General Music Chat

I just always think of Spinal Tap when something stupid happens.

Brings a grin to my face everytime.

I guess the guys that I play with and I have done enough things thru the years that not much suprises us anymore.

The only meltdown I had was a couple of years ago, we popped the breaker in a new place we were playing in, it killed my amp and pedal board, once we got everything going no guitar signal, I thought I had murdered my Mesa. After 10-15 minutes of bringing in my extra amp and again no guitar I realized that the wireless unit on my pedal board hadnt turned back on when I restored power to my pedal board. LOL, I just hit the power switch on the wireless unit and I was back in business, but for a bit there I had no idea what was going on!

Ive learned to grin a lot playing and if we do have some major screwup we just make a joke out of it.

One of my fun things to do and I know its really stupid is say Im in the middle of a solo and I get hung up on a lick, I will look at our bassist and say Help Im Stuck, and he will come over and bump into me.

One night on my delay pedal it has a sampling function, I wasnt paying attention and hit sample and it starts repeating over and over at the end of a song, so Im scratching my head, and I get on the mic and say Donn(our old soundman) I have a problem, so he comes up with a flashlight and we are examining the pedal, and he finally just kicks it off. Im like thanks Donn, its not like I didnt know how to cut it off. I say to the audience thanks to Donn our soundman for averting a major disaster. The crowd has always eaten stuff like that up.

Thru the years when I would play the solo to Rock N Roll All Nite I would lean back on my knees to my back and play the solo, well at this point sometimes its kinda hard to get back up, so our singer will always get behind me and help me get up ala Spinal Tap, its always good for some applause and giggles.

I think thats the key to make a mistake look like it was planned and to make the most of it. When you are in front of people you are the entertainment, people pay us to be entertained so we try to deliver, but I might have to give up lying on my back!

LOL Sounds like you guys handle it very well... I love the comedy in a performance.. If I get to a point where my own confidence becomes stable (and it will) , I'm inclined to have a lot of fun on the stage...

This also illustrates something very key, to successful fan building... We have tyo be masters of what we do, but at the same time , convey how easy it seems and how much fun it really is... To me, that seems to be the winning combination, that elevates a band into the arena one day.

I've found confidence ~ it takes a while, but I've played open mics consistently every tuesday night now for the better part of a year, and I've come to realize people really don't care about mistakes. I mean, I knew that before I learned it - but there's a different kind of learning - head knowledge learning, and experience learning. I knew people really didn't care, but I still got nervous. It wasn't until my umpteenth time making a mistake that I realized people really don't care - just as long as you look like you're having fun, they can relax and have fun - they don't have to worry about how awkward you feel.

It's kindof funny too ~ I used to warm up before jumping up to play - that's how nervous I was - I was nervous I'd suck - now I just get up from the bar with my beer, plug in and play. Confidence came through repetition of doing what made me feel un-confident.