Members lespaul1964 Posted March 21, 2010 Members Share Posted March 21, 2010 I mean, the gig went on pretty much as most of our gigs go. We split our show in two sets, the first one is always a challenge, the crowd is getting warm and the response is usually mild no matter what we put there. The second set usually sees the audience in a crescendo and ends in a bliss. Yesterday went pretty much that way. But I screwed up so many solos I cannot even count. I was having tremendous problems hearing the bass, lost concentration a few times and the solo ended up paying the price. It was fingers getting stuck on a few and total butchering on a couple. Overall the band was sounding good and people were having a great time, but my playing, uuuuggghhh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bish0p34 Posted March 21, 2010 Members Share Posted March 21, 2010 I have those nights too man, I'm sure we all do (it really sucks when your singer asks what's up with your playing). doesn't stop me from feeling bad the day after...or during the gig itself. I find a six pack eases the pain...and an hour or two with the drum machine going over my mistakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members V-Type Posted March 21, 2010 Members Share Posted March 21, 2010 Its done. Move on. Chalk it up too a bad night I say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rhat Posted March 21, 2010 Members Share Posted March 21, 2010 Its done. Move on. Chalk it up too a bad night I say. Yup ,,,,make it up next time. If its like most gigs no one knows but you and maybe your bandmates and they know they have nights like that too. You cover each others backs and do the gig. Hell when I booger a solo on keys and do somthing stupid and hear that first couple bad note if I go off the track,,, Its like packin a chute..... you never know when you are going to come down on the reserve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doubleR Posted March 21, 2010 Members Share Posted March 21, 2010 I've hacked up solos so badly (in my mind) that I wanted to crawl under the proverbial rock. Afterwards, I apologized to my bandmates and they were "Really? I didn't even notice." I figure if my bandmates didn't hear it, then neither did the audience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members b1ackie Posted March 21, 2010 Members Share Posted March 21, 2010 Last week, our bass player was unfocussed, his whole family was there, and the singer...well just another night...and I was missing changes, forgetting the key... just think amateur. Everyone apologized to each other and then froze. Three other bands came out to look see! After talking to these guys, it was clear, other than our weird looks at each other, they didn't notice a thing. And either did the crowd. One patron did say, "How come the band kept giving you weird looks?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 3shiftgtr Posted March 21, 2010 Members Share Posted March 21, 2010 Time to hit the shed, bro. Dunno who gets credit for the quote, but..."Miss a day of practice, and you know it. Miss 2 days of practice and you REALLY know it. Miss 3 days of practice and the musicians know it. Miss 5 days of practice, and the audience can feel it. Miss any more, and you start going backwards." Everyone has a bad day, tho'.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted March 21, 2010 Members Share Posted March 21, 2010 I mean, the gig went on pretty much as most of our gigs go. We split our show in two sets, the first one is always a challenge, the crowd is getting warm and the response is usually mild no matter what we put there. The second set usually sees the audience in a crescendo and ends in a bliss. Yesterday went pretty much that way.But I screwed up so many solos I cannot even count. I was having tremendous problems hearing the bass, lost concentration a few times and the solo ended up paying the price. It was fingers getting stuck on a few and total butchering on a couple.Overall the band was sounding good and people were having a great time, but my playing, uuuuggghhh. well its over but why didn't you do something to hear the bass better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bnelly428 Posted March 21, 2010 Members Share Posted March 21, 2010 I have those nights too man, I'm sure we all do (it really sucks when your singer asks what's up with your playing). doesn't stop me from feeling bad the day after...or during the gig itself. I find a six pack eases the pain...and an hour or two with the drum machine going over my mistakes. From the 3 songs I saw you sounded fine, rebel yell, Jenny and something else By the time we got out of dinner we were ready for bed or else we'd have stuck around. Had a good crowd though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bnelly428 Posted March 21, 2010 Members Share Posted March 21, 2010 I've hacked up solos so badly (in my mind) that I wanted to crawl under the proverbial rock. Afterwards, I apologized to my bandmates and they were "Really? I didn't even notice."I figure if my bandmates didn't hear it, then neither did the audience. I think the only people who notice in the audience are other musicians. To the OP, don't sweat it, just practice, we all have these nights. The more you practice the less frequent you'll have em hehe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WynnD Posted March 21, 2010 Members Share Posted March 21, 2010 Can't hear the bass? I find that someone or something is too loud. (In this case, probably not the bass.) It doesn't take the band backing off more than a little to usually cure that problem. (If the band or some of the musicians can't do that, there's more than a too loud problem.) Gotta work together to get great sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted March 21, 2010 Members Share Posted March 21, 2010 Can't hear the bass? I find that someone or something is too loud. (In this case, probably not the bass.) It doesn't take the band backing off more than a little to usually cure that problem. (If the band or some of the musicians can't do that, there's more than a too loud problem.) Gotta work together to get great sound.:thu:could easily be hearing the drums too much, or the guitar too much(usually cuz they are too loud!) another thing is possibly amp placement. turning the bass amp in a little could have helped. What I like onstage as a guitarist, especially being a 3-piece band, is for the bass tone to have enough mids/hughs to give it note/frequency definition. So its easy to pick out more than thump and lowend rumble out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cirrus Posted March 21, 2010 Members Share Posted March 21, 2010 Man, I had the same thing during my set on Thursday. Usually I find performances to be really soul-lifting experiences, but in this gig it wasn't happening. Whenever I started to relax I'd hit a bum note and that'd bring me crashing back down, really ballsed up one solo, and in the most intense intro, for our final song, I simultaniously switched to the neck pickup and dropped my plectrum. There was no time to stop, I figured people were less likely to notice if i strummed with my fingers than stopped to pick a plectrum from my holder. No one in the crowd noticed, and the guys in the band noticed one bit out of the half hour set. I've done enough gigs now to know that mistakes don't mean anything when you're talking about how well the gig went over with the crowd. Nonetheless it's upsetting on a personal level and it makes it hard to be outgoing afterwards when people come up and say "good gig" etc. But you have to accept the compliments anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted March 22, 2010 Members Share Posted March 22, 2010 well its over but why didn't you do something to hear the bass better? I played a sub gig last night in which the band had an interesting stage setup. Old Alesis digital drums ("drum" surface was essentially a 2' x 3.5' practice pad that was segmented into zones - with each zone being the trigger for a separate drum sound), bass player and both guitar players used Line6 "Pods" (no amps on stage). Everything ran through a "high end" version one of Roland's "all in one" digital mixers designed for recording. The board in turn fed what must have been a dozen JBL Eon self powered speakers (4-5 15" cabinets and 6-7 of the 10" versions). They were literally EVERYWHERE on the stage - each fed with exact same mix. To be honest, as unusual as the setup was - it didn't sound bad at all. As I mentioned, it was a sub gig ... basic "jam" material,. nothing all that difficult - which I came at with no rehearsals. The guys on stage were real nice guys - a pretty broad spectrum of musical proficiency some were very strong, others .. not so much. I'll be honest and say that I "lost the root" in a couple of spots. The "omnipresent" sound made impossible to listen for any instrument directionally, the "bees in a can" guitar sound seemed to make hearing chordal tone difficult - and when coupled with our difference in approach - I was left struggling to hear where we were on several occasions in the course of the night. (By difference in approach - I mean that when intensity is at it's highest ... I lean towards the "make it groove" school of thought ... these guys seemed to lean towards the "play a million notes" school.) There was no hope of changing anything about the sound or the approach last night. On more than one occasion I found myself counting measures to be sure that I was following the progression, simply because I couldn't discern it from the sound. Weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lespaul1964 Posted March 22, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 22, 2010 I actually had no issues with the other band members, the performance in general was fine and the audience had a great time. I am the prickly overanalyzing member of the band that pays attention to the details and points them out in a constructive way, to try be the best we can be. We are what I would call a "vibe" band, no virtuosos or wow musicians, just fine to solid players that as a band sound very good most of the time and people respond unbelievably well, even with mistakes here and there that pretty much go unnoticed, all bandmembers make them (I have posted several videos of our performances in BWTB). Yesterday I made a couple that I normally don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lespaul1964 Posted March 22, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 22, 2010 This is similar in a way to what we run. We go through a splitter snake to the monitor mixer, where we have all the instruments/vocals except the drums unless it is an unusually large stage, where we may have an overhead or kick and snare. Guitars go through a gsp 1101 on one end and a line 6 with a variax 700 on the other. Keys and bass go direct. The mix then goes out to the in ears. Each member can then customize their sound a bit and can if they wish control the volume of their own instrument for their monitor only. Most of the time we go with one mix, though we can have two. Whenever needed, we use side fillers. It is definitely not conventional, but works for us. Our drums are always acoustic. I played a sub gig last night in which the band had an interesting stage setup. Old Alesis digital drums ("drum" surface was essentially a 2' x 3.5' practice pad that was segmented into zones - with each zone being the trigger for a separate drum sound), bass player and both guitar players used Line6 "Pods" (no amps on stage). Everything ran through a "high end" version one of Roland's "all in one" digital mixers designed for recording. The board in turn fed what must have been a dozen JBL Eon self powered speakers (4-5 15" cabinets and 6-7 of the 10" versions). They were literally EVERYWHERE on the stage - each fed with exact same mix. To be honest, as unusual as the setup was - it didn't sound bad at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WynnD Posted March 22, 2010 Members Share Posted March 22, 2010 :thu:could easily be hearing the drums too much, or the guitar too much(usually cuz they are too loud!) another thing is possibly amp placement. turning the bass amp in a little could have helped. What I like onstage as a guitarist, especially being a 3-piece band, is for the bass tone to have enough mids/hughs to give it note/frequency definition. So its easy to pick out more than thump and lowend rumble out of it. You're starting to sound like my kind of guitarist. I don't really like deep bass. Got better things to do than just shake a room. Personally love playing with jazz style drummers. They tend to have a better sense of just enough. Finding rock drummers with that same sense is much harder. In both of my current bands, the drummers aren't heavy handed. (105 dbc stage volume on my side of the drums in the louder band. The other band is probably 10 dbc quieter.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WynnD Posted March 22, 2010 Members Share Posted March 22, 2010 Very interesting setups. Can't argue with what works. I've thought that electronic drums, in particular the electronic cymbals require a lot of high end range on the mains. My tri-amp system runs solidly to 18,000 htz (Measured) and that seemed pretty good to me. (But as a 50+ rock musician, the hearing isn't what it used to be.) I love the sound of an acoustic set, but the ability to easily turn down a loud drummer is soooo tempting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tele-vania65000 Posted March 22, 2010 Members Share Posted March 22, 2010 I hope you were at least loaded? I always blame my drinkin' on my mistakesat the gig. Easier on my ego. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stratman77 Posted March 22, 2010 Members Share Posted March 22, 2010 I've hacked up solos so badly (in my mind) that I wanted to crawl under the proverbial rock. Afterwards, I apologized to my bandmates and they were "Really? I didn't even notice." I figure if my bandmates didn't hear it, then neither did the audience. That pretty well sums it up.. I am the rhythm guitarist and some times I will hit the wrong chord and think "Ok.. can you possibly screw up any more?".. But no one ever notices... or hardly anyone.. I actually like having a bad night every now and then cause it makes you get back to the drawing board and practice some more... What I do now is on the set list if I botch up a song. I highlight it and then the next day I go over it a few times so I brush it up some... As long as you realize that you screwed up, and you take pride in your work, you will do something to make sure that you improve and so you don't repeat those mistakes again... That is the sign of a good musician... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kurfu Posted March 22, 2010 Members Share Posted March 22, 2010 Yep... the weird looks do nothing but point out the mistake to the audience... and most of the time they wouldn't have noticed anyways... nowadays, I don't do the "WTF DID YOU JUST DO???" face, but try to simply smile instead... It doesn't give anything away to the audience, it gets the message across, and it doesn't destroy morale on stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lespaul1964 Posted March 22, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 22, 2010 That is our non-spoken policy. Play through it or smile. It Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MDLMUSIC Posted March 22, 2010 Members Share Posted March 22, 2010 I always follow the old maxim that states that if I make a mistake on a lead, I do it three or four more times, so that everybody thinks I meant to do it that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kurfu Posted March 22, 2010 Members Share Posted March 22, 2010 I always follow the old maxim that states that if I make a mistake on a lead, I do it three or four more times, so that everybody thinks I meant to do it that way. I have heard Jazz defined as "The fine art of making the same mistake twice." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members georgestrings Posted March 22, 2010 Members Share Posted March 22, 2010 Can't hear the bass? I find that someone or something is too loud. That is a shocker - hahaha!!!(although in this case, you're *probably* right) - georgestrings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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