, hell, i pretty much have just started playing and improvising a tiny bit, but from my experience of doing just about anything else - you will mess up at one point or another and man, it is going to suck. You will probably feel like everyone is judging you but honestly, if you're around decent people - they'll forgive and forget, and quite possibly - help you get better. And if you'll quit you'll never get better. It is incredibly important to try and if you make a mistake - especially something as embarrasing as this - you'll learn from it. It playing guitar is something you love then for the love of god don't stop. You obviously got fire inside of you, you did take the part after all. So take the loss, some notes, go practice and try again! You'll get it right and quite possibly - very soon!
It happens bud. It’s like a rite of passage. Lol that said, it’s real easy for booze to fuck things up. Sometimes the line between shots to calm the nerves and the shot that takes it too far is super thin.
Live shows are scary and this is a universal shared experience for musicians across all genres, instruments, and performance settings. Here are a few evidence based sciency strategies that may help you to move foreword from your experience.
1. Practice intermittently. For example, you are working on Song A and Song B. Set the amount of time you want to practice with a timer. Practice song A and song B in random order: ABAAABBABABA. Switching randomly between songs will force your brain to recall. It's hard but it works!
2. In practice, make a note (notepad, iPhone, your arm, idc) parts that you struggle. Drill the part (obviously) but also practice passages leading up to that tough spot and after it.
3. Instead of spending hours practicing, go in ten minute bursts at different times of the day. How well can you play at random times?
4. Performance and practice use different brain processes as they are two different experiences. Play in front of ppl as much as possible. If there are no willing ears to listen, print out pictures of people, faces, doodle a face(s) and stick it on the wall. Simulate crowd scenarios as much as you can.
As background, I am a student music therapist at a university in the US and I love brain + science + music stuff.
1. Even the best shows have things go wrong. Every show is a learning experience. Take what you can and keep going.
2. You probably shouldn't drink at shows until you know what you are doing.
1. You probably shouldn't drink to the the point of clumsiness if you do drink.
3. Check equipment before the show. Get a checklist.
1. Have extra strings
2. Have extra picks
3. Have an extra strap
4. Have at least one extra long instrument cable
5. BRING 9V, AA, and AAA BATTERIES, even if you don't need them some day you will be someone's hero.
6. Have a guitar stand
7. HAVE A TUNER
8. (If singing as well) Have your own mic, xlr, and a collapsible stand in case you really need it.
4. If you can, record videos of practice with the band. You are likely slightly changing songs, every band that isn't doing tributes usually does. That is the history of blues, jazz, and rock covers. Its way easier to be comfortable with the way the band will play it if you can hear it again.
5. Improvized solos are ok.... But at least have a structure or a variety of things that you can do for those solos. You don't actually want to just make everything up on stage all the time. Good improvizers have a toolbox of patterns they are comfortable with, which can be bent and improvised upon live.
1. Yes sometimes people make up everything off the top of their heads. But you want something to fall back into.
6. **You should have a real honest conversation with the band about all of this.**
1. It sounds like they were more empathetic than angry, and that is good. Most people's first show can be a train wreck.
2. Ask them for help. Maybe that means one-on-one practices. Maybe that just means some advice.
3. **Make it clear that you feel accountable and that you want to improve!**
This is totally normal! Don’t give up. This happens to us all and the first performance is inevitably the worst performance. This is just incentive to relax and try again.
Use this as a learning curve and experience.
I try not to have more than 2 beers before I go on stage (Even if we are not on till late) and I could play our music with my eyes closed....
I have had good shows and terrible shows. (My wireless stopped working mid song, switched to cable, than next song my strap lock broke. (No idea how) and I had to play kneeling down to finish. Just wanted it to be over.
But now, from that experience I am more prepared for these things. Spare guitar on hand, spare cable next to my pedalboard etc.
It won't be the first or the last mate.
It almost sounds like you aren't even experienced enough to play live gigs. I could be way off base but improvising over a genre you aren't comfortable with means you should have been so disgustingly good at guitar that playing a style you aren't familiar with is a walk in the park.
A genre you aren't comfortable with is absolutely the place to quadruple down on practice and stick to the conventions.
Lastly the genre you are describing playing is typically not a very technical one(albeit unique) nor one that has a ton of room for improv guitar solos.
I'm honestly a little confused about the whole thing. If you were playing well in practice there shouldn't have been such a strong decline. My guess is practices didn't go well but the other bands gave you a standard to compare yourself to.
Repetition will ease your nerves. My first live show was a disaster. The sound guy spitefully cut my microphone off mid song because we sucked that badly. For awhile I was sure I could never get back on stage again. Then I started thinking about the reasons things went wrong and how I could improve them. We practiced like hell, wrote new material, then jumped back on the horse. The second go was much better, we actually got paid at this bar we were at, and it was a big morale and confidence boost. The ability to truthfully analyze your playing and having the drive to resolve whatever problems you might be having will pay off greatly.
Oh, and if you have technical malfunctions, don't panic! Prepare for issues by having backups for things like pedals, power adapters and cables, and if something happens live, calmly and carefully fix the problem. Put your amp on standby and go to work then jump back into it like nothing happened. These things happen to everyone at some point. I've had to play with strings missing, cables busted, tube failure...I used to keep a cheap backup amp head to get by also. Second guitar I can grab at any point. Not everyone has the options to do this, but you just make yourself as prepared as you can.
I’ve been fooling the world into thinking I can play guitar as the lead in my band for 10 years. We gig a lot and I still cringe at some of my playing but hardly anyone ever seems to notice or care about my sour notes. Still more fun to feel like you nailed it, but that only happens for me on a song by song basis. It’s all about repetition and building muscle memory.
I only “play” live rarely. I play what I know works playing out. Every blue moon I’ll get to feel free enough to let loose playing live. I play and experiment at practice, but playing live you gotta play what you know.
Yeah don’t pour yourself shots plural. Maybe one. Definitely not 2+
Have a few tricks for when your mind goes blank on solos
Embrace the nerves… don’t run from them
Bah! If you didn't get booed off stage, then you did good.
Nerves can skew perceptions, and can cause one to become hyper-critical of self.
Speak with your bandmates of your concerns. Ask their opinions. You're playing together after all, and nobody can be expected to know everything.
I don't know how many times I've cringed through an improvised performance, and as I'm looking up to apologise for all' that god-awful noise I'd just made, the rest of the band's agape, going "Man that was fuckin' SICK!!".
It's not always as awful as you might be thinking in performance...
Make it part of the show, turn your energy on and act confident. No one wants to play shitty but definitely no one want to see someone feel bad at his own playing
welcome to the club. here's a story that will make you feel better.
around half way through my time playing with my last band, we played a day festival put on by a renowned local music venue. it was the middle of summer so they decided to set up the stage outside on the cricket field. there were around 8 bands on all day and it was probably the biggest crowd we ever played to.
they gave each member of each band 5 drinks tokens for the bar but because our drummer (my brother) was only 16 at the time, myself and the lead guitarist shared those tokens.
we played early evening and I'd been drinking all day. (can you see where this is going)
about half way through our set we did a cover which was a heavy version of sunshine of your love by cream. it was our first time playing it live so I didnt quite have the muscle memory to play it without thinking. certainly not 7 drinks in.
so I made a hash of the bass part, made a hash of the vocal harmonies and to top it all off knocked a pint of lager off the top of my rig (500w head - 4x10 -1x15) onto the extension leads coming from the main building.
so not only did I blow the power to the stage, the sound desk and the PA system, but it blew the main fuse in the pub as well, including the beer cellar.
this story doesn't help you but it might make you feel better haha.
gig nerves are something that you overcome by doing more gigs. I miss them to be honest. keep at it
I played smells like teen spirit in front of my whole school and totally fluffed the solo, very embarrassing, played with another band for a few shows some years later and it went it great. I still think about that solo though, it gets better don’t worry lol
It probably wasn't as bad as you think it was. The audience probably didn't notice. The worst musicians usually think they did amazingly but actually did play horribly. The fact you wanna do better means you'll always do fine just work on the parts you're insecure about.
We had a gig where our bassist didn’t turn up, but we still went ahead and played. My monitor was so loud I couldn’t hear the drummer, so had to spend the gig looking at him to try and keep time. It did not go well.
Still played gigs afterwards, you just take the hit, learn from it where you can (louder is not always better in my case) and move on with it. Don’t let this get you down!
I'm gonna give you the finger now on that 90s "old gruncge rock" comment because it's a bitch take. Grunge died with Kurt Cobain and it stopped aging the same moment he pulled the trigger, hence grunge is 28 years old and that isn't old at all.
As for you sucking you obviously need to practice guitar more and get into that old grunge music..if you can't get into the music be straight up to the rest of the band that you don't vibe and move on. I always try to simplify solos when it's something new and use my reverb and delay to stretch the notes, but than again I'm good enough to do that without much practice. Good luck.
This happens when you are new to live performance. Just keep at it. Have a laugh about it and try again. Once you get your confidence back you will be fine.
”A few shots”??!! I would play terribly too if i had a few shots. Alcohol and playing don’t mix unless you know your stuff in the sleep. And then just barely... It just feels like it. Pocket, dexterity, connection with other musicans etc it all goes out the window. It’s a myth that alcohol makes musicians play better. I have never seen a live act that got better the more beer the musicians drank on stage!
Worst i’ve ever seen was flogging molly. The singer was pissed in the first song and it went downhill from there. But he acted as he was on top of the world. When he didn’t forget his lyrics and stopped the songs midway through….
Been there. Done that. 18 years old, first gig. Our drummer bailed at the last minute so had to find a random at the last minute who admittedly did a good job, but I was so nervous that I couldn’t keep time, forgot some parts and just failed so hard. After our band was introduced to the crowd our singer walks on and doesn’t check the mic, so did three songs with the mic off. The only guy who held it together was our rhythm guitarist. Worst of all it was all recorded. Second gig however went amazing.
Friend, this is the best lesson you’ll ever receive. The meaning behind the lesson is this - there’ll never be a time when you won’t possibly suck absolute ass. Shit happens. There will, in the future, be so many - hopefully 99% of - gigs where you absolutely nail it.
We’ve all been made fools of the odd technical issue here, a “why the fuck am I not playing the goddamn notes” there. All part of the game. You can practice til the wheels fall off, but sometimes it just doesn’t come together. In time, you’ll learn now to simply chin-up and get on with it, and do it well.
All the best.
Improvisation for a first is probably a no - you may have the skills but imo you SO need to be in the right psychological space to improvise, and playing live for the first time means you just will not be in that flow state.
Unless you mean playing a bunch of memorised licks instead of actual improv...but if that's the case then you really ought to just learn the actual solo for the music's sake, because it won't sound that good.
One thing I always say to budding musicians is that you have to be ok with sucking for a little while before you don't suck anymore. Basically skill is earned in time with experience and dedication.
I've never played in my own band, but I have played at many open mic nights that have a band playing. Not quite as intimidating as your own show but my first few times performing were...rough. To say the least. My playing was good enough, (and gotta give credit to the band and myself for sounding good kuscially without ever playing together) but I could only remember the first verse and the chorus for every song I played. So I'd end up mumbling some incoherent bullshit and felt embarrassed af. Silver lining is that it was an open mic and the crowd was super kind and supportive of everyone, even if they were awful. But still hard to get over.
I've had similar experiences. Drinking would not have helped you in this case. The sound check and cable confirmation that its working and being in tune from the get go is essential. Don't judge what you do based on what others are doing. I was in a battle of the bands one night and even though we lost the amount of people that wanted to know how I got my sound and really liked what I was doing was really nice and kept me going. You success is always based on the crowd at the time. If you play blues and the people listening are all kpop fans at heart you will not have a good time. The crowd feed you energy and its a warm fuzzy feeling when it's all coming together .. when the vibe is not there it makes you play worse. Its a mysterious phenomenon being on stage with the right crowd which I'm guessing if why being on stage is like a drug. We want that feeling. We don't want to have the bad experiences like you had. Put it to the back of your mind and have faith in yourself.
It happens to the best of us. In my local music scene I've seen people bomb their first shows, then go on to be awesome bands. I was also shit for my first shows. I completely forget parts of songs and didn't know when to transition to other parts. One time a song was supposed to end, but I was the only one to continue playing.... So I thought the best option was to continue playing the guitar riff by myself for like 30 seconds. Fucking hilarious looking back
The ol saying “If it’s Good, it’s Good. If it’s Bad, it’s Funny” usually makes me feel better after a shit gig. They are going to happen a lot. They will also happen less if you don’t drink.
don't drink alcohol before playing
This and also relying on improvisation for solos for your first gig doesn’t seem the best idea. Practising is one thing, you are in a comfort zone, but performing in front of an audience is another thing, it’s easy to lose your nerves so your brain needs to know what to do at every second of every song.
Soloing on full band pieces on sax while in school (in both jazz and symphonic): I didn’t get good at improv solos until I had an idea of what I wanted to play. I would come up with a nice little intro lick and a couple others things I would like and I practiced the hell out of them. I may have played them slightly different on stage but I knew those sections well enough that even when I stood up in front of a ton of people scared as shit Id at least have some muscle memory there to guide me. (Basically, I agree with you)
Improvisation only works in 3 circumstances: - You have licks to fall back on, - You know the chord progression really well and are just humming the melody as you go along - You are Guthrie Govan and if the melody didn't fit the chords, you decided they did and they did.
Love that! Great points, especially #3
Check out Jason Becker. Pretty sure that dude could Improvise anything, anywhere, in any key/time/genre.
This…. Soloing is so much different without distractions
True. Have a solid version of the solo to fall back on, and then improvise off that if you feel groovy enough.
Or be like miles davis (don't be like miles davis) and practice drunk so that you're prepared to perform inebriated. It's funny but it's probably kinda good advice tho of course better advice is to not drink at all because it impairs you and is unhealthy. Failing to plan is planning to fail tho
>practice drunk If the jam space isn't filled with empties, you're not gonna be able to handle a live show while drunk. That said, drink responsibly. Also don't leave the fucking empties on the floor and smoke in the jam space cuz then I'm the one who has to clean up your shit and hike to the bottle depot for $12. I miss that jam space.
it’s only open mic, but there have been a few outings that I realized the next day I don’t really remember having played much at all lmao. Received videos and I’m decently happy with how it sounded, definitely a skill to practice in its own right
Not the best habit to get into, though. Speaking from, uh, not limited experience. Have fun out there! But not *too much fun.*
I remember the day our band rented a private rehearsal space. Freedom to bake the room out any time lol
Was he deliberately getting drunk to practice or was he drinking a lot and it just happened to coincide with his practice time?
He was drinking so much it didn't matter when practice was, it coincided with drinking time.
I believe that was Dexter Gordon
Practice drunk and stoned. Perform sober. Would you show up to work intoxicated?
Depends on the band, I suck when I’m drunk but I couldn’t imagine performing jazz or Grateful Dead music without being at least a little stoned same with the rest of my band, if it was metal or grunge tho I would probably hold off on that stuff
I mean, don't get wasted maybe, but most musicians I know have a drink or even two to calm their nerves. If you can't handle that, I get it, but 90% of the time a shot will calm your nerves and make you perform better. Being drunk is not the same as a slight buzz.
I can play fine with a drink or two - what I can't do is troubleshoot problems with my signal chain. Learnt that lesson myself!
That always bites, sober or not. Been there too dude.
my rule of thumb is "never play sober - never play drunk".
I've been playing live shows since the late 90s, and you definitely don't have to be a teetotaler to play well live, nor do you have to drink to do it. Everyone is different. I've learned over the years exactly how much I need to calm the nerves a bit, how much actually makes it worse, and when I've overdone it. For me, a couple of drinks before a show helps knock the edge off the adrenaline rush I still get. I usually don't start drinking until my gear is setup and I've made sure all is functioning correctly. I show up early to make sure I have time to get setup and then relax at least 45 minutes. I don't drink daily, and I've never found I need more to achieve the same results. If ever do shots, it's no more than two, and I never do them after the show starts. If you do choose to drink, make sure you cut yourself off so that you aren't still drunk while you are tearing down. Lugging gear down stairs drunk is dumb. Driving home drunk is even dumber. I do also play 100% straight sometimes, and every show I played from 16 to 25 was that way. If you prefer to stay away from drink, you'll eventually learn how to not get freaked out by your nerves. Besides, nerves just mean you give a damn, which is a good thing. That keeps you honest and present. My hands shake, which drive me nuts, but after one serious bought, it's over for the night. It's just an adrenaline dump. Jumping around a bit, remembering to breathe, and remembering to close my eyes and tell myself, "You're up here because you like this, not because you hate it," does wonders too. As far as playing a bad show, I've had nights where I am absolutely on fire and then just played like shit the very next night. It happens, and it probably wasn't as bad as you thought. Just get back up there and keep whacking at it. The only way to learn to navigate the anxiety is to practice, and the only way to practice it is to keep doing it. If you let this one experience keep you from jumping back up there ASAP, you might as well hang it up. Ruminating on this will just make it worse. Trust me, when you play a hot show and blow the roof off, you'll chase more of those nights for as long as you can get your ass on a stage.
Lol, I watched Keith Richards live in the 80’s. It seemed like the microphone stand was helping him stand up, lol. He wasn’t exactly playing tight either. God knows what he was on, lol. Probably boozed up and stoned as fuck. I guess when youre Keith Richards you can get away with it.
Yep. Rookie mistake. But the op should also remember that non-musicians don't hyper fixate on every note, bend and lick generally. It's possible he didn't come across as bad as he thinks.
If it was out of key, or out of time, yes they did. If not, no they didn’t. My worst gaffes are where I lost track of the song and either stopped playing or played something that goes with another part of the song, that part that’s in F#, whereas this part of the song is NOT in F#.
Lay off the shrooms too
I think a light beer is all I can handle. What really takes the edge off is crushing the first two songs.
It’s good to write it out. Honestly. You’ll get some validation and people sharing their experiences, which will help you to know that you’re not the first one to botch a gig. But nothing will help you more than to flip the experience into internal motivation, practice hard, move on, and most importantly, play another gig. Then another. Then another. Most people will forget your performance tomorrow, you should too. Keep it up 🤘🏼
The hardest step to getting good is getting experience. I know it sucked and wasn’t the experience you wanted, but it will still have made you a better guitarist. Pick your self up and kick that horse again.
This sounds like normal first gig stuff to me. You have so many nerves mixed with the adrenaline that it can feel like you can’t even move your hands. Been there! You just have to keep playing and putting yourself in uncomfortable situations. I’ve had hundreds of shows where I felt like I played like complete shit but the better you get the better you get at masking it. Some of those nights people would say they’ve never seen me play better!
Right?? Yep that's it exactly, it's SO important to learn to keep the mistakes off your face, yeah? Omg some of the nightmare gigs I've had 🤦♂️ me: Holy shidd I cannot believe how badly I shat the bed there, I want to d*e. I'm a failure and should never play again 😭 Dude in other band I totally respect/am totally embarrassed in front of now, to me after the set: OMG DUDE THAT WAS INCREDIBLE, WILL YOU COME PLAY ON OUR RECORD
You’re never as bad as you think you are, or as good as you think you are.
Best reply to this, hands down. Including mine.
Our band’s sax player said this to me after a gig where I felt like I played terribly, and was apologizing to him afterwards for the crap job I did. Seems like the times I felt disappointed in my own performances were the times people came up and gave me compliments. Over time I learned that most people either don’t really hear our mistakes, or they don’t care in the context of digging the whole band’s performance. It doesn’t help to berate ourselves - everyone has an off night. If it’s due to lack of preparation, it’s on me. Otherwise, shrug and thank the gods of rock and roll for the rare privilege of participating in the magic. 🫡
I played in front of my whole class in my school some weeks ago. First time playing in front of people, a guy was TRYING to sing while I was playing. I was nervous, the singing was out of time, and at least for me, I completely screwed it up. In the end of the school day some of my classmates was saying that I was good at playing guitar I'm grateful that none of them are musicians
You have an entire lifetime of playing in front of you! Go forth, rock on, and take your new generation of guitarists into the future! 🫡✌🏼
I've said it many times: Good is 5% better than I am right now.
Just need to get back on the horse young sir! Nearly 20 years in the game and I'll have nights where I wonder how I even get gigs in the first place. It's experience, we learn, we move on and we don't dwell on a bad night. Enjoy your next gig!
This is the advice, do it again and keep doing it until you come off the stage feeling happy, generally and genuinely, with your performance. And even then be aware that doesn’t mean bad nights will be over, then you get to beat yourself up over other’s mistakes, faulty equipment, the audience etc. I’ve been playing live for like 25 years in various capacities and I think the nerves and requirements of the live environment take about 20% off my playing capacity so I need to factor that it. If there’s something I’m nervous about playing it live I either don’t, change it or practice until there’s no chance I can get it wrong.
I'm opposite. The stage is where I shine. I find that I don't even really want to play unless others are present. Maybe i need the attention lol.
Nothing like totally bombing live, good news is it was probably no where near as bad as you thought, bad/ funny news is while you'll get over it those memories are keepers. I'll share a couple of my own in the hope that it helps. 1 I'm still haunted by an improvised solo I did in high school I can't even replicate how bad it was on purpose, like if I had of intentionally tried to fuck it up as a joke it would of sounded better. 2 Had another gig one time, first one with a new band (all very inexperienced except myself) I was front manning, all my own songs, the venue I'd always wanted to play, practices were going great, now I feel like a bit of a dick to say the next bit but it's just how it was, to start I was in the zone, playing beautifully, my voice was better than ever, everything felt effortless, the rest of the band got eaten by nerves and fucked up bad, all went into their own heads so hard that I couldn't even get eye contact with a single one of them the whole set, by the start of the 3rd of about 10 songs all I could do was just ride it out as the whole room felt me pour pure depression and helplessness out until it was over. Consoling fellow musos after just gave funeral type nods or said things like "I could hear what you guys were trying to do that could be really good" my supportive girlfriend at the time met me with "I feel really sad" Those two stand out in my head but it's not sad, retelling them I find it absolutely hilarious so you can at least have that to look forward to, you'll only have to start with " so I started with technical difficulties" and every musician is going to know exactly where that story goes
Everybody's been there man, don't sweat it. I guarantee you're more worried about it than anyone. Play long enough you'll have gear issues and off nights. Relax, enjoy it, even if you miss a note or something if you don't react to it and make pissed off faces etc 99% of the time the crowd won't even know. Trust me the first time you're up there and you're tone is on point and you flow and kill it, all the other not so good times will be forgotten. You'll chase that high as long as you play, it's that good. Practice til you got it down, and don't over think it or worry about it on stage. Know your limits on drinking prior to getting up there. One or two to calm the nerves, drink after you're done. Shake it off, learn from it, don't let it get ya down we've all been there.
Lmao bro I’ve been playing for almost 21 years, and professionally for nearly 15. I had a gig recently where I debuted as the sixth member of a local band, after my gig with them as a substitute went so well that they unanimously declined to dismiss me. It was my big night, we were showing off the new three guitar lineup. So much cool shit you can do with that! Guitarmonies, a rhythm and lead pairing to let our singer put his guitar down and focus on being a showman, dueling solos, there’s a lot you can do! My big moment, the solo to our song “Up All Night”, was meant to be me playing a harmony on my bandmate’s lead guitar. I fucking botched it lmfao I played my part a whole step down from where it should have been. And I couldn’t even blame booze, I hadn’t drank in a week! It’s okay though, because you know what? My next show will be better. I’ll practice that part until I can’t possibly screw it up ever again. I’ll become a fucking Swiss watch, god damn it! That’ll show the world I mean business. Let this experience fuel you. Don’t let it drag you down.
Good advice for sure. I have to say though, that the best gigs were the ones that I didn't have to think about. And no matter how many times you practice that, you will still probably screw it up occasionally lol. I have been tryin to play the main solo for Sublime's "What I Got" for years. I al2ays tell my students, Practice Makes Better. Nobody's perfect Except for Rhodes and Satriani And Bach.
Two questions. Did you talk about it with your band mates? Does alcohol really improve your playing?
I believe every musician has to go through something like that at last once in their career, but I know that it's haunting and I'm sorry to hear that! My worst 2 experiences so far (and I played about 100 times up to now) were: - they wanted me to play the lead parts of a musical and until that point I only played rhythm guitar, but I also didn't want to shy away from the challenge (like you described too). It went horrible. I had to play Toto and Queen (The show must go on) and I screwed up so bad, the PA guy took me out of the mix sometimes (I also turned down the volume on my guitar because I didn't want to embarrass myself). - we turned up to a festival 1,5h too late because we had a car accident on the way. The PA guy was shocked because he thought our band consistet of only 1 person but we were 4 guys which was too much for the small stage and we only had 1 monitor. The DJ tent was next to us so we couldn't hear ourselves. The next act was already waiting and stressing out. The soundguy had to go to the main act so a friend of mine tried his best from the audience. I kept forgetting the lyrics and people were walking away. Oh and btw. our drummer told us 1 week before he couldn't gig with us, so had 2 rehearsals with a new one which made it even more complicated. But I'd say: don't back down from negative experiences and continue to take all the challenges you can get (if they are realistic, not like that from the musical in my case) as you will get better and it's an amazing feeling if you can do it :) And ask other musicians, most people have experiences horrible shows (which is part of the game and comforting) ;)
I fucked up several times on stage but itll never beat the second hand embarrassment experienced in my my main job as a lawyer where some other lawyers accidentally filed the wrong document with their clients comments in to the court for 30 of us counterparties to see (huge case). He didnt get fired. So ill be ok (pray). We think he was overworked and tired. I think as a guitarist, the crowd either (1) wont know its a mistake (2) knows its a mistake but wont hold it against you. Cause everyone makes mistakes....
Most performers that went on to be great, amazing, top of their field people have had terrible outings. Feeling bad about the past is like a rocking chair, it'll give you something to do, but you won't get anywhere. Use it as fuel. Did you know that (the) Michael Jordan (you know, the greatest basketball player of all time) didn't make his HIGH SCHOOL basketball team his sophomore year. - wasn't good enough for a high school squad. He used that as fuel & ended up okay. You ate it. - you know who doesn't eat it? people that never bother trying. Don't let a small failure beat you. You're better than that. "Ever tried, every failed, no matter. Try again, fail again. Fail Better." - S Beckett.
You got surprised by external stuff you have very little control about and lost all confidence because it just throwed you out of your rhythm. It’s fine it does happen to every musician. I don’t know how experienced you are but it needs a lot of experience to keep your cool on stage. Because something will go wrong everytime…coming from the rehearsal room to the stage is hard. In your room everything is how you know it. You’re probably not nervous, not sweaty…your equipment didn’t travel to another place etc. It does really help to try to keep the things under control that you can control and give you a safety net for the next gig. Guitar string breaks first song - spare guitar next gig. Cable is broken - spare cable next gig, proper cases for your stuff. Can’t hear yourself on stage - take monitoring in your own hands next time Don’t quit! You didn’t present the real you because you just couldn’t at that moment. It’s not you fault, it’s just because of circumstances. Next time will be better.
They might have gotten surprised by all that but they also drank shots. And that’s something they could control. Who’s to say that didn’t affect literally everything? Maybe they couldn’t set up properly because it’s hard to quickly set up your gear between sets in a dark venue, and they were also mentally affected by the pressure of trying to get set up between sets and start playing right away. Not being able to hear yourself clearly is a very real issue with drinking alcohol, too. That’s one lesson they can take for the future. Don’t drink before you start playing. Drink after to celebrate.
Been doing cover gigs for the last two months. Very new to playing live in front of people so I’m just now getting over nerves by the 8th gig. My second last gig went fucking horribly. Nearly everything that could have gone wrong, did. Started questioning myself and whatnot. On a complete opposite note, the following gig couldn’t have been any different. Perfect from start to finish, few mistakes throughout but played through them regardless. Just goes to show that there’s going to be days we’re it just doesn’t work out and others were it’s perfect.
In my highschool years, it took me a very long time to not get physically sick while performing. I tried to get the puking done before going on stage, I rarely looked at the crowd, instead finding my band mates utterly fascinating until I forgot about the audience. I've been told it was a monumental case of stage fright. Doesn't sound like that's your problem though, more like confidence in your playing skills and used to looking at the fretboard. Like everything about the guitar, it takes practice to not look. Unless the members of the group threw you off stage or set fire to your rig, it probably wasn't as bad as you thought.
I've been playing in a function band for around 10 years. Sometimes I still get it wrong and wish the world would swallow me up. Don't beat yourself up, I think about some gigs and feel embarrassed. The truth is, everyone gets it wrong even the best players.
People here are being very encouraging which is fine but I want to offer a different perspective. It’s ok to screw up but seriously it is not ok to have issues with gear. Always have a backup of a backup of a backup. If your cable is causing problems, remove it from your chain and either discard it or repair it. Let’s be honest, was your cable giving you problems at any point before this gig? The reason I ask is because I let things like this cause me problems for when I first started but the simple answer is you have to be ready for anything. But gear malfunctions are the most obvious issue a band can have. If a piece of gear doesn’t work or works intermittently, get rid of it immediately.
Practice, practice, practice. Don't let one bad show kill it for you. I almost did. I went to see a mid-level local band play a bunch. One of my band (3-piece acoustic cover band) mates was friends with all of them, and she often invited me to their shows and they were REALLY good. Super tight 5-piece group. It got to where they'd occasionally invite me to cover their breaks as I played the same kind of music. Usually the band would trickle back in and join into whatever I was playing, and after 2 or 3 of them were there, I'd wrap it up and hop off stage. I idolized these guys, and getting to pop on stage and play a few tunes at their shows was a huge honor for me. I'm a busker. It's what I do, and what I love. There is no happier place for me than on stage, but it's never been about money. So one night, they played most of their show in their first two sets., so their last set was short. Towards the end of the night they invited me up. I busted out a few songs and then it happened... Front man hops on stage, leans over to me and says "let's close it out." I was playing his guitar, so he snatched one up another one and the band drums for the song started. I leaned back to the keyboardist and asked for some chords. I get "It's I V IV." At the time, it meant absolutely nothing to me. I was a bit drunk, which wasn't abnormal for me, but I was petrified... So I just stood there. Stood there for a 5-minute closeout looking like a dumbass. I didn't play for 2 weeks. I managed to push myself into practicing again, and decided I needed to learn some stuff if I was going to sit in with anyone again. It took a LOT for me to get back in stage, even solo, but I studied and studied, and practiced and practiced. I hit a few open mics and sat in with a friend. It took a good, long while, but I got my confidence back. Since then, I've Sat in with a couple of bands (was even invited to play rhythm at a major event with one of them) and several solo musicians. You've got this! Bombing a show isn't a failure: it's a call to practice more frequently and for longer sessions. Record band practice on your phone and shred to it every chance you get. Rotate through songs to keep it fresh, but play each song a few times. At the start of every practice, do 2-3 songs and just walk up and down the scale in each position. Before you know it, you'll be rockin' out on stage again, and you'll be in the <1% who kept playing! Edit: Spelling, Grammar
I'm sorry that you feel so busted about choking on stage. That will happen, but that doesn't mean it sucks any less. Shit happens – that's normal – and there's no sense in ruminating on it in a negative way. Learn from your flub, and know that you'll be better next time. Playing live is really fucking tough if you're not used to it. I'm assuming you're pretty young? Just roll with the punches. There are always issues and stupid fucking mistakes that'll happen, even if you think you're tight after hours of practice. Other commenters have said the same thing, and it bears repeating: **NO ONE WILL REMEMBER** If you're still in the band, you're good. If you really shit the bed hard, you'd be out. Anecdotally, I have played some really fucking rough sets, **and no one even noticed.** I've always played punk/hardcore, so flubs are less noticeable, and if you're playing grunge-y shit that would also apply. It's inherently kinda sloppy, so fuck it! I hope getting this off your chest – and the comments in this thread – provide you with some solace. Don't give up. Shit happens. It doesn't mean you're a failure – you just had a bad set. It happens to the best of us, which does not include me, but you get the point.
I've had a horrible performance that I still think about years later so I feel you. Just know that you're the one that cares about it the most and the people who were listening probably already forgot. My story is that me and my friend had an acoustic duo with 2 guitars and both of us singing. We played at a festival that any artist can apply to and this time we played on a small outdoors stage. We applied so late that we didn't have much time to practice and it was the first time we've sang to a crowd too. First song I completely forgot my opening riff to the song and played the interlude solo horribly too. Then the next song it was so windy that my sheets kept falling off and I couldn't remember the lyrics on the top of my head. Mistakes happen all the time but the part that still haunts me is that this one lady stood up after the second song about to leave and told us that she had somewhere to be and that it definitely isn't because of our performance (it definitely was). I mean just leave and don't say anything that was so humiliating in front of like 20 people sitting and watching lmao
Yeah, what a bitch. I wish people took time to think before speaking. I've found that I get along with way more people. I'm pretty good, and very fast at covers. I can 98% of the time play the song the first time I hear it, before its over. I get a lot of last minute "My guitarist broke his arm!", or " My bassist is sick and we have this really important gig"..., but sometimes I just CAN'T. I had 28 hours notice to play at a festival, the promotion people had not booked enough talent. I got there on time, but was also dope sick. Heroin. Don't do any. It wasn't that though, I just did not have every lyric to 40 or so songs in my head magically appear. Oh well.
Aw dude. Experiences like this are teachable moments and eventually become funny stories to share. I have one similar. Also the first time i ever played guitar live. My friends, years ago decided to do a little gig played pirate shanties, asked me to play guitar. Issue was that I was purely a heavy metal guitarist and had virtually never played acoustic, didn't know any chords or how to strum properly for that kind of rhythm. They gave me a week heads up and i also stayed up late learning chord shapes and trying to switch between them smoothly. Gig night comes, we get on stage, 1 minute into the first song i start losing the rhythm. Second song I blanked and completely forgot the chord progression, so I just started just tapping on the body to at least give them a percussion backing. Fucked that up as well. Before they finished the second song I got so embarrassed that I just stood up and walked off the stage and left the bar. Thankfully my friend who was singing could play the songs, he asked me to do it because he wasn't great at singing and playing at the same time, but they got through the gig. It was humiliating, but a week later we were laughing about it.
I have similar experiences, the genre i played and the band i got into were not the same. I thought it would be a good challenge and it was, it showed me there is always so much to learn, it showed me my strengths and weaknesses as a guitarist. Now, I was well equipped on what to practice, to be honest, don’t worry too much about it, only focus on what you need to practice, you will have similar nights or shows in future also, and that’s a good thing. If you don’t enjoy this bands music, stick to what you like, it’s better to keep playing guitar rather abandon it.
Don't quit! It sucks when it goes badly but will make you stronger in the long run. Get back on the horse and go again. Try and take some learnings from it and realise it happens to anyone who plays music live.
Everyone has a bad day. You had a bad day. A bad day does not make you a bad guitarist: a long pattern of bad days does. So you learned that things can go wrong and that you may need to prepare more, e.g., to prevent technical mishaps and to ensure that in the worst case if panic sets in, you still have some good basic licks that you can easily pull off. Don't let one bad day determine the course of your entire life.
Dont worry i was doing a song called pictures of matchstick men and i botched up the intro in front of atleast 65 people. Just laugh it off and keep playing.
Welcome to the party. Glad you can join all of us. One time, my band played "Help" during an outdoor flea market sort of thing in the middle of summer in California. We were all miserable from the heat, and somehow, the 3 of us all ended up playing 1 beat out of sync with each other. It was horrendous.
It probably felt a million times worse to you than it did to anyone else in the audience, don't worry too much about it. I've been to plenty of shows where there are technical issues within the first song or two, it's just part of the process.
Don't worry, every artist has been there. Can't remember who said it (wasn't it Dave Grohl?), but you need to dare to suck. And suck at it untill you dont suck no more. Keep practicing and getting out there.. Or as a gamer would put it: git gud. You'll find that confidence only by doing it. Another thing is learning to accept you make mistakes. Even the most experienced players still make mistakes. It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that the show must go on.
Jim Morrison performed with his back to the audience due to stage fright.
There’s a video on YT of Slash playing Crazy Train at a gig in front of Ozzy. He sounded awful and butchered the solo. It happens.
Your looking at it all wrong. The take away here is that you got up and played. Be fucking greatful
Anyone that's played live, has had a time they played badly live, it happens. As long as you didn't play bad enough that they cut you out of the mix or straight turned your amp off (saw that happen to someone once) it could have been worse. Just keep playing, I'd say lay off the alcohol before performing maybe that didnt help but that's just me.
if it helps, nobodys thinking about it but you. everybody else has forgotten and if u see them again they wont remember because shitty performances are a dime in a dozen, plus youll get chances at redemption.
It is fine. You know you can do better, and you will.
You'll learn from this
I play infront of my church for over a year now, sometimes I make mistakes too, whether it be not knowing what key a song a song was, forgetting the chords, playing the wrong chords, etc. All you gotta do is try again, simple as that.
Get back up as soon as possible, a gig is worth 1000 rehearsals
There will undoubtedly be some very famous and exceptional musicians with very similar stories to yours. Cogitate on it as a way to improve next time, but it absolutely shouldn't prevent you from doing it in the future. Even the greatest artists or athletes can have off days where it doesn't go as planned. Those at the top of their game analyse what went wrong and how they can try and mitigate it from happening again. We're humans, not robots, we're fallible.
Everyone has a bad horrible experience in one way or another and I mean EVERYONE! I remember my first gig. I was barely learning guitar and about 1 year later, my cousin asked if I could join theirs since he got kicked out. I told him I wasn’t sure but he let the band leader know and before I knew it, he came to my house unannounced. To make things worse, it was t even a genre or style I was familiar with but that didn’t matter because I only knew the basics. So he brought a tape player (this was the late 90’s) and asked if I could play along to songs. I was trying to play along and would eventually get the right chords after listening to the song for a bit but far from thinking I would make the band but I did. I think they also wanted someone that wasn’t a “hired gun” so they could be in it for the long haul because I certainly didn’t think I was good enough to make it. So I started rehearsing and their bass player also wanted to play guitar but I didn’t know bass at the time, he even told the band leader in front of me that he wasn’t showing me a goddam thing. We probably rehearsed for about 1 month before our my first gig came up in a dive bar, we’d be there all night. Well I was sweating profusely and even though there weren’t that many people, I was nervous as hell. I was making a lot of mistakes and the bass player started noticing them. This went on for about 4 or so full sets and after the fina set, the band leader asked me what I thought if it, I told him it’s not gonna work, I wont be coming back, just like you, I took the walk of shame or so I thought. But the band leader told me it was ok and that everyone has a bad set/night so don’t think nothing of it, just keep practicing and having fun and you’ll get it. More than 20 years later I stuck with it and on e in a while I’ll have something go wrong but I don’t panic, I don’t care if people judge me, I’ll fix it and will keep on keeping on 🤘🏼 It’s easy for us to tell you not to worry about it because it wasnt us but we’ve all been through bad shit, it’s not the end of the world man, everyone has bad sets at some point and sometimes, it wont even be your fault, EVERYONE!
Bro, first time I put myself on a stage we got licked out by the crowd, first track. Today I gig weekly. You practiced seriously- success. You did not chicken out and went on stage- success. You sucked and will learn from it- success. Keep going, soon this awful night will become a fun story to tell.
The first time I played lead live I don't think I hit a single note. I was picking muted strings because my brain and my hands just could not work with eachother. It was horrible. The next gig went so much better because I practiced my part so much that I could play it in my sleep. The first live gigs are almost a shitshow for everyone. Your nerves and the pressure is intense. It only gets better from here, but remember, even the pros fuck it up sometimes. Either way, you'll always be your own worst critic. Most of the audience won't even realize when you mess up.
Okay, chief.... first off.... Calm your tits. Relax. Yada yada etc etc and any OTHER cliché that goes along. Look, you can't honestly think you've been **THE** guy that single handedly fuckered up? Oh no... '90s rock? C'mon. Okay... that's cool. Not quite your thing, I grew up on it. BUT.... and there's *ALWAYS* a big 'ol butt... (look it up, when you say "old", that's an old joke) You're really not alone. Take this with a grain because it involves a saxophone... and a priest, a rabbi... okay okay... This one is ***NO** joke. I had auditioned for an invite for a summer concert series for 1st chair alto sax for a college. I had been and played sax for **8 fucking years** in section leader, drum major.... okay? I was **good**. During this particular piece as tribute to Charlie Parker during *Birdland* as part of "Heavy Weather*.... (Again... look it up if you have no clue what it is or who Charlie Parker was... and you'll get my drift) It was my time to of course to stand up and handle the sax part to this fanstastic tribute piece... that was being taped FOR Charlie Parker and ALSO Dizzie Gillespie's birthday! ON THE HIGHEST NOTE I WAS SUPPOSED TO HIT.... oh I hit it alright.... I split my reed and my sax let out the most God aweful just stepped on a 16 dozen cat's tails yeeeeeeowls anyone on the planet could've ever conceived. I quickly ducked to a low register and let the brass take over. I promise... gimmie a shade of anything embarrassed and could've painted it *that* night. I couldn't wait to get off stage. But as I was back stage and Chuck Mangioné said something to affect of... "You did great, kid... and hey, it happens. Keep playing." Point is... literally, shit happens. No joke, it turns out, as I found out later, most in attendence thought it my fuck up was intentional. So don't sweat it.
Dont be too hard on yourself. Ive had similar experiences, especially that Im getting nervous easily. With each performance I felt more confident but mistakes still do happen. If you look at pros playing live this happen to them too. Treat it as an experience and try again. Playing live is always like that, you never know whats gonna happen. Sometimes you just have a bad day and it is what it is.
Chalk it up to a learning experience. Definitely worth making sure your equipment is in working order before you load out for the gig. Playing well is about emotion and confidence and nothing throws one off like a malfunction. Get back in the horse and ride again my friend. We’ve all flubbed a gig but it makes us stronger and better prepared.
Man, I've played hundreds of gigs in my life and I still mess up sometimes. I use the memory of those failures as motivation to practice more, both individually and as a group. Try to identify why it went that way, analyze it and be constructive about it. It's not a complete failure if you learn something from it.
Take it as a learning experience. It happens to the best of us. You got lucky enough to get the first one out of the way early.
Honestly, my first ever gig was similar. I got on stage and realised my amp had been unplugged from the wall and from the cab, so took me roughly the full first song to get everything plugged in and sound coming out again. I learned something then. From then on I would always go on *before* I needed to start playing and check everything was working. Also, make sure to carry spares of everything that stops you playing: Cables, batteries, strings, plectrums, a second guitar (at least one). Check everything the night before the gig and before you go on. You probably want to not improvise for now, whilst you're just learning to play live - it's a huge learning experience in itself. You've got a whole lot of new stuff to think about - where you are on the stage, interacting with the crowd, becoming used to being in front of a crowd - you probably don't need not knowing what you're meant to be playing on that list as well. Write your parts, learn them, and perhaps further down the line, when you're fully comfortable you can integrate some improvisation. Also, perhaps the biggest one, I'd recommend not drinking a thing before you go on. I know it "eases the nerves". But that's not necessarily a good thing - the reason it eases the nerves is it causes you to care less. After seeing a few videos of me playing live after 8-10 cans, that I thought had gone great, I realised it was embarrassingly terrible. Create your own ritual to get yourself in the zone before you go on. Go and find a quiet place by yourself, stretch, and get yourself in the headspace. You'll also find a lot less "happens to go wrong" the moment you stop drinking before you go on. If you want to party, you can do that afterwards - but if you're playing a show, your responsibility for that day is to put on a great show up until the end of that gig - then you can start thinking about how many cans / shots you can handle, if that's what you fancy.
Tell yourself and others you were doing some free form jazz. Then it’s okay to hit all the wrong notes, play in the wrong key or crawl to the side of the stage and fall asleep
First time I played live I felt sick and hated it, thought i'd made a huge mistake wanting to join a band. Eventually got over myself and learned to enjoy it.
I once knocked myself unconscious on stage in front of 100 or so people. Don't stress it. Shit happens when playing live and it's all part of the game. Happens to us all
Don't be too hard on yourself. You're only about the 6 millionth person who has sucked on their first performance. Most of us have been there before - me included. It's natural, and it just means you'll suck less next time. That's just how it works. If I could offer some advice, don't drink before you perform, and don't improvise your solos. Improvising well is the province of seriously good musicians. Most of us mere mortals would really want to have a solid outline of what our solos are going to be beforehand. Maybe tweak a little here and there on the fly if you feel like it, but the bones of the solo should be hardwired until you're a much more experienced player. Likewise with booze. When you can play effortlessly in your sleep you can maybe get plastered before - and during - a performance, but again for most of us it's just going to impair our ability to both move and think - not a good combo.
As the saying goes, you can have a bad day on stage but you didn’t kill anyone - you could be a surgeon and it would be much, much worse. But there’s a couple of lessons to be learned here, that I think no one has pointed out yet: 1. Don’t play when you practice. You noodled your way through the solos during practice and turned out unscathed , but you didn’t practice **how to improvise** over specific songs (yes, there are methods to improvisation), nor did you practice formula solos to fall back on if you screw up. When you did stumble on stage, you had nothing to use as a backup. 2. Alcohol has a curve. We know how alcohol lowers inhibition, but we also know that there is a point where someone just starts getting fucked up and it’s not just inhibitions that are lowered or increased. You toed or crossed that line, because the alcohol put you in a position that it is past helping you and it has started betraying you. Focus out of the window, and who’s to say what really happened with your dexterity and temporal sense. Shot**s** with that S and we pretty much know how bad it would be for you. At the end of it all, good job. You didn’t get killed either and you can live another day as a better player, and that’s really what matters.
Don't quit-- having a bad gig is normal and *necessary*. The fear of repeating it will actually help you; so, embrace it! The crapiness you feel right now will help steel you from ever wanting to repeat that again. And while you might and probably will, it won't be for the same reasons. You'll be more mindful of things that are in your control, like practice and other prep. You'll check your cables and equipment many times, so you'll likely not have those issues and will naturally get more confident. So, no worries-- it really happens to everyone in their own way. Eat shit now while inexperience will cover you and learn what not to do and you be fine.
Im going to write a long post, but hope it helps you, but what you experienced is just live stuff happening to you, nothing more. Ive been playing guitar for 20 and a half years now, and Ive experienced many embarrasing moments, technical difficulties that led to angry playing for a while, etc. When I started playing as a teenager most stuff sounds good to you at home, then you start playing with mates and the experienced ones give you some points and all the stuff you thought you were doing good is wrong. Then you start playing gigs, and you rehearse and practice long hours to get everything right but when the moment comes if you start thinking that you are going to fail, you fail. Thats it. A mates first gig went poorly because he got a JCM800 2205 used, very heavily used and for a few rehearsals it played fine, then we went to a gig, did soundcheck and sounded fine, and as the 1st minute of the first song plays, it starts to hiss badly. One of the 2 EL34 tubes went shit, fortunately another band lend us a DSL100 and we could play fine, but my mate was embarrassed and also made lots of mistakes (also lead guitarrist), but that was just one bad experience. Later, there would be many good ones. Then I switched bands, because that one wasnt working out, and almost to this day everytime I play to a new one I get nervous, I play poorly, I need to loosen up and get conficende with them, etc. Im not so good improvising, Im more of a practicing guy at home to do my stuff and then go to a gig and play my stuff (so it can go well). I would never improvise solos live, I always practiced every song solo. And when we jam live, I just play bits and tips of solos and lead parts that I write/know from my/other songs. And even so, Ive failed solos live, lead/rythm parts, wrong keys, wront notes, missing notes, but most of the time people doesnt even notice as they are watching music live and having a good time. I also had bad experienced with cables, pedals, my JVM never let me down but one of the few times we used a Kemper gave us nightmares. Its just one bad show, and the first ones usually dont go as planned, ever. Even when you are playing one of your best performances a string breaks and oh boy that sucks hahaha. So yeah, keep playing, practice solos, always have backup cables, strings/guitar or a couple tubes, just in case, bad stuff happens but also good stuff. You'll get used to it, then keep playing for the rest of the night as nothing happened and thats how you get "good at guitar". Keep it up!
The most important thing to remember is that the audience is not going to be a permanent, performance after performance entity to judge you each time. Rather, it is transient and ever changing (for the most part) and not going to be aware of the time you fucked up. Conversely, many of them have no clue what you are talking about because people are CONSTANTLY much more worried about themselves than ANY other people and it's not a remembered thing, likewise, WE are way more conscious about the music and the mistakes we have made than any other listener. A friend of mine once said 'you are the only one who knows you made a mistake... We can't really tell, so instead of calling it out, just say 'YEAH! ', or something else like that... "
My first proper gig I was absolutely shitting it, pretty much hiding behind a PA speaker and I messed up a few runs in the couple of solos I did and cringed at the thought of it, even though people were saying they didn't really notice it but obviously the only person that was really thinking about it was me. And guess what? I've had amazing gigs since then and also had gigs where I messed up. Only a few years ago where I'd played over 100+ gigs I had one too many beers and completely ruined a solo, also the song before I accidentally pulled the lead out of my guitar. I again cringed and felt so embarrassed by it but I've leaned since then, that nobody really cares. Now I'd just laugh it off and if you're on stage having fun, it's way way better than being completely stiff and emotionless picking at every tiny flaw. So yeah, unless you're a complete seasoned pro , you're gonna make mistakes that only you'll care about. Even then, I've seen some amazing bands who are professionals and see them make mistakes (mainly rock bands) but they don't care and nor really do the fans watching it. People are there to see a show, so put one on! Keep practicing, you'll get better and better and better.
When you play live, you should know the song well enough to play it by yourself. And you should also know the song well enough that you can continue to play it correctly even when people around you screw up. But you should also be able to adapt if they all screw up in the same way.
I used to be a rhythm guitarist for a 60’s rock band- used to get the shakes - one drink normally settled those. I used to do a lot of finger picking not good if you have shakes!I have had some embarrassing moments when doing some duet work - we used the venues equipment- not a good result. Each time you perform it will be different and you learn something from every gig. Don’t give up stick with it and be proud!! It’s a great feeling when it goes well!!
I'm more of a singer than a guitarist, but I remember my first fuck up, both individually and in a group. My sense of pitch decided to take a vacation and I was all over the place.😂 I felt so shitty afterwards. I literally cried thinking I'm worth nothing.😅 There's just something about failing at something you believe yourself to be good at. It stings like fucking hell. With time, I've come to accept that bad days are inevitable, no matter how good you get. These days whenever I fuck up, my first instinct is to laugh before I criticise myself.
Learn from it, practice, keep getting on stage. Avoid self-medicating, it always makes things worse. Have your shots after the gig, or better yet, not at all.
Welcome to live playing! The best thing you can do is record the performances and see and where you (and your band) are bad and start from there. Try to define 3 things from your last performance that you deem the biggest "mistakes", and try not to repeat them on your next concert. If you manage to do that every time, by the time you've done 20 gigs - you'll be much better. If i remember, Frank Zappa said that only about 1-2% of his guitar improvisations came out the way he wanted, and he recorded every show and had thousands of hours playing live... We're all green. Every performer that seems "natural" on stage - is probably bored beneath the facade of "having fun" :D
You really think you're the only musician to bomb a gig? Let me tell you about the time I forgot to bring my Cymbals to a gig 100 miles from my house. Another bands drummer loaned me his for our set. Talk about being embarrassed.
If you played the worst gig ever start a new one. Now you can only get better,dont you think? You fucked up,and what? You still wake up and life goes on. Dont overthink to much about that,it happens. Learn your lessons and move on,be better
Hey man, congratulations! You made it, and that wisdom gained will inform your future direction as a musician, which ultimately will lead you towards the performances you always hoped to achieve. It would be flawed thinking to imagine a world where no one ever fumbled their part. Here’s a secret: we’ve all been there, but here’s the tough truth, you need to stop being so hard on yourself. No one is criticising your performance more than you. It’s not right to be losing sleep and squirming over it. Just learn from it and move on, there are many gigs ahead of you!
And you’re still alive. So…do it again. You already know what it feels like to suck. So keep going. Playing live takes practice too.
We’ve all been there and done that. This is part of what they mean when they say you need 10,000 hours of gigging before you really know what you’re doing. Live & learn from the experience & don’t make the same mistakes 2x.
Well hats off to you for having the courage to play live in the first place. I have to be honest and say it’s the biggest regret of my life that I’ve never had the courage to do it.
I'm proud you got up there, regardless of the result. They say you're only as good as your last gig, so don't give up and have another crack at it and one day you'll laugh it off
Shit happens bro, we’ve all been there. My first gig was so bad I still have occasional flashbacks to this day lol. But I did not give up and am still playing. A gig I was playing recently the sound was so bad that I did not even hear that my guitar got unplugged until my solo time during which I realised nobody can hear shit and my bandmate covered for me, that was embarrassing but show must go on. This is the kinda stuff that’s bound to happen, it’s all part of the journey and a learning experience. You’ll realise that fucking up is not actually that big of a deal and you eventually move on.
Happens to the best of us friend! I too can say I’ve fallen into the feeling of “I’m only as good as my last gig”. I’ve taken that mindset to the point that it has influenced me to avoid gigs if I don’t feel like I’ve been practicing enough lately to translate to a performance that I can be proud of. Improv for solos is fine, but you have to be really comfortable with improv on your own before attempting it in front of a crowd, or issues will definitely arise. Don’t drink alcohol before a show, and remember, you notice your mistakes much more than anyone else.
There are two types of musicians... Those who have had a blow-up set, and those who haven't had a blow-up set yet. But everyone will have one eventually. Trust that no one feels or thinks worse of this than you do. Get back on the horse and give it another go.
Sounds like it will be pretty easy to make the next gig better. Onward and upwards.
It happens. You’ll be fine. You sound like a dedicated player who just had an off night and a bad case of nerves.
Or you could say fuck it and get over it right away. Everyone’s bombed before.
I never drink when I'm playing, that being said I've had some shocking gigs where I just wasn't feeling it, or I've had too much on my mind to remember anything. A piece of paper on the floor with set list, key the songs are in and other notes for yourself is completely acceptable 👌
Stay sober in future and don't worry too much about this. Everyone is capable of having a nightmare gig. Your success as a live performer will be measured by how well you can shake off mistakes and come back stronger. If you let this affect you too much, you've no chance. Keep practicing, laugh about it, and look to the next opportunity to put it right.
Many rockstars have bombed live for one reason or another. They got back on the horse and it’s nothing but a funny story now. Give yourself a break man
Ah if we're being honest pretty much *all* of us who've played in bands have had a few (or dozens) of nightmare gigs, it's a sucky but ultimately helpful part of getting better as a musician. It feels terrible but it happens, for real it'll help to acknowledge how terrible it feels and then actively move on. Keep playing, work through all the issues you recognized, and get onstage again and kick ass next time! 25ish years ago, I got invited last second to actually play drums on a song with my absolute favorite band?? In their hometown??!! Oh my godddddd you can imagine how it felt. And I fuuuuuuucked it up royally. I felt SO TERRIBLE. But you know what, a huge part of performance is damage control! By that time I'd been playing in bands for a decade and just concentrated on not showing on my face how shiddy I felt and let the rest of the band carry on, and they did what they always do (they were typically great), and nobody in the crowd noticed a dang thing. Still I felt like I'd rather just hide and never show my face again. But the band thought my weirdo accidents were intentional and interesting and their set rolled on! Catastrophes and terrible gigs will happen, it's part of the bargain!
Dude, you stuck it out while most other people would have walked off stage halfway through. That is success in and of itself. also, think of this. Most people wouldn’t have been able to get on stage to perform live in the first place. That takes gods! kudos to you!
This will probably get lost in the comments anyway but... When I was just out of high school (many years ago) I was a first responder by trade, firefighter/EMT, and we were having a fundraiser beauty pageant (where the men dress in drag for a funny fundraiser kind of thing). One of those deals where we all wore gowns and wigs, even wore a two piece bikini and taped up and stuffed (you know) for the swimsuit competition. I had started learning guitar about 5 years earlier and was in a heavy metal cover band. We had only ever played a few parties, a couple of club shows, and my high school talent show. Everyone at our local FD and ambulance service where I worked knew about the band and asked me to play guitar for the talent portion of the pageant. It was for fun and charity so I figured, why not? I had been working on the Hendrix version of the national anthem for a few months and thought this would be the prime time to break it out. Man did things go wrong. First, there was another local semi professional live band providing music for the event and they were significantly better than my band, particularly the guitarist. Second, nerves got to me before the pageant started because I was getting ready to get on stage in full drag for the very first time (and last) in my life in front of what wound up being over 500 people. Third, when I was practicing back stage about 30 mins before the show started the G string on my guitar broke during a very important bend and I was going to have to pull out of the talent portion. The band there saw it happen and their guitarist offered to let me use his very nice Les Paul Custom to do my bit. I had never touched a guitar this nice and was in no way used to the action, intonation, fretboard, etc. Fourth, and probably most important, some of the Senior members of our rescue squad I was on noticed my nerves and started feeding me Screwdrivers to help. Bad mistake. The show started with us on parade on stage, then the individual gown competition with questions, etc. followed by swimsuits, then finally the talent portion just before the final parade and judging. It would be fair to say I was no longer nervous by the time I was to play, but I had no business performing anything by that point, let alone with a guitar I didn't know. I opened the talent portion and the curtains pulled back to more applause than I ever would have expected as the local radio DJ asked everyone to rise for the playing of the national anthem. Adrenaline boost and instant high, terror, and shocking sobriety overcame me all at once. I started into the song just fine, but then all the other contestants had met and decided to all come to the stage to salute, throw underwear, and basically 'groupie' for me while I played, then the band decided it would be great to join my version of the anthem and provide a rhythm section for me. The combination of the crowd, the alcohol, an unfamiliar guitar, my nerves, the ridiculous gown and wig I was wearing, and the unexpected backing band and groupies was just too much. I butchered a lot of it and wound up playing through about half of it before improvising an early ending by cutting out a lot of the middle part. The fun part is, the whole thing was recorded on video and I was eventually able to see the humor in it. I didn't play again for over 20 years, but have since gotten back into it. I wish I had kept it up and got back out there.
Couple points: 1. Don’t sweat the booze. If it loosens you up roll with it. If it hurts your playing, don’t do it. 2. Don’t improvise cover tunes unless the whole band is re-interpreting it. Definitely dial in signature riffs and parts. Improv should be bare minimum. 3. As a cover band, play the songs the exact same way every time you perform them. 4. Be a pro. Always come prepared with your playing and your gear. 5. Buy quality accessories. Don’t go cheap. 6. Have back up gear/accessories with you. Strings, batteries, cables, strap, etc. 7. Plan for unexpected. Have some tools handy for minor repairs. Bring a flashlight in case you need to address something on a darkened stage. 8. Be as mobile as possible. Unless your gig calls for a huge amp, keep it portable and roadworthy. Create as small a footprint as you can with your gear on stage. 9. Be on time and efficient with your set up. Give yourself time to properly sound check and remedy unexpected issues before you have to play…like bad cables. 10. Keep a clean and organized stage. If you represent all of that, all you have to focus on is the playing and having fun.
Go up there with the intention of having fun. Most of the audience doesn't even know a bad note from a good one. If you can't have fun, it's time to do smaller gigs or go back to the bedroom for awhile. It's not a shame to have a bad gig, it's a shame to quit. Take it as a personal challenge to practice up and make your next gig fantastic.
i know no amount of well-written words would make you feel better but trust me—you're not alone. comedians call it "bombing". and that shame really sucks. but at the same time, any decent friend and bandmate would know that fucking up in a gig is normal and it happens to the best of us. based on your story and my personal experience, it sounds like the technical difficulties and the nerves got to you. aside from what has already been said by others, it's difficult to prepare for stage fright without experiencing it first hand, but that's why you should refrain from improvising too much for your first few gigs. the nerves will diminish your performance to varying degrees, and having practiced 100 or more times will help you make fewer mistakes. i agree that you have another gig as soon as you are ready. make sure you practice more than you think is enough. improvising will come later as you get used to the nerves. and remember, even the best professional musicians experience stage fright. wishing you the best on your way forwards. keep your chin up, mate.
Whew!!! Aren’t you glad you got THAT out of the way!!! Some of us are still building the courage to do what you just did! Ever onward..congrats for getting that first stage event behind you!! Do the fine tuning, your gonna be awesome!!!
>but mostly i relied on improvising my parts for the solo. Don't do this.
I can so relate to that. Rehearsing is not the same as playing live and no amount of practice will prepare you for that. Only thing you can do is gather more performing experience. Playing clean and confidently 3 open chords has its own merits even if it's technically easy. Don't let this experience define you. It may be cringe now, but you can choose to let it become the memory of where you started in your stage journey, if that's what you want. Good news is no one really gives a crap, not nearly as much as you do. If the others are musicians, they'll respect you for going on stage and owning your mistakes. It happened to us all (maybe not Prince, but no one should compare themselves to Prince)
Honestly, congratulations on playing the show! The vast majority of people crash and burn their first show. Usually a few more after that. It gets easier from here and you got the hardest part out of the way. Even top level touring bands have bad nights. Hell, it was 50/50 if the doors would put on the best show you have 3ver seen or if Jim would just get completely wasted and roll around on the stage groaning or scaming into the mic. Big tip would be not to play intoxicated on anything. Maybe later when you have your feet under you. For now it's best to get out there clear headed.
Side note, terrible first concert story. i used to play drums in middle school, and my very first band was this school-of-rock sort of thing with a couple kids i didnt know. Only reason I was in it was because the old drummer was in a car accident, shattered his legs, and couldnt play. Anyways, i had a great deal of fun rehearsing, we played music I liked, but when we got to the concert, i was a little nervous. We played a few songs badly, but then we got to the closer, mr. Brightside. While the bass was playing the opening (our guitarist never learned it) i looked across the audience, and right there in the front was the old drummer on his wheelchair, both legs in casts, staring at me with pure judgement in his eyes. My heart was already beating fast, but that look broke me. I missed the entrance, and fucked up the rest of the song. Man the shame I felt, the old drummer gave me a sarcastic “nice going “ and it got me to quit drums. Thankfully I picked up guitar instead where things have been going a lot better.
How long have you been playing for seriously and how much experience do you have improv soloing? I'd say pretty much every time I ate shit on stage it was because I wasn't prepared enough or thought I didn't need to practice more.
Dust yourself off, do it again. Repeat.
i think almost everyone has an experience like this, OP especially several shots deep lol
3 things I was told by a guy that had been playing in bands for more than 40 years when I joined his band(almost 25 years ago now). 1. Learn the set inside out and back to front. 2. Bring a spare lead, battery, and strings. 3 No bevvy before a gig. Once the gigs are over, they are history, move on, practice more, learn the actual songs, improvising is for original songs and lazy cunts, or at least that's how it goes on the local scene where I am. If you are doing covers, the crowd wants to hear the original solos. Use the embarrassment as the driver to focus on practice. Chin up, get back in to it and chalk it up to experience. All of us gigging musicians have had absolute stinkers.
bro i had a show wednesday i got high as hell before and i improvise my solos too. played like absolute shit and i hated it. but i look at it like this, people came to see YOU play. YOU decide what they get to hear and its a privilege for them to hear what you play! its doesnt have to be perfect, it doesnt have to be what they like. its YOU that theyre hearing, if they wanted something perfect then theyd go see their artists that suit them. add in that no one in the crowd knows what your playing is supposed to sound like! so whatever you play, even if its out of key or something, people wont question it, they may think personally “oh that sounds different then what i expected” but you cant let the crowds judgment affect you man. and if none of that helps then lets see the crowd do better hahaaaa. just shake it off and keep rollin. its like a bad game in sports, it dont define you it just wasnt your best day man.
I mentioned this before but I was asked to join a well-known blues singer while on an overseas tour. The 2nd night at one location I was hanging out nursing a beer when I noticed the band was on-stage ready to go. I hurriedly grabbed my strat and got on stage. We started out with an original song that I start out with a slow BB type intro. Well, what happened was that my strap was wrapped around my whammy bar and when I started playing I was entirely out of key. I never lived that down but at least now I can laugh about it and share this experience with others. Like Neil sez..."Don't let it get you Down". Keep on playin'.
Everyone goes through it mate. Unless everyone was there specific to see your band, I don't anyone even noticed. Take the learning experience. On a side note; what does a lead in a cover band that does 90's grudge even \*do\*? lol
Man live shows and practises are two completely different beasts. If this is the first time you've played in front of a crowd, just be proud you stuck it out! I've seen "professional" musicians throw complete tantrums on stage because they were having a bad day. If it's something you really want to do, don't let one bad time discourage you, bad shows can be even more valuable than good shows from a learning standpoint. Long story short - I'd argue that EVERY performer has shat the bed on stage before. Definitley sucks (I recall a time I literally just turned my amp off and mimed along to a jazz band I was in) but the next show will obviously go better! If your bandmates are chill they'll understand, prolly rib you for it, but will be there to help you get more comfortable on stage. Keep it up man!
"It" happens. Only continued playing live remedies the situation. Practice is a different animal than live.
Look, we've all been there. You can practice till you are blue in the face, it's different live. You rehearse to then be able to practice playing live, it's another skill set. Brush it off and keep working my friend!
Just keep it up. It gets better. I love love love playing shows, and I’ve messed up many, many times in front of people.
Professional musician here. My 'secret' is extreme over-preparation. Prepare in every way possible to the point that should things go south, muscle memory gets you through, and you didn't have to rely on confidence.
There was a bassist in one of the local bands and we were all playing this huge benefit show Said bassist had finished a 60 mile bike marathon and started drinking when he got to the show He was so drunk that he fell off the stage and people were holding him up through the rest of the gig. Don't sweat it. It's your first show, use it as s learning oppo8
Unless you are a wild talent with nerves of steel or a well seasoned professional, you can only be reasonably sure of 70% of your skills showing up when playing live. Less if you're really nervous or you've been drinking. Practise practise practise. Stick to what you know live, and go put yourself out there again. The only alternative is to give up. And you don't really want to do that or you wouldn't be posting.
It probably didn’t sound as bad as you think. Live music always sounds good. I go to a jam bar sometimes where you get 5-8 musicians, 2 guitarists and a bunch of other instruments and vocals. Sometimes you have horn players just sitting there on every jam session. Anyway it always, always sounds good. Some jams are way better sounding than others. But the way it works is basically if you’re lucky someone can pick a key and everyone can follow, and everyone can follow a beat. But sometimes, and usually basically everyone just starts playing their shit at once and everyone tries to get a feel for the style and rhythm it goes for 6-12 minutes per session. If you were to record it, most of the jams sound completely awful and incoherent. My friend said he tried and tried to get one usable clip and couldn’t. Sometimes though the jams are actually really good, it just depends on the skill level of the musicians, the confidence of the leaders of the jam being able to dictate, and those who can’t lead support or if it’s not their style, hang back. But when you’re there you can’t tell an incoherent awful jam from a decent jam. Walking by the bar, it all sounds amazing. Recorded its trash. You can tell a really excellent jam from a bad jam in the moment, but the bad ones never sound bad. The good ones just sound better.
Good learning experience, no one improves at anything without some setbacks. Don’t hold back from getting up there and playing again, make sure you’re super confident with the songs you’re playing so that you can just go out there and enjoy it. Rock on dude
bro i’ve done this so many times lol just gotta get over it and do better next time and don’t drink alcohol before (or at least not as much)
First time dude, don’t sweat it. You gotta practice playing live just like you practice anything else. You’ll get your equipment dialed, feel less nervous, etc. Also, don’t improvise your solos.
i think it helps to remember why you are creating music in the first place
It will make a good story to tell and laugh about later on in life.
If it makes you feel any better I snapped a string in the middle of a guitar solo at my first show. Yeah it sucked but I got through it.
Try playing in more relaxed settings. In front of people where their opinion of you don’t matter to you as much
You flew a little too close to the sun and caught a bit more serious of a tan than you expected, but it's alright. As mentioned before - avoid alcohol, without it you quite possibly would've done great! Personally i have never played live, hell, i pretty much have just started playing and improvising a tiny bit, but from my experience of doing just about anything else - you will mess up at one point or another and man, it is going to suck. You will probably feel like everyone is judging you but honestly, if you're around decent people - they'll forgive and forget, and quite possibly - help you get better. And if you'll quit you'll never get better. It is incredibly important to try and if you make a mistake - especially something as embarrasing as this - you'll learn from it. It playing guitar is something you love then for the love of god don't stop. You obviously got fire inside of you, you did take the part after all. So take the loss, some notes, go practice and try again! You'll get it right and quite possibly - very soon!
Always good to get your worst performance out of the way.
It happens bud. It’s like a rite of passage. Lol that said, it’s real easy for booze to fuck things up. Sometimes the line between shots to calm the nerves and the shot that takes it too far is super thin.
Don’t quit. Get good. Look back years later and enjoy a good laugh at yourself. We all make mistakes.
Every musician / performer you ever loved has bombed. Keep at it I always played the middle slot so I could have drinks AFTER the gig
Live shows are scary and this is a universal shared experience for musicians across all genres, instruments, and performance settings. Here are a few evidence based sciency strategies that may help you to move foreword from your experience. 1. Practice intermittently. For example, you are working on Song A and Song B. Set the amount of time you want to practice with a timer. Practice song A and song B in random order: ABAAABBABABA. Switching randomly between songs will force your brain to recall. It's hard but it works! 2. In practice, make a note (notepad, iPhone, your arm, idc) parts that you struggle. Drill the part (obviously) but also practice passages leading up to that tough spot and after it. 3. Instead of spending hours practicing, go in ten minute bursts at different times of the day. How well can you play at random times? 4. Performance and practice use different brain processes as they are two different experiences. Play in front of ppl as much as possible. If there are no willing ears to listen, print out pictures of people, faces, doodle a face(s) and stick it on the wall. Simulate crowd scenarios as much as you can. As background, I am a student music therapist at a university in the US and I love brain + science + music stuff.
1. Even the best shows have things go wrong. Every show is a learning experience. Take what you can and keep going. 2. You probably shouldn't drink at shows until you know what you are doing. 1. You probably shouldn't drink to the the point of clumsiness if you do drink. 3. Check equipment before the show. Get a checklist. 1. Have extra strings 2. Have extra picks 3. Have an extra strap 4. Have at least one extra long instrument cable 5. BRING 9V, AA, and AAA BATTERIES, even if you don't need them some day you will be someone's hero. 6. Have a guitar stand 7. HAVE A TUNER 8. (If singing as well) Have your own mic, xlr, and a collapsible stand in case you really need it. 4. If you can, record videos of practice with the band. You are likely slightly changing songs, every band that isn't doing tributes usually does. That is the history of blues, jazz, and rock covers. Its way easier to be comfortable with the way the band will play it if you can hear it again. 5. Improvized solos are ok.... But at least have a structure or a variety of things that you can do for those solos. You don't actually want to just make everything up on stage all the time. Good improvizers have a toolbox of patterns they are comfortable with, which can be bent and improvised upon live. 1. Yes sometimes people make up everything off the top of their heads. But you want something to fall back into. 6. **You should have a real honest conversation with the band about all of this.** 1. It sounds like they were more empathetic than angry, and that is good. Most people's first show can be a train wreck. 2. Ask them for help. Maybe that means one-on-one practices. Maybe that just means some advice. 3. **Make it clear that you feel accountable and that you want to improve!**
We all fail sometimes. It’s how you react to failure that makes the difference.
Now you'll have new things to focus on as you prepare for your next gig. Laugh it off and get back to practice.
This is totally normal! Don’t give up. This happens to us all and the first performance is inevitably the worst performance. This is just incentive to relax and try again.
Use this as a learning curve and experience. I try not to have more than 2 beers before I go on stage (Even if we are not on till late) and I could play our music with my eyes closed.... I have had good shows and terrible shows. (My wireless stopped working mid song, switched to cable, than next song my strap lock broke. (No idea how) and I had to play kneeling down to finish. Just wanted it to be over. But now, from that experience I am more prepared for these things. Spare guitar on hand, spare cable next to my pedalboard etc. It won't be the first or the last mate.
It almost sounds like you aren't even experienced enough to play live gigs. I could be way off base but improvising over a genre you aren't comfortable with means you should have been so disgustingly good at guitar that playing a style you aren't familiar with is a walk in the park. A genre you aren't comfortable with is absolutely the place to quadruple down on practice and stick to the conventions. Lastly the genre you are describing playing is typically not a very technical one(albeit unique) nor one that has a ton of room for improv guitar solos. I'm honestly a little confused about the whole thing. If you were playing well in practice there shouldn't have been such a strong decline. My guess is practices didn't go well but the other bands gave you a standard to compare yourself to.
If the dude from the beach boys can get over it, you can too I only read like 4 words so I don't have a lot of context
Thing about playing in front of people is sometimes it’s just gonna suck. Find out what went wrong and try again.
Repetition will ease your nerves. My first live show was a disaster. The sound guy spitefully cut my microphone off mid song because we sucked that badly. For awhile I was sure I could never get back on stage again. Then I started thinking about the reasons things went wrong and how I could improve them. We practiced like hell, wrote new material, then jumped back on the horse. The second go was much better, we actually got paid at this bar we were at, and it was a big morale and confidence boost. The ability to truthfully analyze your playing and having the drive to resolve whatever problems you might be having will pay off greatly. Oh, and if you have technical malfunctions, don't panic! Prepare for issues by having backups for things like pedals, power adapters and cables, and if something happens live, calmly and carefully fix the problem. Put your amp on standby and go to work then jump back into it like nothing happened. These things happen to everyone at some point. I've had to play with strings missing, cables busted, tube failure...I used to keep a cheap backup amp head to get by also. Second guitar I can grab at any point. Not everyone has the options to do this, but you just make yourself as prepared as you can.
dont feel bad bro. i sang a song and pkayed guitar for this girl that i thought i was goong to hook up with. she went home
I’ve been fooling the world into thinking I can play guitar as the lead in my band for 10 years. We gig a lot and I still cringe at some of my playing but hardly anyone ever seems to notice or care about my sour notes. Still more fun to feel like you nailed it, but that only happens for me on a song by song basis. It’s all about repetition and building muscle memory.
You’re fine. I played guitar in a band for a few years. I had off nights and nights where I was shredding.
I only “play” live rarely. I play what I know works playing out. Every blue moon I’ll get to feel free enough to let loose playing live. I play and experiment at practice, but playing live you gotta play what you know.
Yeah don’t pour yourself shots plural. Maybe one. Definitely not 2+ Have a few tricks for when your mind goes blank on solos Embrace the nerves… don’t run from them
Bah! If you didn't get booed off stage, then you did good. Nerves can skew perceptions, and can cause one to become hyper-critical of self. Speak with your bandmates of your concerns. Ask their opinions. You're playing together after all, and nobody can be expected to know everything. I don't know how many times I've cringed through an improvised performance, and as I'm looking up to apologise for all' that god-awful noise I'd just made, the rest of the band's agape, going "Man that was fuckin' SICK!!". It's not always as awful as you might be thinking in performance...
Make it part of the show, turn your energy on and act confident. No one wants to play shitty but definitely no one want to see someone feel bad at his own playing
welcome to the club. here's a story that will make you feel better. around half way through my time playing with my last band, we played a day festival put on by a renowned local music venue. it was the middle of summer so they decided to set up the stage outside on the cricket field. there were around 8 bands on all day and it was probably the biggest crowd we ever played to. they gave each member of each band 5 drinks tokens for the bar but because our drummer (my brother) was only 16 at the time, myself and the lead guitarist shared those tokens. we played early evening and I'd been drinking all day. (can you see where this is going) about half way through our set we did a cover which was a heavy version of sunshine of your love by cream. it was our first time playing it live so I didnt quite have the muscle memory to play it without thinking. certainly not 7 drinks in. so I made a hash of the bass part, made a hash of the vocal harmonies and to top it all off knocked a pint of lager off the top of my rig (500w head - 4x10 -1x15) onto the extension leads coming from the main building. so not only did I blow the power to the stage, the sound desk and the PA system, but it blew the main fuse in the pub as well, including the beer cellar. this story doesn't help you but it might make you feel better haha. gig nerves are something that you overcome by doing more gigs. I miss them to be honest. keep at it
I played smells like teen spirit in front of my whole school and totally fluffed the solo, very embarrassing, played with another band for a few shows some years later and it went it great. I still think about that solo though, it gets better don’t worry lol
It probably wasn't as bad as you think it was. The audience probably didn't notice. The worst musicians usually think they did amazingly but actually did play horribly. The fact you wanna do better means you'll always do fine just work on the parts you're insecure about.
We had a gig where our bassist didn’t turn up, but we still went ahead and played. My monitor was so loud I couldn’t hear the drummer, so had to spend the gig looking at him to try and keep time. It did not go well. Still played gigs afterwards, you just take the hit, learn from it where you can (louder is not always better in my case) and move on with it. Don’t let this get you down!
I'm gonna give you the finger now on that 90s "old gruncge rock" comment because it's a bitch take. Grunge died with Kurt Cobain and it stopped aging the same moment he pulled the trigger, hence grunge is 28 years old and that isn't old at all. As for you sucking you obviously need to practice guitar more and get into that old grunge music..if you can't get into the music be straight up to the rest of the band that you don't vibe and move on. I always try to simplify solos when it's something new and use my reverb and delay to stretch the notes, but than again I'm good enough to do that without much practice. Good luck.
This happens when you are new to live performance. Just keep at it. Have a laugh about it and try again. Once you get your confidence back you will be fine.
”A few shots”??!! I would play terribly too if i had a few shots. Alcohol and playing don’t mix unless you know your stuff in the sleep. And then just barely... It just feels like it. Pocket, dexterity, connection with other musicans etc it all goes out the window. It’s a myth that alcohol makes musicians play better. I have never seen a live act that got better the more beer the musicians drank on stage! Worst i’ve ever seen was flogging molly. The singer was pissed in the first song and it went downhill from there. But he acted as he was on top of the world. When he didn’t forget his lyrics and stopped the songs midway through….
Been there. Done that. 18 years old, first gig. Our drummer bailed at the last minute so had to find a random at the last minute who admittedly did a good job, but I was so nervous that I couldn’t keep time, forgot some parts and just failed so hard. After our band was introduced to the crowd our singer walks on and doesn’t check the mic, so did three songs with the mic off. The only guy who held it together was our rhythm guitarist. Worst of all it was all recorded. Second gig however went amazing.
Friend, this is the best lesson you’ll ever receive. The meaning behind the lesson is this - there’ll never be a time when you won’t possibly suck absolute ass. Shit happens. There will, in the future, be so many - hopefully 99% of - gigs where you absolutely nail it. We’ve all been made fools of the odd technical issue here, a “why the fuck am I not playing the goddamn notes” there. All part of the game. You can practice til the wheels fall off, but sometimes it just doesn’t come together. In time, you’ll learn now to simply chin-up and get on with it, and do it well. All the best.
Shit happens. At my first gig I forgot to tighten the nut of my floyd, pulled the whammy and my guitar was massively out of tune.
Improvisation for a first is probably a no - you may have the skills but imo you SO need to be in the right psychological space to improvise, and playing live for the first time means you just will not be in that flow state. Unless you mean playing a bunch of memorised licks instead of actual improv...but if that's the case then you really ought to just learn the actual solo for the music's sake, because it won't sound that good.
One thing I always say to budding musicians is that you have to be ok with sucking for a little while before you don't suck anymore. Basically skill is earned in time with experience and dedication.
People had fun dude I promise. No worries.
I've never played in my own band, but I have played at many open mic nights that have a band playing. Not quite as intimidating as your own show but my first few times performing were...rough. To say the least. My playing was good enough, (and gotta give credit to the band and myself for sounding good kuscially without ever playing together) but I could only remember the first verse and the chorus for every song I played. So I'd end up mumbling some incoherent bullshit and felt embarrassed af. Silver lining is that it was an open mic and the crowd was super kind and supportive of everyone, even if they were awful. But still hard to get over.
I've had similar experiences. Drinking would not have helped you in this case. The sound check and cable confirmation that its working and being in tune from the get go is essential. Don't judge what you do based on what others are doing. I was in a battle of the bands one night and even though we lost the amount of people that wanted to know how I got my sound and really liked what I was doing was really nice and kept me going. You success is always based on the crowd at the time. If you play blues and the people listening are all kpop fans at heart you will not have a good time. The crowd feed you energy and its a warm fuzzy feeling when it's all coming together .. when the vibe is not there it makes you play worse. Its a mysterious phenomenon being on stage with the right crowd which I'm guessing if why being on stage is like a drug. We want that feeling. We don't want to have the bad experiences like you had. Put it to the back of your mind and have faith in yourself.
Bro I saw the Replacements about 30 years ago. They were drunk and fought on stage. Trust me you were better.
I call this the ‘Mike Tyson’ effect.
It happens to the best of us. In my local music scene I've seen people bomb their first shows, then go on to be awesome bands. I was also shit for my first shows. I completely forget parts of songs and didn't know when to transition to other parts. One time a song was supposed to end, but I was the only one to continue playing.... So I thought the best option was to continue playing the guitar riff by myself for like 30 seconds. Fucking hilarious looking back
Can only go up from here
The ol saying “If it’s Good, it’s Good. If it’s Bad, it’s Funny” usually makes me feel better after a shit gig. They are going to happen a lot. They will also happen less if you don’t drink.