So we have many threads asking e.g. Will the audience walk out if I play a duff note? What happens if I forget the words? And so on...
I just saw Jennifer John (check her myspace page, trust me on this one, she's beyond good...), and when doing Natural Woman she forgot the words halfway through. Cue a sung in time begging adlib to her daughter (also worth your checking, again just trust, I don't recommend lightly and you know it) to prompt her. Much audience laughter and the rest of the song plays out with daughter providing counterpoint prompts, and Jennifer (having given the aside "I knew my daughter would be good for something") then rewriting the song to include gems such as "I'm a natural mother" and "I'm a natural blagger".
The audience loved it, and perhaps more than had she not "screwed up".
Long story short, yes you can completely screw up (and yes it hapens to the best..,a it did tonight) and you can still keep your audience and do well out of it. And this is how.
I've seen two concerts where the singer messed up the lyrics:
Three Dog Night - I forget which song, but as soon as he screwed it up, he got all kinds of angry!
It wasn't pretty, and a bit of a turn off.
He carried that chip on his shoulder for the rest of the concert :?
Then I saw CS&N in a pretty intimate setting, and Nash totally blew the lyrics to Teach Your Children (his song, and one that he's probably sung more times than he cares to remember)....
How did the veteran and consumate performer handle that one....?
He started cracking up! :lol:
It was very refreshing after remembering the Three Dog Night incident.
And I don't remember anyone walking out on CS&N after that either.
Ken
"The man who has begun to live more seriously within
begins to live more simply without"
-Ernest Hemingway
"A genuine individual is an outright nuisance in a factory"
-Orson Welles
Good points. I agree that it's all in how you handle yourself when you do make the mistake. Notice I didn't say if you make a mistake! :wink:
"The only way I know that guarantees no mistakes is not to play and that's simply not an option". David Hodge
Steven Tyler was famous for forgetting lyrics and making up lyrics as the song went on. We won't mention that he was strung out on drugs the entire time. I have seen Aerosmith 1000 times since the 70s and never walked out. My personal favorite is when I forgot the lyrics to Black Sabbath's War Pigs. Laughter was the only way out and the crowd laughed along with me. The important thing was to come back strong in the next song. And I did!
Teamwork- A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction.
one of my favorite things to do is get strung out on drugs and make up lyrics.
We were covering Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" and after the bass starts its part the snare kicks in crack...crack...crack... then the drummer miss hits...crack, crack. He stopped and the other guitar player says into the mic "I think the record just skipped..." Huge laughter all around and we start again. :D
Remember...its all about having fun out there... :D
Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!
My favourite "forgot the lyrics" song is Ella Fitzgerald doing Mack the Knife. She forgets the lyrics a minute or so in and then completely ad libs it without missing a single beat. Just amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhoAwJLZOvQ
Pop music is about stealing pocket money from children. - Ian Anderson
On stage...outdoors at night...freezing...playing with gloves with the fingers cut out...my Fender sort of cracked where it's bolted onto the neck. But NOT as you could see it. And not as I could even see it because I really tried to look at it as I was playing. I'm talking miniscule. I was so bad that the band actually stopped playing. No way the vocals could cope with the pitch. You could hear a pin drop...I mean,this ranks right up there with me stepping into the shower while my mother-in- law was in there thinking it was my wife...
Nope. Couldn't "do well" after that screw up, either. :oops:
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
:shock:
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
On stage...outdoors at night...freezing...playing with gloves with the fingers cut out...my Fender sort of cracked where it's bolted onto the neck. But NOT as you could see it. And not as I could even see it because I really tried to look at it as I was playing. I'm talking miniscule. I was so bad that the band actually stopped playing. No way the vocals could cope with the pitch. You could hear a pin drop...I mean,this ranks right up there with me stepping into the shower while my mother-in- law was in there thinking it was my wife...
Nope. Couldn't "do well" after that screw up, either. :oops:
Cat
A joke about how your guitar just committed suicide because it hates the cold so much would have broken the ice. :P
"The only way I know that guarantees no mistakes is not to play and that's simply not an option". David Hodge
I didn't know WHAT the problem was at that speficic point in time! To this very day...each and every time I restring I sort of sit the guitar over my knees and see how much movement the neck gets. :wink:
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
99 out of 100 songs I sing while playing to myself are ad-libb. I guess I won't have a problem doing that a little in the outside too...lol
On stage...outdoors at night...freezing...playing with gloves with the fingers cut out...my Fender sort of cracked where it's bolted onto the neck. But NOT as you could see it. And not as I could even see it because I really tried to look at it as I was playing. I'm talking miniscule. I was so bad that the band actually stopped playing. No way the vocals could cope with the pitch. You could hear a pin drop...I mean,this ranks right up there with me stepping into the shower while my mother-in- law was in there thinking it was my wife...
Nope. Couldn't "do well" after that screw up, either. :oops:
Cat
:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
On stage...outdoors at night...freezing...playing with gloves with the fingers cut out...my Fender sort of cracked where it's bolted onto the neck. But NOT as you could see it. And not as I could even see it because I really tried to look at it as I was playing. I'm talking miniscule. I was so bad that the band actually stopped playing. No way the vocals could cope with the pitch. You could hear a pin drop...I mean,this ranks right up there with me stepping into the shower while my mother-in- law was in there thinking it was my wife...
Nope. Couldn't "do well" after that screw up, either. :oops:
Cat
I assume you are STILL in therapy over that one Cat. I know if it we me, I'd still be sitting on the park bench throwing bread crumbs at myself.
Teamwork- A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction.
Yes, the best way to handle mistakes on stage is just to laugh it off. People like people who can laugh at themselves.
Here is an old live video of Jimi Hendrix. He does a bunch of whammy effects during the intro and throws his guitar way out of tune at about 1:45. He just laughs it off. He also says, "I forgot the words" at about 2:19 :lol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv3cKLWQimE&feature=related
The worst thing you can do is get upset or angry or make faces, nobody enjoys that.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
