As a musician, playing in front of a live audience is and can be a defining moment in your career. Whether it’s playing in front of your fans or trying to win over a crowd of people who have never heard your music, it’s a moment that can be both electrifying and nerve wrecking at the same time.
Live performance is something that all musicians want to make sure they are ready for, whatever audience comes their way. But, what happens when the gig doesn’t go the way you planned?
It’s happened to every artist at some point or another. The frustration that comes with failing, forgetting the words, or even just the simple mistakes of tuning. But why is it that these errors always take over our consciousness? Well, to put it in scientific terms it’s called the negativity bias, which means our minds tend to fixate on what we have done wrong, instead of what we are doing right.
The best thing – instead – is to focus on moving through the mistakes and not let them hold you back and restrict what you are trying to do. As human beings, we make mistakes. It’s what helps us make choices and – ironically – helps create music, through lyrics and melody.
But, for those out there who have no idea what to do after that mishap, here are a few tips to remember:
Don’t panic, keep your cool and carry on – You will always be the biggest critic of your work, but if you carry on after your mess up your more likely to get through it without any more mistakes.
Don't take it to serious, if you just laugh it off and keep going the crowd will be none the wiser – It’s more likely that the audience will react to the obvious mistakes the same way that the artist will. So if you make a big deal of the mess up, they will notice and see it as a big deal.
Remember that mistakes always seems bigger to you than anyone else – Fans will always be forgiving, little mess ups are what helps humanize even the biggest artists and – more importantly – help fans relate. Don’t let it get to you!
Have a short-term memory and move on – the quicker you move on, so will the audience.
Recovering from a mistake is a skill that will come in time. But in the long run it all comes down to playing off the mistake, you could even do some improv! Just be as jovial as you can on stage and don’t let your surroundings affect your state of mind.
