What Is Difficult for you Guys On Stage?

[Isaac Moss]

Just a random question I thought of to see if you guys have had similar problems in the past. I’ve only been on stage for two shows, once for this thing the guitar store that I take lessons at did and three times in one day at my school’s talent show back in December.
Both times I found it really hard to play slow because I was so nervous, I played Enter Sandman and my picking hand was shaking so badly and I kept missing the strings during the EASY FREAKIN InTRO XD but for some reason I got the solo almost note for note even the fast Alternate picking runs but I just could not play slow on stage for some reason. Anyone else ever have experiences like this on stage? AAAAAAAASSS WE PERFORM…. UPON THE STAGE

 

[Ed Seith]

That’s ADRENALINE, and while it’s super awesome, it’s also why we have good drummers who can give us a count to start a song, even if the song doesn’t start with drums. A good drummer is keenly aware of tempo, and NOT overstepping it. A band may play some of their catalog *slightly* faster live by design, but they should not play so much faster that they change the feel of the song. Most of them now will have a click track in their ears to help them avoid the problem and stay on tempo.

 

[Ed Seith]

To answer the ACTUAL question, though, what I find difficult is when the stage is a sound vacuum. I played a gig one time where it was just so weird – I could barely hear the drummer standing right next to his kit. The whole stage was almost QUIET (at least that’s how I remember it) and it was just really hard playing the gig without being able to hear myself or the instrument I was meant to follow along with.
Equipment failures can take the spark out of the gig, too – make you self-conscious and feeling less confident overall.
And then there’s when the drummer goes way too fast on an already quick tune.

 

[idssdi]

I used to look like I was not having fun at all because I was concentrating so much on not messing up. A little bit of Interaction with my band mates also used to be something I struggled with. Now these things are getting better for me. They are also pretty Important when you want to give a good performance.

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

No man, it never happened to me but I can imagine the excitement of performing on stage. I have heard that for some people, that adrenaline rush brings out the best in them. For others, it does the opposite. The more your perform on stage, the better you get at controlling your excitement. One thing happens to me though. I usually get very serious/stiff sometimes while playing guitar on stage.

 

[Isaac Moss]

Yeah one of the big problems for me was I used a backing track playing through the PA system and I couldn’t hear that it started or very well at all through the song. And my guitar was really quiet too lol. I want to play Scream senior year(I’m a sophomore now) because I love the solo but I’m too afraid I won’t be able to hear the backing track start so it’ll just be this big Scream that the audience will hear and I’l just be standing there XD. That’d be a nightmare

 

[Jak Angelescu]

I’m glad to know that that has a term Ed. Sound vacuum. I remember when I was playing on stage with Holly I couldn’t hear anything she was doing at all and I was standing right next to her. I didn’t know if she was off key or anything and I actually had to watch her mouth to make sure I wasn’t rushing anything. I’ve learned well that when you are the maestro to a singer you follow the singer no matter how slow or fast they go or change the tempo. But Isaac, with you mentioning that picking thing verses the soloing thing I actually have examined myself having the same issue. Because even if you mess up the solo, usually you can recover from it and the audience is impressed no matter what. But if it’s just you picking there’s a lot of things that are focusing on you getting it exactly right because usually a lot of people know the picking part of a song, or if you mess up it’s a hell of a lot more obvious. I used to get really nervous with picking things. But I actually don’t really get too nervous anymore. I’ve really adopted the adage that something will always go wrong and you will never be perfect. So I might as well go up there and have the greatest time you can.

 

[Isaac Moss]

Yeah you’re right about trying to have a great time on stage lol, for now I’m mostly a bedroom guitarist(Actually attic haha) but if I just got thrown up on stage right now I’d probably forget how to hold the thing XD. I want to write a full song and play it this year at the Talent Show and I have one riff that is slow picking out of some 9th power chords and I like it but I’d probably totally nto be able to get it close to right on stage so I might just go with another one that is more thrashy or shreddy or something!

 

[Andrew Fernandes]

Stage presence. I am so embarrassed and insecure.

 

[Dan Shipway]

It isn’t so much to do with what I found difficult but it was a pretty funny f*ck up.
I was a doing performance for my school in November of 2017 and I couldn’t for the life of me get a decent rig. I did not have a VST or decent amp so I ran DI, I decided to play my own take on Syns legendary rock am ring solo which went really well apart from one thing.
I got up to the point where the floyd trick comes in and I hit it perfect. I kid you not before I reached for the bar, the note died.
Only one person noticed, a really good friend who has heard the solo multiple times.

 

[Firsty Lasty]

I have never experienced being unable to hear myself or others on stage, but that would throw me off so hard. That would probably just destroy my performance.
One weakness of mine is that I have no idea what to do if a member or some members of the band starts dragging the tempo down into a death spiral. I’ve had the experience of me & the drummer & the bassist all trying to keep a steady groove while all of the singers were slowing down with every single line, slower and slower and slower, and none of us knew how to save it. We didn’t save it lol.