The Jam Room Blog Thread.

[RAGER]

they do have expression pedals.  I just got one with my Moog Ringmod.

[jibberish]

they do have expression pedals.  I just got one with my Moog Ringmod.

I have been kicking this problem around for a while. my feet are needed for sustain pedals and possibly a MIDI controller when I figure out how to down and dirty mod a cheap midi kybd for footpedal action.

the piece of unique gear I am working on is a multiple sustain pedal setup, but they can be latched, then all released with one other pedal. thinking realtime performance issues here. I don't have enough feet and hands to git er done..im thinking beyond that...

[liquidsmoke]

Rooms can be tricky. Dialed in my more mids halfway through out set tonight so my guitar would cut better.

[liquidsmoke]

Anyone have any tricks to reduce nervousness before and during a set? We went on last tonight and I was so nervous that I couldn't really enjoy myself much during the other bands. I think it's related to my struggles with singing and playing guitar at the same time. Only doing one would be a lot easier and much more enjoyable. We've altered our set so that we play an easy song first and that helps build confidence but the harder ones sometimes send me into loop of being extra nervous which makes me fuck up more and fucking up makes me more nervous which makes me fuck up more. And by fucking up I mean forgetting lyrics and sloppy fretting and picking. Playing live is supposed to be fun. It is minus the panicking and sometimes extreme anxiety. Beer helps but too much beer and I fuck up more which... well you know. No beer would be unthinkable.

[Chovie D]

nervous?

confidence cures it eventually.
also....Ive found that 2 beers before you play will take the edge off. 3 is one too many.

[Cursed71]

I hear ya on the singing and playing at the same time.   Adderall?

[jibberish]

Anyone have any tricks to reduce nervousness before and during a set?

ok, plan a sucks so we won't even discuss it. I know it works because I was a plan a case. ok..moving right along

plan b.

know your shit so cold you can whip it out anywhere anytime and be proud of it and not be nervous. heh.

I practice the hell out of singing and playing. so you practice your deal over and over until the streams of the two separate parts merge and you can see both with your mind's eye no problem.  once you have it cold there is nothing to be nervous about.

so bottom line: my useless opinion is just practice it until it is so easy it is boring.

[RAGER]

Yep.  Practice and repetition are the only way.  maybe write some simpler stuff until you get the hang of playing live.

[liquidsmoke]

I know you guys are right, practicing more and knowing the material so well that you can do it drunk, super tired, sick, whatever and not have to worry about forgetting anything or hitting wrong frets. Holy fuck though, practicing that much is so boring and partly kills the songs for me. My memory is pretty terrible too so if I haven't practiced in few weeks things start to fade. It is what it is though, I either do what I have to do or I fuck up and am nervous etc. It doesn't help that I'm mediocre at best on guitar and vocals. I'm not sure if I have it in me to continue doing double duty. The idea of just playing guitar is very appealing, that would be serious fun. Finding the right singer though? Potentially impossible. I really enjoy doing both on the easy songs but still fear forgetting lyrics. I was in a play in 6th grade and had all of my lines nailed perfectly, no idea how I remembered all that stuff.

I have some thinking to do.

[showdown]

Anyone have any tricks to reduce nervousness before and during a set?

Beta blockers. And practice.

[jibberish]

oh ya, one last thing...just sing more too. more singing gets you more used to singing and you can hold more songs and lyrics in your head because you are more used to it. 8D

[jibberish]

different topic.  it is turning out that grabbing those fender greta 2w combo amps last year was a stellar move.

they sound nice, they are very quiet for a tube amp, and the line in, line out and speaker out all make this amp super useful. I never really liked my old kustom 30w12" combo UNTIL I ran the greta line out into it.  WAAAAAHHH what a beast.  the line out feeds a mixer board just fine too. actually it is pretty hot line level.

speaker out to run the 4x12 is sweet. so mean and soooo low volume it almost messes you up.

if GC throws those again this winter for $100 each, I highly recommend getting one.

[everdrone]

For getting rid of nervousness I recommend stopping all stimulants including the beer.  You might loose some control of your abilities after beer and that makes you more nervous.

if you drink coffee, stop that too, and cigarrettes; they are known to cause panic/nervousness.  Do you have anxiety disorder that happens for other parts of your life?  if so you may want to look into natural herbs that might help.

also try to relax and visualize what you sing/play before you do it.  practice makes perfect!

[JemDooM]

Smokey I don't blame you for being anxious, vocals and guitar is really hard and few people can do it. Don't think of yourself as being mediocre as that definetly will make you nervous, be proud of the fact that you can write music, that you can do vocals and play guitar at the same time, and that you have the balls to get onstage and do that in the first place, like I said, most people can't. I could very easily get anxious if I let myself but when I feel it coming on I think the following things...

Fuck it
Learn to let go
It doesn't matter as much to other people as it does to you
This is a young band, mistakes/sloppiness can be forgiven
People won't notice every little mistake like you will
Mistakes/accidents can sometimes be cool and add to the excitement
It's not nerves its excitement
Would you rather be sat at home doing nothing?
Even if everyone hates it, think of the one person in the room who loves it
I might be rubbish now but one day I'll be killing it, then people will forgive me
No seriously, fuck it!!



One thing iv found, and it still surprises me every time without fail is the positive feedback when I come offstage, that tells me that all this thinking I'm mediocre/sloppy etc, maybe I'm wrong, it's just anxiety making you think the worst of yourself, either way, if you want to do it just do it and you might aswell not give yourself a hard time over it because like you said it's supposed to be fun...

[Danny G]

Also, think of what would be produced if you handed your guitar to someone who's never played and sang before. You're up there doing it and that alone is a huge accomplishment.

That, and think like a plumber. Do plumbers get nervous when they fix a toilet? No, it's what they do.

Find your inner plumber, and go fix that toilet \m/,


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[VOLVO)))]

Plumber analogies are shitty.

[black aspirin]

Plumber analogies are shitty.

Wow, that joke went right down the drain.

[RacerX]

To be fair, there are a lot of crappy guitarists out there.

[RAGER]

Urinal the threads lately aren't you?

[Jake]

Stop it.





Just stop.





















Walk away from the keyboard.

[VOLVO)))]

Party pooper.

[RacerX]

Party pooper.

  .
  .
  .

[Jake]

Okay. That one was pretty clever.

[liquidsmoke]

oh ya, one last thing...just sing more too. more singing gets you more used to singing and you can hold more songs and lyrics in your head because you are more used to it. 8D

I agree. I should sing and play guitar way more than I do, fucking around, serious practice, learning songs from CDs, etc.

For getting rid of nervousness I recommend stopping all stimulants including the beer.  You might loose some control of your abilities after beer and that makes you more nervous.

if you drink coffee, stop that too, and cigarrettes; they are known to cause panic/nervousness.  Do you have anxiety disorder that happens for other parts of your life?  if so you may want to look into natural herbs that might help.

also try to relax and visualize what you sing/play before you do it.  practice makes perfect!

Good points. I've had anxiety issues my whole life. It's relatively under control now. What herbs can you recommend that wouldn't negatively affect my memory like alcohol does? I did the therapy/meds combo in my 20s and it helped tremendously.

Smokey I don't blame you for being anxious, vocals and guitar is really hard and few people can do it. Don't think of yourself as being mediocre as that definetly will make you nervous, be proud of the fact that you can write music, that you can do vocals and play guitar at the same time, and that you have the balls to get onstage and do that in the first place, like I said, most people can't. I could very easily get anxious if I let myself but when I feel it coming on I think the following things...

Fuck it
Learn to let go
It doesn't matter as much to other people as it does to you
This is a young band, mistakes/sloppiness can be forgiven
People won't notice every little mistake like you will
Mistakes/accidents can sometimes be cool and add to the excitement
It's not nerves its excitement
Would you rather be sat at home doing nothing?
Even if everyone hates it, think of the one person in the room who loves it
I might be rubbish now but one day I'll be killing it, then people will forgive me
No seriously, fuck it!!



One thing iv found, and it still surprises me every time without fail is the positive feedback when I come offstage, that tells me that all this thinking I'm mediocre/sloppy etc, maybe I'm wrong, it's just anxiety making you think the worst of yourself, either way, if you want to do it just do it and you might aswell not give yourself a hard time over it because like you said it's supposed to be fun...

Also, think of what would be produced if you handed your guitar to someone who's never played and sang before. You're up there doing it and that alone is a huge accomplishment.

That, and think like a plumber. Do plumbers get nervous when they fix a toilet? No, it's what they do.

Find your inner plumber, and go fix that toilet \m/,

I like this.

To be fair, there are a lot of crappy guitarists out there.

Relative to probably 95% of guitarists in bands that actually record albums or play out on a semi-regular basis I'm crappy however I don't think I usually sound crappy playing my own stuff and I do think I'm a good riff writer at least. To conceal my mediocrity I play it safe with leads and the chords I play are all power chords. To be fair I don't have much desire to play other types of chords with my current band. If I was doing more '60/70s sounding stuff the lack of actual chords would be very apparent.


I'll spare everyone my physical excuses. Actually I'm pretty sure I've mentioned them in past threads.

[Danny G]

Technique and masturbatory noodling is always trumped by simple, catchy melodies that get stuck in your head.

Keep it simple. Simple is always better.


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