# How often do you mess up live?



## ThePIGI King (Feb 26, 2015)

Or even how often do you mess up playing in general. I'm a bit curious. Every time I play almost any song, I seem to mess a part up. And it's a different piece every time. Maybe due to zoning out while playing...

Just wanted to know if it's not just me, and I was hoping to hear some interesting stories.


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## asher (Feb 26, 2015)

All the time.


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## noUser01 (Feb 26, 2015)

Constantly. And I practice my riffs constantly to make sure they're tight. The goal is to always be raising the bar and over time your "mistakes" will go from "I totally forgot what the next riff was" to things that only musicians notice if they're really paying attention. Micro timing and tuning issues, things like that.


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## isispelican (Feb 26, 2015)

Imo the goal when playing live is to get the music across and vibe with it, little mistakes here and there don't matter. If it happens too often though maybe you should work on your focus.


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## AliceLG (Feb 27, 2015)

Making mistakes is my signature move


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## KristapsCoCoo (Feb 27, 2015)

I can assure you that most of people playing live make mistakes all the time! While playing live almost none will notice as long as you do not play something that really sticks out in a bad way.

An as far as heavy music goes, often those mistakes are unnoticeable behind all the gain'n shit.

As long as feel/atmosphere of the music doesn't suffer, it's all ok!


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## concertjunkie (Feb 27, 2015)

I've watched some pretty awesome musicians make mistake (tosin abasi of animals as leaders, michael keene of the faceless, etc) which was humbling for me to see that they too, are human and make mistakes. When they sort of acknowledge it and move right past it without making it a big deal, that seems to be key!


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## Jlang (Feb 28, 2015)




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## SevenString (Feb 28, 2015)

Rarely. I can go through 4 or 5 hours of a live show and not make any noticeable mistakes.

But I've been playing and singing live for decades. It's mostly a lot of experience that keeps my performances solid.

But once in a while I can still have an off night and hit a bad note or two in a solo or something. It happens.


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## Mprinsje (Mar 1, 2015)

Constantly. Since we've got some punky vibes going on it's barely noticable but boy do i mess up big time live.


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## ghostred7 (Mar 1, 2015)

I don't know anyone that doesn't crap a part at some point. It happens. Go on YouTube and look up something along the lines of "Petrucci mistake." EVERYONE messes up some times.

Gods know I do, even if not every show.


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## metaldoggie (Mar 1, 2015)

Just repeat the mistake a couple of times and people will think it's jazz.


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## VBCheeseGrater (Mar 1, 2015)

AliceLG said:


> Making mistakes is my signature move



Haha right...We area two guitar band. The other guitarist and myself each screw up a few times a gig easily. There are certain parts that if we nail, we are both happy. Some screw ups are more obvious than others. If I slop up the sweep in "Bat Country" it can ruin my whole night...but if I ace it....that's a helluva drug!


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## scottro202 (Mar 1, 2015)

I'm definitely sloppier live. But, my playing style is very visceral and I make my mistakes sound like I meant them


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## Mprinsje (Mar 1, 2015)

scottro202 said:


> I'm definitely sloppier live. But, my playing style is very visceral and I make my mistakes sound like I meant them



Exactly, play your mistakes with confidence!


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## Kashmir (Mar 1, 2015)

A handful in a night perhaps, but if you stay on the wrong note long enough someone's bound to think it's right!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S1nWqEACfdg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


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## Kashmir (Mar 1, 2015)

How do you embed a video from youtube?


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## noUser01 (Mar 1, 2015)

Kashmir said:


> How do you embed a video from youtube?



[ youtubevid ] video code (not the full YouTube link, just the last set of numbers and letters after the "=" sign) [ /youtubevid]

Without the spaces in the brackets of course.


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## Ocara-Jacob (Mar 1, 2015)

Oh man. I mess up a lot, but it's always little things. Very little things that don't really affect much. 
For what it's worth, I play drums in a pop band XD.


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## TheWarAgainstTime (Mar 1, 2015)

Kashmir said:


> How do you embed a video from youtube?



Copy the link from YouTube, then remove the "s" from https in the url  

On topic, I mess up live every now and again, but it's never anything big, plus none of my bands have ever had any mind-blowingly hard riffs or structures anyway. Like ConnorGilks said, it's mostly nitpicky things rather than forgetting an entire section or structure of a song. Can't say the same for some members of my past bands, but at least nothing's ever brought a song to a dead halt or caught the attention of the audience in a bad way


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## GunpointMetal (Mar 2, 2015)

asher said:


> All the time.



The goal is to be as accurate AS POSSIBLE while still being entertaining to look at. Bands that hit every note perfectly, but stand staring at the fretboard, are suck to go see live. Bands that load everything on the back track and flail around not playing, are suck. (bigger period?)


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## Mike (Mar 2, 2015)

Never, I'm infallible.


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## asher (Mar 2, 2015)

GunpointMetal said:


> The goal is to be as accurate AS POSSIBLE while still being entertaining to look at. Bands that hit every note perfectly, but stand staring at the fretboard, are suck to go see live. Bands that load everything on the back track and flail around not playing, are suck. (bigger period?)





Yeah, I do my best to own my screwups, but that's a lot easier with some off notes than hitting a change wrong 

Good thing we play straight ahead rock!


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## bostjan (Mar 2, 2015)

On a good night, I usually mess up once or twice. The key is to not make a face. Or if you do make a face, quickly give someone else in the band a look of disapproval. 

The funny part of it is that when I mess up, it's always during the stupidest part of the easiest song.

Vocally, if I screw up the lyrics, I'll just go with it, as much as possible. If people know the lyrics, they certainly know I screwed them up, but once the mistake is made, I just roll with it. Even if they notice, maybe they'll forgive me if I don't make a big deal out of it.


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## geekusa (Mar 2, 2015)

I mess up all the time. Some days I feel like the sloppiest player in the world. The reality is that most people that are not musicians will not notice unless it is a terrible mistake. Just gotta keep playing. Sometimes mistakes turn into weird/awesome noises! If you're into that sorta thing.. hah.


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## eyeswide (Mar 4, 2015)

ThePIGI King said:


> Just wanted to know if it's not just me, and I was hoping to hear some interesting stories.



I can sit down at home and play my band's entire set with only making a couple of minor mistakes that aren't all that noticeable. When I'm playing a show, if I don't mess up at least once per riff, it means I'm not rocking out hard enough.

In my eyes, you should be able to play your material to near perfection. If you aren't able to, it's an insult to your fans and is a bit of a scam. When you're first learning/writing material, it's okay to make mistakes. Before you are going to play it live, you should have practiced the material so thoroughly that you shouldn't be having trouble with any sections of your music.

However, playing live is a different beast. If people want to hear me play everything perfect, they can listen to the album. If I'm just standing around, it's not near as exciting, and I firmly believe that stage shows should contain some form of theatrics. Sure, I'm not playing everything as well as I can, but mistakes are made live not from me having an inability to play the material, but from me moving around so much it's impossible to play it 100%.


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## leftyguitarjoe (Mar 4, 2015)

All the time. 99% of the time nobody will notice as long as you keep going and pretend it didnt happen.


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## Andromalia (Mar 4, 2015)

Rarely. Not that I'm a guitar god or anything, but I take great precautions not to play challenging stuff live compared to my ability. 
Even at my amateur level, I'm there to provide entertainment and play properly executed music. If it means not playing necrophagist covers, then i don't play necrophagist covers. i only play stuff I'm comfortable with live, some of it can be said to be difficult I guess but i've played those for 20 years.
If to offer a show I deem decent I have to restrain myself to Nirvana, then I'll play some Nirvana. (band names aren't the actual ones but they are good exemples, I'm actually currently playing the bass in a reggae band and having a blast)
I can understand someone doing a mistake but I can't stand bands who obviously overestimate their technique and and make 5 mistakes per song. 



...which is why i never was a fan of Kirk Hammett and why Dave Murray is my god. And for all his faults Dave Mustaine is also an excellent showman in that regard. (Not citing the obvious Hetfield)


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## Aion (Mar 5, 2015)

How many times do I not play every note perfectly: pretty much always. If you really define it very harshly, I make at least one mistake per song. Maybe not a wrong note, maybe my timing just doesn't feel perfect on every note, maybe I try something that doesn't sound quite the way I thought I would, it could be anything.

How many times do I show that I make a mistake and the audience realizes it: almost never. Anyone who's listening to each individual note for perfection can't see the forest through the trees. I practice a lot and part of it is so when I make a mistake I can smoothly recover so no one notices but me.

If you want a good story about making a mistake, I had a teacher who's friend was playing a (I believe a Hayden) trumpet concerto. They made a mistake in the beginning so when they got to the recapitulation (repetition of the beginning) they purposefully made the same mistake so it was a real recap. I think this is actually a great example of what I'm talking about. Judging it against the absolute standard of the sheet music, it was wrong. But judging it against the standard of itself, it sounded right and totally worked so even though they didn't play that piece perfectly, they played the (very slightly different) new piece perfectly. The important thing being that this mistake did in fact make sense in the piece, it wasn't like they accidentally made a farty trumpet blat in which case that would have been an entirely different type of mistake.


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## Señor Voorhees (Mar 5, 2015)

So long as the song remains clearly recognizable, a misstep every now and again is perfectly fine. You don't want to miss a lot of consecutive stuff, or .... the chorus every time it happens, but non-perfect playing is just the nature of live playing. You want to play as good as possible, but don't sweat it if you mess up every now and again.


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## WhiteWalls (Mar 5, 2015)

I learned from experience that the common thought of "the audience won't spot the mistakes" is not only wrong, it's also a bad attitude to have in general as it doesn't let you improve. Even non-musicians in the audience can easily spot mistakes, timing mistakes in particular. Obviously they won't be able to tell you "you played B instead of C" afterwards, but they can easily feel that something's not right, and the only way to avoid it is to play correctly.

I don't mean to offend anyone in this thread of course, I'm just saying that the audience shouldn't be underestimated like that, and I consider being able to play live a privilege so when I do it I want to avoid everything that a couple of hours of practice could solve.


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## Fraz666 (Mar 5, 2015)

metaldoggie said:


> Just repeat the mistake a couple of times and people will think it's jazz.





Kashmir said:


> A handful in a night perhaps, but if you stay on the wrong note long enough someone's bound to think it's right!


ahahaha I really do that sometimes, when it can sound like a right note I reapeat it or take it longer


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## VBCheeseGrater (Mar 5, 2015)

geekusa said:


> I mess up all the time. Some days I feel like the sloppiest player in the world. The reality is that most people that are not musicians will not notice unless it is a terrible mistake. Just gotta keep playing. Sometimes mistakes turn into weird/awesome noises! If you're into that sorta thing.. hah.



I would forgive all your mistakes based on your username alone


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## -DTP- (Mar 5, 2015)

metaldoggie said:


> Just repeat the mistake a couple of times and people will think it's jazz.



DEAD


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## Stooly (Mar 9, 2015)

Yes, probably every show something is not timed right or maybe a bad note. But we play very fast metal and at times and it's a split second to get on the back side of a beat or mis-time a change. Plus I rage on stage and that doesn't help


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## Maverick187 (Mar 10, 2015)

At least once a show. No one ever notices. Its more so missing a note or two in a solo or playing a riff a little out of time. You should ideally know your songs structure wise inside and out, so if your playing the wrong riffs in the wrong places, that would need some work!

IMO live performances are supposed to be entertaining to watch, not just to listen. If your going to a gig to listen to music note perfect, better off staying at home and listening to the record. 

Does depend on style though. Most metal/hardcore/punk is suited to being played a little looser in favour of a more engaging performance, but thats just my opinion


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## bloc (Mar 11, 2015)

Umm, it wasn't a mistake! It was outside playing duhhh!

But serously, reading this thread made me feel so much better. Even when I think I have a song down and have played it several times already with no trouble, I'll mess up every now and then and I it just turns me off so much ugh


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## sage (Mar 12, 2015)

I rarely mess up in practice. Live is a different animal entirely. The sound is always weird and I get distracted by the crowd. I've never fully train-wrecked, but I've forgotten lyrics or started riffs in the wrong position. I try not to let it get to me. After over 20 years of playing live, I'm a little more Zen about the whole thing. It's more about the band's connection with the audience than it is about any one guy's personal performance.


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## SilentCartographer (Mar 13, 2015)

depends on how many pre show drinks, I limit myself to 3 before show time, then its fair game after that

EDIT : I didn't always have this kind of "discipline", plus sometimes you need a few to get in that zone


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## Konfyouzd (Mar 13, 2015)

It's how often you make mistakes and keep it moving that matters... 

Well... Kind of. There are a lot of times even at band practice where I'll mess up and freak out about it and no one else even noticed... So if the dudes you're playing with don't hear it, chances are the audience won't either. 

Not necessarily an excuse to slack off, but more of an excuse to not take it so seriously if you do. I've found most of the time the only time the audience knows I messed up is if I react to it in a way that suggests I messed up. 

This is even better demonstrated when a non-musician friend of mine shows me a recording of a friend that's a good <insert instrument> and usually it does sound really good, but I can always hear the little things like "He fudged that note... Pretty sure he slightly missed the timing in measure 16... Blah blah blah" 

But often they're only things that affect the music if you're in "critique" mode.

We all mess up...

Hell... How many times has the crowd bobbed their head on the wrong beat? They suck too.


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## noUser01 (Mar 13, 2015)

"The audience won't notice" is the biggest crock of sh*t I've ever heard. I hear that so many times and it's just not true. Sure, the audience might not go "Oh yeah he was slightly early on that Bb" or "That bend was a bit flat", but any idiot can listen to a new local band made up of beginners and a super tight touring band and tell you which one sounded better. That don't know why, but they can tell there's a big difference. No question. They can also detect differences a lot smaller than that. It's still important regardless of if they can put it into words.

A typical conversation we all have had is "Hey great show man" followed by "Thanks, I screwed up _____ really bad though". What's the response? The vast majority of the time it's "I didn't notice." That's not fully true. They may not have noticed but if you had played it that way, then immediately played it again perfectly I'm sure they would notice which one sounds better most of the time.

EDIT: I should clarify, I wasn't directing my post at anyone here. I literally posted this because it came to mind as I was reading unrelated posts, and then read some posts above me addressing the same issue but with an opposing point of view AFTER I posted. Nothing against you, fellas!


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## Aion (Mar 14, 2015)

ConnorGilks said:


> "The audience won't notice" is the biggest crock of sh*t I've ever heard. I hear that so many times and it's just not true. Sure, the audience might not go "Oh yeah he was slightly early on that Bb" or "That bend was a bit flat", but any idiot can listen to a new local band made up of beginners and a super tight touring band and tell you which one sounded better. That don't know why, but they can tell there's a big difference. No question. They can also detect differences a lot smaller than that. It's still important regardless of if they can put it into words.



I don't disagree per se, but most people really won't notice a small mistake unless you point it out to them and even then you might have to A/B the version with the mistake and the version without. And telling the difference between a professional touring band and an amateaurish local band has a lot more to it then the number of mistakes made.

I don't think anyone here is saying, "the audience will never hear a mistake ever," but rather that there's an area of acceptability when it comes to mistakes. It doesn't cover all mistakes, but it covers most of the ones that someone who has put in a good deal of practice would make. I don't know if anyone else here has watched DT's Live Scenes from New York with the commentary on (I was the coolest kid in high school), but over the course of it you'll hear each of them go, "oh man, I totally messed that up." And yeah, they did, but if you told me to listen and find the mistake without telling me where it is, 99/100 times I would not be able to tell you.

The audience isn't a bunch of idiots, they will notice when something is wrong, but depending on what kind of mistake and how quickly things move on there's a good chance it will jump out of their brain just as quickly as they realized it.


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## noUser01 (Mar 14, 2015)

Aion said:


> I don't disagree per se, but most people really won't notice a small mistake unless you point it out to them and even then you might have to A/B the version with the mistake and the version without. And telling the difference between a professional touring band and an amateaurish local band has a lot more to it then the number of mistakes made.
> 
> I don't think anyone here is saying, "the audience will never hear a mistake ever," but rather that there's an area of acceptability when it comes to mistakes. It doesn't cover all mistakes, but it covers most of the ones that someone who has put in a good deal of practice would make. I don't know if anyone else here has watched DT's Live Scenes from New York with the commentary on (I was the coolest kid in high school), but over the course of it you'll hear each of them go, "oh man, I totally messed that up." And yeah, they did, but if you told me to listen and find the mistake without telling me where it is, 99/100 times I would not be able to tell you.
> 
> The audience isn't a bunch of idiots, they will notice when something is wrong, but depending on what kind of mistake and how quickly things move on there's a good chance it will jump out of their brain just as quickly as they realized it.



I think they are able to pick out much smaller differences too. And even if the average audience member can't, there's still going to be a lot of musicians in the audience, and I think we should always be practicing as if our musical idols are in the crowd picking apart everything. At least, that should be the goal when it comes to our playing. It depends on the music you're playing too though, of course.

It's more than just "mistakes" though that are important. A band might not make a single "mistake" all night (wrong note, out of tune bend, sloppy run etc.) but the bass player might always play slightly earlier than the rest of the band. Still in time, not out of time by any means, it's a very small amount of difference. Is it a mistake? No, it would still count as "in time" and relatively "tight", but if he were more in sync than that... And if you compared the two I think one would be better than the other, to a lot of people.

Put it this way. Last month I went to see Fit For An Autopsy, who were opening for Within the Ruins, Emmure and Suicide Silence. Fit For An Autopsy was incredibly tight, and didn't even play to a click apparently. Definitely could've fooled me. One of the tightest live bands ever. Then Emmure came on. I'm not a fan of theirs at all, but they were by far the tightest live band I've heard in my life, no question. It was to the point where I was skeptical they were even playing, and would've thought it was a track if it weren't for some things I noticed like the input lights on their AxeFX units and a couple accidental bits of string noise between chugs once or twice in the set.

Now I would have zero advice to give FFAA on their live show. I couldn't tell them "If you _____ you'll be as tight as them". To me they were the pinnacle of a tight band, until I heard Emmure (I can't believe I'm saying this ). All the people I was with (only one was a musician) they all agreed they were the tightest band there, despite the difference being seemingly small, and not being able to put into words why they were so much tighter.


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## SilentCartographer (Mar 15, 2015)

ConnorGilks said:


> "The audience won't notice" is the biggest crock of sh*t I've ever heard. I hear that so many times and it's just not true. Sure, the audience might not go "Oh yeah he was slightly early on that Bb" or "That bend was a bit flat", but any idiot can listen to a new local band made up of beginners and a super tight touring band and tell you which one sounded better. That don't know why, but they can tell there's a big difference. No question. They can also detect differences a lot smaller than that. It's still important regardless of if they can put it into words.
> 
> A typical conversation we all have had is "Hey great show man" followed by "Thanks, I screwed up _____ really bad though". What's the response? The vast majority of the time it's "I didn't notice." That's not fully true. They may not have noticed but if you had played it that way, then immediately played it again perfectly I'm sure they would notice which one sounds better most of the time.
> 
> EDIT: I should clarify, I wasn't directing my post at anyone here. I literally posted this because it came to mind as I was reading unrelated posts, and then read some posts above me addressing the same issue but with an opposing point of view AFTER I posted. Nothing against you, fellas!


 
dude with metal chances are most of the crowd is going to scrutinize EVERYTHING, gear, if you .... up, but thats what we get ourselves into


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## bloc (Mar 15, 2015)

Just use lots of gain to cover up your mistakes. Problem solved!


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## noUser01 (Mar 15, 2015)

SilentCartographer said:


> dude with metal chances are most of the crowd is going to scrutinize EVERYTHING, gear, if you .... up, but thats what we get ourselves into



That's pretty much the attitude I take when I practice.


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## Gouzou (Mar 16, 2015)

SilentCartographer said:


> dude with metal chances are most of the crowd is going to scrutinize EVERYTHING, gear, if you .... up, but thats what we get ourselves into



another kind of crowd that notices alost everything is the progressive rock crowd .

I "converted" from melodic death metal to 70s infuenced prog-rock and in our first concert audience was made of proficient musicians, virtuoso-affictionados and some more careful listeners ... 

As music is nothing metal, we definitly did not have any option about rising gain in my presets  ... It's a joy to play for such audiences, but I also felt some more pressure than with full distorted metal gigs  

As for me, I'm probably the most dirty and unprecise lead guitarist I know, so I gambled everything in passionate playing and a few impressive tapping runs  ... it ( almost ) worked !

Anyway, I was curious about what extent of "mess up" is implied in the question : I mean that it's very rare that a musician in the band makes such a huge mistake that the song crashes in flame, and we have to start again OR that there is something even my grandma could notice. On the other hand, there are times where little mistakes meld themselves in the overall exeution ... 
The important thing is that the groove and the song's sturcture are not lost so that you can keep on as if nothing happened ( as for DT, they spot mistakes but you can't hear them ).


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## Gouzou (Mar 16, 2015)

Another important thing is that when I stopped jumping around the scene my mistake rate dropped in a very noticable way ... 

Some guy form power/speed metal band Labirynth told me once that "stage enthousiasm is playing tricks to you : you may own the stage but you are not delivering well executed music" ... ( that was in my long-haired metal times )


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## GunpointMetal (Mar 16, 2015)

If I'm losing my shit thrashing around on stage and someone came up to me and said "I heard you were a little late coming in to that 13/8 riff after the noisey bridge on the second song" (in my best whiny nerd voice) 
I would promptly tell him to s&*^ a f*&% up his d*&%^$(# eat my f*&%^& s&^%. 

You want perfection, listen to the record, you want passion, come see me play live.


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## Konfyouzd (Mar 16, 2015)

Andromalia said:


> Rarely. Not that I'm a guitar god or anything, but I take great precautions not to play challenging stuff live compared to my ability.
> Even at my amateur level, I'm there to provide entertainment and play properly executed music. If it means not playing necrophagist covers, then i don't play necrophagist covers. i only play stuff I'm comfortable with live, some of it can be said to be difficult I guess but i've played those for 20 years.
> If to offer a show I deem decent I have to restrain myself to Nirvana, then I'll play some Nirvana. (band names aren't the actual ones but they are good exemples, I'm actually currently playing the bass in a reggae band and having a blast)
> I can understand someone doing a mistake but I can't stand bands who obviously overestimate their technique and and make 5 mistakes per song.
> ...


So modest


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## Zban (Mar 16, 2015)

I make as many mistakes as it takes to balance being entertaining and accurate. I could stand there perfectly still and hit every note, but seeing as how I'm not a virtuoso solo artist, who wants to see that? Anytime I make a mistake that I remembered throughout the set, if I ask someone outside of the band if they heard, they always say "no"- most mistakes just aren't noticeable in a live setting, unless it's a really abysmal f*ck up.


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## noUser01 (Mar 17, 2015)

Zban said:


> I make as many mistakes as it takes to balance being entertaining and accurate. I could stand there perfectly still and hit every note, but seeing as how I'm not a virtuoso solo artist, who wants to see that? Anytime I make a mistake that I remembered throughout the set, if I ask someone outside of the band if they heard, they always say "no"- most mistakes just aren't noticeable in a live setting, unless it's a really abysmal f*ck up.



You shouldn't need to balance though, ideally. The goal should be to be able to play well AND put on a good show. You don't need to be doing backflips to put on a great show and entertain an audience.

If you have certain stage moves that you do then practice riffs with those stage moves. For example, I know during one section of one song my band plays, I always do the same thing, and if I mess it up live then I go home and practice it while doing that stage move so that I don't have to have that compromise.


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## Aion (Mar 17, 2015)

ConnorGilks said:


> You shouldn't need to balance though, ideally. The goal should be to be able to play well AND put on a good show. You don't need to be doing backflips to put on a great show and entertain an audience.
> 
> If you have certain stage moves that you do then practice riffs with those stage moves. For example, I know during one section of one song my band plays, I always do the same thing, and if I mess it up live then I go home and practice it while doing that stage move so that I don't have to have that compromise.



Yeah but you're talking about a rehearsed stage move, which I don't think Zban was referring to that. I also think the compromise comes in by acknowledging that if you're moving around you're increasing your chances for mistakes and sometimes you need to be okay with that to put on a good show. You try to have as few mistakes as possible, but they're not wholly avoidable. I will say that I rarely make the same mistake twice, but I've never had a show that I would call perfect. Something always goes a tiny bit wrong. No one will necessarily notice, especially if it's very thorny music, but there are different levels to different mistakes. Every band I'm in I say the same thing. The notes themselves are the least important thing. Most important is the atmosphere/emotional message, then tempo, then rhythm, then pitch. You throw any one of those enough and it will ruin the moment (or possibly the song), no question. But mistakes happen and are a part of just about any show. Minimize, yes, but be prepared for them to happen and make them work.

Figure skaters are a great example. They practice falling. They never intend to fall, but falls happen, and they know they have to be up near instantly. And you see the fall (and if you're me you also laugh at it because sometimes they're really funny) but seeing them come back from it and then continue to rawk dat ice shows just how skilled they are. Coming back from a mistake in anything is one of the hardest things to do, but its a part of any type of performing art.


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## Albionic (Mar 18, 2015)

I'm trying to imagine the crowd of drunks that you get at most rock venues i've played at scrutinizing my every note lol. You get the odd guitar nerd who will happily come tell you that you about every mistake but these guys do this in the hope of being overheard to advertise the fact that they play guitar in the hopes of gaining a few "cool points". but also i get an equal number of sweaty hugs from the inebriated claiming that I was awesome regardless of how I played.

I acrually don't make mistakes I'm like a ....ing machine


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## hairychris (Mar 18, 2015)

Usually I'm pretty good... usually! Unless I get drunk & lose count of shit but I'm more likely to do that in rehearsal than at shows.


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## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Mar 18, 2015)

Rehearse with precision in mind, performance shouldn't be forced, it should accurately represent what is taking place internally. You can't "B.S." an audience. If you are trying to perform in a way that doesn't appear to be a natural expression of yourself, your music and the quality in which it is shared will suffer. An audience would rather you stand still and play well than get in an aerobic workout to the sound of your own compromise of quality control.

Being able to move around without compromising quality takes time, and gets better with years.

Also, unless you're the front person, I'd not worry about it too much. It's their job primarily to attract the attention to the stage, and they carry a far higher degree of performance responsibility in this regard.


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## oracles (Mar 18, 2015)

I don't mess up too often, and I've come to realise that most people don't know the difference anyway, it's all about how you play it off. Rehearsing as though it is a live show has been helpful, I can thrash about and perfect my stage show during rehearsal so it doesn't feel forced or uncomfortable during an actual show. Not drinking before going on stage was pretty helpful too.


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## mongey (Mar 18, 2015)

When I play a bad note live I put on my jazz face and hold it like I meant it


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## Aion (Mar 19, 2015)

TonyFlyingSquirrel said:


> Also, unless you're the front person, I'd not worry about it too much. It's their job primarily to attract the attention to the stage, and they carry a far higher degree of performance responsibility in this regard.



That should be taken with a grain of salt. I think it's the job of the entire band to put on a good show. More of that will come from the front man than any other person in the band, but if everyone was totally static while the front man was moving like Freddie Mercury it would likely affect the show negatively. But yeah, not every person needs to be throwing their instrument into the air like Janek Gers.


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## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Mar 19, 2015)

Aion said:


> That should be taken with a grain of salt. I think it's the job of the entire band to put on a good show. More of that will come from the front man than any other person in the band, but if everyone was totally static while the front man was moving like Freddie Mercury it would likely affect the show negatively. But yeah, not every person needs to be throwing their instrument into the air like Janek Gers.



True, there is a balance. Point being, don't perform at the expense of quality playing.


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## noUser01 (Mar 19, 2015)

Of course any live performance needs to have spontaneity, but you know what you typically do on stage, you know what's in your "trick bag", so why not practice with those in mind? How many people here actually practice standing up? How many practice in their usual stance? How many people think about how their picking angle changes when standing? 

I mess up, and I'm always going to mess up. But like I said, there's a ton of ways to minimize that and raise your own "mistake bar". I think it's just flat out wrong when people say "Well you have to sacrifice the music in order to put on a good show."


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## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Mar 19, 2015)

ConnorGilks said:


> Of course any live performance needs to have spontaneity, but you know what you typically do on stage, you know what's in your "trick bag", so why not practice with those in mind? How many people here actually practice standing up? How many practice in their usual stance? How many people think about how their picking angle changes when standing?
> 
> I mess up, and I'm always going to mess up. But like I said, there's a ton of ways to minimize that and raise your own "mistake bar". I think it's just flat out wrong when people say "Well you have to sacrifice the music in order to put on a good show."



I always stand in performance while rehearsing, and I go so far as to do the same when recording. I learned a long time ago that if I'm sitting on a stool to track a solo & all hunched over the guitar for full access, sometimes it would be difficult to reproduce that standing up in a completely different posture. We utilize a rehearsal studio now anyway, so it's much more like a gig on a small stage when we rehearse.


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## McKay (Mar 22, 2015)

I only really make mistakes if I'm trying to go nuts on stage. That and solos.


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## GunpointMetal (Mar 24, 2015)

I'd rather see a band lose themselves in what they are doing and make 5 small mistakes in every song than play a perfect set while staring at their hands the whole time. I don't go to shows to see a recital, I go for energy.


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## VBCheeseGrater (Mar 24, 2015)

We recorded our entire show this past weekend. One thing I noticed is my mistakes are not usually as bad as I remember. One song in particular i actually screamed "F***!!!" as we finished the song after fouling up a new sweep section I added at the end. I went and listened back to it and it sounded passable at least.


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## charlessalvacion (Mar 27, 2015)

I mess up everytime. practice, actual performance, etc.. haha


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## Alex Kenivel (Mar 27, 2015)

It's not about how you mess up, but how you recover.


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## DamianX_JVL (Mar 28, 2015)

One or two times per gig (1 of 2 hours) but they are so ....damn noticeable, like starting a phrase a half step wrong or something like that, i recover quickly but those two seconds make my ears bleed


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## scottro202 (Mar 28, 2015)

VBCheeseGrater said:


> We recorded our entire show this past weekend. One thing I noticed is my mistakes are not usually as bad as I remember. One song in particular i actually screamed "F***!!!" as we finished the song after fouling up a new sweep section I added at the end. I went and listened back to it and it sounded passable at least.



There's different sorts of mess-ups. There's like, forgetting a part or something. That's really bad. But not playing a part "just so" is one of those thing maybe other musicians who are paying close attention would notice. Otherwise people care mostly about if you're good as a whole, which will be noticeable. 

And then there's playing it right, but sloppy. *cough*Lars Ulrich*cough* They're hitting all the notes, but the feel/timing of it is off. An exaggerated example of this is the piano playing on the album "Understanding and Appreciating Classical Music with Ron Jeremy." Yes, porn star Ron Jeremy plays piano and it is hilarious. It's just audio and it's clean (it was on the radio), but it is hilarious.


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