How do you get your songs "performance ready"?

[Toby Walker]

I'm sorry to tell you this but to quote Chet Atkins - "there are no short cuts."

You simply have to practice... more. You also have to practice... correctly.

I recently performed a short set - 12 minutes - on the same program as Beppe Gambetta... who was following me and also doing just 10 minutes. During my set I performed 4 instrumentals which I ran one after another as a medley.

As these 4 instrumentals were among the toughest I currently perform I can assure you that I practiced these quite a bit for at least a couple of weeks before the show. Fortunately the set came off without a single mistake.

Every professional player I know does the same thing. We practice until we can do it perfect... just about every time. Sure... we're all human and mistakes will occasionally happen but they are rare.

It's not impossible to perform at that level. Besides from loads of practice you also need to get more performance time under your belt.

[brucefulton]

Perfect? No such thing. I've heard the best, and I've never seen anyone get through an entire concert without at least a little slip somewhere. I remember a Segovia concert where he got completely turned around on Villa Lobos Prelude 1, and re-entered instead of going to the coda. He smiled, and with a flourish, played a masterful V-I and stood for the applause. If you didn't know the piece, you'd never know it.

It was either Bing Crosby, or Chet Atkins, or Both, who said, "let the clams lay, it shows them you are human."

[PWS]

I took a little course a few years ago locally in Vancouver and the purpose was to learn how to chart out a song: know what you're doing pretty much exactly from the beginning to the end of the song.

I had played for many, many years and had never done this. Each time I played a song it would be a bit different from the last time. At any rate, once you see your song bar by bar, you see it in a different light and can concentrate on the whole of the tune and how you want to present it. It doesn't mean you can't change it up, it just means you know exactly what you want to do with it all the way along.

And also all the other great stuff that people have chimed in with above...

Cheers, Peter

[Kip Carter]

All recording is helpful to better conceptualize what your play is doing outside of YOUR movement. I know I get lost in my own world when playing. I'm not so spaced out that I can't invite someone else in but understanding what is coming out of my month and my guitar is very helpful in knowing how to connect worlds.

I do think there are two types of recording and while both are helpful they are very different in approach, practice and what you get out of it. I've kinda formalized these as:

Practice session recording - Is just like it sounds. I start recording the practice itself and use it as an automated musical notepad. I will talk to myself (actually to the recording) about what i'm working on and explain to myself what i'm trying to achieve. These recordings often will stop and be played back as I am practicing and working on things. While other times when I'm on a tear I will just go go go and not pause or stop for a considerable period of time.

I can later review these.

Track recording - Laying down tracks that I will use to do some arranging in my DAW. Usually these I do for my own private collection of songs that I'm attempting to master and perfect. I can take segments that are good and mix them together and then use these in my practice to be playing with myself in effect and use the edited recording to drive the practice.