Playing Live For The First Time |
), having a really great time there, but I still had to spend 6 months before I started to eat at the school, and trust me! 8 hours a day without any food is hard, I am still too scared to take the bus everyday so my parents have to drive me, which stops when I am 18. 
... But I've actually been so stressed about this situation that I started to get suicidal thoughts again, which I got rid of 4 years ago, so that sucks.. 
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May 2 2012, 06:35 AM
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Live playing is all about living for the moment not worrying about mistakes (you learn to cover them up or just keep going).
The biggest thing to realise is that the fear and anxiety you'll feel is the same energy and feeling in your body as excitment, the only difference is where you see it as a negative energy or positive. Nothing can prepare you for playing live in front of people, you can only prepare for playing, so practice standing up, practice the pieces without a warm up/ with cold hands, because you fingers will likely not want to be your friends when you first start playing on the night! Maybe try visualisation, imagine the concert in your head with you playing everything correctly, do it in detail, try and imagine how you will feel (nervous etc) and how you will put those feelings aside to get the job done Keep a sense of humour and don't take yourself or playing too seriously on the night (remember it is called PLAYING so have fun) and if it goes badly you should at least get a funny story out of it for the future (notice how we mainly tell stories about things going wrong) Playing live gets easier. However well your first experience goes, I'm sure it will help with your anxieties because you will have achieved something and won a small battle. And we are hear to support you. -------------------- My SoundCloud
Gear Tyler Burning Water 2K Burny RLG90 with BK Emeralds Fender US Tele with BK Piledrivers Epiphone 335 with Suhr Thornbuckers PRS SE Custom 24-08 Ax8 Fessenden SD10 PSG Quilter TT15 |
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May 3 2012, 12:43 AM
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QUOTE (PosterBoy @ May 1 2012, 10:35 PM)  Live playing is all about living for the moment not worrying about mistakes (you learn to cover them up or just keep going). The biggest thing to realise is that the fear and anxiety you'll feel is the same energy and feeling in your body as excitment, the only difference is where you see it as a negative energy or positive. Nothing can prepare you for playing live in front of people, you can only prepare for playing, so practice standing up, practice the pieces without a warm up/ with cold hands, because you fingers will likely not want to be your friends when you first start playing on the night! Maybe try visualisation, imagine the concert in your head with you playing everything correctly, do it in detail, try and imagine how you will feel (nervous etc) and how you will put those feelings aside to get the job done Keep a sense of humour and don't take yourself or playing too seriously on the night (remember it is called PLAYING so have fun) and if it goes badly you should at least get a funny story out of it for the future (notice how we mainly tell stories about things going wrong) Playing live gets easier. However well your first experience goes, I'm sure it will help with your anxieties because you will have achieved something and won a small battle. And we are hear to support you. +1 Great advice Count on not having time to yourself before a gig to warm up. You're gonna be busy setting up right after the first band is done. If you're not singing, then eyes won't be on you (except for other guitarists in the crowd), so you won't really be in the spot light unless you step up center stage for a solo and steal it  Definitely practice standing up as mentioned here. If you've never been on a proper stage before, you'll learn real fast that your "life line" is your stage monitor, because you'll be set up behind the P/A speakers which mic the band. Situate yourself in front of it because it's not going to be loud on stage as you might imagine - you'll primarily hear your own guitar rig if you're standing in front of it, and the person at the mixing console is going to have you turn down your rig so that it meshes with the other instruments and microphones through the P/A system. This may seem a little odd at first. The audience will get a wall of sound, but you're only gonna a half-volume monitor in your face. So don't play in front of or in line of the other guitarist's or bassist's rig, or you'll get confused over what you're hearing. Crack open your guitar case a good 1/2 hour before the show so that it acclimates to the temperature of the room. It will go out of tune, so have a tuner on hand - on stage, and tune up before the first song. The stage lights are warm and will heat up your guitar so you may find yourself having to tune after the first or second song. If you will be playing both clean and dirty, make sure you know your rig well. If you have a clean/dirty channel with a master volume, get the levels situated so that the dirt is a notable but not drastic jump in volume. If you have a gain pedal in addition for that extra boost, get that squared away during band practice. When the engineer checks sound, he'll probably have you cycle through your clean and dirty, but don't give him your boost pedal - keep that a secret or he'll neuter your volume based on that boost, which you want to cut through during your solo. Bring a friend who is willing to be your roadie. Someone who will keep track of your personal items, and empty gig bag, set up a video camera and get it running for you. The 15 minutes prior to your gig are a whirlwind of "to-do's", and your band mates will be too busy to help you because they have their own check lists to go through. Having a calm head taking care of the non-stage setup tasks will be a saving grace, especially for your first gig experience. Your band should have a set list - make sure you print it out in big print - bring tape and tape it to the floor in front of your monitor as a reference. Make sure your guitar chord is at least 15 feet, and make sure it's looped through your strap to prevent the ever so common "oh crap, how come I can't hear myself playing fauxpaus". Keep a few spare picks within reach. Don't use a music stand. It looks ridiculous from the audience's line of sight. Be friendly/warm with the sound engineer even if he's crap, self conceited, and mean. He's ultimately in charge of how you sound. If you get lost, move your fretting hand to approximate where you think might be a good place to be, and mute until you find yourself. The great part about being in a band is everyone else will likely be where they need to be - the important thing is that the singer has the right notes to sing to, so playing a wrong chord progression is just impolite Better to not be heard in such a case - the bass will cover your *arse* til you catch up.If you screw up, no one will notice except you. In fact, you'll get compliments from people on things you think you sucked at. Say thank you with a big smile and just eat your pride - you owe it to them to not be self-bashing over what they enjoyed. Don't drink water on stage - drink something sweet - a nervous dry mouth is not quenched by water - water disappears as soon as it hits your tongue. I learned this the hard way as the lead singer of my band. That's a different story, but trust me on this  If you are going to sing, and are of age, drink a beer - good for relaxing a nervous larynx and will give you a better singing range. But don't get drunk!Don't feel like you shouldn't be nervous. Until you have a dozen live performances under your belt, that is to be expected. If your band members seem to be at ease, it's a front. They're nervous as hell too - count on that. Nervous people are good at faking the calm look to look cool, but under that skin is jello. Even your guitar idols get nervous/anxious before a show. Unfortunately, that's just how we're built as humans. Learning to deal with the jitters is the only solution, and the only way to learn that is to force yourself to get up there and confront your nerves as much as you can. You'll eventually gain confidence, which is the key to confronting your nerves. You're in for a ride. You'll love it. Trust me. After the show, you'll be on a high, and have a sense of what it's all about and want to do it again, but better. Force yourself to do it. Tell your guitar teacher - stand back. I appreciate your being there for me, but I have to do this. You'll thank yourself after the show. I hope some of this is useful to you. SirJamsalot! -------------------- The more I practice, the more I wish I had time to practice!
My Band Forum: http://passionfly.site/chat  |
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May 5 2012, 08:35 PM
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I played live on stage in 2006 to 100+ people for the first time, I was crapping my self to say the least and made a few mistakes, but i loved every second of it and did it agan a year later..
Here's my preformance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IlfrP2CGnY&feature=plcp I'd not been playing long at the time.. |
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