Have you ever played really awful and it both amazed and depressed you?

gibs

gibs

New member
This happens periodically....I can't figure it out....

I've been working on a tune that's been evolving for a while.....haven't got a handle on complete lyrics yet, just chording and a small riff.......

Today I couldn't play the thing at all....I always play barre chords using my thumb on the low E, and I misplaced like crazy too high on the frets every freaking time.....this went on and on and on.....then I forgot the progression I had created.......then I thought the guitar was out of tune, so I re-tuned by ear and totally fucked it up and had to get the tuner.....


Nothing, absolutely nothing went right .......it was like I was a total beginner with a deaf ear to boot......so I give up after about 45 minutes totally bummed and paranoid........

I come back after several hours and boom, I'm on....... .......everything sounds like it should, and kinda effortless as well....WTF ?????....anybody else play ridiculously bad for no reason sometimes?...maybe it's just me.......or is there a guitar gremlin that likes prickin' people around?..........gibs
 
Hell ya ...You gotta try it in front of a audience!I did a gig once where the whole band was in the same boat...Man you just want to dig a hole.LOL


Don
 
I get that sometimes too. It feels that my mind is somewhere else, I can't keep the rythym straight at all, I forget what chord came next, and when I try to improvise a solo, it sounds like it did when I first learned the minor pentatonic. I blame it on not being able to be in my "zone" for playing. I usually walk away, become inspired hours later, and play how I like to play.
 
Gibs, if I where to have a quarter for all the times thats happend to me.......
Quite normal bud, it's all part of being a guitarist and human at the same time.
 
I'm with Henri on this one. Our band's big homecoming show (in little ol' Oakland City, IN :rolleyes: ), and our first two or three songs we sound like five guys who just met outside and decided "Hey, let's try to play these songs that none of us really know and that we've never ever rehearsed together!" And then we did the next tune and tore up the rest of our set like no one's business. Weird — just glad we didn't stay in "Suck" mode all night :p.
 
I hear ya Gibs, it happens to me and my axe-sliging pals. Some would say it never NOT happens to me.... :)

On a related note, do you folks ever get rave audience reviews on nights when you were in total suck mode? It blew my mind a couple of times. Me 'n' the band were up there whaling on our instruments like a bunch of drunken monkeys, and people were saying "wow, you're an awesome bassist!" and other lies and half-truths....

I wonder-- are these people liars, or just too drunk to tell? (Or are they groupies in training?) I guess the fact that it was a slimy dive (the Living Room, in Providence) factors in. After seeing the men's room flooded with quarter inch of "water", and unsticking yourself from the gum on the carpet, and getting high from all the pot smoke drifting out from "backstage", maybe we three DID rock in comparison...
 
Don't I know it...........

Been playin guitar for something like 30 plus years, and trumpet for maybe a little longer. There have been days, both on and off gigs, when I wanted to just hang one or both up for good. There will probably be more of them in the future. Fortunately, there have been relatively few of these kinds of days, and they usually pass quickly.

Musicians have bad days, as do pro athletes (I was thinking that maybe Tiger Woods was exempt from having bad days, but then he had that 3rd round at the British Open. Remember the 1986 Boston Red Sox?), as do doctors, lawyers, computer programmers, you name it. Just cycles of life. Good--bad. Hot--Cold. My playing's great--my playing sucks.

It's all good. Hang in and keep it comin' no matter what.
 
esactun said:
I wonder-- are these people liars, or just too drunk to tell? (Or are they groupies in training
Click to expand...
Hey escatun, I think it's just a matter of ignorance. The average person doesn't *really* know enough about music to know if you or I are good or not.

My wife, for instance, considers herself to be a person who doesn't really know anything about music, although she listens and asks questions when I talk shop. Anyway, we were watching the Espys a couple of weeks ago, and Santana opened the show. The song was moving along and they got to the lead break, and Carlos was less than inspiring :rolleyes: . He was improvising, of course, but he simply hit some notes that were out of place, off key, and like that. He was really bumbling for a few moments.

My wife could see that I was cringing and she asked why. I explained that Carlos had just gone out on a limb and had more or less broken the branch, but it had gotten by her. If I had had the opportunity to replay it a few times she would have heard it, but she didn't really catch it on one listen.

I think most people are like that. About the only time they notice a flawed performance is if the player lets it show on his or her face, or if the performance is a vocal. People notice a bad vocal mistake because that's what they listen for in a song, the voice. Think of all the horrible versions of the national anthem that get replayed all the time on television and you'll see what I mean (Carl Lewis did an exceptionally horrid one).

So just crank it up and keep flailing, dude! Only your musician buddies are gonna give you any grief :D .
 
Hell no, not me man, I'm always brilliant everytime I play.....Yea! Right! LOL!,

Come on man, this happens to everyone. Sometimes I stink up the place so bad people are looking to see what died and when. I recently was playing in a really cool new club with a really good sized growd. We had two brand new songs in the set list that had very similiar fingering. I got the finger between the two songs confused and oh brother what a mess. And guess what, both songs started off with just guitar so I was out there blowing in the breeze all by my lonesome(or rather stinking up the place.) This kinda thing happens and when it does it blows my mind for most of the set. It takes a while to recover and you think about if for days. Eventually though, ya gotta get back on the horse and ride.

-ajm
 
I've never had that happen with my own stuff. But I play the crap out of my own stuff and sort of go in robot mode. Ask me to play it slowly and I'll probably blow it because I'm actually thinking about it! Anywho, I've been in suck mode many times. In practice, live, and in the booth! On the contrary, some of my best work EVER has come out of good old fashioned fear. I forgot my normal solo in one of my tunes and in panic mode, I ripped something off the top of my head and it actually kicked ass! I've never been able to re-create it though, damnit! Not even close! It's like I was possessed or something. But it's on tape! I think it worked because I just said to hell with it and let my head go out there and just let my hands do what they wanted. Now if I could do that everytime! Which brings me to a new thread topic....
 
The worst is when the show is on tape, and your band members watch at the practice space before rehearshing, and there like" ya we rocked" im in the corner with my hands over my face thinkin " i played so shitty ,i refuze to watch this tape again" ."not that horrible solo again".Ahhhhhhhhhhh!
 
I used to play a handsome guitar in the old days. Had some fancy licks on the electric, and some even fancier flamenco-style pieces and fingerpicking magic down on the classical guitar. But I quit playing because it was to hard on my wrists together with sax and piano...

So now and then I take back my 'old' strat. (I've had it for about 4 years now. Never really played it all that much. Bought it just before wristhell began... Such a shame.) And when I do, it sounds shitty. A strat has got great tone, but needs a certain playing style. I'm not good enough anymore to get it down like that. Just won't work. :(

Been thinking about selling the beauty... Buy something more jazz-orientated. That's more my style these days, and it's easier to play with that tone...

It's truely a shame that I had to give it up. I was planning on going to the conservatory to study classical guitar. And I could've passed the entrance exam too... With ease! Oh well... Now I'll just study theory, and maybe once I'll start getting my chops back together. I'm still way ahead from most of my friends when it comes to understanding the instrument, and knowing its possibilities...
 
Funny you brought this up. Last night I finally had some time to sit down for a serious practice session. Unfortunately, it was like pulling teeth to play anything decent. My fingers felt weak, my tone was weak... very uninspiring. Fortunately, that usually means the next session will sound great (at least compared to this one).
 
That's pretty much it... It can only get better! If I play under par, I put the guitar down a while, maybe even a couple of days... then the magic restores its energies... and it's right again!

I guess that would be hard to do, though, if it were a gig situation; in which case, you just barrel through it, and come out clean on the other side!:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top