Mistakes during lessons

[rstaight]

There's a lot to be said about being comfortable. At home you are in familiar surroundings and you are relaxed. At your lesson you have small audience even if it's one person. A lot of folks get nervous.

I used to be the same way. But what got me over it was a trip in 1974. I was in band in high school and we had the opportunity to march around the track on race day at the Indianapolis 500. If that doesn't cure you of crowds nothing will.

I realized all I had to do was relax and just play to best of my ability. You make a mistake go on, you can't unring a bell. Remember it and now you have something to practice.

Unless you are in a competition you won't get crucified. Relax and learn from it. Have fun.

[reeve21]

Originally Posted by Merak

How come I can play well at home and then an hour later go in and screw up? Common beginner problem or something to fix?

Hi Merak,

Those are some great questions!

Taking your second question first, as you already know from the responses it is common, and not limited to beginners.

The why question is harder to answer. I know it happens to me, and is mostly the result of rushing. Lot's of practice at slow tempos with a metronome helps.

For the cause, the sports analogies and psychological insights in the thread are helpful. When learning a piece the conscious mind is very engaged, where to put my fingers next, how to alter the dynamics, etc. Once the piece is fully learned that stuff fades away. An athlete would say that he or she is now in the "zone."

Athletes have routines to focus on that help them disengage the conscious mind and let the subconscious take over. Books have been written about this-including the Inner Game series (golf, tennis, and I think there is even one on music). If you watch pro golfers they all do exactly the same thing before each shot, basketball players have the same routine on foul shots, etc.

How to get into the zone on the guitar? What helps me is to focus my mind on something unrelated to the mechanics and let the music come to me, rather than force it (sounds kind of new-agey, I know ). Sometimes this is counting the beats, out loud if necessary, especially for complicated rhythms. But most often will try to focus on my breath, which is really helpful because I tend to not breath regularly during difficult passages, which leads to tension, which leads to mistakes.

I have a very short warm up routine with some movements I can do in my sleep, where my focus is on holding the neck as softly as possible, and paying attention to my breath. It seems to put me in the right frame of mind to play to the best of my ability.

As you can tell this is a process, there isn't really a "flip the switch" solution. Stay with it, keep experimenting until you find what works for you. I think most folks have been through it, too.

Hope this helps!

[Edgar Poe]

try to focus on your playing and not where you are.
My guess is you are trying to speed up what you are playing.

Ed

[mattbn73]

A good teacher should be telling you that this is completely normal and that they understand. I spend all of my time replying "I know, and I believe you" to students' insistence that they play better at home. Why shouldn't you?

In the beginning, you have to play at about level ten at home in order to play at level three in front of other people. That's just human nature. I tell my students not to worry about it so much. The important thing is to work on raising your "at home" level regardless. rising water raises all boats, and your 10% level gets better with practice as well.

At some point this evens out a good bit , and it's not so bad. Eventually, at professional levels, musicians basically REQUIRE an audience to reach the highest levels of performance . The extra pressure ends up being beneficial, but that's for the PROS, whether you're talking sports or music.

Almost all beginners - in sports, music, or any other endeavor - are demonstrably WORSE when they play in front of someone, especially in front of a teacher or other "expert". That's more pressure than a normal person. A real teacher should be able to tell the difference between nerves and a lack of proficiency at something.

[grayback]

Great questions, I've had similar experiences. I really appreciate all the thoughtful answers.
Thanks!

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Merak

I have been taking weekly half hour lessons for the last six months using the Hal Leonard guitar books, just about finished with book 2. I feel pretty good about my progress but am a little frustrated about one thing. I practice about an hour a day and drive 30 minutes to my lesson at a music store, usually arrive 15 to 30 minutes early and try to warm up in the back of the store. I usually go through each piece a couple times and if I am having a good day, I get it without any mistakes on the second or third time through. Bad or average day I can’t get through without a mistake that I don’t make at home. My instructor listens and may have me work on it another week. I like having him as an instructor, but feel embarrassed when I don’t play well.
How come I can play well at home and then an hour later go in and screw up? Common beginner problem or something to fix?

Are you learning guitar to please your instructor or learning to please yourself?

Being afraid to make a mistake is the distraction that can cause mistakes. The instructor should be able to tell the difference between a random mistake and a mistake due to lack of practice. Both mistakes are not worth a discussion as they happen. Aren't you paying the instructor and not the other way around? You want an atmosphere of encouragement, not one of embarrassment due to a random mistake. If this being generated by the instructor's attitude, find another teacher.

[difalkner]

It probably happens to most of us, actually, in some form or another. As has been said, changing the environment leads to new variables and that can disrupt your normal level of concentration.

I play acoustic in our Praise Band and we have anywhere from 200 to 400 people in the service where we use the band and like most churches we have an electric guitar, drums, bass, keys, synthesizer, my acoustic and our worship pastor on acoustic.

Many of our songs have an intro that the keyboard starts and probably half of the songshave the entire band playing the intro. Not long ago we introduced a new song that started with me on acoustic only doing a finger picking pattern that was entirely new to me and it continued from the intro through the first verse and on to the chorus before the rest of the band jumps in.

I really had to work on the pattern for the picking and finally got it to where I was comfortable playing the song. About 5 minutes before we took the platform that Sunday my Worship Pastor saw me with my phone to my ear and asked what I was doing. I told him that I forgot how the song goes! He just laughed and reminded me I have a few minutes to figure it out. I did but it was a bit uncomfortable for a few minutes until I got the rhythm back in my head.

David

[Stratcat77]

I've been playing for over 40 years, so most chord grips are second nature and happen very easily, but there is the issue of muscle memory anytime you are doing a new shape. I don't know if that could be part of the issue.

As an example, I just learned the song Reminiscing by Little River Band. It's a great jazzy song that is definitely outside of my comfort zone. The way I am playing the intro riff is using triads and some of the shapes I'm using are shapes I've never used before. I eventually got comfortable playing it over the weekend as I was figuring it all out. But when I went back to try it again last night, I struggled a bit to play it cleanly. It took a bunch of times through to get it clean again. Muscle memory. I can grab most chord grips without thinking about it and play them cleanly. But those are grips I've played thousands of times of many years. These new shapes are a little uncomfortable and will be until they are burned into my muscle memory.

Not sure if that's got anything to do with what you're experiencing, but thought I'd share.

[Woolbury]

Originally Posted by Edgar Poe

try to focus on your playing and not where you are.
My guess is you are trying to speed up what you are playing.

Ed

Not sure what kind of music you're playing, but are you using a metronome? There are tunes I own at 120bpm, but fall apart at 130. And the beauty of a metronome is it will keep you from playing the parts you know well too fast, and the hard parts too slow. Master your tune at 100 or whatever, then learn it at 110, 120 and so on. As you struggle at 120, you'll find you can drop back to 100-110 and breeze through it. The metronome also forces repitition, which leads to success with a lot of tunes. Do not underestimate how many times a good player has played a tune to get it down well!

[Merak]

Thanks for the responses, thinking maybe I need to spend more time learning the pieces before playing for the instructor. Learn one well rather than two poorly. I suspect, as has been said, that I need to know the music better to play well when stressed. Tally Ho!

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by Merak

Thanks for the responses, thinking maybe I need to spend more time learning the pieces before playing for the instructor. Learn one well rather than two poorly. I suspect, as has been said, that I need to know the music better to play well when stressed. Tally Ho!

Merak,
The simple fact that you recognize a mistake is, in the scheme of things, THE most important point!

Once your ears tell you ‘Oops.Wrong!’, you have a chance to correct the issue, and NOT reinforce an error.

Students almost always get nervous, but I can see past that, and tell when they actually understand what to do as opposed to not knowing what to do.

You’re on the right track!

Howard Emerson