Mistakes And All The Embarrassments
Nesh Bulabos
I think most of the guitar players in their early stage of learning and career will agree with me that they had encountered many embarrassing mistakes while playing. When we look at the professional guitar players on stage or while performing, we can't help but feel astonished by how they play guitar perfectly. We ask ourselves when do we perform like them without mistakes?
For note players, music sheet is the solution for this problem. But if you are a rote player – those who play by ear or called oido – you familiarize each song’s chords and notes. Sometimes this is where you find it hard. What if you forget some chords or notes to play while performing? That’s a problem right? And embarrassing too. In addition to that, feeling nervous makes it more uneasy to make your performance well. This will only distract you.
How do we make it like the professionals do? Nothing is more important than getting on stage well prepared! They say, “practice makes perfect”. I’ve heard performers say, “we practice until we get sick and tired of doing it”. Imbibe this attitude and it will eventually help because you'll tend to play the guitar “mechanically” because of repetitions. This is why if you are so much familiar with a particular song of your own repertoire,you can play it while your eyes are closed. Thus, being prepared boost your self-confidence.
Apart from constant rehearsal, sometimes you should close your eyes and feel the song you are playing. This eases your tense drastically and helps you a lot in gaining focus. Moreover, observe guitar gurus like Eric Clapton, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani and more. They all play guitar by heart. They feel the song and let themselves be carried away by the melody especially when doing adlibs. I’m sure that they have gone through also with many mistakes while playing once or many times in their lives particularly during early stage of their career.
Nobody is perfect but strive to make every mistake a challenge to perfection. Practice a lot and play by heart. Believe me these really work!
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