Red Light Syndrome

[Chris Johnston]

Hey guys! To give this thread some context here's how my morning has went:

Been practicing a solo to upload to the site and really happy with it, to the point that I've been almost nailing it every time...However, the minute I begin to start filming myself it's like everything feels slightly different to play, I'm super aware that I'm under some sort of pressure and my brain wills me to have mess ups that didn't even exist before I hit record.

Does this happen to anyone else? and if so, what are some helpful tricks to keep it at bay?

It feels like some sort of performance anxiety and it's super distracting!

 

[Imactuallyadrummer]

Hey guys! To give this thread some context here's how my morning has went:

Been practicing a solo to upload to the site and really happy with it, to the point that I've been almost nailing it every time...However, the minute I begin to start filming myself it's like everything feels slightly different to play, I'm super aware that I'm under some sort of pressure and my brain wills me to have mess ups that didn't even exist before I hit record.

Does this happen to anyone else? and if so, what are some helpful tricks to keep it at bay?

It feels like some sort of performance anxiety and it's super distracting!

Speaking with experience from my native instrument and having performance anxiety on camera and in crowds....this advice actually probably hardly helps but you gotta eventually ignore it lmao. Find a position where the camera works well, put it there, hit record...do a bunch of takes in one clip. If you mess up, just take a quick deep breath and try again but don’t play w the camera. I find if you go back and fiddle with the camera you remember it’s existence andmaybe the anxiety kicks back in. Record like 10 takes and clip the video to the best take.

 

[Chris Johnston]

Speaking with experience from my native instrument and having performance anxiety on camera and in crowds....this advice actually probably hardly helps but you gotta eventually ignore it lmao. Find a position where the camera works well, put it there, hit record...do a bunch of takes in one clip. If you mess up, just take a quick deep breath and try again but don’t play w the camera. I find if you go back and fiddle with the camera you remember it’s existence andmaybe the anxiety kicks back in. Record like 10 takes and clip the video to the best take.

That makes sense man! I'll give it a try, thanks!

 

[Christian Schulze]

I suffer from it too!
All I can say is...keep going until you nail it. By overexposure to the red light...eventually you will overcome it!

 

[Mariler]

Now I film a lot of my practice to fight against that anxiety. I used to have a great phobia to seeing myself on a video , then I decided to start posting on IG, and not caring too much if my takes contain some mistakes, after all mistakes are a part of learning.This simple stupid thing made more confident in front of the camera.

I think that being too aware of the camera recording makes you less confident and more conscious of your mistakes and weaker spots. When you are just playing and mess up, it's just a moment and goes away but on a video your mistake stays and and you can see it, everybody can, and it makes you feel anxious, especially playing something challenging that you normally would nail.

When you do a lot of filming you kind of forget about the camera and just focus on your playing. To me it's really helpful to see myself playing and checking how my hands are moving.
I prefer not to show my face though, when I'm gonna share the video. Always feels I look like an idiot making faces . Filming for the students collab showing my face was tough and took a while to get a decent take.

 

[Kim]

I have the same! When i start recording or play for my teacher I totally mess it up. Its because I feel pressure. With filming I just make more records, and after a while its going better, but not as good as whem no one is watching or filming. Good luck with it

 

[Dominik Gräber]

#WhatMarilerSaid
Also it really depends on the day. Try Not to Focus too much on what you're playing, have fun or even think about something else. That's what worked for me Just today. I plugged my guitar in and started playing. 30 Seconds later I realized I Just blasted through a solo I usually struggle with a lot.

 

[idssdi]

ROXANNE! Ooh that's not what this is about.

Seriously though, this happens Everytime for me. Especially the first take there's always a mess up/brain fart somewhere. So it's always the second take that's the first time I really count. Everytime I think 'ooh, I'm just gonna record this really quick' it's never actually real quick.

Trick to keep it at Bay is very much just do it a lot. Recording something now costs me less time than it did at the beginning of the school .

 

[Kurt Camilleri]

this happens all the time... the seize the day video took forever to take because I kept messing the past pentatonic part. What I try to do is relax and not take it way to serious and have some fun with it. From your point of view, it may look like you are messing up, but when you look back at the video footage (if you are taking a video) you will notice it's actually not that bad.

 

[Mariler]

#WhatMarilerSaid
Also it really depends on the day. Try Not to Focus too much on what you're playing, have fun or even think about something else. That's what worked for me Just today. I plugged my guitar in and started playing. 30 Seconds later I realized I Just blasted through a solo I usually struggle with a lot.

Now I have a hashtag!! Makes me feel important

 

[Cody Dusenberry]

This happens to me and it's one of the reasons I don't post on this site or IG as much as I want to. I'm trying to start overcoming it by forcing myself to post things, but it is definitely a struggle. You are not alone.

 

[Chris Johnston]

I suffer from it too!
All I can say is...keep going until you nail it. By overexposure to the red light...eventually you will overcome it!

Glad I'm not alone! Thanks man Going to start over-exposing from tomorrow (I wish that sounded right)

 

[Chris Johnston]

Now I film a lot of my practice to fight against that anxiety. I used to have a great phobia to seeing myself on a video , then I decided to start posting on IG, and not caring too much if my takes contain some mistakes, after all mistakes are a part of learning.This simple stupid thing made more confident in front of the camera.

I think that being too aware of the camera recording makes you less confident and more conscious of your mistakes and weaker spots. When you are just playing and mess up, it's just a moment and goes away but on a video your mistake stays and and you can see it, everybody can, and it makes you feel anxious, especially playing something challenging that you normally would nail.

When you do a lot of filming you kind of forget about the camera and just focus on your playing. To me it's really helpful to see myself playing and checking how my hands are moving.
I prefer not to show my face though, when I'm gonna share the video. Always feels I look like an idiot making faces . Filming for the students collab showing my face was tough and took a while to get a decent take.

That's great that you'r working on overcoming it! It sounds exactly like how I'm feeling. It's so strange because when I play in front of my student's it's fine, and even gigs. But the camera trips me up so much. I'm going to just try and record all the time. Thanks!

 

[Chris Johnston]

This happens to me and it's one of the reasons I don't post on this site or IG as much as I want to. I'm trying to start overcoming it by forcing myself to post things, but it is definitely a struggle. You are not alone.

Glad to know I'm not alone man! You'll get there with it

 

[Chris Johnston]

this happens all the time... the seize the day video took forever to take because I kept messing the past pentatonic part. What I try to do is relax and not take it way to serious and have some fun with it. From your point of view, it may look like you are messing up, but when you look back at the video footage (if you are taking a video) you will notice it's actually not that bad.

Thanks for the advice man! I definitely need to try to relax a lot more and not put the pressure on myself

 

[Chris Johnston]

ROXANNE! Ooh that's not what this is about.

Seriously though, this happens Everytime for me. Especially the first take there's always a mess up/brain fart somewhere. So it's always the second take that's the first time I really count. Everytime I think 'ooh, I'm just gonna record this really quick' it's never actually real quick.

Trick to keep it at Bay is very much just do it a lot. Recording something now costs me less time than it did at the beginning of the school .

Brain fart is the right word for it man. But I think you're right, just getting accustomed to it sounds like how I'm gonna have to beat it

 

[Chris Johnston]

#WhatMarilerSaid
Also it really depends on the day. Try Not to Focus too much on what you're playing, have fun or even think about something else. That's what worked for me Just today. I plugged my guitar in and started playing. 30 Seconds later I realized I Just blasted through a solo I usually struggle with a lot.

Thanks man! That's great that worked for you, I'm going to try this too!

 

[Ezequiel Romanko]

It happens to me too! i think it's the subconcious presure that we suffer to play it 100% right haha, the thing is to start recording and playing it until you nail it, then rip off that part and upload it

 

[Chris Johnston]

It happens to me too! i think it's the subconcious presure that we suffer to play it 100% right haha, the thing is to start recording and playing it until you nail it, then rip off that part and upload it

Yeah that's exactly it! As soon as I hear one slip my brain goes 'WRONG' and that's all I think about for the rest of the take I've been trying to repeat recording it, taking a break and doing it again and it seems to be helping

 

[Forgetabull]

To film seconds of the collab song, I have recorded 30-40 something takes.. that's the best part of an hour of recording time to just capture 19 seconds... lets ignore the processing time and review time on those 30-40 takes... ...so yes.. the red light syndrome is very real..