Bad Days

Down Up Dick

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Yesterday, I tried to play one of my stringed instruments, but I "played" so badly that I finally gave up. I couldn't find the frets and kept fretting the wrong strings, and my right hand fingers kept picking incorrect ones too.

Well, it was just a bad session I guess, and I've had lots of other bad days. But, every time I play badly, I wonder what would've happened if I had a concert to play. I wonder if Jake or any of the other pros have fumbly days.

A high school girlfriend sang "Tenderly" with our group. She got way off key, and she sounded awful. I felt so very bad for her.

Have any UUers ever had a really bad day at a gig or even an open mike?
:eek:ld:
 
I have had so many bad days it is a good thing I have a bad memory or I would give up...................what were talking about again :confused:

I was honored to be one of two people (sam13 and myself) to play ukulele at a backyard party Luis of LfdM had last year. We represented the ukulele end of his craft, there were some fabulous guitar players there. Half way through my song I flubbed a chord change and then my mind went blank. I had no idea of what chords to play, none, zero, nada. I never stopped, just played some different progression that probably sounded way off key and like crab. I panicked big time.

Playing a stringed instrument uses so many fine motor skills at such I high level it is amazing we can play at all. But just like any other endevour that we enjoy you shake of the bad days because the good days give us so much joy
 
Once, I was playing French Horn in my High School District Orchestra. I think we were practicing one of the Brahms Symphonies. I don't remember which teacher was conducting, but he had me play a short part with a changed time signature over and over. I had practiced the part and knew it okay, but for some reason I just could not play it as required in the different rhythm. So, we went over and over it. He even "la-da-dahed" it, but the more I played in front of my contemporary musicians the more confused I became. I didn't know whether to get up and walk out or stomp on my French Horn (($$$$). Finally, he gave me a dirty look and went on to something else. I was relieved but felt very inferior--not a red letter day in my life.

Well, into each life some rain must fall . . . :eek:ld:
 
A few years ago I was asked to play a song at a fundraiser luau. I practiced and knew the song well. I had at this point played a couple of "gigs" with our ukulele group but never really had a solo performance. There were many professional musicians performing at this luau and as time wore on I began to feel more and more inadequate and felt increasingly apprehensive about performing. When they called me to the stage a couple of the other musicians remained on stage to back me up. I started out OK but drew a complete blank at the third verse. It was a horror show meltdown in my mind. My wife was recording it, and when I watched it back it was not as bad as I thought, which was a pretty good lesson to learn, but at the time all I was thinking was DISASTER!
 
In a previous life I taught Kung fu and tai chi. A saying that was popular among that group was "an amateur practices to get it right, a professional practices until they can't get it wrong."
 
I have had so many bad days it is a good thing I have a bad memory or I would give up...................what were talking about again :confused:

If i am having a bad day, I would rather LISTEN to others play uke rather than play myself. If I am angry or already frustrated and pick up a uke, it's likely only to make things worse and go downhill from there. (Lots of toxic stress in my life right now)

I'm honestly afraid that I'd end up smashing the uke like Pete Townsend did with his guitars, so rather than tempt myself, I listen instead of play.

Anger and frustration aside, once I listen to other folks play, quite often I forget about what was getting me down, and then I am able to become INSPIRED and then, later when I pick up the uke, playing becomes cathartic for me.

Not every day is a perfect day. In fact I've had so few lately, that I cannot remember the last one. So my best bet is to take a head-wind and turn it into a tail-wind by just doing something else besides playing at that moment, and the simple act of doing that provides an avenue for both FEELING and PLAYING better.
 
Every day is a bad day for me.
I can play a piece perfectly (well at least I thought it's perfect) until someone ask me to play something.
My brain is so blank that I can't even remember the first note of a song that I have been practising just five minutes ago.
Wonder if I can ask for an Alzheimer test?
Its very scary and discouraging.
 
Yes I do have bad days. I usually muddle through anyway, and convince myself that the next time I'll do better. But I'm a long time golfer as well, and you learn playing golf that you have to leave the bad hits and holes behind you. If you dwell on a bad drive or a bad putt, or the one you just put in the sand, it just carries into the next one and the one after that. So I think that most golfers recognize that to some extent or another. Some deal with it better than others. I think that also applies to playing music.
 
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You're correct about not playing when you're upset or not feeling well, Booli, but what if you were a pro and had to play? :eek:ld:
 
You're correct about not playing when you're upset or not feeling well, Booli, but what if you were a pro and had to play? :eek:ld:
I think that part of being a pro is learning to roll with it. I don't think that pros are perfect. No one is perfect. Pros make mistakes too. They just don't dwell on their mistakes to the point that they can't function anymore.
 
In a previous life I taught Kung fu and tai chi. A saying that was popular among that group was "an amateur practices to get it right, a professional practices until they can't get it wrong."

that's it. I play bass guitar for work, and play in many bands, with different repertoires, and to be sure not to fall in the "black hole", I practice until my hands move and I don't have to think about what I'm playing.

for example, I play in a Blues Brothers tribute band, where basslines are always "written" and precise all along the song, usually with a specific pattern/riff on the chords, or changing only some bars.
I practice those songs until I can play them as a sequencer. one I start, I finish the song as it's written.

this is professional work, made to be 100% sure every time that the result will be perfect, even if it's a bad day or I'm sick. when the day is ok, I groove the hell out of my bass, when It's a bad day, I just play and get the job done.

playing an instrument is just mechanic, it's like a sport: your body needs to reach the point at which it moves without you telling him to do, it must be natural.

improvising is another beast, but it's not disconnected from the same method. to improvise you have to know exactly how that fret is going to sound, you have to know exactly how that sequence of notes is going to sound.
once you know scales and patterns and your hands move alone, you pass hours, days, months and years playing, searching for your style and your "melodies", your licks...
that's how a musician becomes recognizable.

PS: I'm also an opera singer, and with lyrics and melodies it's the same. when I study a piece of music, I section it, learn the lyrics and the music, and I can consider it learned once I don't have to "think" about the lyrics, but they comes one after one with the melody I'm singing.
 
I had a terrible night one night playing at a coffee house. The guy running the house sound didn't seem to care that I could hear neither my own voice nor the uke throught the monitors. It wasn't pretty. Oh well.
 
Last Christmas I took my uke into work to play some christams carols. I really choked after the first one. Some times in practice, I play really badly. put it down for a few hours and play up to my skill level, notice I did not say well.
 
For me, one bad day turned into a life lesson or two. In a past life - that would be many decades ago, as a teenager - I used to sing and was often the featured soloist in school productions. By contrast, I was also one of the most awkward, least popular girls in school - total tomboy, clueless about fashion and appearance, into all the wrong music and movies and whatever. So it was pretty weird to have the attention focused on me in the first place, let alone on a stage under a spotlight. But I loved being in choir and glee club and had really supportive teachers and didn't really give a darn what the other kids thought of me, so - I did it.

That, in and of itself, was probably a good lesson for an awkward teenager, but one incident stands out. I used to get horrible ear respiratory infections (still do occasionally - one man's cold usually turns into this girl's pneumonia) and one time I was hit really hard when I was scheduled to sing at two concerts, a daytime assembly for the students and a nighttime concert for the public. I couldn't hear, I barely had a voice, I could hardly stand up, and considering it was the 1970s, I probably had a bad perm and shiny red satin disco pants. But I insisted on doing my songs, sick or not, and - you guessed it, I choked. I was barely on key and of course, the entire auditorium of junior high-schoolers laughed and mocked me.

But you know what? I finished my song, went home and took a nap, and came back and did the whole thing again for the night concert because there was no way that I was going to let a roomful of teenage bullies intimidate me! I sang my song, stayed on key, got a nice round of applause, and continued to be the incredibly unpopular kid who always got the solos through the remainder of my secondary school days.
 
I have my bad days. But it's usually when I think too much. I made a comparison video between two Ukes and it's such an easy song, one of the first I learned and I had to do like 10 retakes because I was thinking too much instead of just playing.
 
I read somewhere that Louis Armstrong (or someone else) forgot the words to a song and just made up "words/sounds" to keep goin', and that's how scat was born. I like scat, especially when Louie or Ella Fitsgerald does it. I even use it (or whistle) when the words elude me.

I feel really good tonight, and that's when music's at it's best. I don't know what I'd do without it. :eek:ld:
 
Years ago I was playing bass and but was also spending a lot if time playing guitar. For a period of 3-4 weeks I had a mental block as if my fingers forgot the bass spacing and it was a real struggle to play clean.

As for ukulele, I don't play for others that much, but when I do I generally follow what Pier said. Get to the point where it is almost mindless.

As for bad uke days when I'm playing on my own... sure, it happens more than I would like. Sometimes it is a rut because there is too much repetition of the same songs and other times I'm just inept. Sometimes changing ukulele size helps. I have a couple of 3 strings and not only are they easier but also give a different perspective on chording. At times they can border on comatose noodling.

John
 
I don't know about changing sizes. The other night I was really playing my baritone Uke well and having a great time. But, then, later I grabbed up my 5 string banjo and was completely fumble fingered. I just simply couldn't play anything at all. I blame it on the different size fret spacing. The banjo was okay today though, but I fumbled again with my banjolele.

Perhaps it would be better to stick to one size instrument, but I think that would be pretty boring for me. :eek:ld:
 
I make flubs and such often, I pause for moment until I get back on track. I've become comfortable with my flubs.
 
I have that feeling today. I can move my chording fingers play some simple fingerstyle, but when strumming it feels like my right hand is moving through water or is under someone else's control.

I also play hammered dulcimer and several years ago I was hired to play a couple of tunes at a summer church service. One was a simplified version of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," which I knew like the back of my hand. It wasn't even a "bad day" but I went off the rails about 1/4 of the way in and played several measures of something I'm sure Bach never imagined, but I kept going and managed to get back on track to finish. That was Not Fun, but it was a good lesson.
 
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