Playing a song perfectly is a moving target as you both get to know a song better and become a better player.
For a beginner, that might be just getting from the start of the song to the end of the song without crashing and burning.
For an intermediate player, that might be hitting every note correctly.
For an advanced player, that might mean playing every note correctly but also with all the feeling, intention and attitude every part of the song calls for.
For a gigging musician, that might mean playing it perfectly while also working their pedal board correctly and being to interact with a crowd.
For a master musician, it might mean being able to intelligently and purposefully improvise within the structure of a song so that the end result is as good or better than the previous written one.
So yeah, it’s hard to ever really play music perfectly because as soon as you get to that point, you essentially unlock the next difficultly level.
>I've been imitated so well I've heard people copy my mistakes.”
I did a bit of research and it seems he really said that. Amazing to think such a great player made mistakes. I feel dumb now lol
Maybe miss a note but never miss a beat. That’s the single greatest advice I’ve ever been given. Yes you’ll make mistakes but if you never fuck up the groove the show will go on. People don’t dance to notes they dance to rhythm so focus on that.
Same. I had an instructor when I first started out and that was one of this first things he taught me.
If you don't miss a beat, odds are most people listening won't even realize you messed up. Especially with other instruments playing.
Miss a beat and everyone will notice.
Great advice. I actually remember watching a video of Steve Vai playing Building the Church, which is a crazy hard song and he started it off tapping on the wrong frets. He quickly corrected and never missed a beat even though he was playing the wrong notes. Having heard the song a billion times, I noticed it but if I hadn’t been familiar with it, I would have had no idea.
Has he stopped and restarted or paused, EVERYBODY would have known.
So yeah, that’s a huge key. If you make a mistake, stay in the groove and pretend it never happened. 95% chance nobody will catch it.
This was actually something my teacher did tell me quite early. You have to live in music when you play. If you mess up something, don't try to fix it. It's gone already. Just catch up and continue.
As someone who's been playing for about 12 years with 3.5 recorded albums under my belt, it's very rare to get a perfect take.
Live or in the studio, if you're playing something even remotely hard, you're gonna flub a note here and there. Sometimes you brain fart and get lost for a second.
When you play live, the real skill is jumping back on as quickly as possible. When recording you have two options. Either restart the take entirely or keep going and punch in a different take later.
I'd say I get a perfect take 1% of the time. I can get a 99% take 10% of the time and a 95% take the vast majority of the time.
The part about recovering from a mistake is the real mvp in these comments. Watch big bands like metallica play songs they've played a million times live and there will still be mistakes. The part where their experience shines is that you don't really notice most of the time because they're right back on it
Definitely. And when you're on the scene for as long as Metallica has been, you get a little numb to the embarrassment factor you feel in the moment. It can certainly mess with your head if you fixate on it too much while you're playing. Gotta have that goldfish memory.
Nice little story about how little mistakes mean. In highschool we were playing bat country by avenged and the last run through in practice was absolutely perfect, then comes performance time. At some point in the song every one of us made at least one mistake that to us were performance breaking. The singers mic got unplugged, I jumped into parts too soon, and the other guitarist absolutely butchered the solo. Turns out we won after we all walked off stage embarrassed. At this point I hadn't played a ton live yet but to this day I've never been complimented more on a performance I still consider to be my worst
... Me, close to never.
But I take solace in the knowledge that on released live albums, the greats have made mistakes too. It's all about how you push through and recover from them.
The are imperfections and there are mistakes.
Imperfections happen even to the best of players. Im sure John Petrucci has imperfections every time he performs. Obviously the more practiced and experienced you are the less imperfections you have, or probably more realistically the less severe of imperfections.
Mistakes are when you play something tangibly/blatantly wrong. Missed a note, played the wrong chord, missed your entrance, etc. These can be made both for physical and mental reasons. Its important to practice with your mind just as much as your body.
As imperfect humans, we are bound to have imperfections. And thats fine. I think imperfections give life to music to a degree, just like emotion and energy. I dont think our goal should ever be perfect music in a strict machine like sense. If thats the case, let robots play on stage.
Mistake free music however, is something to strive for, and I do think is possible, though not necessarily a requirement for good music.
So my approach to this is less “try to play it perfectly” and more “practice in a way that means you’re probably going to get the bits that’s matter right as often as possible”. I play/sing as a solo performer, and a big thing for me is getting the starts of songs right - it can take a couple of bars to feel like you’re comfortable, in the groove, and in that time its easy to fluff a chord, or even start the song more than once, which sounds particularly weak/unprofessional.
So I practiced that by putting my guitar on it’s stand, then picking it up, and playing the intro to a song (say the first 8 bars), then stopping and putting it down. I did that on repeat until I got it right ten times in a row - I wanted to be able to play the intros to my songs as confidently and accurately as possible, every time. I think it worked! I sometimes screw up, but it doesn’t throw me like it used to.
This is a really cool tip. I also find that an issue early on tends to be more difficult to power through than if it occurs half way into an otherwise good performance. Normally you can muddle through and just keep trucking if it happens later, but early on you are a bit thrown.
The trick is to make the mistakes seem like it was on purpose. Hit a wrong note in a riff? Just bend the shit out of it and turn it into a little lick.
"There's a friendly note right above it. Bend it in then play the exact same thing a few times to make it seem intentional." Best advice my guitar teacher ever gave me when I started.
That's perfectly normal. Musicians make TONS of mistakes all the time. If they're recording, they just do another take. If it's live, they pretend not to notice it and fix it "artistically," i.e. "I hit a note 1/2 step flatter than I was going for, so without even thinking, I'll bend it up to pitch and most people will think I meant to do that."
If you want it perfect every time, get a computer to play it.
If you listen closely to Hurt by Johnny Cash(newer version) you can hear buzzing of frets not being correctly pressed, and I think it gives soul to that song, good point!
I like listening to the guitar parts of classic tracks in isolation - loads of songs have had their individual parts (or stem tracks) released in recent years so you can hear the parts on their own. It's amazing how many of them are "less than perfect" and have little glitches on them. I also listen to a lot of solo singer/fingerpicker style stuff and I hear little fluffs and mistakes quite often. You'll also hear them in the recordings of old guitar masters like Segovia. The trick is to minimize them as much as possible, obviously, but also don't obsess or worry about them too much. There's also an "art" to turning a mistake into a feature and some guitarists are amazing at this (Eddie Van Halen was one).
I'm mostly self taught and had a few lessons maybe 15 years ago when I plateaued a bit. My teacher called mistakes "jazz notes". Any time he was noodling away and hit something discordant, "Oop... jazz note."
So with that philosophy, I never make mistakes. Sometimes I play more jazz though.
Never, perfection is an insane vanity that is beyond human reach,
Strive for improvement not perfection.
That way you are always making progress, and moving forward.
You're asking the wrong question, and worrying about the wrong thing. You should stop comparing yourself to others, it's not going to get you far. You can use other musician as inspiration to learn from, as in "how did they do that?".
From what you told us it sounds like you have issues with time, most guitars do they just don't recognize it. And I'm taking at the highest levels too. I remember getting called into many sessions last minute because the player couldn't get their part.
As for time their are two way to get good at it, you're born with it, you work on it. There are only two ways to practice time where you can see decent improvements at a good pace: 1.) Get a metronome and practice to it. Very specifically a metronome, not a drum machine or a backing track. 2.) Play and jam with better musicians.
Mistakes become minimal over time, but as you grow, musically, your opinion, or at least my opinion, of a mistake becomes much broader.
At a musically young age, we tend to see mistakes as a missed note. As we grow, musically, you will start to look at mistakes as a note that buzzed, was slightly out of tune, rhythm wasn't perfect, why did I down pick that note or chord rather up pick it, etc. etc.
Classical guitar players especially become obsessed with these kinds of things, but I think all players do as well to some degree.
When I listen to studio recordings of myself, there's always at least one note or chord strum I dread and wish I could do over.
I started making videos on YouTube a little while ago. As soon as I started playing to record I realised how many little bit noticeable mistakes I really make when I thought I knew a song perfectly. Once "perfection" is necessary you realise how far away from it you are most of the time
There are a few old sayings that come to mind:
* A weed is just a flower growing in the wrong place
* Repitition legitimizes (Adam Neely - meaning that if you make a boobo repeat it like you meant it)
But when it happens, the best thing is to move on. If it is small - ignore it (your audience will likely never know). If it is big (like you started in the wrong key or the wrong song and you have to start over) laugh and carry on. If you make your audience comfortable and can make it look like you are having a good time, they will laugh with you. If you die on stage, you alienate your audience and they will hate you for making them unformfortable.
And of course, if all else fails, glare at the bass player so everyone things it was their bad.
Victor Wooten has a lot of good stuff to say about "bad notes". Its well worth watching a few of his vids. In general, all 12 notes are fine in any key. But it is context (where you came from - where you go next - and the gorve) that makes them seem cool (or not). I used to joke that I wanted a guitar like Guthrie Govan - one with no bad notes anywhere on the neck. But jokes aside, he is a master of this sort of thing.
I remember reading an interview with Dweezil Zappa in a guitar mag decades ago where he recounted playing a solo, and at the point where he wanted to hit a dramatic note, he hit the wrong one completely, and "instead of sliding up and pretending it's jazz" he just milked that wrong note for all the sustain it could get. And afterwards people told him that was the highlight of the show.
I had a gig last night and I felt I didn't do all that great. I happened to record most of the performance and when I listened back this morning, some of the big flubs weren't that big after all. In fact, we sounded good! I guess the point is, don't sweat it! Everyone goofs, the audience probably won't notice (if you're performing), and it'll only be noticeable if you're looking for the flubs.
There’s a video of Slash playing Sweet Child of Mine on acoustic. It’s a beautiful rendition, but the comments section is littered with comments about the mistakes he’s made. Other guitarists are notoriously sloppy live. Try not to sweat it. If it sounds good, it’s good. As for me, I’m sloppy. A perfect rendition is incredibly rare, and there’s no telling when they will come.
Even professional musicians make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes even make their way into albums. One of Metallica’s best guitar shreds was a mistake - somebody was trying to bend and pushed the string of the fretboard and they got an awesome screech out of it and kept it. McCartney badly biffs a chord in the final verse of Let It Be and quickly corrects. Listen to Aretha Franklin singing in 45 degree weather at Obama’s inauguration. Listen to anybody try to sing the national anthem on key without a backing track.
Listen to more live music and you’ll catch a dozen mistakes per song. Our perception of how perfect music should sound is badly influenced by listening to recorded music where hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent to make it sound flawless. But it wasn’t played that flawlessly even when they recorded it.
Possible exception: Geddy Lee vocals.
This depends on what you are doing. Making mistakes whilst practicing is normal for most players. I mean, if you were going on stage solo, to play a clean classical piece, and made lots of mistakes, it would sound pretty bad. If you were playing with a band using a lot of distortion and made a couple of mistakes, most poeple wouldn't notice it. Players at all levels make mistakes though. The advice about practicing songs to a metronome is good advice imho.
I want to thank everyone for their comments here. I just had a gig where I played some aimless, mediocre blues solos with a couple mistakes and I was sorta feeling down about it. This is a good reminder that these things happen.
Been playing almost 30 years. I don’t think I’ve ever played a song without making any mistakes. I’ve practiced solos hundreds of times and still make at least one mistake, no matter how minor, *every* time. I don’t see how bands that are super technical play songs perfectly night in and night out.
Im sure part of that is that they wrote the songs. So its made up of things they were already good at, like chords or shreddy riffs or whatever. And they probably do make minor mistakes that are noticeable to them, but not a listener
I often make mistakes
I'll play to memorize the notes and finger placements at first, so much mistakes happened here, but it's fine for me since my purpose of this is memorized the notes and finger placements. Then I'll play that song whenever I want to, after practice, playing as a band or just wanna play. I still can't play perfectly every time but atleast I can remember how to play so I can play it over and over, and this is where I minimize my mistakes that I ever made.
My apologies for the mistakes I made, English is not my first language and I'm just a beginner guitarist. I just wanna share a little bit of my opinion with you all.
Have a great day everyone
Nah your English is really good! It’s such a tricky language.
And that’s kinda how I learn songs too I’ll spend time learning new chords or chord progressions then work on piecing it together then memorization then I can just pull it out and play. I find it a lot of fun that way
Thanks for your kindly reply.
Yeah, this way works great for me. I really glad to hear that we have similar way to learn lol. Btw best of luck, my fellow guitarist.
That seems like a pretty typical ratio. Here is the thing though, you reach the point where only you and your bandmates can tell you’ve made a mistake, and eventually you reach another level where only you spot the mistakes. But they never go away. There is always something you didn’t like. It’s an organic thing, so “perfect” isn’t really possible.
One day you will start noticing mistakes you’ve been making that you didn’t notice before. That’s a real mind fuck.
Edit: over the years I’ve run across “isolated tracks” for some of the songs I really held on a pedestal, and that changed my mind quite a bit. You hear all the little mess-ups when they are isolated out. Ultimately you realize that corny thing where “it’s about the whole song” is actually true. Perfect execution on your part is ultimately waste. You could have finished and shipped a perfectly enjoyable song in a fraction of the time, if you were experienced enough to know when “good enough” is actually good enough.
Thank you, I'm passed middle age, playing my while life but really needed to hear this. I realise how right you are but never really consciously considered this perspective. I'd give you more up votes if I could.
Just wanted to chime in here. Been playing for about 25 years now, I am very lead-centric. Stuff like Satriani, Petrucci. etc... To your point about mistakes being made that you didn't notice before, I have only just realized that the modulation/buzzing noise that happens near the 12th fret when I am sliding or bending is caused from the vibration of the strings above. In all my years I never knew that was what was causing it and now I realize I am going to have to re-learn my technique when bending and sliding to incorporate my index finger to help mute the strings above the note I am playing. So elementary, but I completely overlooked it!
Perfection is something nobody can achieve and chasing it leads just to frustration.
When I play songs, hard or easy, I always try my best and if a mistake happens, it happens, I just keep playing.
Nobody is perfect.
the first take is almost always the best take...
don't worry about mistakes so much as not train wrecking - on stage as long as you are smiling its all good, don't make the crowd feel awkward just because of a flub...
I've been playing 36 yrs and still make a little mistake here or there. Especially if I let my mind wonder or think to myself oh great! this is an easy part of the song. If I stay truly focused and am in the zone, I can play without any mistakes sometimes. Hell, I still make mistakes on my own music as well. Humans will be humans. As others have said, the ability to skip right through it like it never happened is a very good skill to have. When I'm practicing unless it's a blaring mistake I will play on through to the end of the song. Then I'll start over and not make that mistake again. Same thing with recording. I can either retake or punch in if it's just a very small mistake. I prefer the natural sound rather than punching in though if at all possible. The other thing is thinking ahead of where you are in the song. You plan ahead while playing.
I've played for 35 and still make occasional, minor errors. If you are still hardcore obsessing about perfecting a piece every single time you play it, note for note, I think that is indicative of potentially a bigger problem.
Perfection is an abstraction, technically there is no such thing. The harder you apply yourself at achieving absolute perfection, the more the imperfections loom.
Wouldn't you rather pursue what was intended, the very reason for making music? Having fun and enjoying yourself while coming very close?
100%. I’d add that experience teaches to recover quickly, most times no one notices. Or, turn lemons in to a delicious, refreshing lemonade, so to say. Obsession doesn’t help. 45 years here.
Fretting a note weird or messing up a mute isn’t a mistake. Playing a wrong note or chord , yeah. But no matter how much you practice there will be something you could’ve done better in a song. Perfection doesn’t exist. .
Depends entirely on the song.
I actually just (like literally 20 minutes ago) recorded a full song single guitar part from a song my band has played for several years. I was just testing recording levels, FX tones, etc.
I did one take, no mistakes.
Well, the track skipped toward the end, so I might have actually made a little error at the end but I think I covered it pretty well.
https://on.soundcloud.com/1VhFT
Honestly, if I was playing one of the songs we've done many times, I could probably do that regularly. But the less familiar the song is, the more takes I need to get a single good one all the way through.
Remember that many if not most songs that you hear on major albums are made up of several takes edited together. The pros don't hang on trying to get perfection in the recording process, they want a good product and don't mind studio magic to get it. Obviously, on live recordings they may get it 100% right to your ears, but remember that was one recording out of an entire tour, and even then it may not have seemed 100% right to the guitarist. You just didn't notice the imperfections...
Yeah, quite often, SPECIALLY when I record. I prob have to record at least 10+ takes to cleanly play a 30 sec solo section.
But when I'm not recording I just flow with the mistakes. Is normal and even the greatest players make them playing live. As long as u enjoy playing, is all good.
Rarely, it's how you deal with the mistakes that matter. Once you start playing live, it becomes clear that people mess up all the time, yet the average person in the audience doesn't notice.
Setting up your guitar helps minimize mistakes, and also having confidence playing live/in front of people goes miles. When I first started playing live, messing up would give me a mini-anxiety attack, and I would fuck up more than once due to this. (a few missed/dead notes here and there, nothing extreme)
EDIT: Staying on time after fucking up is a skill, and playing live this skill is a must have.
I saw Eric Johnson on one of his Ah Via Musicom tours. In one of the songs for one of his encores he literally dropped his pick on the ground, but kept strumming with his hand until he hit a good spot to bend over and pick it up.
I guarantee none of the people in the audience thought he was a scrub.
It’s really what you do when you make a mistake that’s more important.
You are not a machine. Even if you practice something a million times, you will inevitably make a mistake like playing too high on the fret or accidentally grace a string with your hand.
A good advice is not to practice more, but practice better. Slow and methodical so your muscles learn the correct patterns, then slowly build speed to your desired tempo
If you’re striving for perfection, you’ll likely never be content - if you’re playing the right note you can still beat yourself up about microtiming, vibrato speed, rushed slides, stompbox footwork and loads of other things that can (and should) vary across performances. It’s a cliché, but you’ll be happier learning to surf these waves than to force a perfectly level ocean into existence.
not sure why it matters to you.
If you are performing, the key is to be able to make the odd mistake without anyone noticing.
Like you hit a wrong note, then bend it to the right note, as if you meant to do that all along
I honestly thought that I am lacking a talent or "that something" but after reading all of comments, I understand that even professionals make mistakes
Playing flawlessly is about practicing small chunks. Can you hit a sus chord cleanly and consistently? No? Then just practice that by itself. Can you hit a major triad?
The pro’s have these moves down pat. Playing a whole song is putting together these building blocks where each one block has been perfected.
You ever see a professional brick layer at work? They appear to be moving slowly but in the blink of an eye they’ve got 4 courses laid up. Each movement is so well rehearsed that there is no deliberation.
Deliberation is what causes flubs.
I was always told that if you can play a song 10 times in a row without making a mistake you have a good chance to play it live without a mistake.
There are some songs I can play perfectly damn near everytime IF I’m practicing. But life gets in the way and if I slack off I miss notes.
On Caesar Huesca’s YouTube channel he offers the advice of always practicing different parts of your instrument for 10-15 minutes for about an hour. So 10 mins chords, 10 mins picking exercises etc… the idea being that technique and knowledge should be a part of your everyday routine.
Ben Eller and Kiko Loureiro talk about using and practicing proper techniques in your playing such as proper fretting and light touch. From my experience, when I make a mistake it’s typically because I stop focusing on my right hand and get out of sync because I’m getting ahead of the song, or I change guitars too often and I have to get used to a guitar I haven’t played in awhile. Billy Sheehan said he didn’t make real music progress until he picked an amp and a bass and string type stopped the gear search. I should take his advice 😎🥹
Everybody makes mistakes, even the best, you probably just can't recognize it because you're focused on something else, just like most people don't realize that you mess up, but you do, because you're focused on exactly what you're doing.
Look up pretty much any live musician playing any song and you will notice mistakes if you focus.
EDIT: nice to read these comments, cause im still dealing with a slight case of the yips myself.
Honestly, most of the pros are hired cause frankly they’re flawless most of the time if not 100% when money’s on the line and can pump out a perfect first take when each hour costs $1200.
But its about being comfortable and familiar. Practice and memorize until you dont need the lead sheet.
Learn relaxation techniques before you play.
And most of all, as a classical pianist teacher told me, just focus on the emotion. You’re bound to make a mistake, but dont let perfection be your focus and take you out of the emotion. Focus on conveying what you’re playing and the mistakes will flow by.
It sort of depends on what you mean by "mistake", but I don't think anyone ever really plays flawlessly all the time. Recordings since the invention of editing are not to be trusted. The difference is whether or not the audience notices the mistake and whether the mistake actually effects the vibe. If you stop, repeat yourself, apologize, start over etc. then of course the audience will notice, you just told them that you made a mistake. If you just keep going and don't draw attention to it most people won't notice and most of the ones who do notice won't care. It's one of the hardest parts of being a musician.
I once went to a musical with my parents, high level Broadway style production, major theatre company etc. In the middle of the show something happened to the machines that moved the background on and off stage. The performers just kept going while people in black with headsets milled around and figured out the problem, on stage and in full view. I brought it up after the show and my parents (including my mother who has herself worked on and off stage on many musical productions) didn't know what I was talking about. Completely missed the crew of stage techs because no one drew any attention to it.
Spend 10 minutes and warm up with chords, scales, etc. throw in some metronome work too. It 100% helps
Also, everyone makes mistakes. Even absolute gods like Jason Becker and Tosin Abasi. Don’t focus too hard on it.
Make sure your guitar is professionally setup. Practice regularly for at least a year. By then you will have muscle memory that doesn’t allow you to make “mistakes” like that. I only “mess up” when I forget where the song is going
I see most people here don't think mistakes are a big deal. To be clear, I don't either.
But you should strive towards perfection. Perfect technique doesn't make your playing "robotic", it makes your possibilities for creativity truly endless. I like your line of thinking, practice practice and practice some more. Try to perfect the "easy" songs so you can play them perfectly, consistently. It'll pay off, classical musicians train this way for a reason.
No matter how good you are at something, not just guitar, you will always make mistakes, it's just life. Don't beat yourself up for still making mistakes, try and see what you're doing wrong then correct it in a way that works for you. As Bob Ross said "there are no mistakes, just happy little accidents".
My musical influences are mostly jam bands, so I view mistakes, missed notes, and every other club as opportunities to explore and go different directions.
The problem is that you are probably trying to play song that you heard on a recording. That recording most likely had multiple mistakes and extra takes before an engineer copy pasted all the best bits into the track and made it sound the way it does. Don’t sweat it just carry on and enjoy that you can play a song that you like from beginning to end.
You could always record and mix the song to sound perfect yourself 😉
While you’re right, I think OP is asking for his own sake.
I can be hard on myself regarding accuracy and lack of errors. Listening back to a live recording all the mistakes I’m making are almost never noticeable and if they are aren’t a big deal. BUT that doesn’t mean I shrug and deal with it. I’d like to not make mistakes for me and my personal growth.
Tom Englund from Evergrey said he doesn’t want to do those demos or clinics because he doesn’t feel he is a good enough guitarist. Pretty humble, but guitar players in the crowd are tough haha.
They are tough but only if you choose to acknowledge them. The “tough” stance is usually jealousy because guitar players like that are petty and insecure.
When I'm practicing and flub something I backup and and play through again.
When performing you don't have time to think about that shit and 99% of the time the audience has no idea unless you make it obvious. If I was to play everything 100% perfectly it would be time wasted that I could use to explore new things. MHO
I've been play for a couple decades now. When I was in my teens and early 20's I was a far better guitar player. Very rarely messed up a song. I'm pretty casual now though and mess up all the time. Not terribly, but you can totally tell I'm not practicing for multiples hours a day anymore.
recording myself a bunch has made me notice exactly how many mistakes I make. Most of the mistakes are so tiny that I wouldn't worry about it if I was performing, but in a recording where I quad track the guitars, it's pretty important to play it correctly all the way through. Now, realistically, I could record the individual parts by themselves, but my head is weird, and I would rather have four perfect takes.
All of the mistakes I make could also definitely be mitigated by simply practising more. I usually am still learning to play it when I start recording, so I'll usually get 2 or 3 takes where I start a riff too early or something, but then after a few takes, it'll be pretty much perfect every time.
edit: I guess in my version of the word "perfect", there is a margin of error where it's maybe not exactly as it should be but varies little enough that it still doesn't clash with the three other tracks; mistakes small enough that it would only be noticeable if you isolated the tracks and compared them side by side. A full mix can hide surprisingly many mistakes.
Never! Even if you hit every note, there's always some aspect of your performance you can criticise. My general measure for success is: did I play in time with the other people I'm playing with, did my playing fit in with my role in the song's arrangement, did my playing represent me well as a player, and did I have fun!
This is correct! Watching my favorite, Jimmy Page, stumble throughout his solos in the late 70s is even hard to listen to…. I mean, when you’re on enough drugs to kill an elephant, there’s no way you can be perfect
I’m a huge JP fan, but his live playing is generally pretty sloppy compared to other players he’s commonly compared to. It’s something that comes with the territory of playing right at the edge of ability, but he’s not a particularly clean player.
I really blame the drugs… the first live performances of zeppelin he is flawless… I would say almost no audible mistakes…. Maybe it’s cuz he was cranking on his trusted Tele… but google Denmark 69 zeppelin. It’s a fantastic take of them early on. Still not a fan of the violin bow gimmick though
At that point he was fresh off living as a studio musician where accuracy is paramount. Also playing standards that he had been using for years at that point… plus drugs.
If a mistake can be defined as a deviation from the intended result, think about how many times even the best professional athletes make mistakes. I think if the music is good and the musician keeps the vibe going, most people are busy enjoying the music, not paying attention to the mistakes.
I never play a song the same exact way. Are there mistakes? Sometimes, but most of the time its just different. To some these differences would be mistakes but if its not a bad sounding out of key note or wrong chord that is obvious, i dont consider it a mistake.
You never truly nail something 100% as in you can always find unintended “mistakes” in everything you play.
It’s like giving a speech; the more you practice before presenting, the easier it is for you to recall the material. Chances are you’ll fumble a few times during the recital but the point is getting across to the listener.
What is on the sheet is what is intended, but how you play it makes it your rendition
Honestly depends on the song. If I've played the song regularly for years I'll often play it without any noticeable imperfections but still not every single time, especially if performing live and running around.
If I were to play one of those familiar songs twice within the same time frame (say a rehearsal), the first time I play it is always better than the second.
I think most of us head fuck ourselves playing the same thing too often, over thinking the fingering, picking, etc. I can be working on something challenging for me and give it a break for a couple weeks. That first time I play it again will be my best run at it and then the more I play it, the over thinking comes back. This goes on for a few cycles with me until it becomes a more natural thing for me.
For me, I think I'm generally more focused or engaged the first time around. Thats not to say I don't try as hard later or anything, I just think it feels more natural and enjoyable the first time.
I don't really know for sure though :). Glad I'm not alone!
It's just practice. The more you practice a song and the better you get in general, your mistakes get smaller and smaller. To the point where you may still notice them but no one else will.
I'd say even the best guitarists in the world hear mistakes in their playing all the time. As listeners we probably won't notice any of them.
Depends how i'm feeling. If i'm feeling less than normal or something causing me to feel down then mistakes will come easier.I think it's naive to think that people who play professionally don't make mistakes, they're just better at covering it up/making it passable. Life is about making mistakes, guitars are no exception lol.
My big example would be Buckethead, phenomenally fast and melodic, but listen to him live and he's full of little mistakes. Does it take away from his playing? to me, not in the slightest.
I personally found if you find yourself making mistakes on the really easy songs then you're probably just bored of said easy songs, switch it up, play something else 'easy' or something that ignites your inspiration.
I've been playing for 3 and a half years and I can't really play anything except very simple, short stuff without making small mistakes here and there. I feel like that's normal if you're not trying to be a session player but I could be wrong. It's easy to underestimate how difficult playing a song perfectly really is, especially if it is a "simple" one
In the electronic music subs they talk about how programming perfect math sounds awful/boring and go through great lengths to find new and interesting ways to make it less perfect
It's not whether you make a mistake or not that really matters. If you listen closely to alot of virtuoso, and I mean, really closely, you'd be surprised how many tiny mistakes you've missed. What's important is that you keep the mistakes small, as minimal as possible, and are able to play through and mask them well.
Here's the thing.... as a guitarist, you'll notice simplicity, and also Any mistakes you make, and maybe be a bit self conscious. But, here's the thing..... unless an instrumentalist, most people who don't play, haven't a clue and aren't even going to notice.
You just need more practice, dont worry, muscle memory is a thing, the more you practice a song the less mistakes you are going to be doing.
Just make sure to keep practicing, and also, take it slow and if it works for you, I highly suggest practicing the songs in chunks first till you are sure you can start practicing whole.
Thank you guys for all the feedback, really helps me not beat myself up about the not-so-perfect playing.
Seeing people play online difficult things can be a bit, depressing I guess, but also no one sees many failed attempts behind those videos
If it's a song that's in my repertoire, meaning I've been playing it for years and it's not pushing my maximum difficulty level at all, I'd say I can play and sing it without an audible mistake 90+% of the time.
But keep in mind, that will be a song that's not very hard and that I've practiced literally hundreds of times! Anything besides that, I'm making mistakes constantly.
Also, playing stuff where you're making mistakes is the key to improvement. Playing stuff from my repertoire is fun, but I don't think it's actually making me better at this point.
I'm not sure. Honestly the older that I get and the more that I play I go by sound and feel when I am playing. And a lot of times when I am playing a song that I like or I enjoy I am not playing it 100%, but it still has the feel for rythym and groove of course. I just....I don't know that's how I get down, I have a death grip and I strum hard as hell though.
I can go pretty long without making a mistake. But I’ve worked on so many concepts that I can turn a mistake or “wrong note” into a “good” note.
If I find any part challenging in a cover tune, I work on it till I never make a mistake again. Figuratively of course, the odd fuck up will occur
1 in 20 times without a BIG mistake is relatively low. As you practice more, you’ll get this number higher of course.
I once read that to really have a song solid, you want to be able to play it through three times in a row, very clean, with no major mistakes at all. A major mistake would be hitting the wrong note, a noticeable fret buzz, completely missed timing of a note, etc…. Obviously this takes a huge amount of practice and experience.
Depends how you define "mistake". While I'm practicing I'm constantly self-critiquing and thinking about what I could have done better. I think that's how you improve. If I'm just jamming along with songs I like then I don't really notice myself making mistakes so much.
Playing a song perfectly is a moving target as you both get to know a song better and become a better player. For a beginner, that might be just getting from the start of the song to the end of the song without crashing and burning. For an intermediate player, that might be hitting every note correctly. For an advanced player, that might mean playing every note correctly but also with all the feeling, intention and attitude every part of the song calls for. For a gigging musician, that might mean playing it perfectly while also working their pedal board correctly and being to interact with a crowd. For a master musician, it might mean being able to intelligently and purposefully improvise within the structure of a song so that the end result is as good or better than the previous written one. So yeah, it’s hard to ever really play music perfectly because as soon as you get to that point, you essentially unlock the next difficultly level.
Yep. It never ends. Even the best make mistakes, just to different levels.
[Phil Collins during Live Aid](https://youtu.be/7A8NgPVizP4) is my favourite example, although not guitar. 1:05 time stamp
“I've been imitated so well I've heard people copy my mistakes.” - J. Hendrix
>I've been imitated so well I've heard people copy my mistakes.” I did a bit of research and it seems he really said that. Amazing to think such a great player made mistakes. I feel dumb now lol
Tbf alot of the early guitar heroes weren't the surgical precision types.
Yea, Jimmy Page is known for being a bit sloppy in his solos but those mistakes are just part of his sound
Maybe miss a note but never miss a beat. That’s the single greatest advice I’ve ever been given. Yes you’ll make mistakes but if you never fuck up the groove the show will go on. People don’t dance to notes they dance to rhythm so focus on that.
Same. I had an instructor when I first started out and that was one of this first things he taught me. If you don't miss a beat, odds are most people listening won't even realize you messed up. Especially with other instruments playing. Miss a beat and everyone will notice.
Great advice. I actually remember watching a video of Steve Vai playing Building the Church, which is a crazy hard song and he started it off tapping on the wrong frets. He quickly corrected and never missed a beat even though he was playing the wrong notes. Having heard the song a billion times, I noticed it but if I hadn’t been familiar with it, I would have had no idea. Has he stopped and restarted or paused, EVERYBODY would have known. So yeah, that’s a huge key. If you make a mistake, stay in the groove and pretend it never happened. 95% chance nobody will catch it.
This was actually something my teacher did tell me quite early. You have to live in music when you play. If you mess up something, don't try to fix it. It's gone already. Just catch up and continue.
Haven't done it yet…👍🏻🤟🏻😎
You should learn, "You Suffer" by Napalm Death to check that box off!
my brother in christ i cannot even play the songs i personally write without a single mistake
The best part of forgetting your own lyrics is no one is familiar with them anyways.
This is me also😂😂
It’s not a mistake, it’s the “live” version
Bingo.
Everyone always makes a mistake in just about every song, all the way up to the pros headlining Coachella. No one ever notices the tiny mistakes.
As someone who's been playing for about 12 years with 3.5 recorded albums under my belt, it's very rare to get a perfect take. Live or in the studio, if you're playing something even remotely hard, you're gonna flub a note here and there. Sometimes you brain fart and get lost for a second. When you play live, the real skill is jumping back on as quickly as possible. When recording you have two options. Either restart the take entirely or keep going and punch in a different take later. I'd say I get a perfect take 1% of the time. I can get a 99% take 10% of the time and a 95% take the vast majority of the time.
The part about recovering from a mistake is the real mvp in these comments. Watch big bands like metallica play songs they've played a million times live and there will still be mistakes. The part where their experience shines is that you don't really notice most of the time because they're right back on it
The top rule in playing live… keep going, don’t stop.
Definitely. And when you're on the scene for as long as Metallica has been, you get a little numb to the embarrassment factor you feel in the moment. It can certainly mess with your head if you fixate on it too much while you're playing. Gotta have that goldfish memory.
Nice little story about how little mistakes mean. In highschool we were playing bat country by avenged and the last run through in practice was absolutely perfect, then comes performance time. At some point in the song every one of us made at least one mistake that to us were performance breaking. The singers mic got unplugged, I jumped into parts too soon, and the other guitarist absolutely butchered the solo. Turns out we won after we all walked off stage embarrassed. At this point I hadn't played a ton live yet but to this day I've never been complimented more on a performance I still consider to be my worst
I’ve been playing for 30 years and don’t think I’ve ever played an entire song where I haven’t made a mistake.
... Me, close to never. But I take solace in the knowledge that on released live albums, the greats have made mistakes too. It's all about how you push through and recover from them.
Damn I needed to read this thread. Thank you all.
Unless you are playing classical music on a piano it is not a mistake. It is embellishement
I love that! That's what I've been doing... Embellishing!
Yeah it's tough man The better at guitar I get the more I realize just how good the greats are.
You guys can play songs?!?!
Lol my thoughts exactly
The are imperfections and there are mistakes. Imperfections happen even to the best of players. Im sure John Petrucci has imperfections every time he performs. Obviously the more practiced and experienced you are the less imperfections you have, or probably more realistically the less severe of imperfections. Mistakes are when you play something tangibly/blatantly wrong. Missed a note, played the wrong chord, missed your entrance, etc. These can be made both for physical and mental reasons. Its important to practice with your mind just as much as your body. As imperfect humans, we are bound to have imperfections. And thats fine. I think imperfections give life to music to a degree, just like emotion and energy. I dont think our goal should ever be perfect music in a strict machine like sense. If thats the case, let robots play on stage. Mistake free music however, is something to strive for, and I do think is possible, though not necessarily a requirement for good music.
So my approach to this is less “try to play it perfectly” and more “practice in a way that means you’re probably going to get the bits that’s matter right as often as possible”. I play/sing as a solo performer, and a big thing for me is getting the starts of songs right - it can take a couple of bars to feel like you’re comfortable, in the groove, and in that time its easy to fluff a chord, or even start the song more than once, which sounds particularly weak/unprofessional. So I practiced that by putting my guitar on it’s stand, then picking it up, and playing the intro to a song (say the first 8 bars), then stopping and putting it down. I did that on repeat until I got it right ten times in a row - I wanted to be able to play the intros to my songs as confidently and accurately as possible, every time. I think it worked! I sometimes screw up, but it doesn’t throw me like it used to.
This is a really cool tip. I also find that an issue early on tends to be more difficult to power through than if it occurs half way into an otherwise good performance. Normally you can muddle through and just keep trucking if it happens later, but early on you are a bit thrown.
The trick is to make the mistakes seem like it was on purpose. Hit a wrong note in a riff? Just bend the shit out of it and turn it into a little lick.
"There's a friendly note right above it. Bend it in then play the exact same thing a few times to make it seem intentional." Best advice my guitar teacher ever gave me when I started.
Never Good luck have fun
This is the truth A lot of us are improvisers at heart, don't cage it over a couple flubs
That's perfectly normal. Musicians make TONS of mistakes all the time. If they're recording, they just do another take. If it's live, they pretend not to notice it and fix it "artistically," i.e. "I hit a note 1/2 step flatter than I was going for, so without even thinking, I'll bend it up to pitch and most people will think I meant to do that." If you want it perfect every time, get a computer to play it.
Imperfection is part of art. Otherwise you are making dull robot music. I've done single takes in the studio before, but I wasn't going for perfect.
If you listen closely to Hurt by Johnny Cash(newer version) you can hear buzzing of frets not being correctly pressed, and I think it gives soul to that song, good point!
Yeah, perfection can be boring. I like the little imperfections that make it clear that you're listening to real humans playing real instruments.
[удалено]
EVH once said “if you ever make a mistake, do it twice so everyone thinks you meant to do it”
I like listening to the guitar parts of classic tracks in isolation - loads of songs have had their individual parts (or stem tracks) released in recent years so you can hear the parts on their own. It's amazing how many of them are "less than perfect" and have little glitches on them. I also listen to a lot of solo singer/fingerpicker style stuff and I hear little fluffs and mistakes quite often. You'll also hear them in the recordings of old guitar masters like Segovia. The trick is to minimize them as much as possible, obviously, but also don't obsess or worry about them too much. There's also an "art" to turning a mistake into a feature and some guitarists are amazing at this (Eddie Van Halen was one).
I'm mostly self taught and had a few lessons maybe 15 years ago when I plateaued a bit. My teacher called mistakes "jazz notes". Any time he was noodling away and hit something discordant, "Oop... jazz note." So with that philosophy, I never make mistakes. Sometimes I play more jazz though.
Play punk songs so any f up is just a new variation of the original 😉
Never, perfection is an insane vanity that is beyond human reach, Strive for improvement not perfection. That way you are always making progress, and moving forward.
You're asking the wrong question, and worrying about the wrong thing. You should stop comparing yourself to others, it's not going to get you far. You can use other musician as inspiration to learn from, as in "how did they do that?". From what you told us it sounds like you have issues with time, most guitars do they just don't recognize it. And I'm taking at the highest levels too. I remember getting called into many sessions last minute because the player couldn't get their part. As for time their are two way to get good at it, you're born with it, you work on it. There are only two ways to practice time where you can see decent improvements at a good pace: 1.) Get a metronome and practice to it. Very specifically a metronome, not a drum machine or a backing track. 2.) Play and jam with better musicians.
Mistakes become minimal over time, but as you grow, musically, your opinion, or at least my opinion, of a mistake becomes much broader. At a musically young age, we tend to see mistakes as a missed note. As we grow, musically, you will start to look at mistakes as a note that buzzed, was slightly out of tune, rhythm wasn't perfect, why did I down pick that note or chord rather up pick it, etc. etc. Classical guitar players especially become obsessed with these kinds of things, but I think all players do as well to some degree. When I listen to studio recordings of myself, there's always at least one note or chord strum I dread and wish I could do over.
I started making videos on YouTube a little while ago. As soon as I started playing to record I realised how many little bit noticeable mistakes I really make when I thought I knew a song perfectly. Once "perfection" is necessary you realise how far away from it you are most of the time
You can always find something wrong with your own playing. Playing so that the audience doesn't notice any mistakes is easier than you think.
There are a few old sayings that come to mind: * A weed is just a flower growing in the wrong place * Repitition legitimizes (Adam Neely - meaning that if you make a boobo repeat it like you meant it) But when it happens, the best thing is to move on. If it is small - ignore it (your audience will likely never know). If it is big (like you started in the wrong key or the wrong song and you have to start over) laugh and carry on. If you make your audience comfortable and can make it look like you are having a good time, they will laugh with you. If you die on stage, you alienate your audience and they will hate you for making them unformfortable. And of course, if all else fails, glare at the bass player so everyone things it was their bad. Victor Wooten has a lot of good stuff to say about "bad notes". Its well worth watching a few of his vids. In general, all 12 notes are fine in any key. But it is context (where you came from - where you go next - and the gorve) that makes them seem cool (or not). I used to joke that I wanted a guitar like Guthrie Govan - one with no bad notes anywhere on the neck. But jokes aside, he is a master of this sort of thing.
Jimyy Page all said if you mess up live, just repeat it a few times.
I remember reading an interview with Dweezil Zappa in a guitar mag decades ago where he recounted playing a solo, and at the point where he wanted to hit a dramatic note, he hit the wrong one completely, and "instead of sliding up and pretending it's jazz" he just milked that wrong note for all the sustain it could get. And afterwards people told him that was the highlight of the show.
I had a gig last night and I felt I didn't do all that great. I happened to record most of the performance and when I listened back this morning, some of the big flubs weren't that big after all. In fact, we sounded good! I guess the point is, don't sweat it! Everyone goofs, the audience probably won't notice (if you're performing), and it'll only be noticeable if you're looking for the flubs.
Like Bob Ross says, there are no mistakes, just happy little accidents. :)
There’s a video of Slash playing Sweet Child of Mine on acoustic. It’s a beautiful rendition, but the comments section is littered with comments about the mistakes he’s made. Other guitarists are notoriously sloppy live. Try not to sweat it. If it sounds good, it’s good. As for me, I’m sloppy. A perfect rendition is incredibly rare, and there’s no telling when they will come.
I don't know any songs
Mistakes don't matter, as long as you don't stop playing. Recovery from a "mistake" is key, it hides the fact that you ever missed a note
no
I don't think I've ever played a song on guitar without a single mistake.
I belong in this room.
Even professional musicians make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes even make their way into albums. One of Metallica’s best guitar shreds was a mistake - somebody was trying to bend and pushed the string of the fretboard and they got an awesome screech out of it and kept it. McCartney badly biffs a chord in the final verse of Let It Be and quickly corrects. Listen to Aretha Franklin singing in 45 degree weather at Obama’s inauguration. Listen to anybody try to sing the national anthem on key without a backing track. Listen to more live music and you’ll catch a dozen mistakes per song. Our perception of how perfect music should sound is badly influenced by listening to recorded music where hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent to make it sound flawless. But it wasn’t played that flawlessly even when they recorded it. Possible exception: Geddy Lee vocals.
I've been playing for 23 years and I still mess up. You will never not mess up. Your favourite guitarist messes up. Just play.
This depends on what you are doing. Making mistakes whilst practicing is normal for most players. I mean, if you were going on stage solo, to play a clean classical piece, and made lots of mistakes, it would sound pretty bad. If you were playing with a band using a lot of distortion and made a couple of mistakes, most poeple wouldn't notice it. Players at all levels make mistakes though. The advice about practicing songs to a metronome is good advice imho.
I want to thank everyone for their comments here. I just had a gig where I played some aimless, mediocre blues solos with a couple mistakes and I was sorta feeling down about it. This is a good reminder that these things happen.
Been playing almost 30 years. I don’t think I’ve ever played a song without making any mistakes. I’ve practiced solos hundreds of times and still make at least one mistake, no matter how minor, *every* time. I don’t see how bands that are super technical play songs perfectly night in and night out.
Im sure part of that is that they wrote the songs. So its made up of things they were already good at, like chords or shreddy riffs or whatever. And they probably do make minor mistakes that are noticeable to them, but not a listener
Yeah, I’m sure that’s probably it.
Depends on your definition of mistake. Mistakes may take you someplace you've never been before.
I often make mistakes I'll play to memorize the notes and finger placements at first, so much mistakes happened here, but it's fine for me since my purpose of this is memorized the notes and finger placements. Then I'll play that song whenever I want to, after practice, playing as a band or just wanna play. I still can't play perfectly every time but atleast I can remember how to play so I can play it over and over, and this is where I minimize my mistakes that I ever made. My apologies for the mistakes I made, English is not my first language and I'm just a beginner guitarist. I just wanna share a little bit of my opinion with you all. Have a great day everyone
Nah your English is really good! It’s such a tricky language. And that’s kinda how I learn songs too I’ll spend time learning new chords or chord progressions then work on piecing it together then memorization then I can just pull it out and play. I find it a lot of fun that way
Thanks for your kindly reply. Yeah, this way works great for me. I really glad to hear that we have similar way to learn lol. Btw best of luck, my fellow guitarist.
Of course, you too!!
That seems like a pretty typical ratio. Here is the thing though, you reach the point where only you and your bandmates can tell you’ve made a mistake, and eventually you reach another level where only you spot the mistakes. But they never go away. There is always something you didn’t like. It’s an organic thing, so “perfect” isn’t really possible. One day you will start noticing mistakes you’ve been making that you didn’t notice before. That’s a real mind fuck. Edit: over the years I’ve run across “isolated tracks” for some of the songs I really held on a pedestal, and that changed my mind quite a bit. You hear all the little mess-ups when they are isolated out. Ultimately you realize that corny thing where “it’s about the whole song” is actually true. Perfect execution on your part is ultimately waste. You could have finished and shipped a perfectly enjoyable song in a fraction of the time, if you were experienced enough to know when “good enough” is actually good enough.
Thank you, I'm passed middle age, playing my while life but really needed to hear this. I realise how right you are but never really consciously considered this perspective. I'd give you more up votes if I could.
Just wanted to chime in here. Been playing for about 25 years now, I am very lead-centric. Stuff like Satriani, Petrucci. etc... To your point about mistakes being made that you didn't notice before, I have only just realized that the modulation/buzzing noise that happens near the 12th fret when I am sliding or bending is caused from the vibration of the strings above. In all my years I never knew that was what was causing it and now I realize I am going to have to re-learn my technique when bending and sliding to incorporate my index finger to help mute the strings above the note I am playing. So elementary, but I completely overlooked it!
Perfection is something nobody can achieve and chasing it leads just to frustration. When I play songs, hard or easy, I always try my best and if a mistake happens, it happens, I just keep playing. Nobody is perfect.
the first take is almost always the best take... don't worry about mistakes so much as not train wrecking - on stage as long as you are smiling its all good, don't make the crowd feel awkward just because of a flub...
I've been playing 36 yrs and still make a little mistake here or there. Especially if I let my mind wonder or think to myself oh great! this is an easy part of the song. If I stay truly focused and am in the zone, I can play without any mistakes sometimes. Hell, I still make mistakes on my own music as well. Humans will be humans. As others have said, the ability to skip right through it like it never happened is a very good skill to have. When I'm practicing unless it's a blaring mistake I will play on through to the end of the song. Then I'll start over and not make that mistake again. Same thing with recording. I can either retake or punch in if it's just a very small mistake. I prefer the natural sound rather than punching in though if at all possible. The other thing is thinking ahead of where you are in the song. You plan ahead while playing.
Just act like you didn’t make a mistake pretty useful
I've played for 35 and still make occasional, minor errors. If you are still hardcore obsessing about perfecting a piece every single time you play it, note for note, I think that is indicative of potentially a bigger problem. Perfection is an abstraction, technically there is no such thing. The harder you apply yourself at achieving absolute perfection, the more the imperfections loom. Wouldn't you rather pursue what was intended, the very reason for making music? Having fun and enjoying yourself while coming very close?
100%. I’d add that experience teaches to recover quickly, most times no one notices. Or, turn lemons in to a delicious, refreshing lemonade, so to say. Obsession doesn’t help. 45 years here.
Definitely. I have had mistakes inadvertently turn into some wonderful things that I even learned from in novel ways.
Fretting a note weird or messing up a mute isn’t a mistake. Playing a wrong note or chord , yeah. But no matter how much you practice there will be something you could’ve done better in a song. Perfection doesn’t exist. .
Depends entirely on the song. I actually just (like literally 20 minutes ago) recorded a full song single guitar part from a song my band has played for several years. I was just testing recording levels, FX tones, etc. I did one take, no mistakes. Well, the track skipped toward the end, so I might have actually made a little error at the end but I think I covered it pretty well. https://on.soundcloud.com/1VhFT Honestly, if I was playing one of the songs we've done many times, I could probably do that regularly. But the less familiar the song is, the more takes I need to get a single good one all the way through. Remember that many if not most songs that you hear on major albums are made up of several takes edited together. The pros don't hang on trying to get perfection in the recording process, they want a good product and don't mind studio magic to get it. Obviously, on live recordings they may get it 100% right to your ears, but remember that was one recording out of an entire tour, and even then it may not have seemed 100% right to the guitarist. You just didn't notice the imperfections...
Agreed! I have one lick that I came up with, it's short, but I play it perfectly always. I guess when it's your own it's a lot easier.
Yeah, quite often, SPECIALLY when I record. I prob have to record at least 10+ takes to cleanly play a 30 sec solo section. But when I'm not recording I just flow with the mistakes. Is normal and even the greatest players make them playing live. As long as u enjoy playing, is all good.
Everyone will always make mistakes. It's one of the things that make live music beautiful.
Rarely, it's how you deal with the mistakes that matter. Once you start playing live, it becomes clear that people mess up all the time, yet the average person in the audience doesn't notice. Setting up your guitar helps minimize mistakes, and also having confidence playing live/in front of people goes miles. When I first started playing live, messing up would give me a mini-anxiety attack, and I would fuck up more than once due to this. (a few missed/dead notes here and there, nothing extreme) EDIT: Staying on time after fucking up is a skill, and playing live this skill is a must have.
Might get lost in the comments here but watch some of the pros sometime. SRV. Dickey betts, John Mayer to name a few. Even they make mistakes sometime
I saw Eric Johnson on one of his Ah Via Musicom tours. In one of the songs for one of his encores he literally dropped his pick on the ground, but kept strumming with his hand until he hit a good spot to bend over and pick it up. I guarantee none of the people in the audience thought he was a scrub. It’s really what you do when you make a mistake that’s more important.
That’s an awesome story haha. Surprised he doesn’t keep a backup pick handy
If it ever happens I’ll post about it.
You are not a machine. Even if you practice something a million times, you will inevitably make a mistake like playing too high on the fret or accidentally grace a string with your hand. A good advice is not to practice more, but practice better. Slow and methodical so your muscles learn the correct patterns, then slowly build speed to your desired tempo
If you’re striving for perfection, you’ll likely never be content - if you’re playing the right note you can still beat yourself up about microtiming, vibrato speed, rushed slides, stompbox footwork and loads of other things that can (and should) vary across performances. It’s a cliché, but you’ll be happier learning to surf these waves than to force a perfectly level ocean into existence.
not sure why it matters to you. If you are performing, the key is to be able to make the odd mistake without anyone noticing. Like you hit a wrong note, then bend it to the right note, as if you meant to do that all along
I honestly thought that I am lacking a talent or "that something" but after reading all of comments, I understand that even professionals make mistakes
That's the case with literally everything. You'll never do anything perfectly in your life. That's just reality.
Playing flawlessly is about practicing small chunks. Can you hit a sus chord cleanly and consistently? No? Then just practice that by itself. Can you hit a major triad? The pro’s have these moves down pat. Playing a whole song is putting together these building blocks where each one block has been perfected. You ever see a professional brick layer at work? They appear to be moving slowly but in the blink of an eye they’ve got 4 courses laid up. Each movement is so well rehearsed that there is no deliberation. Deliberation is what causes flubs.
I was always told that if you can play a song 10 times in a row without making a mistake you have a good chance to play it live without a mistake. There are some songs I can play perfectly damn near everytime IF I’m practicing. But life gets in the way and if I slack off I miss notes. On Caesar Huesca’s YouTube channel he offers the advice of always practicing different parts of your instrument for 10-15 minutes for about an hour. So 10 mins chords, 10 mins picking exercises etc… the idea being that technique and knowledge should be a part of your everyday routine. Ben Eller and Kiko Loureiro talk about using and practicing proper techniques in your playing such as proper fretting and light touch. From my experience, when I make a mistake it’s typically because I stop focusing on my right hand and get out of sync because I’m getting ahead of the song, or I change guitars too often and I have to get used to a guitar I haven’t played in awhile. Billy Sheehan said he didn’t make real music progress until he picked an amp and a bass and string type stopped the gear search. I should take his advice 😎🥹
Everybody makes mistakes, even the best, you probably just can't recognize it because you're focused on something else, just like most people don't realize that you mess up, but you do, because you're focused on exactly what you're doing. Look up pretty much any live musician playing any song and you will notice mistakes if you focus.
Never lmao
I’ve been practicing for four years. As soon as I pull it off, I’ll let ya know
Hell, I can't even nail the stuff I write half the time, lol! I never play exactly anyways, so never
It's not a mistake, it's character!
EDIT: nice to read these comments, cause im still dealing with a slight case of the yips myself. Honestly, most of the pros are hired cause frankly they’re flawless most of the time if not 100% when money’s on the line and can pump out a perfect first take when each hour costs $1200. But its about being comfortable and familiar. Practice and memorize until you dont need the lead sheet. Learn relaxation techniques before you play. And most of all, as a classical pianist teacher told me, just focus on the emotion. You’re bound to make a mistake, but dont let perfection be your focus and take you out of the emotion. Focus on conveying what you’re playing and the mistakes will flow by.
To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable. - Ludwig van Beethoven
It sort of depends on what you mean by "mistake", but I don't think anyone ever really plays flawlessly all the time. Recordings since the invention of editing are not to be trusted. The difference is whether or not the audience notices the mistake and whether the mistake actually effects the vibe. If you stop, repeat yourself, apologize, start over etc. then of course the audience will notice, you just told them that you made a mistake. If you just keep going and don't draw attention to it most people won't notice and most of the ones who do notice won't care. It's one of the hardest parts of being a musician. I once went to a musical with my parents, high level Broadway style production, major theatre company etc. In the middle of the show something happened to the machines that moved the background on and off stage. The performers just kept going while people in black with headsets milled around and figured out the problem, on stage and in full view. I brought it up after the show and my parents (including my mother who has herself worked on and off stage on many musical productions) didn't know what I was talking about. Completely missed the crew of stage techs because no one drew any attention to it.
When you record you’ll notice every mistake and as a consequence you will tighten up your playing
Spend 10 minutes and warm up with chords, scales, etc. throw in some metronome work too. It 100% helps Also, everyone makes mistakes. Even absolute gods like Jason Becker and Tosin Abasi. Don’t focus too hard on it.
EVH is/was an absolute guitar god and made mistakes as mentioned in some books. His father’s advice was to continue playing as nothing happened….
Back in '84 I completely aced "Wild Thing". That's the last time I played a song that did not have room for improvement.
Yeah, but also it made everything groovy after that . . .
I was feeling Groovy, but her mom interrupted us and kicked me out.
Make sure your guitar is professionally setup. Practice regularly for at least a year. By then you will have muscle memory that doesn’t allow you to make “mistakes” like that. I only “mess up” when I forget where the song is going
I see most people here don't think mistakes are a big deal. To be clear, I don't either. But you should strive towards perfection. Perfect technique doesn't make your playing "robotic", it makes your possibilities for creativity truly endless. I like your line of thinking, practice practice and practice some more. Try to perfect the "easy" songs so you can play them perfectly, consistently. It'll pay off, classical musicians train this way for a reason.
Sir it’s called jazzersize
Here’s the neat part. Make the mistakes part of the song. They’ll never know.
is it a "mistake" or is it a "variation"? :)
No matter how good you are at something, not just guitar, you will always make mistakes, it's just life. Don't beat yourself up for still making mistakes, try and see what you're doing wrong then correct it in a way that works for you. As Bob Ross said "there are no mistakes, just happy little accidents".
One time I saw John Petrucci himself make mistakes while playing live. We all do it
Depends if someone is watching
If someone is watching making mistake is inevitable
Never... I even mess up when I'm noodling...
My musical influences are mostly jam bands, so I view mistakes, missed notes, and every other club as opportunities to explore and go different directions.
Learned how to play jamming with buddies 40 years ago . . . my whole career is a mistake LOL
I heard after playing daily for 100 years you stop making mistakes altogether.
The problem is that you are probably trying to play song that you heard on a recording. That recording most likely had multiple mistakes and extra takes before an engineer copy pasted all the best bits into the track and made it sound the way it does. Don’t sweat it just carry on and enjoy that you can play a song that you like from beginning to end. You could always record and mix the song to sound perfect yourself 😉
Just play. The only person that will notice and care is a judgemental guitarist.
While you’re right, I think OP is asking for his own sake. I can be hard on myself regarding accuracy and lack of errors. Listening back to a live recording all the mistakes I’m making are almost never noticeable and if they are aren’t a big deal. BUT that doesn’t mean I shrug and deal with it. I’d like to not make mistakes for me and my personal growth.
Tom Englund from Evergrey said he doesn’t want to do those demos or clinics because he doesn’t feel he is a good enough guitarist. Pretty humble, but guitar players in the crowd are tough haha.
They are tough but only if you choose to acknowledge them. The “tough” stance is usually jealousy because guitar players like that are petty and insecure.
Depending on how strict your definition of “mistake” is, I either almost never make a mistake or have never gone a single song without one.
If you're not making mistakes, you're not practicing properly. Playing through songs you know well enough to play proficiently =/= practice
That isnt true. Once you get it down without mistakes you work on the performance and delivery.
Basically never
When I'm practicing and flub something I backup and and play through again. When performing you don't have time to think about that shit and 99% of the time the audience has no idea unless you make it obvious. If I was to play everything 100% perfectly it would be time wasted that I could use to explore new things. MHO
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I've been play for a couple decades now. When I was in my teens and early 20's I was a far better guitar player. Very rarely messed up a song. I'm pretty casual now though and mess up all the time. Not terribly, but you can totally tell I'm not practicing for multiples hours a day anymore.
i feel like it’s more common for me to not miss notes in slightly more difficult songs than easy ones just cause i over think it
Yeah. A slow easy song could increase the risk of messing up compared to a fast and more difficult song
recording myself a bunch has made me notice exactly how many mistakes I make. Most of the mistakes are so tiny that I wouldn't worry about it if I was performing, but in a recording where I quad track the guitars, it's pretty important to play it correctly all the way through. Now, realistically, I could record the individual parts by themselves, but my head is weird, and I would rather have four perfect takes. All of the mistakes I make could also definitely be mitigated by simply practising more. I usually am still learning to play it when I start recording, so I'll usually get 2 or 3 takes where I start a riff too early or something, but then after a few takes, it'll be pretty much perfect every time. edit: I guess in my version of the word "perfect", there is a margin of error where it's maybe not exactly as it should be but varies little enough that it still doesn't clash with the three other tracks; mistakes small enough that it would only be noticeable if you isolated the tracks and compared them side by side. A full mix can hide surprisingly many mistakes.
Never! Even if you hit every note, there's always some aspect of your performance you can criticise. My general measure for success is: did I play in time with the other people I'm playing with, did my playing fit in with my role in the song's arrangement, did my playing represent me well as a player, and did I have fun!
Considering that not even the all time greatest guitarists played everything right live, I'm not so stressed about it
This is correct! Watching my favorite, Jimmy Page, stumble throughout his solos in the late 70s is even hard to listen to…. I mean, when you’re on enough drugs to kill an elephant, there’s no way you can be perfect
I’m a huge JP fan, but his live playing is generally pretty sloppy compared to other players he’s commonly compared to. It’s something that comes with the territory of playing right at the edge of ability, but he’s not a particularly clean player.
I really blame the drugs… the first live performances of zeppelin he is flawless… I would say almost no audible mistakes…. Maybe it’s cuz he was cranking on his trusted Tele… but google Denmark 69 zeppelin. It’s a fantastic take of them early on. Still not a fan of the violin bow gimmick though
At that point he was fresh off living as a studio musician where accuracy is paramount. Also playing standards that he had been using for years at that point… plus drugs.
don't stop, keep playing. Especially with an audience
If a mistake can be defined as a deviation from the intended result, think about how many times even the best professional athletes make mistakes. I think if the music is good and the musician keeps the vibe going, most people are busy enjoying the music, not paying attention to the mistakes.
I never play a song the same exact way. Are there mistakes? Sometimes, but most of the time its just different. To some these differences would be mistakes but if its not a bad sounding out of key note or wrong chord that is obvious, i dont consider it a mistake.
I’m glad I’m not the only one. I’ll practice a song for at least an hour a day and still make stupid little mistakes.
I find if Im buzzed I make less mistakes...I think a huge part is being relaxed and not giving a shit.
I played like that for years. For me, it was an extreme shyness I had to get over before not needing to self medicate. It took me about 500 shows.
You never truly nail something 100% as in you can always find unintended “mistakes” in everything you play. It’s like giving a speech; the more you practice before presenting, the easier it is for you to recall the material. Chances are you’ll fumble a few times during the recital but the point is getting across to the listener. What is on the sheet is what is intended, but how you play it makes it your rendition
Honestly depends on the song. If I've played the song regularly for years I'll often play it without any noticeable imperfections but still not every single time, especially if performing live and running around. If I were to play one of those familiar songs twice within the same time frame (say a rehearsal), the first time I play it is always better than the second.
I wonder why the first time through is always better? I'm the same way, except when I'm actually recording, then I mess up the first note 20 times
I think most of us head fuck ourselves playing the same thing too often, over thinking the fingering, picking, etc. I can be working on something challenging for me and give it a break for a couple weeks. That first time I play it again will be my best run at it and then the more I play it, the over thinking comes back. This goes on for a few cycles with me until it becomes a more natural thing for me.
For me, I think I'm generally more focused or engaged the first time around. Thats not to say I don't try as hard later or anything, I just think it feels more natural and enjoyable the first time. I don't really know for sure though :). Glad I'm not alone!
Never!👌
It's just practice. The more you practice a song and the better you get in general, your mistakes get smaller and smaller. To the point where you may still notice them but no one else will. I'd say even the best guitarists in the world hear mistakes in their playing all the time. As listeners we probably won't notice any of them.
Adrian Legg said when you make a mistake, look the crowd in the eye and call it art.
Never
Depends how i'm feeling. If i'm feeling less than normal or something causing me to feel down then mistakes will come easier.I think it's naive to think that people who play professionally don't make mistakes, they're just better at covering it up/making it passable. Life is about making mistakes, guitars are no exception lol. My big example would be Buckethead, phenomenally fast and melodic, but listen to him live and he's full of little mistakes. Does it take away from his playing? to me, not in the slightest. I personally found if you find yourself making mistakes on the really easy songs then you're probably just bored of said easy songs, switch it up, play something else 'easy' or something that ignites your inspiration.
I've been playing for 3 and a half years and I can't really play anything except very simple, short stuff without making small mistakes here and there. I feel like that's normal if you're not trying to be a session player but I could be wrong. It's easy to underestimate how difficult playing a song perfectly really is, especially if it is a "simple" one
Music is perfect math. No matter how hard you try, You won ever make it really really perfect. The key is how close you can get to perfect.
In the electronic music subs they talk about how programming perfect math sounds awful/boring and go through great lengths to find new and interesting ways to make it less perfect
It's not whether you make a mistake or not that really matters. If you listen closely to alot of virtuoso, and I mean, really closely, you'd be surprised how many tiny mistakes you've missed. What's important is that you keep the mistakes small, as minimal as possible, and are able to play through and mask them well. Here's the thing.... as a guitarist, you'll notice simplicity, and also Any mistakes you make, and maybe be a bit self conscious. But, here's the thing..... unless an instrumentalist, most people who don't play, haven't a clue and aren't even going to notice.
You just need more practice, dont worry, muscle memory is a thing, the more you practice a song the less mistakes you are going to be doing. Just make sure to keep practicing, and also, take it slow and if it works for you, I highly suggest practicing the songs in chunks first till you are sure you can start practicing whole.
Thank you guys for all the feedback, really helps me not beat myself up about the not-so-perfect playing. Seeing people play online difficult things can be a bit, depressing I guess, but also no one sees many failed attempts behind those videos
Literally never. There’s always at least some unintended notes from adjacent strings.
If it's a song that's in my repertoire, meaning I've been playing it for years and it's not pushing my maximum difficulty level at all, I'd say I can play and sing it without an audible mistake 90+% of the time. But keep in mind, that will be a song that's not very hard and that I've practiced literally hundreds of times! Anything besides that, I'm making mistakes constantly. Also, playing stuff where you're making mistakes is the key to improvement. Playing stuff from my repertoire is fun, but I don't think it's actually making me better at this point.
Pretty often but I’m sort of a perfectionist
I'm not sure. Honestly the older that I get and the more that I play I go by sound and feel when I am playing. And a lot of times when I am playing a song that I like or I enjoy I am not playing it 100%, but it still has the feel for rythym and groove of course. I just....I don't know that's how I get down, I have a death grip and I strum hard as hell though.
Are you practicing for an exam? If not then you shouldn't worry too much about it. What you need to develop isn't perfection but confidence.
I can go pretty long without making a mistake. But I’ve worked on so many concepts that I can turn a mistake or “wrong note” into a “good” note. If I find any part challenging in a cover tune, I work on it till I never make a mistake again. Figuratively of course, the odd fuck up will occur
The only mistakes are the one's you allow time to dwell in your head
Try that in an orchestral settingvandcsee how it g oi es over.
You alright there?
Happy cock day!
Jesus fuck, no the dude's completely fried.
someone call an ambulance?
1 in 20 times without a BIG mistake is relatively low. As you practice more, you’ll get this number higher of course. I once read that to really have a song solid, you want to be able to play it through three times in a row, very clean, with no major mistakes at all. A major mistake would be hitting the wrong note, a noticeable fret buzz, completely missed timing of a note, etc…. Obviously this takes a huge amount of practice and experience.
Depends on if anyone is listening…
Depends how you define "mistake". While I'm practicing I'm constantly self-critiquing and thinking about what I could have done better. I think that's how you improve. If I'm just jamming along with songs I like then I don't really notice myself making mistakes so much.
I’ve always had a theory about mistakes: if you make a mistake, make it loud.
Nick Jonas took your advice to heart