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Post by bleatoid on Jul 19, 2018 20:45:46 GMT
Ah - I really appreciate your encouragement Scorpiodog - your analogies and insights are spot on - but it just isn't going to happen, in this lifetime, for me. I'm condemned to a perpetual audience of zero, and I accept the sentence happily. It's OK - it's safe - nothing can go wrong, beyond my own disappointment with my own performance to myself. There's never any upside buzz, certainly, but there's no risk of global humiliation and shame from a complete blank out. I'll settle for that. The applause may be a tad muted when the performance surprises and delights - but that's OK too - if nobody's about, I might even give myself a subdued whoop. Come to think of it, maybe I'll just settle for a hint of a smile. Just in case. Someone could hear a subdued whoop. And that would constitute a public performance - I might freeze.....in mid-subdued-whoop....... Peter I would recommend going to Halifax (http://acousticsoundboard.co.uk/thread/8212/annual-forum-halifax-sept-2018). I don't think you could find a more encouraging, relaxed and friendly environment in which to try and play live. I have even done it and trust me you could not meet a more social awkward, shy and untalented player. It took me three visits, a couple of pints and I am not saying I would ever do it again, but I am very pleased that I did at least give it a go. + There are loads of fancy guitars and wonderful players to watch and if you really lucky you might get a uke lesson from a very talented and hairy chap. If you are really really lucky you might walk away with a fancy guitar, I did on my first visit:) Thanks David - if ever I get to be "brave just once" as WV suggested, Halifax would be the obvious supportive clinic in which to do it..... Bit worried about the guitar piece though - I've already acquired two (lovely) instruments from members here! Peter
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 19, 2018 18:59:02 GMT
As an extremely mediocre musician making a living gigging and busking full time, the only difference between me and you bleatoid is that I took a chance and persevered. I suffered from debilitating stage fright for years decades - I researched every and any thing that would help - beta blockers, eating tons of bananas, hypnotism, any kind of shortcut that might help me get over the sweating, shaking fear. I would need to get falling down drunk just to think about playing at an open mic or folk club floorspot. My first time playing solo in public (aside from very timid busking) was at the first HB meet up, and I was terrified. Like nearly being sick terrified. Even sitting in the hotel room and playing quietly to Fliss and Mel nearly did me in. That was what - 9 years ago? I never in a million years would have dreamed back then that I would be able to do this for a living and in such a short space of time. I have found it harder to play in front of friends and family than strangers, so don't let your fear of your wife hearing you put you off. It doesn't seem to make sense because your nearest and dearest should be your greatest supporters but they (especially my "don't quit your day job" mother) have caused me the most stress. My husband has only been to one full gig of mine. This is something I've had to work on - he has a tendency to offer unhelpful "constructive" criticism even when I have told him over and over that I don't want to hear it. I am now at a place where what he thinks truly doesn't matter to my confidence or performance and he can choose to come with me or not as he pleases. He's an unsocial b*****d so chooses to stay home. The thing is, the more you do it and keep on doing it on a regular basis, the easier it gets until one day you notice that the nerves no longer affect your playing very much. You start looking forward to performing rather than dreading it. Your performance becomes more fun, more relaxed, more confident. Take this to heart if nothing else - you only need to be brave once. Everything after that gets easier and easier. You will mess up, make mistakes, forget lyrics - just accept that it's part of the process, everyone does it, no one cares, and move on. Busking (without an amp) or even just sitting down in a semi-public place like a corner of a park and picking a few string helps enormously because no one pays you any attention at all. You start to realise that no one cares what you're doing because everyone is wrapped up in their own little world, worrying too much what other people think of them. Just think about how much your life could change by getting over your nerves. Telling yourself you'll never do it is one way to prove yourself right. Stop telling yourself you can't do it, and just get used to the idea that maybe, someday, you might be able to do it. On the original subject, I'm looking to buy a fan to use at gigs. Something not too cumbersome and preferably black. I like the idea of those clip on ones, but don't know if they would stretch to go on a speaker stand. I'd be hesitant to put it on a mic stand in case it vibrated. Any budget-friendly suggestions? Wow! - thanks for taking the time to share your experience Wild Violet - sounds like in some ways you had more of a challenge than have - in that my spouse is actually very supportive (and she is musical) - she just doesn't get to hear me play as I go into my little room and close the door behind me. She does enjoy (most of) what comes out of my recording experiments though. Anyway - thank you for one of the best presented, well balanced mixes of a) chastisement for my bleating excuses, and b) encouragement to be brave, if only once! I really appreciated your post. Peter
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 18, 2018 23:37:06 GMT
Ah - I really appreciate your encouragement Scorpiodog - your analogies and insights are spot on - but it just isn't going to happen, in this lifetime, for me.
I'm condemned to a perpetual audience of zero, and I accept the sentence happily.
It's OK - it's safe - nothing can go wrong, beyond my own disappointment with my own performance to myself. There's never any upside buzz, certainly, but there's no risk of global humiliation and shame from a complete blank out. I'll settle for that. The applause may be a tad muted when the performance surprises and delights - but that's OK too - if nobody's about, I might even give myself a subdued whoop.
Come to think of it, maybe I'll just settle for a hint of a smile.
Just in case.
Someone could hear a subdued whoop.
And that would constitute a public performance - I might freeze.....in mid-subdued-whoop.......
Peter
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 18, 2018 12:55:33 GMT
But the buzz afterwards makes performing worthwhile despite the nervous sweating during and raw fear before you start. You need to try it, Rob. scorpiodog , when you put it like that...! I do feel the urge 👍 Well I do, and I don't. By which I mean I would absolutely love to be able to perform a song well to an audience, or even do some busking for charity, but I've woken from the nightmare too many times - I would plan to start with "Don't think Twice" - a song I've played pretty much every day for the past 20 years as a little travis picker warm up - but I'd sit on my stool, look at the audience blankly and wonder why I was holding a piece of wood in my trembling, sodden wet hands. I would apologise for having been in the way, and walk shamefully out. I struggle to play anywhere near my competence level if my wife walks in. Odd really - I'm quite happy doing a presentation to a couple of hundred people. Peter
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 17, 2018 8:25:10 GMT
Ah yes - but when practicing at home or playing in even the cosiest venue over there, you'd have the benefit of aircon. I was thinking that if I'm getting uncomfortable hands practicing in my little North facing spare bedroom, how on earth do people cope in, say, the basement folk clubs of this country - even before the adrenalin kicks in........the sort of circumstances that AndyH has just described. Peter
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 16, 2018 22:39:15 GMT
Ah you have to love Albert - I saw him live last year in Milton Keynes and he was superb (despite having to wrestle with a very iffy sound setup).
He really seems (inasmuch as one can ever tell) like a genuinely nice guy just enjoying what he does and the rare talent he has.
I recall watching another clip of him on YouTube somewhere, in a US music store trying out some vintage guitar he'd been handed and apologising for his playing, explaining that he'd been working on a car for the previous few days and his hands were killing him!
Maybe I need to work on car more often......
Peter
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 16, 2018 20:23:35 GMT
Cope with the heat of stage lights etc., that is.
I'm really struggling playing much at all in this weather.
I get sweaty mitts in no time and me callouses go all floppy.
Peter
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 15, 2018 22:33:51 GMT
Leo - that is outrageously defamatory and offensive.
Everyone knows that Donald is a rightie.
Peter
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 15, 2018 22:26:28 GMT
That's an impressive, powerful song, strongly delivered, fatfingerjohn - thank you for sharing it.
Interested in which way around you wrote it ....... the "spark" was the title, but did you then pick out fragments of a melody or fingerstyle pattern among some chord sequences you noodled about with, then build lyrics into the mood afterwards, or did you start with the lyrics and noodle a tune around them?
Peter
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 8, 2018 21:47:50 GMT
we are lucky enough to have air conditioning, which I presume dries things out considerably. US-resident acoustic guitar afficionados appear universally adamant that domestic aircon is a killer of acoustic guitars (unless you have a rainsong or a laminate body). You might want to think about a case and an in-case humidifier like the planet waves one mentioned in a previous post. I keep my guitars out of their cases all year, hanging on an interior wall in a small room with the heating down low in that room and monitor humidity with a digital hygrometer. We're invariably in the 40-60% comfort zone - the one recent exception being the arctic blip earlier in the year as previously mentioned, when it swung well below 30%. I found that moving the clothes horse to near my guitar room door helped improve matters (and also that a human body in the room, particularly a singing one, can raise the humidity by 5% quite easily....)...... Peter ps - if you were to find yourself in the market for a decent piano, most good dealers will talk to you about their sensitivity to humidity too (the pianos, that is, not the dealers....). The major concern that they will invariably raise is underfloor heating - seems to cause many more problems that radiators apparently - not sure if this carries over to wall hung guitars though.
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 5, 2018 23:15:11 GMT
I’m a very poor practicer. I don’t know my scales, I don’t do any warm up exercises, I don’t work on specific points of technical improvement, I don’t stretch my fingers before I play and I don’t structure my playing sessions in any meaningful way. I tend to just pick up a guitar and run through whatever bits of my repertoire spring to mind – occasionally picking out something new to learn or a forgotten old favourite or maybe working on a song of my own. I have fun doing what I do, but of course I also know that a little more (some!) discipline in the practice dept would make for more enjoyment – but bad habits…… old dogs ….etc etc. That's me to a "T" as well.
I did work for a while at classical guitar lessons and that involved more structure and rigour. To be honest it got to be a pain in the aspidistra.
Regarding Pachelbells Canon I think it's one of those very simple looking pieces that leave every note you play so exposed to scrutiny that it does require a lot of skill to play it well.
Being the lazy pupil that I am I think I'll give the piece a miss!
Mark
"Exposed to scrutiny" is spot on.
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 4, 2018 22:56:04 GMT
Have you seen Jonny's thread of short vids? www.acousticsoundboard.co.uk/thread/8426/new-techniques-blogSome great tips on refining technique etc - well worth a look if you haven't already been there - much of what is there applies equally to steel string players. Keith PS I've always been rubbish at "proper" practising. I've mostly done just as you describe, with very occasional, very short bursts of disciplined effort. Must try harder. I hadn't spotted that - thanks Keith - I'll have a lewk.
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 4, 2018 22:53:29 GMT
Most people don’t start playing with scales :-) Yeah - but some people know one or two! I suppose here I was thinking about my missus who is making fantastic progress on piano (now working on grade 7). She starts each playing session with maybe 20 minutes of scales then focuses on specific fragments of the piece she's working on, then builds pieces together and finishes by playing what she wants, for fun. I only do the last bit. I don't have a grade 1 in anything. Maybe it's a piano thing? More discipline. The guitarist - much more bohemian flair......
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 4, 2018 20:14:07 GMT
I’m a very poor practicer. I don’t know my scales, I don’t do any warm up exercises, I don’t work on specific points of technical improvement, I don’t stretch my fingers before I play and I don’t structure my playing sessions in any meaningful way. I tend to just pick up a guitar and run through whatever bits of my repertoire spring to mind – occasionally picking out something new to learn or a forgotten old favourite or maybe working on a song of my own. I have fun doing what I do, but of course I also know that a little more (some!) discipline in the practice dept would make for more enjoyment – but bad habits…… old dogs ….etc etc.
Anyway, I noticed that one of the songs tabbed out in this month’s Acoustic Guitar magazine was a version of Pachelbel’s Canon, so I gave it a run through and though it’s not a particularly technically challenging arrangement, I was a shocked at how poorly I played it. Even after several attempts. By "poorly" I mean consistency of note picking, cleanness of fretting, accuracy of stretches and changes etc. You’d have recognised the noise, but it was pretty shabby.
Consequently I’ve been using it as the basis for rather more focused practicing over the last week or so, with, I think, significant results. It seems to be a great piece for highlighting inaccuracy and countering my lazy hands. Perhaps it’s something to do with the unforgiving slow tempo and regular progression that means duff individual notes have nowhere to hide. I noticed little things – for example, I became convinced that the intonation of the low E string (around the low frets) on one guitar was way out – until I realised that I was pulling it a tad when fretting it with my little finger – I suspect because of the slightly different neck profile on that guitar. I think it’s also a great piece for ear training and tempo and also concentration – though it won’t do much for your speed work.
Before I fool myself into thinking I’ve mastered it and lapse back into old habits, would anyone care to suggest other pieces that make good practice subjects?
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