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Concentration and focus during playing...


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Posted

Hey guys,

Id like to hear some input about how people tackle this... Stress, distractions... These things can influence players tremendously, even the pros. And especially during live settings, infront of other players, or when recording.

I feel that it happens to me too much - I become too aware of myself, get nervous, or think about the challenging part I have to play next and then I mess it up... It could be a glitch of the fingers, playing the wrong note, or just blacking out for a second...

And even when I think I feel relatively calm, mistakes can happen...

 

So how do you prevent it? How can you make your mind more focused? How do you work on not making mistakes?

 

These are a few things that helped me, though Id like to hear some more tips.

- I learned that even if u make a mistake or mess up a little bit, its really not the end of the world. most people wouldnt even notice it...

- Live settings are less stressfull the more you play and the better you feel in relation to the music thats being played...

 

Your input now...

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Posted

Learn to focus intently for short periods of time. Gradually the amount of time you can focus will increase.


Practice with your mind, play with your heart. That is, during performance, turn your mind off as best as you can.


There are no mistakes while performing - only unwanted results. These results stem from either lack of understanding or unmindful training.

Posted

 

These are a few things that helped me, though Id like to hear some more tips.

- I learned that even if u make a mistake or mess up a little bit, its really not the end of the world. most people wouldnt even notice it...

- Live settings are less stressfull the more you play and the better you feel in relation to the music thats being played...


Your input now...

 

 

These are two very true things. Recovery is the most important aspect to playing well, because mistakes will happen, no matter how good you get.

 

Also, another thing to remember: how often have you paid 100% attention to a band you were listening to? Even then, especially thinking back to before you played music, how much did you understand everything that was going on? In other words, how often did you know when the band was making a mistake versus playing what they meant to play? The answer to both those questions is: hardly ever. Most people aren't paying that close of attention to you, and even if they are, they can't tell the difference between most mistakes and the correct notes. How's that saying go? "You can fool most of the people most of the time, but you can't fool everyone all of the time." Most people will never even notice.

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Posted

Most people aren't paying that close of attention to you

 

 

So true and this applies to life also.

 

People are usually preoccupied with thinking about themselves most of the time.

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Posted

Danny thats cool... and I agree with that. but before youre great you need to start at being good...
I feel like Im still in this phase. After I conquer it I can start being great...

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Posted

Recording is it's own beast.

As for in front of people, I'm in a band where we make a joke of messing up live. I'll give the bass player the finger if he flubs a note and vice versa (the fun part is trying to flip someone off without messing up yourself). We're weird. Anyway, it totally lightens the mood and relaxes everyone, so, we don't mess up much (unless we do shots between sets, but that's a different story:thu::thu:).

The truth is that I do occasionally get a "Why did he give you the finger?" question; thereby proving the point that no one notices most mistakes as we purposely drew attention to one and they still didn't notice.

Then again, we play to mostly drunks, so you need to take that into account.

  • Members
Posted

Hey guys,

Id like to hear some input about how people tackle this... Stress, distractions... These things can influence players tremendously, even the pros. And especially during live settings, infront of other players, or when recording.

I feel that it happens to me too much - I become too aware of myself, get nervous, or think about the challenging part I have to play next and then I mess it up... It could be a glitch of the fingers, playing the wrong note, or just blacking out for a second...

And even when I think I feel relatively calm, mistakes can happen...


So how do you prevent it? How can you make your mind more focused? How do you work on not making mistakes?


These are a few things that helped me, though Id like to hear some more tips.

- I learned that even if u make a mistake or mess up a little bit, its really not the end of the world. most people wouldnt even notice it...

- Live settings are less stressfull the more you play and the better you feel in relation to the music thats being played...


Your input now...

 

 

Practice practice and more practice, I feel alot less stressed/worried about whats coming up if i know i have put in the time before hand. A gig with my band for example, the pressure is a lot less if we have put in the time to practice the song for a good few weeks.

I have real trouble if you asked me how to play one of our songs to tell you, and im like that when im on stage but when it comes to the part i just play it, not thinking about the chord changes/solo, through practice, hence solo's for me are fun, i can go off on one and still know whats going on.

 

Failing that, beer, lots of distortion and turn yourself up so loud nobody can hear you properly....

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Posted

Danny thats cool... and I agree with that. but before youre great you need to start at being good...

I feel like Im still in this phase. After I conquer it I can start being great...

 

 

Great playing and good playing have littel to do with if you're a great player yourself... It hjas to do with your frame of mind... Bob Dylan had days where he played great and days where he didn't. He is not a virtuoso.. But what he DID play, he played well on those days where he wasw impassioned and "in the zone"...

 

Know what I mean, jellybean??

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Posted

 

People are usually preoccupied with thinking about themselves most of the time.

 

 

Exactly...

 

Most of the mistakes and the stress happen when the subject is too much occupied with his ego, either thinking "I'm so good at this" or "I must not fail".

 

Many tricks like convincing yourself that nobody cares might work, and in many cases this is probably true, but the real solution to the stress and the worries lies in learning that people should be there for the music, not for you (and that is valid even if you're a famous soloist, the public is there for the music made by you, not for you as a person). And you are there to deliver the music, not to deliver yourself.

 

It's the same with any other public performance really. Think of a (responsible) politician making a speech, or a teacher making a lesson. The audience is there to hear the content of the speech or lesson, not to judge how skilled is the voice that delivers it.

 

(That said, if the problem instead is just that you haven't practiced enough and you're trying to play a song anyway no matter how inconsistent you are with the results, then you're just being pretentious and should really play something that you can. Much like you shouldn't teach quantum physics or make a speech about economy if you didn't understand a {censored} of it)

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Posted

just posted this on right hand accuracy thread

 

 

Another approach for mental acuiety and performance flow from snowboard experience, which on one level is all mental.


Perhaps a beta blocker, mine's prescribed for hypertension however have noticed when snowboarding it noticeable when looking at dropping chutes and cliff like runs...rock steady heart rate of 60-64.


Another thing I use when snowboarding is Rhodiola rosea for mental acuity and flow state.

 

 

Only other thing to add...is that 99% of folks are glad it is you on stage instead of them...90% would rather die than be on stage...and will generously forgive and overlook minor mishaps...but most of the time 90% will not even notice.

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Posted

 

- Live settings are less stressfull the more you play and the better you feel in relation to the music thats being played...

 

 

I disagree. The better I get, the more I realize that my concept of "good" gets further away. It's not a bad thing. It just is.

 

Based on what I've read, I'd make these recommendations.

 

-Learn to accept that perfection's a moving target. But chase it anyway.

 

-If you put 100% of your psychic energy in to your playing, there will be no room left to think about whether anyone likes it or not.

 

-Practice until you're certain that practicing more won't help. Most people get nervous because they're unprepared. But they realize it too late.

 

-Remember that most audiences want you to do well. They want to enjoy themselves while listening to you.

 

-Smile every time you make a mistake. But keep playing as if nothing happened. In approx 4 seconds everyone forgets anything happened (unless you pitch a fit. If you do that, people will remember that for a long time).

 

-It's only music! Right?

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Posted

I can relate. My approach is to practice with the same level of focus and concentration as I want to achieve when I'm playing live. My reason is simple: I'll perform it the way I practiced it. If I practice w/out concentration, that's where my habits will take me when performing. We humans are pretty habit-influenced.




I don't aspire to perform without mistakes. In the 45+ years I've been playing, I've never played anything perfectly. Instead, I practice in ways that will leave me reasonably certain I'll land on my feet no matter what happens in between the down-beat and the finish.




I disagree. The better I get, the more I realize that my concept of "good" gets further away. It's not a bad thing. It just is.


Based on what I've read, I'd make these recommendations.


-Learn to accept that perfection's a moving target. But chase it anyway.


-If you put 100% of your psychic energy in to your playing, there will be no room left to think about whether anyone likes it or not.


-Practice until you're certain that practicing more won't help. Most people get nervous because they're unprepared. But they realize it too late.


-Remember that most audiences want you to do well. They want to enjoy themselves while listening to you.


-Smile every time you make a mistake. But keep playing as if nothing happened. In approx 4 seconds everyone forgets anything happened (unless you pitch a fit. If you do that, people will remember that for a long time).


-It's only music! Right?

 

 

The smile advice is probably the best advice one can give... I remember reading an article about Wes Montgomery, and one of the captions underneath one of his photos while jamming his ass off was "Wes always smiled when he played guitar... Was he onto something we don't know?"

 

Then it went into talking about how smiling makes you feel better about everything, even a mistake... It allows YOU to move on and just let it be one wrong note, rather than one wrong note followed by a bunch of other notes that are note fully committed to, or also wrong, that result from you being pissy about missing that one note...

 

It is highly beneficial to be either happy or detached about your music while playing... It seems that yields the best results... Stress and pressure sometimes create diamonds, but not always... I thin kthat the way to go is to be prepared, but not to anticipiate yourself to be perfect... That puts unnecessary pressure on you that WILL eventually cause you to crack in the heat of performance...

 

If you have high expectations when you PRACTICE and low expectations when you PLAY, you will fare well. You can beat yourself up all you like when you are practicing... When you are playing to an audience, you have to resign yourself to the fact that the music will come out the way it wants to come out and that there is no way you can change that. Also, per Kenny Werner's "Effortless Mastery", if you try to NOT play well (not trying to play wrong notes or anything... but just not caring about if it does come out right or wrong)) and couple it with positive reinforcement on a daily basis (telling yourself that you're great and you sound wonderful, etc.) it yields great results.

 

I have tried this method and I must say that, 99% of the time, it works for me.

 

SRV once said "When I think, I get in trouble".

 

I gotta say, that seems pretty factually accurate. When it's time to play, just play. Have fun... use your ear... serve the music...

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