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Post by Blues Pertti on Jun 15, 2009 8:21:46 GMT
Hi Michael,
I have a big problem that makes me frustrated. For me it has been very difficult to learn things by listening.... I have read a lot of tabs from Stefan Grossman during my life.... but lot of the feeling is missing. Just within two years I have started to get the idea of enjoying my playing and really noticed new development of skills. ....that means something like: not letting rules to rule me. That means also better performance in front of audience ( it still is frightening) But I believe know is the time for next step. Listening and learning.
Is there any good tips?
Regards Pertti
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Post by Michael Messer on Jun 15, 2009 9:18:37 GMT
Hi Pertti,
I understand your question, but without actually sitting in a room with you and hearing you play, it is difficult to give you advice.
Learning to play any type of folk music by reading TAB or real musical notation is in my opinion both good and bad. The problems you are experiencing are quite common with people learning in this way. The TAB does show you where to play the notes on the fretboard, but it doesn't show you 'how' to play the notes. The only way to learn this is by watching and listening to musicians who have the 'feel' that you are looking for. Don't focus on which notes they are playing, try to focus on how they play and how much they throw themselves into the emotion of the song or piece of music. Learning the tune from TAB does not help your ears. By showing you where the notes are, it enables the student to play the song without really knowing it. Try listening to the record 20 times before you attempt to play it. The better you know what you are trying to copy, the easier it will be to play.
Classical orchestras play with musical notation in front of them, but they always have a conductor to pull the 'feel' and 'emotion' from the music that they are reading. You have to be your own conductor and get inside the music.
Regarding your fear of performing (Pre-minstrel tension ;D), here are a few thoughts....
Take your time. When you sit or stand in front of an audience make sure everything is how you like it....sound, mics, tuning, be comfortable, the audience will wait. When you are comfortable and you are ready to play & sing, switch off the audience in your mind and concentrate on the music. While you are playing there are no thoughts in your head apart from the music.....totally throw yourself into it. Do not rush through the song, play it at the tempo you rehearsed. Do not over-play the song, play it as you rehearsed it. The more controlled you are, the easier and better it will be. When you have finished the song and the audience applauses you, wait until there is silence before you say 'thank you'. That way everything is more controlled and the audience will feel more comfortable, which in turn will reflect in how you play and how the audience enjoys the music. If you are not confident, the audience will feel that and not appreciate you as much as if you are confident.
Nothing can replace EXPERIENCE! It just takes time to put all these skills together. I can remember quite clearly how I felt as a young inexperienced musician in front of my audience, compared to how I feel now.
I hope I have helped in some way.
Shine On,
Michael.
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Post by Blues Pertti on Jun 15, 2009 19:21:34 GMT
Hi Michael Thank's. I'll try  Regards Pertti |
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Post by steverino on Jun 15, 2009 22:39:27 GMT
Excellent post, Michael. There are a lot of us out here in more or less the same boat. Thanks much.
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Post by gouranga on Jun 16, 2009 0:19:20 GMT
Thanks Michael.
Any more advice would be most welcomed.
Take care.
Gouranga
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Post by Michael Messer on Jun 16, 2009 8:20:24 GMT
Hi Steverino, Pertti & Gouranga,
My pleasure. I am pleased that what I wrote is helpful.
Gouranga - if there is a particular area that you would like advice on, please don't hesitate to ask. I think Pertti's question was very interesting, which is why I was able to focus in and write a comprehensive answer.
In a thread I started yesterday showing some clips of Taj Mahal on TV in 1972, Eric Ebner has commented on exactly the point I wrote about in this thread. How Taj has time, doesn't rush, focuses on the song, and in turn draws his audience in.
Shine On
Michael.
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Post by fitchmeister on Jun 16, 2009 8:43:11 GMT
Hi Pettri I have played live a couple of times, and sung and played for a folkclub twice. Last time about a month ago with a mate as a duo. I played slide banjo - eek. We weren't awful and we weren't fabulous but a couple of things that i did to prepare: 1. Try to play without looking at the fret board much at all - use my ears instead. 2. Forced myself to practiced the songs at a slightly slower tempo to compensate for the nerves making me go quicker on the night. 3. Practiced an easy, ok, and complicated solo for each song - that gave me space to go somewhere else if i tripped up on my playing rather than going silent - one song i did a basic solo and the other ended up more complicated as i just went for it. 4. Played and sung to my wife - i would know if she thought i was awful. 5. Try not to take it all too seriously Personally i think i should of done some more preperation of my singing - we got a recording of us and you can hear my nerves. I am now recording myself sing and play, and playing back to myself - amazing how you think you are putting more into the vocals and it sounds identical the the previous recording. And i still sound like a tall middle class white boy from portsmouth  . And finally - if i have 'lost my mojo' for a while then i practice something like scales instead. Play music, don't work it. Hope something in that lot is useful If it were easy - it probably wouldn't be worth the journey eh? ;D Keep chuggin Roj |
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Post by bod on Jun 16, 2009 9:42:39 GMT
Hi Just wanted to echo the appreciation for this thread, really. Hugely helpful, very encouraging.. Personally, I'm not in the same boat (yet), more like shuffling around nervously on the jetty... (I can even get "stage fright" trying to play with a friend in my own front room - never mind having an audience in a public space - so will tend to avoid rather than pursue even that  ) Still, I guess given that I actually do want to play with others and, perhaps, eventually, in front of others, too, the only way forward is start doing it... There's a weekly blues jam in one of the local pubs that a friend keeps trying to get me to take a guitar to, maybe I should just go along and freak out, freeze up and generally make a fool of myself a few times and get over it! Funny thing is I'm quite used to talking to a room full of people, sometimes for a couple of hours at a stretch, but although there is a performance aspect to that, the prospect of a few minutes playing a guitar in public still scares the hell out of me... pre-minstrel tension? Too right ! (Complete aside - Hi Roj, I'm originally from Portsmouth, too, there seems to be a few of us here... I am, of course, assuming that the best explanation of your sounding like like a tall middle class white boy from Portsmouth is that that is where you are from... sort of strange otherwise ) Cheers Dave |
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Post by fitchmeister on Jun 16, 2009 10:59:37 GMT
Hi Bod
I am actually a Gosport lad born and bred - live up near luton now.
Personally i find singing and playing to people i know way more intimidating than strangers.
all good fun
Roj
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Post by bod on Jun 16, 2009 15:25:22 GMT
Personally i find singing and playing to people i know way more intimidating than strangers. Roj Good point! In a similar vein, I had a couple of friends among the people at a work-based event t I was fronting one time, hit by nerves in a way that I'd not been for a long time. The perfect crime against music? Sneak out before sun-up with guitar in a sack, board a train to a town where nobody knows you busk some in the vicinity of a few random strangers and make a getaway before any gets a good look! ;D (Born and grew up in Cosham meself, so just outside the main city in a different direction. Lived in Stubbington for a few months once, though) |
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Post by blueshome on Jun 16, 2009 16:48:13 GMT
"any good tips?"
Sounds to me like you are pretty self-aware and on the right track with your playing and performing. The only suggestion I can make is that you do more of the same - listening, practising, performing, plus, if possible, playing with others.
As Michael said, there is no substitute for experience - you can't buy it or be taught it, you have got to just do it.
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Post by Blues Pertti on Jun 16, 2009 18:21:43 GMT
Hi everyone, Thank's for your replies. Let's see what can I learn. Two goals just know: "Nobody's Fault but mine" and "You Got to move". I have tab for both but something is missing. This evening I'll start actively listening them. I'll let you know if I learn them.  Regards Pertti |
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Post by Blues Pertti on Jul 8, 2009 10:04:57 GMT
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Post by wolvoboy on Jul 8, 2009 10:52:41 GMT
Hi all on the subject of playing to an audience,my problem so my wife tells me is that i am a perfectionist i never feel good enough,my mate who is a brilliant slide guitarist,says that i dont know what i am worrying about, and that i improve every time he hears me play,the advice he gave me is to accompany him to a gig and sit in with him to gain confidence to the point that i can go on my own,so thats what i am hoping to do.
Remember a young Eric Clapton was so shy he used to stand with his back to the audience,look at him now
wolvoboy
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Post by washboardchris on Jul 8, 2009 11:07:07 GMT
Here are a few tips gleaned from over 30years of playing in public.
1: Try to make the song your own. There is no right or wrong way of playing a song, only the way it sounds good to you and hopefully to others.
2: If you have no nerves whatever, you lose your edge - just dont show them.
3: It's handy to learn a certain number of set licks, not to use all the time; but if you are improvising and find yourself out on a limb :-( ,you can throw them in as a sort of get out of jail free card.
4: Try your hardest to play like a first rate YOU rather than a second rate copy of someone else.
Hope this helps
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