It’s the pinnacle for most guitarists, but to say that there are more than a handful of things that can go wrong during that live performance would be an understatement to say the least.
Hidden amongst the euphoria of playing to an audience, regardless of how big or small that might be, is an incredible amount of nerves that might threaten to ruin any decent performance.
Of course, it’s not just nerves which wreak havoc with those live displays, as we take a look at some of the biggest mistakes that a guitarist can make as he or she prepares for the stage.
Not rehearsing what you will be playing
Playing the guitar in front of an audience is much different to playing in your bedroom – there’s a logical process to follow this time. If you were to research any Tom Hess Guitar information you would notice that this is the principle piece of advice – don’t just rehearse your performance in pieces, put it all together long before you reach the stage.
Sure, you might know each individual part on its own, but putting it all together is something else in its entirety. If there are other people on stage, who you are playing with, it goes without saying that you all need to practice exactly when you are all playing.
This part of training is called “performance preparation”. It’s all about knowing when to change your amp settings, what you do in between songs and even when you will be changing your pedal settings. All of these small things are often neglected by those who aren’t used to performing live.
Not having any form of mistake management in the bag
This next suggestion might appear somewhat strange, but as any seasoned guitar player will tell you mistake management is a key part of any live performance. Unfortunately, you won’t regularly play without any faults – but it’s the way that you deal with these mistakes which is the most important.
As such, you need to be identifying the points in your music where you are more likely to make mistakes. Not only should you practice these areas more, but you should also find ways in which to deal with the mistakes if they do occur during performance. In other words, devising a strategy so nobody will notice your mistakes when you make one.
Not being able to manage your tension
It doesn’t matter what you are performing live – tension is bound to occur. The problem for a guitarist is that this tension can really hinder their performance as it will stretch to your fingers.
It means that you need to manage your tension in whatever way you can. There are various training techniques you can do to achieve this, while even following mental processes can work. In relation to the latter, just taking attention away from negative thoughts is the simplest approach – albeit it can be easier said than done.