Question:
how do you guys feel, when someone on ya team stuffs up? and plays the wrong notes, wrong key or wrong time
bascially dosent know the song?
do ya let it go or do ya address it at practice?
do ya strangle them afterwards or give them flowers??
Answer:
I feel that part of the reason we practice as a team is to "catch" those things that individuals don't catch when they practice on their own. I'd rather not spend entire team practice sessions dealing with one particular band member's trouble with a song or two, and if it's chronic, I have a person-to-person moment with the team member and let them know how I feel about that. Usually, it is a person who just needs to set aside a few more minutes for individual practice, or maybe make the minutes they do spend count a little bit more.
That said, practice is practice, and I've found that it is disruptive to the team effort to simply play through the songs without working on each individual's approach to the song. Hopefully, their approach doesn't need refining in the "right note vs. wrong note area," but something a bit more subjective, like playing with feeling and proper touch, but hey.... I've played wrong notes before too.
Nate
Answer:
The worship minister at my church back home had a catch phrase when someone played/sang something wrong: "Is everything ok in the monitors for you?"
Answer:
If someone doesn't know the song, that can be a problem. But if it's just bad notes or a messed up rhythm played during a service, there's not much that can be done about it other than ignore it and keep moving. Not like you can stop and rewind and try it again. Just try to do better the next time. Everyone makes mistakes. Heck, I played some bad notes this morning during both services. Did it bother me? Sure. But did anyone notice? No. Were they constant errors in a certain spot in the set? No. It all depends on the situation. If it's a one time personal error, just ignore it, but if it's chronic see if more practice needs to be devoted to that song or particular technique.
Answer:
I had this while playing guitar at camp. One of the drummers had a very poor sense of rhythm. You'd think that would be kind of important for a drummer. It is. But whenever we played with him, we just struggled on through, making sure that we kept rhythm with everyone else. Probably not the best solution, but only the musicians noticed the problem.
Answer:
yeah well thats the thing. most people in church wouldnt know if ya played a wrong note or note, but when youre depending on people to play the right notes in order for you to play the correct thing, thats when its hard.
its frustrating when , after a set, where you have thought that things could of been better, that people come up to you and say that was "awesome" or "that helped me to connect with God so much better....."
and ya stand there and smile and grind ya teeth.
by the way, im a trumpet and sax player, so my ear is constantly listening to everyone else , to know when i should play, sure some of my stuff is pre arranged but a lot is little fills and running up and down and doing counter melodies.
Answer:
I never really have that problem anymore... seeing as it's just my two brothers and I playing. I'm usually the one that ends up messing things up whenever something like that does happen. My most common error is to play things in a totally screwed-up tempo.
For the most part, if you don't get pissed off about your mistake (or someone else's mistake), it'll go unnoticed. If it does get noticed, I've found the easiest way to deal with it is just to laugh and then start over (if applicable).
Originally Posted by dogfood its frustrating when , after a set, where you have thought that things could of been better, that people come up to you and say that was "awesome" or "that helped me to connect with God so much better....."
and ya stand there and smile and grind ya teeth.
I have the exact opposite reaction to that sort of situation. I find it extremely comforting/encouraging when people in the church come up and compliment me on the service even when I thought it could have been much better.
In His love,
Nate
Answer:
By the way, the best thing you can ever learn as a performer is that you will always mess up.
There is pretty much no way to avoid this unless you are an extreme virtuoso or a person who only plays really simple stuff. If you play anything that requires thought or skill, you will make mistakes... no matter how many times you practice. The mistakes will not always be wrong notes (they may be screwed-up rhythms, botched entrances, boring dynamics, etc, etc), but those are bound to occur very frequently as well.
The best thing to do to deal with this is not necessarily to strive to be perfect (although I suppose that's a good goal, although an unsurmountable one), but to strive to be able to play well through the mistakes that you are bound to make. This is something I've had to learn as a piano performance major in a very demanding college of music. My professors are not looking for me to play perfectly; they're looking for me to play well, to play expressively and not get distracted by mistakes. That should be your mind set "Play well, play expressively, don't get distracted by mistakes." This will save you a lot of grief, trust me.
To sum it all up, I'll use a quote from a long-time CGRer who I've always had a lot of respect for (smitty2622): "There are no bad notes, just good notes played badly."
In His love,
Nate
Answer:
My most common mistake is a missed accent (I have a pretty much one track mind in playing at church, 'control the volume'), this sometimes gets me to miss something. Today my snare was a little low on the stand, so I hit my leg on snare hit (missing hte snare hit) I just made that same 'mistake' intenionaly on the every measure after that till the fill, it makes it look like I ment to do it.
Most mistakes I make I just go with the stop and find your spot method. I would rather make a akward pause then continue on off tempo.
Answer:
I play with a drummer who is insanely in love with Megadeth. Up until a few days ago, I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out why he kept gradually speeding up songs. Not just certain songs, or randomly...but he sped up every song in the same gradual way. I would try my best to talk to him about it, but it's difficult to tell a drummer he's not keeping the beat right. Anyway, a couple of days ago, I watched a Megadeth DVD with him (he'd been bugging and bugging me to watch it), and discovered (to my surprise) that Megadeth's drummer seemed to keep the same pattern, or at least he did live. I was like "so THAT'S why he thinks every song should end faster than it started...". He had gotten that idea in his head, whether it was concious or not, from idolizing Megadeth's drummer and picking up his patterns. That pattern is fine for speed metal, but isn't much fun to work with when you're leading worship.
That's just one example of how the oddest things can influence people a lot...
Presently, when we practice a song and he does that, I stop as soon as I notice and say something like "that's way too fast", or "don't speed up the song", or "think slow guys", etc.
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Nate said: they may be screwed-up rhythms, botched entrances, boring dynamics, etc, etc
Heh, when you said botched entrances I had this image in my head of me walking onto the stage, tripping over some cables, my guitar flying out into the audience, and the PA speakers crashing down on my head.
Answer:
Originally Posted by bmphan Nate said: they may be screwed-up rhythms, botched entrances, boring dynamics, etc, etc
Heh, when you said botched entrances I had this image in my head of me walking onto the stage, tripping over some cables, my guitar flying out into the audience, and the PA speakers crashing down on my head.
Hahaha. That wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but I suppose that counts.
In His love,
Nate
Answer:
Originally Posted by Nate
The best thing to do to deal with this is not necessarily to strive to be perfect (although I suppose that's a good goal, although an unsurmountable one), but to strive to be able to play well through the mistakes that you are bound to make
thats good advice dude,
i will try that, but without making facial grimaces and stuff.
i do appreciate people coming up to me saying that i have played well, but at times when i know i could of played better, i struggle.
Answer:
Originally Posted by dogfood i will try that, but without making facial grimaces and stuff.
Yeah, that's the main thing during a worship service. There's no reason to show that you are messing up.
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Originally Posted by georgeo Yeah, that's the main thing during a worship service. There's no reason to show that you are messing up. might be easier just to turn the lights off