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Post by dawkins on Jun 15, 2019 18:22:11 GMT
Hi All
Over the past 6 months I have been playing live a lot more after a long (very long) lay off. My audiences, so far, have all been listening and range from a church with 450 school kids and 10 staff, to some support slots with an established acoustic duo and more recently a wedding before, during and after the ceremony.
I don’t particularly feel nervous but what I am noticing is that on starting a song from silence I don’t play well until I get going. In some situations I can introduce the song and get my fingers moving but it’s the times when it has to be complete silence before starting.
Has anyone got any tips for doing better from the get go or is just plain old experience.
And isn’t it strange how in playing in your home is a completely different ball game to playing live.
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Post by andyhowell on Jun 16, 2019 9:30:18 GMT
Starting should be simple or get the fingers going. I have a couple of songs I flirt with using as starters but they never work until a few songs in!
The usual stuff about starting with stuff that is well within your comfort zone is helpful. One if the reasons for this. - I find - is that you never really know what is going to happen until you start playing! Sometimes it is cool and sometimes far less satisfactory.
I Played a gig last week where I was never comfortable with my playing thought the singing was great. I finished with a tune during which a string seemed to go out of tune and it just felt a little clunky (new strings). Next morning I tunes the guitar expecting a dodgy string only to find everything was tuned well within a decent tolerance!
As ever nobody seemed to be worried about the guitar playing and the set went down well.
If the first time suddenly seems a bit ropey I keep the playing more simple and bypass the flashy bits, which I enjoy when my fingers are flying.
That’s a long winded way of saying we all have that problem!
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Post by dawkins on Jun 16, 2019 17:29:51 GMT
Thanks for this reply Andy it’s all good advice. It’s absolutely amazing how playing live can reduce the fingers to putty. On the last gig, a wedding, I had no choice but to play an unusual choice of song: ‘Waterfall ‘ by the Stone Roses. The riff is similar to Norwegian Wood and singing whilst playing is like the rubbing your head patting your tummy conundrum.
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Jun 16, 2019 19:07:22 GMT
The first intro of a set is what tends to give me trouble. In most contexts it isn't a problem as a bit of banter whilst doing a quiet "rehearsal" of the initial finger positions helps a lot. However, I also play every Sunday in our village church - the small band which I lead does all the music for the main morning services. Unfortunately this means having to move from where I sit when not playing a few steps to my mic stand, put on my guitar and play an introduction right away - my goof proportion in those first few seconds is often higher than I would like it to be. Our piano player can even worse at intros which is why I end up doing too many. And she wasn't around today.... Though that at least meant we couldn't start in different keys... Keith
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Post by bleatoid on Jun 16, 2019 19:17:32 GMT
“a bit of banter whilst doing a quiet "rehearsal" of the initial finger positions helps a lot.” As a long time Townes Van Zandt expert, I can recommend the ice breaker joke that he uses at the start of track 2 on Live at the Old Quarter, ocarolan. But maybe not in church.
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Post by ocarolan on Jun 16, 2019 19:33:42 GMT
“a bit of banter whilst doing a quiet "rehearsal" of the initial finger positions helps a lot.” As a long time Townes Van Zandt expert, I can recommend the ice breaker joke that he uses at the start of track 2 on Live at the Old Quarter, ocarolan. But maybe not in church. Keith
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Post by walkingdecay on Jun 17, 2019 13:49:47 GMT
A bit of deep, steady breathing, even a few seconds of it, helped me. Whether it was more oxygen to the brain, placebo effect or even just taking my mind off I was about about to attempt for a moment I don't know.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2019 19:00:28 GMT
10 minutes of hand stretches backstage before you play.
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Post by martinrowe on Jun 24, 2019 3:40:52 GMT
Look on the bright side; you're probably better than this: Stagefright
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Post by walkingdecay on Jun 26, 2019 10:12:19 GMT
10 minutes of hand stretches backstage before you play. I was going to say something about the alarming finger stretches, some of which would damage my inflexible fingers, but in the process noticed something more alarming, which is that Gregg seems to have deleted his account.
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Post by ocarolan on Jun 26, 2019 11:06:21 GMT
I was going to say something about the alarming finger stretches, some of which would damage my inflexible fingers, but in the process noticed something more alarming, which is that Gregg seems to have deleted his account. Indeed - happened yesterday - have emailed him... Keith
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