how do i play through and not f**k it up?

[Cordelia]

There is only one way . stop stopping when you flub. That's why players who play live get good , they can't just stop and ask the audience if they'd mind a do over ; they just have to push on.
If you stop when you practice , you only reinforce the habit of zooming in on every flaw . Or just do comps and get on with life!!!

+1. If you stop after a mistake you record that mistake into your brain like a muscle memory.
Breathe out. Get rid of the carbon dioxide that builds up under tension.
Most importantly, visualize. Imagine yourself playing the part really well, all the way through. It works.

[Meffy]

@Dean: I think golfers call it "the yips." I don't get severe nervousness but even a little self-consciousness can screw up what little chops I've got, mess with timing and expression.

[VSTJuNkiE]

After a little more thought on the topic and Kim mentioning 'Nerves' being the culprit, I think its a mental blockage which you are suffering from which ties in with nerves: as soon as you know the red button is lit up you become overly tense due to build up and release of lactic acids through your body and this prevents the brain from telling your body to relax (adrenaline's ugly side) and the more you have focused/experienced this the worse it has become and maybe by now your brain has trained itself to release this bad but natural chemical on demand. The best way i can describe this exactly is this - i don't know if you have ever watched a snooker match/competition or not but sometimes due to a mental blockage a few really decent players have literally lost many frames/tournaments and even careers when having to use the snooker cue along with the rest, they develop this mental blockage which for some reason makes their brain incapable of communicating with the body properly and this renders them incapable of letting go of the end of the snooker cue and fluffing the shot entirely and commiting a foul (losing points), really it is quite bizzare to watch as they simply can not follow through the shot to strike into the white ball and make the shot and if it happens a few times it rapidly develops into a huge problem and ruins their game like i described (i hope you can relate to what i am trying to get across, as i am junk at explaing things very well)

As well as all the other advice given by people it might be worth buying a simple footswitch if your interface supports one for hands free recording (starting or stoping the transport with the footswitch) so your are not fumbling with a mouse or hitting the spacebar and then back into position ready to record?

I hope you get through the block and the only way is perseverence and brain training (no nintendo ds game needed for that!)

Dean/Nekro

Uh..... ummm...... WTF is snooker match bro

Later

[Dean Aka Nekro]

Yeah that is what im talking about Meffy friend. Its a total brain issue and i get it bad before going on stage and my legs wobble whilst head banging through the first few tracks and then it evens out and im all good again! The recording bit is no probs for me its an audience < self confidence lacking and ive been gigging since i was 16/17 on and off so its still cutting into me 10 years down the line! being bloody human with (a little tiny bit of a) brain is my problem. I will defeat the bugger though one day, i swear it

[Dean Aka Nekro]

Uh..... ummm...... WTF is snooker match bro

Later

A big sport in the UK (quite big in china i think also, its like Pool but way harder and more complex rules and stuff and the tables are feckin HUGE! It was the best i could compare with, i did my best VSTJuNkie man
(Off Topic - Im loving The Faceless BTW juNike mate - some real fine brutal Steel indeed)

Dean

[VSTJuNkiE]

A big sport in the UK (quite big in china i think also, its like Pool but way harder and more complex rules and stuff and the tables are feckin HUGE! It was the best i could compare with, i did my best VSTJuNkie man

got it

(Off Topic - Im loving The Faceless BTW juNike mate - some real fine brutal Steel indeed)
Dean

Glad ya like it

Later

[Chester Desmond]

Like others have said, it sounds like you are expecting too much of yourself; ie you feel that the take needs to be perfect, your inner voice says "no one's perfect" and you're done for.
It's like trying to maintain an erection once you start thinking about it too much.
I like the suggestions about multiple takes, because you can sort of forget about the "one shot.. this is it" tension you're creating for yourself. I've read stories of engineeers who remove or cover the red light with tape and lie when the artist asks if they're rolling yet.
Good luck !

[The Fex]

I'll play something flawlessly and the second I hit record and hear that metronomic countdown, forget it. Lat night I spent all night trying to lay down a single decent acoustic egg shaker take. A f**king egg shaker!

LOL, I think this will strike a chord with a lot of us. You're not alone. Some highly accomplished performers need beta blockers to deal with this shit.

I've always had an ear for music and I can write songs and produce, but I could never play in real time because I always psyche myself out. Can someone offer me some solution, please? Meditation? Is there a book I can get?

Meditation? Sure. Great idea. Why not? It works for me.

A book? Erm.... no, probably not such a great idea. It sounds like the sort of problem you overcome by practice, not by reading books about it.

Maybe there's a DAW that will allow me to play midi at a tempo that feels right and then match the tempo afterwards?

Pretty much any DAW, I would think, but apart from making a lot of work for yourself, it's not really addressing the problem, is it?

Sometimes being drunk helps because then I just don't care

And this, I think, is the key. No, not being drunk - learning not to care. It's music. We do it for fun. Even if you screw up in front of a paying audience of thousands, it's not important. Nobody dies. And this is what you have to get into your head. You already know this on a conscious level, of course, but it's you're subconscious that screws you up, so you'll just have to reprogram it....

If you're recording digitally, it's not like you're wearing tape out when you play a bad take.... and 'puter memory is dirt cheap these days.... so, to overcome your problem, I suggest you just record more. Don't record only when you think you're ready for 'the' take. The whole idea of 'the' take can only screw you up. Record your rehearsals. Record the songwriting process. If you happen to record an interesting 'mistake', or if you record a great take when you're not even trying, then great. If you end up recording a lot of junk, that's fine too. You can erase it later. Plagues of locusts won't descend to laugh at you.

It's that simple. If you build the process of recording the great take up in your head, you will make it harder for yourself.

Listen to some Beatles demos and outtakes.... hours and hours of experiments and screw ups, and nobody cares, because there's nothing left to prove. Some of those screw ups ended up on the records, too.

My last time in a proper studio, the best takes of a particular song happened when I started to get bored with playing it. Then, having got two really good takes, I took a cigarette break. Listening to the playback of the best take, I heard it for what it was.... a note perfect take by a tense, bored guy who needed a cigarette. I thought I'd take one more shot.... this time, knowing that what I had down already was good enough....

Perfect, first time, of course.

[publicradio]

Beta blockers, eh? I wonder if there's some safer herbal over-the-counter thing that has beta-blocker-like effects.

I just read that beta blockers are also prescribed to people with Marfan's syndrome. That means that Joey Ramone and Bradford Cox's gangly asses are cheating!

Anyway great advice Fex, Thank you. With regards to the tempoless MIDI take, though, to the best of my knowledge, you can't take a chunk of midi data and paste it into a song irrespective of tempo. It will lock into the grid into which it was pasted. You know what I'm saying? So if I record something and it turns out to be about 100 bpm, and then I try to adjust the master tempo to fit it, it's going to change the tempo of what I played, no? Anyway this is just a side note.

[BertKoor]

How to cure recording anxiety? The same as other forms of anxiety... Get used to it, in a gradual way that convinces you there is no harm at all to be done.

Start recording nothing, with the mic only picking up random room sounds and you being quiet. Listen to the result. It's OK, it can be deleted. So delete it! Do it again until it bores you.

Now make some random sounds, just for the fun of it. No music, just sounds. Listen to the result. Maybe cut some small samples from it and play around with them. It's OK, it can be deleted. So delete it! Do it again until it bores you.

Back to the egg shaker. You know you can shake it perfectly without the red light lit. So do that first. Now record it. Record five takes with the whole 3 minutes. Goofing one up is no problem, it can be deleted and corrected. Just do continue after an error, you must get something recorded after all.
Listen to the five results, laugh about the mistakes. Play with editing features to correct them into one flawless take.
Delete it, do it again. Until you are bored and are convinced it's no big deal.

Good luck!!

[The Fex]

With regards to the tempoless MIDI take, though, to the best of my knowledge, you can't take a chunk of midi data and paste it into a song irrespective of tempo. It will lock into the grid into which it was pasted. You know what I'm saying?

I know what you're saying. I'd misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you intended to set the tempo you were comfortable with first....

So if I record something and it turns out to be about 100 bpm, and then I try to adjust the master tempo to fit it, it's going to change the tempo of what I played, no?

I'm not sure, actually.... I think there's probably a way to save MIDI without locking it to the original tempo....

Anyway this is just a side note.

And not much of a solution, IMHO.

[khanyz]

Quick and easy thing is to not have the metronome count-in but record a simple "one-two-three-four". Unless you're classically trained or practise regularly with a metronome, you can't be expected to get used to one and recording has to be relaxed. I have recorded quite a few people and the first few hours can be taken up with 'how' they record best rather than forcing them to use a particular method.

Hope it helps.
N.

[skipscada]

First of all, make sure it's not latency that confuses you.

Don't look at the screen while recording. Shut your eyes, perhaps?

Tap your foot or move your body rhythmically to get into the beat.

Allow yourself some liberty of interpretation - a note played early or late? Think of it as Rubato and try to work it back in. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubato. A seminote off key? Bend it or call it a temporary exploration of chromatic scales and work it back in. Think ahead, not back at the "errors" you've made.

Cut and paste. No need to be ashamed.

[nix808]

Just curious, but you play keys? Audio can be tempo matched by cutting and dropping loops. I'm not sure about your problem though, maybe make recording part of your routine(ie. record stacks as others have suggested)?

[Sascha Franck]

Red light syndrome, eh?

I know it *exactly*.
There's just one way to really get over it (unless you have a serial mental problem, which doesn't seem to be the case): Play, play, play. Then record, record, record. Repeat.

There is only one way . stop stopping when you flub. That's why players who play live get good , they can't just stop and ask the audience if they'd mind a do over ; they just have to push on.
If you stop when you practice , you only reinforce the habit of zooming in on every flaw . Or just do comps and get on with life!!!

No shit! That's proper advice.

Think about any decent or famous studio players. Most of them (if not all) are fantastic live players as well (or have at least been, for quite a while). And it shows, because they just *know* their parts.

You're talking about recording an egg-shaker. Ok, nothing too hard, one would think. But, apart from the fear of the red light (which might be an issue or not), when was the last time you played an egg-shaker all throughout a 5 minute latin song? Have you ever done it at all? Well, all of the famous percussionists you may know (that includes each of the real percussionists you hear on professional albums) have done so multiple times over ages. This is what's building up confidence.

I'll tell you something out of my personal experience: Back in the days when I was rather new to playing live and stuff, all of a sudden I had to open a show alone. Just some 8-16 bars of a rhythm guitar pattern before the others kicked in. Needless to say that I practised the very pattern endlessly. Yet, for the first 3-4 times I had to open a show with it, it was all shaky until the others came in. I was all nervous and sweaty.
Same goes for my first duo gigs (just guitar and vocals). My god, I sweated like mad, my hands were almost entirely out of control. These days I just do it.
As said, that's called confidence. And you can only build up confidence in your skills once you've done it a few times.

Further, as far as practising these things goes:

- Just as contrary said, *don't* stop once you made a mistake. Continue recording.

- Go through the entire song without recording.

- Go through the entire song *with* recording. Do that 2-3 times so you have a few takes to chose from.

- Don't work in cycle mode for a start. While this is extremely handy for later on, while it also helps you to practice just one part, it won't help you to build up confidence in being able to "just do it".

- If you record using cycle mode, set yourself a limit of, say, 3-4 cycles. No, this won't reduce pressure, it will increase it. You may end up trashing everything in the end. But try to do it for all the parts of entire songs a few times and you will notice that the pressure will get down quite a bit. After that, once you allow yourself to work with limitless cycles, you'll feel extremely relaxed.

- Try to record certain parts only when your song structure is done. For instance, I usually always redo my entire rhythm guitars once I have the song structure. And I'm also trying to play them in one pass (or multiple passes, but always througout the entire song), even if I only need the verses to be done with that particular sound. Gives you a kinda "organic" feel for the song. I can still correct mistakes later on.

- Practice individual parts at higher tempi. Practice at (way) lower tempi. You'll see how the latter will get extremely tricky with things such as shakers and rhythm guitars - and I'm talking about *way* lower tempi here. Try 50BPM instead of 110. You'll be amazed. As far as playing at higher tempi goes, this will build up your technical skills and condition (condition is very important on any rhythmic patterns).

All these should help you in building up confidence (and skills, which will be a nice side effect).
Sure, some of them might not exactly work too well for, say, techno music, but most of them are quite allround things to do/know.

Fwiw, if there's anything that helped building confidence in my own skills, it's gotta be playing in sorta gala bands for around a decade, 2 or so gigs each week, always for around 6-8 hours. When it got later, we were usually playing the faster, disco- or funky-ish tunes. That meant like playing 16th notes patterns between 100-130 BPM for 2-3 one hour sets nonstop. In the end, I even managed doing so while being completely drunken. Not that the latter would be any good, but I certainly know I can play such things with ease. No redlight paranoia anymore, either.

- Sascha