free jam tracks - brought to you by dylan de graaf and nick cresswell

Playing Through Mistakes And Going Unnoticed

One of the best things you can do for yourself as a musician is to ensure that you are making mistakes, but there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. It's a good thing to be constantly pushing yourself beyond your ability. It's how we learn and grow both as people and musically. If you stay within your limits then you will find that you improve very slowly, if at all. Obviously no one wants to listen to you play badly, but if you are playing well and pushing the boundaries, then you will be sure to play a few bum notes along the way.

How To Go Unnoticed Making Mistakes Playing Live

Members of the audience don't usually know exactly what you are going to play and how you are meant to play it. Even if they have heard you perform before people will generally be listening without a predetermined view on if what you are playing is right or wrong. To the listener you are simply just playing. You can use this to your advantage so that if you do happen to make a mistake, you will be able to cover it up so it goes unnoticed.

If you do play something incorrectly it is essential that you don't change your facial expression such as screw your face up or sigh to alert the audience that you've played something wrong. If you make a gesture to show this, then you are advertising that you've made an error. If the error is slight, it will easily go unnoticed.

For a mistake that is more obvious, keep playing through, even if everyone is aware of the mishap at the time you make it, chances are it will be forgotten well before the end of the tune you are playing.

The Biggest Cover Up Of All - Don't Lose The Rhythm

Finally, if you make the biggest musical blunder that the world has ever heard, whatever you do, don't lose the rhythm. You can get away with making wrong notes, miss-hitting a drum, breaking a string and even playing in the wrong key, but no matter what mistakes you make, if you lose the rhythm of the tune, you will kill the groove. If you kill the groove then you will fully alert everyone to the fact that you have lost your control of the music.

This is especially true if you are playing to people who are dancing. Losing the groove is really the only thing you can do wrong for people when they are dancing. If you lose the groove, the dancing will stop and it will be a challenge to recover well from it. By always keeping the beat constant while you re-find your place in the music, you will soon discover that you can get away with the worst of errors.

Making mistakes are a part of being a musician. Especially when you push yourself to play better, explore and be creative. If you don't react to your errors then your audience won't usually react either. If you really lose your place, keep your nerves steady and the beat going. Allow yourself to re-group, find your place and get back into the swing of things and your mistakes will go unnoticed or soon be forgotten.