PERFORMANCE MISTAKES

Hoday!

I know it's hard to believe but even I can make a mistake in a performance! So what will you do and how will you act when you're forgetting your music while performing?

All your instructors tell you to give yourself entry points, memorize by the phrase, or practice playing through mistakes but there's nothing like actually going through the experience. Yes experience is the best medicine! Each time it happens, you will learn something new that you will use to keep it from happening again.

For example, last night I dropped some of my music somewhere but by the time I realized it, I was playing with the group. Even though I had some of the music memorized - some of it wasn't because I thought I had the music to read. So what do you do? Well if your playing in a group then you could play at points that you know or try and pick up on the 2-5-1 parts to get you back into the form. But if the group is relying on you to play all of the changes? Well then you're in trouble.

Most jazz musicians should be able to perform the piece on their own and not have to totally rely on another person to get them through and most jazz musicians memorize their music regardless of how they go about doing it. If they don't sight read then it becomes a bigger challenge but it pays off in the end because they have memorized the song. I don't know anybody who can do both well, readers and memorizers have to work equally hard to accomplish both. Had I memorized the show then this error may not have happened. But I firmly believe that instrumentalists should memorize the tune and have the music in front of them for reference - but that's me.

I know it's no big deal, I know that we all make mistakes, I know, I know, I know but the fact is it's unacceptable to make stupid mistakes after 16 rehearsals! If you're like me and you probably are, you're your own best and worse critic. So when something like this happens, and it will, then learn from it. Take the next step necessary to solve the problem. For me, it will be to work on memorization and make sure that you have all of your materials needed before the performance. Learning never ends and we all pay our dues.

In a word from a wise professor, Never Give Up.

Later,

John