Mistakes

[gitnoob]

I make a ton of mistakes when I play, most of them glaring.

 

Do you make fewer mistakes with more experience, or do you just get better at covering up your mistakes?

 

I think I'm starting to get the ability to "riff" off of my mistakes -- pretty cool!

[guitarist21]

I don't make mistakes.

 

 

 

 

 

Actually I make tons of mistakes. The key for me - and this is one of the hardest things about perfecting any craft, IMO - is striking a balance between being happy with the way you've played something and always on the lookout for ways to improve.

[garthman]

You get better - trust me.

[espec10001]

It helps to tap your foot to the beat as you are playing. This essentially forces you to keep going even if you screw up. Every musician even the pros make mistakes you'd just never notice them.

[Frets99]

I made a mistake once.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just to see how it felt...

[Freeman Keller]

You get better at not letting mistakes bother you. However, if you make the same mistake repeatedly then you need to slow down and focus on that. Last night I drove my wife crazy by playing the same little run over and over and over at really slow speed - I still screwed it up when I sped up.

[Tartanlad]

I reckon experience is what gets you over such

 

well at least better to cover-up any mistake/s anyhow

 

maybe best when you make a mistake in front of an audience

 

is just erm and carry-on playing

[espec10001]

Part of the art is making mistakes not look like mistakes lol. Covering up mistakes is an artform unto itself

[gitnoob]

 

You get better - trust me.

 

 

I trust you, but I am a natural-born klutz.

 

I realize there's a lot of muscle-memory training involved, but I think I am doomed to the occasional misplaced finger, misplucked note, missed beat, etc.

 

If you are destined to be a klutz, should you train harder or embrace your klutziness? I'm leaning towards the latter -- just focusing on maintaining my timing and letting my fingers land where they may.

 

Unfortunately, with the fingerstyle stuff I play, each botched note is pretty obvious.

[Tartanlad]

Part of the art is making mistakes not look like mistakes lol. Covering up mistakes is an artform unto itself

 

Exactly-well sais

 

Though i think we all tend to notice the mistakes on ourselfs to easily

and get all uptight about such happening/s

 

best to just carry-on playing and act as though it never happened

 

erm after the

[missedmyexit]

You get better at not letting mistakes bother you. However, if you make the same mistake repeatedly then you need to slow down and focus on that. Last night I drove my wife crazy by playing the same little run over and over and over at really slow speed - I still screwed it up when I sped up.

 

+1 Had the same thing happen over the weekend. Was practicing a portion of a song and the soon to be wife says "You are ruining that song for me playing it over and over and over again!"

 

My reply "as brilliant as I am playing songs doesn't happen spontaneously, got to practice which is basically repedtition"

 

She replied with something about my brilliance I don't remember what it was but I am pretty sure it wasn't complementary.

 

Lately "Spike Driver's blues" has been kicking the {censored} outta me.

[Jerry_L]

 

Do you make fewer mistakes with more experience, or do you just get better at covering up your mistakes?

 

 

Yes.

[espec10001]

 

I trust you, but I am a natural-born klutz. I realize there's a lot of muscle-memory training involved, but I think I am doomed to the occasional misplaced finger, misplucked note, missed beat, etc. If you are destined to be a klutz, should you train harder or embrace your klutziness? I'm leaning towards the latter -- just focusing on maintaining my timing and letting my fingers land where they may. Unfortunately, with the fingerstyle stuff I play, each botched note is pretty obvious.

 

 

Don't have the mindset that you are a klutz. "It is solved in practice" i.e. the more you do something, anything the more natural and easy it becomes. Those botched notes will be heard less and less the more you practice.

 

You should train harder in this case.

[LiFeStArTs@40]

I make TONS of mistakes. The trick for this noob is to KEEP GOING as if nothing happened, no matter how glaring. Most won't hear a mistake unless you stop or repeat. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

[fatback]

 

I make a ton of mistakes when I play, most of them glaring. Do you make fewer mistakes with more experience, or do you just get better at covering up your mistakes? I think I'm starting to get the ability to "riff" off of my mistakes -- pretty cool!

 

 

Number of mistakes is in direct proportion to the number of people you are playing for.

 

Phil

[jandrew]

Mistakes happen -- I just try to not suck in between mistakes

 

cheers,

jandrew

[Hudman]

The more times you play a song the less likely you are to make mistakes. You reach a point where you can play without thinking about the chords. Of course, you will still make mistakes but they will be less often.

[Opa John]

Some of my best riffs began as total mistakes that I've honed to perfection! The trick is to make your mistakes sound like that's the way you meant to do it in the first place....don't skip a beat...just keep on truckin' and don't let 'em beat ya down!

[p^h]

"The trick is to make your mistakes sound like that's the way you meant to do it in the first place....don't skip a beat..."

 

+1 to this ^ Pausing for a second, or uttering "D'oh!" is a sure way to draw everyone's attention . I make a ton of mistakes, & for me the hardest part is just carrying on as if nothing's happened - and that's even when I'm just practicing alone --

 

Paul

[guildfire]

When you hit a bad note or chord just smile and say "pretty cool jazz chord huh".

[Queequeg]

Slow down. If you are making many mistakes then you are overdriving your headlights. Don't rush to the next note. Own that note. Make it the reason your are playing that tune. It is important so let people understand why you love this tune and why you are playing it for them by reveling in each note, and give it its due.

Then keep the beat going. If you keep the time most people won't notice a wrong note. (I know, Monk said there are no wrong notes. He was wrong.)

[baldbloke]

Covering up or improvising after mistakes whilst performing is a skill to learn. it is not a skill I possess, I'm afraid. I don't play outside of my study.

 

 

As for practicing and playing for yourself, then be aware muscle memory will develop for good or for bad. If you make the same mistake time and again without consciously addressing it then you will be reinforcing the mistake. It won't get better by itself.

 

I forget where I heard the phrase "Speed is nothing without accuracy". Slowing things right down until you are satisfied with it seems to me to be the fastest way to learn.

[masterbuilt]

When I was playing in a band with a serious manager and producer, he told us that when we make a mistake, just keep on playing and keep smiling and chances are that the band will catch the mistake, but, the audience won't. So there we are in a crowd of about ten-thousand people and my brother, then drummer, ends a song one verse too soon. The whole band ended in perfect timing and the audience never knew. That was a huge battle of the bands and we won five hours free recording time. lol...

[recordingtrack1]

 

I made a mistake once. Just to see how it felt...

 

 

I thought I made a mistake once....but I found out I was wrong:thu:

 

RT1

[gitnoob]

I don't like what I'm hearing here.

 

Jogging is very simple. One foot in front of the other. Yet, once in a while, I'll trip a bit or turn my ankle the wrong way.

 

Playing guitar is harder than jogging. The relentless beat. Millisecond timing accuracy. Millimeter finger placement accuracy. A complex and long sequence of notes need to be recalled.

 

Some are telling me that with practice, I will never miss a note? Never stutter?

 

I don't buy it.