Guitar Zen

Today, I’m going to break away into something different. This last Thursday, I played a show with a new band, and this was our very first show (we only had about 6 practices all together) so we were pretty excited to play. Thursday night shows bring a pretty limited crowd, but I always said that one show is worth about ten practices, and every chance we get to play the sooner things tighten up.

The week leading up to the show, I spent about one to two hours a night/day practicing the set using my guitar trainer, and things were feeling good and natural. I have a tendency to crash if I’m thinking or anticipating sections, so the more muscle memory the better (for me). I even threw in a two hour practice pre-show to get things limbered up.

We were set to play first and after getting the gear set up began the ‘hurry up and wait’ stage. This usually involves two cans of PBR tall boys and various funny discussions with the band and the other bands. Finally, it was time to rock. First song went fair, but literally, the next six songs or so, I was the biggest shit bag on stage.Â Literally, when the song started, I would momentarily forgot how to play the riff and would somehow recover and limp back in or just hose the riff and come back in after screwing up the start of the song. This of course, started a snowball effect with my confidence and the process of over thinking which leads to more errors and slop. Frankly, I couldn’t wait to get off stage. Luckily by the last two songs, I finally got my head out of my arse and was able to play those fairly well.

Getting off the stage, and hearing “That was awesome” and “you were great” from the wife and other band members including the other bands, etc.. just made me feel worse. I knew it was shite, and I know they knew it was shite. So why am I fessing up this lame story that I seriously would like to forget? Simple, I want to learn from it…

– how do you guys prep for shows?
– how do you not overthink while playing
– how do you guys recover from disaster mid-set (mentally, emotionally, etc)

The things that I noticed if I could go back in time. Warm up prior to getting on stage (10 minutes) I normally do, but for some reason I didn’t this time. Since this was the first time we were on stage, our line up from the practice space was completely different, and now I realize how much visual and audio cues I need instead of ‘knowing’ the songs like I thought I did. I need to secure my cables better (our front man accidentally pulled my instrument cable out of my board 3 times). That didn’t help with the fiasco as well, but again, these are things to learn.

Oddly, the leads were okay for that night. The easy stuff.. was failure.

So why ‘Guitar Zen’? As a hobby I was involved with competitive pistol shooting (you know I’m from Montana right?). Well in that circle you hear a lot about shooting zen. You know.. like bow and arrows.. “be the arrow” stuff. It’s basically related to one chance.. one shot, and how to be in the proper mental state to ‘succeed’. Chocking is huge with shooting, lots of pressure for the moment to perform at your best. I definitely can see the relation with that and guitar.. and to anything for that matter. I didn’t really make the connection until Friday morning mulling over what happened. Any guitar zen tips for me? Comment below!

Aug 14, 2010admin

Comments: 7

Ross
14 years ago
Ever start a song in the wrong key? I did when I was playing my Explorer when I usually played that song on a Tele, missing by a full step because the neck looks so different from above. Train wreck, though it was blues and easy for the band to adjust once they figured out what I’d done.

As bad as you feel, though, you have to be able to laugh it off with your band mates. I can’t count the times someone in my little cover band said “what key is this in” as we got going.

You’re already halfway to the Zen… Trying to learn from the mistakes. Like, practicing in a stage configuration is huge. You need to be able to think about where your cues are coming from. You were automatically out of your zone because of that, right? Easy fix.
Hang in there, man.
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Charlie
14 years ago
For me it’s 2 things: routines being number 1. I want to practice the same way we’ll play. Same song order, same stage set-up, same gear set-up, same everything (as much as possible). It’s probably more than just a little OCD but I find that if I minimize as many variables as possible, I’m much more comfortable.
If something goes completely wheels off, I try to “reset” between sets or songs if possible.

The other thing is sense of humor. Everyone is there to have a good time so I try not to take anything to seriously. Aside from yourself and the other musicians, few people know when you make a mistake anyway. Laugh it off. I understand it’s important to us to play at our best but hey it’s not MSG, it’s a Thursday night gig.
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dano
14 years ago
The only way to do better shows is playing live as much as you can. Experience grows faster and is your best friend onstage. It seems obvious, but that’s it. I remember when I played my first shows I needed a well balanced monitoring, I always messed up my rig and I was always afraid of doing something wrong onstage. After some years of playing an average of 30 shows each year, most of the times I don’t even need monitoring, I don’t feel stressed playing in front of an audience and it takes me like 5 minutes to set my rig up.
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admin
14 years ago
@dano I agree 100%. I’ve been playing live for a while (not as frequent as I’d like), but was surprised by that show. Granted, this was the first time I played live with this particular band, and there were many variables that needed to be dealt with. I’m sure the next show will be a completely different experience for me.

I definitely take for granted the players I normally play with. The other band I’m in has been playing together for 10 years now, and we’re definitely at the point where we can read each other’s minds, and with new members the connection is just not there. I guess I’m surprised how much I rely on it.. more than I thought.

Thanks!
h
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A P Miller
14 years ago
For me, practicing and working things out ahead of time are of course important, but the real key is taking a nap in the afternoon. Even a short, cat nap. Makes more of a difference than anything else.
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kevin ian
14 years ago
Hey!

I agree that aside from other musicians, no one else will know you will have a mistake. By the time you mull over ANYTHING, the audience has 99% of the time forgotten about it (unless you stop playing, make faces, etc).

I have been performing for some time and I still get nervous before getting on stage. There are some things you simply cannot get passed. However, you can rely on your experience to get you through, whether it’s knowing the chords all over the fretboard or certain leads or melodies all over the fretboard if you happen to break a string, etc.

I’ve had my guitar refuse to stay in tune throughout an entire show, and instead of fussing about it and letting it control me, I told the audience I refused to tune my guitar anymore because “It’s fucking rock and roll.” And halfway through our last song I randomly twisted the pegs until a string snapped… the crowd went nuts.

If you are confident even in your screw-ups, you can do anything and have the crowd go wild for you
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Nigel
14 years ago
You’re over thinking it. Just relax and let it go, you’ll be surprised at how much better you will play.

Experience is your best friend, and in my 30+ years of gigging all over the world, I can tell you I’ve played some shitty shows. Every time I do, it’s always because I’ve gone into it thinking “I’m not prepared” or “I haven’t had enough practice” even though it’s never true. When I relax and don’t think about it, I never play badly.
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