Guitar School Recital

Congrats man!

The shakes? You're *supposed* to get rid of them?

Just kidding. They go away after awhile. I had them last Saturday in front of a small festival crowd. You know, waiting around backstage, thinking about the songs and what'll happen and getting revved and 'up' and then you're there, in the spotlight. I got them, and I was looking at my hand going "Wow, haven't seen that in 20 years!" It was almost funny, but then I said to myself, "Okay, ease back man. Take a breath, notch it down." This is *while* we're into the first part of the first song, but then it settled out a little.

Then it was just *exciting.*

That's the thing; you don't want them to go totally away. It's that adrenalin rush, you know, and that's part of the thrill of playing live. But you can get it under control just by going up and playing a lot. For me, I've played a lot but it was 2 decades ago so I had fears I'd freak out or something. When I got up there it was like "Okay, I remember this!"

Way cool man, you're on your way. Now you know how it feels and there won't be the added tension of "Gee, I wonder how it's gonna be up there."

Now you know, and now you can adjust.

When you're up there, there's two things - the music and the audience. You're between them. At first you tend to sort of mentally turn to the audience and that's freaky. After you do it a few times you can will yourself to 'turn to the music,' and then after that, you can stand in the middle and not be bothered (or overly focused) on either. They're in balance and you can have fun, do the music justice, and make the audience share your enjoyment.

Fun stuff, really!

Taso,
Congrats!
8)

Big congrats Taso.

Think Demo covered the shakes pretty well. It just takes time. Never played guitar in front of alot of people but guess vocals is about the same thing. At first you shake so much, and get so tense that your cant breath. When you cant breath you cant sing. But it goes away in time and your confidence grows.

Sounds like ya'll did great.

Jim

Thanks for the responses!

Yeah, I figured that once I've done this alot, it won't be such a big deal.

Funny thing was, I was totally cool until right when I got up there, and even then, I didn't really FEEL nervous, just my hand was shaking. (I was very confident, because we played this song litereally 300 times at least)

Thanks again!

Hey there Taso.

Congrats on the playing out. It is quite the rush. Frustrating, and beautiful at the same time, eh?

I wanted to give my little formula for over-coming some of physical/mental blocks that hinder me. I get negative feelings and physical tightness whenever I play out. "I probably shouldn't play tonight. I haven't sounded good all week."

I find that if I concentrate on relaxing my arm, back, shoulder....and conciously find my breathing pattern (even while soloing), it helps to distract my mind enough to be lucid. In short, I try to get my critical mind out of the way and just sing with the guitar.

But, for me, it is about practicing songs a lot....and then just going working them out at an open-mic somewhere. In short, practice...then just learn to trust yourself and soak the whole scene in.

Oh well...my 2-cents worth of advice. Keep playing out and practicing. You'll never regret it...and the amazing thing about it, the more you do it, the more you want to get back out there. And it helps to motivate and direct your practice!

I'll be quiet now. :)