The Steel Guitar Forum

It's been a long time since I had shaky knees or sweaty palms before the beginning of a gig. However, I did notice this weekend that simply knowing there were several excellent steelers in the audience was all it took for me to just HACK up Bud's Bounce and toss what was left of it out for their expert appraisal. I've been playing that tune just fine for over thirty years, too!

Well Dave, not that I'm one of those, but what conversation that was tossed around was that none of us ever play it because it's so easy to mess up. You did fine. I think what does it is any fluctuations by the band makes it real hard to sync the 1 6 2 5 parts.

Can't say enough about Kenny Sawyer, probably the finest drummer I've worked with, and the bass player wasn't bad his durn self.

I was paying attention more closely to... well....



EJL

Thanks for the kind words, Eric, when I did finally get one ride to actually go the way I wanted it to I was glad to look up and see you giving me a big sign of appreciation - gee, there was actually tone coming out of that thing for a moment there!

The good thing about being around a bunch of steelers is that we ALL know how easy it is to mess up for no apparent reason at all other than internal uncertainty.

I'm with you re: Kenny Sawyer - he is a big - maybe the biggest - reason that I play with those guys.

As for paying attention, no problems, eric, a man must have his priorities in order - in any case, you were PRESENT and for that I thank you.

dg<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Dave Grafe on 26 June 2005 at 07:03 PM.]</p></FONT>

I usually get over any jitters about the end of the fourth set, about 2 hours after.

I remember Jeff Newman telling the story of when he was playing and in walked Hal Rugg and Curly Chalker and his right foot started shaking so badly that Hal and Curly went around to his amp to turn off the tremelo. Shakey foot strikes again.

I was one of those who was always paralyzed
with fear in class, always hoping I'd never be called on.
Within a week of getting out of high school,
I was gigging. I had stage fright, but over
time I grew more confident, but never complacent. There was nothing I wanted more
than to play with the best players I could in
front of people that could appreciate it. That desire carried me for the first four years I gigged.
After a long bout of depression (that I've had since a young age; it never kept me from
being functional until I got into my early '20's), panic anxiety set in. Not only
was I overwhelmed on stage, regular day to day activities like going to the store, visiting friends, etc, were really difficult;
agoraphobia. I had started drinking a couple years before this, and so this was how I survived. My playing became erratic, some nights alcohol couldn't cover up my anxiety,
and after ten years, the "good" nights of playing were way behind my third string breakage...
About seven years later I started gigging again, with a six pack before setting up a
mandatory requirement. My playing was again
predictably erratic and after five years, I
dropped playing altogether again.
So, here I am, eight years later playing through headphones at home, still in hopes of finding "tools" (I stopped the happy juice about five years ago) that will help to
cope with the overwhelming anxiety of playing in front of others.
Without some anxiety, we'd all be boring as hell. It's all about making it manageable.

If this were Christmas in June, I'd gladly take some of Eric's gall and a dash of Carlucci's "feeling like a rock star on stage."

I saw the great and powerful Oz as a child,
but that turned out to be images imprinted on celluloid.

If I had some answers, I would be passing
them around here like Cinnabuns...

Joe

Another thing that has really helped me is to play in the streets. Go out there and busk. Take a guitar with you and sing all the Dylan tunes you know (or whatever it is that you can sing). Stand in a place where people will pass you buy for the most part.

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If you can't hear the others you're too loud, if you can't hear yourself you've gone deaf

I think that if they put frets on these damn things they'd be a lot easier to play. Ever wonder how vibrato got invented?

<SMALL>That old thing about imagining the audience in their underwear.... </SMALL>

Do not try that at a steel convention !

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Bob
intonation help

I simply remember what my mother said. I was bass player in the first rock and roll band to play at my high school, back in 1960. Right in the front row were "those of the in crowd,"--the ones who didn't do much except put anyone down--doing their thing. They did their thing, of course, but we did ours, too, to the delight of the main crowd (we had to fight off the volunteers who wanted to carry a piece of equipment when we walked in) and historical significance of the event (really, nothing more than a pleasant memory for me now).

At any rate, when Mom heard all this, her words summed it nicely, "Just remember, any one of those clowns would have given their eye teeth to have been you that night. They did the only thing they could do."

Lol... I learned along time ago that I was always going to make mistakes so I quite worrying about it and just try to have fun. As a side note I saw Ronnie Dunn one night butcher the words to "My Maria" you know the bridge words instead of the 2nd verse. That kind of thing. They just made a big joke out of it and kept on playing.

I've seen closeups of Tommy and Buddy with their hand shaking but if you closed your eyes, you would never know it and that's where the experience and confidence comes to play. The sure sign of a professional. I wish they would offer a gene transplant from these great talents and make them available to us poor slobs that have Jello in our hands.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Gary Walker on 04 July 2005 at 09:43 PM.]</p></FONT>

Myron, I think your age has got you and you should probably go back to the drums.Just kidding. I havn't seen you play in about 30 years and you were pretty durn good then and I'm sure even better now. Most of us probably experience it a little now and then. I know you are very talented. Find a way to shake it off. Focus on your steel or the band or anything that will take your mind off of what ever is spooking you. I've often wondered how pros on the road get through gigs when they are sick or upset and have to perform.

Almost always, our worst enemy is our own thinking. Cognitive therapy can help most people with stage fright and many with a normal amount of stage anxiety. Alcohol and other drugs are short term solutions and do more harm than good. Anti Anxiety meds are good for cases of clinical anxiety. But most of us just suffer from distortions of thinking. We tell ourselves we are supposed to sound a certain way, or that we need to always be perfect, or that we should sound like "so-and-so". A book I found that has helped me and others is a spiritual and cognitive approach. It is "Effortless Mastery" by Kenny Werner. It is about 13 bucks and comes with a CD (not a music CD). This book will help most players with their thinking and more important- their playing. It is the best music book I have bought in years.

When this happens try to remember the last meal you had before the gig. Over the last few years I have learned what not to eat or drink before a gig. There is an ice tea that a place serves here in town and if I have a meal with that tea I almost always have a "freeze up" and cant think stright. It may be the caffein or sugar. What and when I eat before a gig can have an affect on what kind of job I will do on a gig.

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Gordon Borland
MSA D10,FENDER STEEL KING, NASHVILLE 400,PEAVEY SESSIONS 2000, 1963 BROWN FENDER DELUXE NO REVERB. 1973 FENDER JAGUAR SUNBURST SIX STRING GUITAR, PEAVEY T60 SIX STRING GUITAR.

I have had stage fright a few times, but usually is apparent to the audience only when I am playing 'over my head' like a One Two Intro that I don't do very well even at home, so I keep my volume to minimum. I hate that as I am very critical of anything I do as I want to do better. Unfoutunately, I am the same way with most other acts in live shows I attend. I can feel & hear exactly what the music sounded like on the earlier recordings, etc. and tell when it's slightly off, but I may not can play it even as good. I am very serious about music performances, myself and others.

Another occurance of performace anxiety for me is speaking in a controlled format when others are listening in a captive setting. I am sure most of you have been around people who sutter. Some are sereve and can not get a word out, i myself my suttering is considered to be very minor usually. Every thing from ordering food from a menu to talking on the phone may be a very severe frightening exoerience for the sutter. This may similar to a PSG player performing at a PSG convention. That may help put this mental state in view. For some talking is a performance.

This critical behavior of mine has its good and bad. I usually will not play a part on stage if i don't do it fairly close, so what happens is that I tend to stay at the same level of playing skills. Not good. Now what I am very good at (due to this) is mixing live sound and engineering/producing a recording session. I am so familair with musical structure, how the general genre is played and recorded and a detail understanding of the audio controls, I can mix a live band of a musical style I have never studied. It just happens. no anxiety, stage fright, etc. I know the mixing tricks, the music's history, etc. I am not over my head.

BUT, having said all of that I will close with this experience of mine in about 1971. I formed a rock band called Critical Mass and at that time I was the only guitar player. We had a gig with Steppen Wolf with 4 groups in front of us and of course S Wolf with close out in a outdoor baseball stadium is Savannah, GA. which held i guess about 20K fans and it was almost full. The first 4 groups performed with the crown still dead on the grass (centiped). We thought a hard to please crowd. We went on stage 3 hours later, I had to start the song with a very basic guitar part (all chords) with Jumping Jack Flash by the Stones. Well, I had to take my right hand and grab my left hand and place it on the B major bar chord (7th fret) due to the fact I was shaking so much. Anyways . . . the entire stadium stood up on about the 8th measure of the song! So who knows . . . ?

Stage fright manifest itself in all forms. It's positive sometimes and negative others. Reguardless, if you feel easy & comfortable about your quality of performance, you are better off, but still may be frightening. that's life as we are judged. But you know I still play music, mix live music and talk on the phone.

Did'nt mean to rattle on so.

PEACE,

Billy


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William Johnson (Billy)
Grievous Angel Productions
Statesboro, GA. 30461 USA
www.grievousangelpro.com

Anybody tried talking to their doctor? I take about 3 or 4 Xanax in a year. If I feel nervous about playing, the Xanax does it for me. It could be psychological, but it works. I am totally calm in about 30 minutes after taking one. You have to use it with care though because Xanax can be addictive.

yep, that rock & roll medicine is fun.

now, how did my doctor say it? '. . . beware of the slippy shope . . .'

yep, it's slippy!

later,

Billy

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William Johnson (Billy)
Grievous Angel Productions
Statesboro, GA. 30461 USA www.grievousangelpro.com
<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Billy T. Johnson on 05 July 2005 at 01:31 AM.]</p></FONT>

I haven't had those problems for years, but admit to being a bit tense in situations where I'm not too sure about what I'm going to play.
Some time ago I heard somebody talking to somebody else (Who suffered from stagefear) "Don't be nervous, be EXCITED".
I really think that this is great psychology.
It's somewhat destructive to be nervous/scared, but very constructive to be excited. The physical symptoms are quite the same

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Klaus Caprani

MCI RangeXpander S-10 3x4
www.klauscaprani.com

THis is a great thread and (at some point, not today) I wil go back over it & read each & every post. Stagefright is something everyone faces but everyone relates to or handles differently. For some people, it feels almost nonexistent- except perhaps there's always that anticipation before a gig "well, what if I mess up somehow"- the main way of fighting it perhaps for some is just experience, and confidence comes from more experience. One of those first replies is right on, he says that people in the audience 99.9 % of them AREN'T going to be steel players (who could know what you "should" be doing, or "could do it better") and most of them only know what you ARE doing, and probably likely as not are going to be enjoying it.
One thing I have taken from MLB this last year is---
their little slogan "I Live For This" -?-
Put it in that perspective and each night becomes a whole new ballgame.

WOW, this has turned out to be a great subject. I was going to ask to close this thread, but it just keeps going. Thanks for all your in put on it. I love all the stories.

Steekers in the audience are pretty much a guarantee that I will poop on myself at some point. Funny thing, though, I've discovered through careful research that generally I play MUCH better when I DON'T self-medicate.

I would second what Terje said. As a very green teenager I did a bit of busking, and by the time I had been doing it a year or so I felt I had the nerve to walkin ANYPLACE and play with ANYONE (that is, if they'd let me, or invite me. Not being a door-crasher or a backstage backslapper) Knowing that people could or couldn't care less that I wasn't some "name" out there slumming it, it was freedom to sing whatever I liked and play whatever I liked and if I made a little change from it, great- the biggest thrill was just getting out there and getting those special peopla who stopped to listen (sometimes, they led to some interesting adventures of themselves!) I think when you
just look at it as if "all the world is a stage, wouldn't you rather be a player on it than a mere onlooker?
Sometimes overpreparation for a gig can throw you off your game too. Being TOO apprehensive about "how it will go" rather than just going out there and doing it the best you can taking it as it comes. A few times folks would compliment me for nights when I still felt I hadn't got anyplace with the audience- only they saw me someplace a day or two later and said "that was great"... but for me experiencing it it may as well have been pins & needles.
It's hard to see ourselves how others see us sometimes if we are too hard on ourselves from the getgo.

When I sit down to play I just feel an initial nervous energy. Add that to my pitiful playing ability and you get a real careful picker.

I've got to get back to more time in practice! But one thing about playing with the band, they know I'm new at it and don't expect much. So that gives me a chance to play little fills and work on things in real time. Makes you want to do more and learn it all faster.

No matter what, it's all fun!

At a gig I was sittin' in on this past Saturday, we invited a guitar player to sit with us. He said "I'm not that good and really don't play that well." We all said simultaneously "We don't let that stop us!".