Practise like you're Gigging

Our lead guitarist had a bit of a nightmare at a large open-air party we just played at. A lot of bum notes -which normally really isn't him. He has more than one guitar and when we spoke afterwards he admitted the one he was using on stage was one he hadn't touched for several months before that gig itself. This was something he wouldn't normally do.

On the night, the neck had taken him by surprise with it's thinner profile and blocks instead of dots. New numbers he'd learn on another guitar felt alien to him and left him a bit disorientated.

Luckily the crowd reaction hadn't suffered but the whole episode reminded me of something I watched on a Bass playing DVD by Billy Sheehan (see pic above).

In the DVD Billy said that his advice about guitar straps got more responses from his viewers than anything else he'd ever recommended. He'd simply told his students that they should use the same strap, adjusted to the same length when they practised as they did when they were gigging. His point was that if you practised sitting down and then gigged standing up, what you've learned rehearsing is not gonna feel as familiar to you onstage.

I think there's a lot of truth in this. When you get onto the stage (or just the corner of the bar), you don't want anything to undermine your own confidence. The idea is to be free of worrying about your playing so you can concentrate on "giving" a show to the crowd. We can't do this if we're stressed out about playing the right notes.

I'm a very ordinary and basic player so I try to make things as easy as I can for myself onstage. I rehearse up to any gig with the guitar I'll be using on the night. When I run through the material alone at home (with a phrase trainer) I stand up as I do on stage and concentrate on NOT looking at the fretboard. That way I'll have the best chance of focusing on the audience on the night.

One more thing about practising like you're gigging. If you feel you're act is too static onstage it'll be easier and more natural to address this on the night if you move about like you're enjoying it when you practise too...