Best Wishes to All our Forum Members!
I’ve been ridiculously busy lately, but hope to try out @brad’s great Christmas gift ( C4 ) soon. Stay safe and enjoy the holidays with loved ones.
Corky
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Thanks Corky, same to you & yours! 
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Happy Holidays to all!
- Paul
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As I will be starting my Christmas leave break today, then I guess Happy Holidays is not too early…. 
So season’s greetings to you all.
I am on the way home after a long week away on business, so looking at trying out Cantabile 4 one the weekend, and having a couple of weeks to catch up on the backlog of musical ideas I have, with hopefully little DIY distractions!
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Have great holidays! 
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I wish you all a Merry Christmas and happy holidays 
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Happy holidays and many thanks to the generous members of this community who share their work and knowledge so freely. May you all have ample gigs with adoring fans, competent house sound, and eager roadies.
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That’s quite a tall order! Especially the competent house sound thing! 
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Yeah, probably should have stuck with the whole “Peace on Earth” thing!
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I’ll settle with “gigs” and “Peace on Earth” - the latter being the most probable, as it seems right now.
Happy holidays to all!
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Yes, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings, respectively. Thanks for bringing this thread @Corky! We need cheer and unity these days. Thanks to all for your help, as well.
We are playing the 18th at a venue that has very good bands. I don’t think we are good enough for the venue, so I am a little stressed. They sought us out, so I will put it on them. I thought it was a crappy restaurant gig, but they built a brand new night club with premium sound, lights and a nice stage (and a real sound man, with whom I have been in conversation). I saw bands playing there, and these musicians are damn good.
I’m trippin’. The band is not, so that makes it even more stressful.
Oh well. Still, this has been a good holiday season, so far.
Cheers!
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Hi John
There are thousands of musicians in my area who have phenomenal, natural talent…far beyond anything I could ever reach. I also have to perform on the same stages they previously played. I learned long ago, that I am me, and I always project the best me I possibly can.
As I mentioned in earlier threads, on the eve of my 1st day of college, my Dad told me to understand that there will always be someone better. Apparently, he didn’t want me to suffer a breakdown after the years of being on the top. I took it to heart, and it enabled me to tame the ego, and work even harder to be better.
As for gigs, I usually have a beer before I start playing…just to soften the tension. As I sit down at the keys, I ALWAYS take 3 deep breaths, in through the nose, and out the mouth. The next thing is, I cast all my experience, training, scales, and licks out of my mind. I found that my intuition kicks in with little effort. Confidence is a must.
The point is to have fun. Once you achieve that, great things happen. I find myself playing licks I’ve never used, and really enjoying what I do. So what if there were better bands before you? You do the best you. The patrons will respond to a band having fun, no matter what your talent. Venue management will also take notice, and will usually hire you again. I used to worry about being better than the last band, which is a gig killer. Now I have fun, enjoy the gig, interact with the patrons, and go home proud with cash in my pocket! 
Regards, and happy holidays 
Corky
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Wow! That was awesome! Just reading that, I have made a decision to let it go and have fun.
I think you are right, that having fun is the point once I have done due diligence to prepare.
Again thanks @Corky!!
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Happy Holidays, gang!
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Superb advice, Corky, to John
I am not a naturally gifted player - only started when I was 30, so certainly no child prodigy who has been through all the training and grades.
But in Welsh Floyd before it fell apart (combination of personnel issues and first lockdown) we were playing professional venues in Wales, where far better and famous musicians have trod the boards.
But we did the gigs, including me opening solo on Shine On, but after playing that for the best part of a decade it holds no fear for me any more so long as I don’t think about it - relax and let muscle memory do its work.
My greatest worry is always the opening to Great Gig in the Sky, as if I fluff up that one, it is very hard to get back, and it is so obvious (whereas most mistakes made when a whole band is going are transient and rarely noticed). So that is my tense moment, but you have to relax and get on with it.
And an old piece of advice is: does it matter if you are playing to one man and his dog in a “spit and sawdust” pub, 100 people, 1,000 people? No matter what the audience you have to give it your best, and once you realise you are playing to the audience and not the size of the audience, that is a revelation.
So, good luck, John
Anyway, back on topic. Happy Christmas to everybody and let’s hope that 2022 is a better one.
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Hi Derek
That is what it is all about. In one of my newer bands, there is this one song I have an intro piano part. It is not very difficult, but I managed to screw it up at several rehearsals. I really don’t like the song, and because of that, I always tense up. When I made my muscles relax, it came about naturally. Now, in my Cantabile notes, I have a reminder…“DEEP BREATH”. No problems since.
I finally stopped thinking about it. When it comes up on the setlist, I execute the intro, and move on without it ruining my gig.
Happy Holidays
Corky
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Hi, Corky
And once you have screwed it up badly once, it is always at the back of your mind, but I like your show notes idea, “KEEP CALM, AND HAVE A GOOD GIG” maybe is what we need.
And it even happens to the pros. I watched a Spock’s Beard gig in 2008 in the UK (awesome gig from awesome musicians) where Ryo, their keyboard demon, screwed up his intro to “Skeletons at the Feast” (lovely Hammond intro). He just looked up, shrugged, laughed with his band mates and started again. Nobody really cared.
I always remember that gig, as not only was it a great concert, but it was the first time I had seen a real Leslie in the flesh so to speak, and was wondering why there was a roadie crouching behind the Hammond (single manual) and Moog stack. It was for when Ryo got carried away and started standing on them!
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Everyone makes mistakes, but I’ve seen videos and in-person concerts from Clapton, Paul Carrack, Billy Preston, and several others, never making mistakes. The last time I saw McCartney and Springsteen, Paul started the wrong song, and Roy Bittan (Springsteen) also started the wrong song, and they are top notch musicians. Some people are naturally perfect, unlike me. For me, a wrong note becomes a “jazz” lick…at least, that’s what I tell my bandmates. 
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Yeah, I think we all talk about Jazz notes 
That’s the definition of Jazz to me, hitting the wrong notes often enough that the sound right!
Pete, the guitar player in Welsh Floyd, I think in ten years I only ever heard two or three noticeable boo-boos in those ten years. He was a natural, where I have to work very hard.
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So absolutely true! An audience will (mostly) respond to a band having fun and projecting that into the crowd, but it will also help the performance of the band.
I recall an occasion last year when we did the Covid-lockdown-livestream with my “second” band. Our band leader was close to cancelling the whole thing 15 minutes before the show, because he was super-nervous and convinced we’d screw up because we hadn’t been able to rehearse due to Covid restrictions. After I’d calmed him down somewhat, I called out just before we went on-stage: “guys, let’s walk out there with the firm intention of HAVING FUN - the rest will take care of itself…” - and it did 
It does help when you know (roughly) what you are doing, though 
Cheers and happy holidays to you all!
Torsten
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