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This blog is primarily aimed at people who have experience in performing live/recording.
Recently, I've wanted to try to record a few songs, but the main problem is I can never get the songs to be immaculate. Every single time I try, I always end up screwing something up, in one part or another. I've been told to just practice the song, which I have done. I am able to play it perfectly occasionally after a lot of practice, but it is hardly consistent. Not to mention I seem to do worse when I'm under pressure.
Basically, anyone have any tips as to getting a song to the next level, being record/performance worthy?
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Record tracks separately and redo individual tracks/pats of tracks with imperfections.
imo, you shouldn't worry about performing perfectly. The beauty of human performances is often the mistakes, which should be honored. Going to see bands/artists who sound exactly the same live as on the record is a pretty boring experience.
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On November 23 2009 06:35 DoctorHelvetica wrote: Record tracks separately and redo individual tracks/pats of tracks with imperfections.
imo, you shouldn't worry about performing perfectly. The beauty of human performances is often the mistakes, which should be honored. Going to see bands/artists who sound exactly the same live as on the record is a pretty boring experience. This is what gives me success. I get nervous and impatient when I keep ruining takes, but when I started going tracks separately, it let me relax a lot.
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You are not only an entertainer but the entertainment. Get lost in the crowd. Let it get to your head. Pretend you're the god of music among mere mortals. There are no mistakes, everything is intentional. Narcissism is encouraged.
... heard that helps better than picturing your audience in their underwear.
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That only works for audio and not video recordings. =)
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the longer the song is the more likely you're going to mess up (even if it is very tiny like your finger slipping and hitting a half step off)
You could try breaking it up and doing multiple takes and then editing it to make it sound perfect.
There really is no way around it. Usually I'll just try to do a runthrough and then if there's a spot I mess up consistently I'll just practice it over and over again. Run through it again, if there's a spot I mess up, I'll practice it over and over again. Repeat the cycle.
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What kind of music are you playing, does it even matter if your playing isnt technically perfect? Especially in a live situation its much important to be a good performer than a wimp playing nice&clean in the back.
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Most of it is instrumental guitar.
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I'll give this a 5 if you post the song you're trying to record
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Joe Satriani makes mistakes every time he tries to play Crushing Day, and improvises on every other song.
Mistakes = improv amirite
Though practice is always good. Just keep practicing parts that give you trouble.
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On November 23 2009 09:47 FragKrag wrote: Joe Satriani makes mistakes every time he tries to play Crushing Day, and improvises on every other song.
Mistakes = improv amirite
Though practice is always good. Just keep practicing parts that give you trouble. Crushing Day is ridiculous though, he can't play it standing up, haha. I would question his humanity if he didn't screw up.
On November 23 2009 09:32 251 wrote: I'll give this a 5 if you post the song you're trying to record Do you mean the song by the guy who wrote it, or me playing it? I can't put it up right now, I don't have a decent mic, and piezo pickups don't pick up anything but strings. Percussion sounds like a mild thump. But when I get the stuff set up, I'll be sure to post it.
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practice efficiently - break it down and work on different parts until you have the short parts as perfect as possible, then put them together (practice transitions, etc.) this should very much shorten the time it takes. once you start recording you should watch out for any sort of performing anxiety that might make you fuck up. I doubt this is something that can be avoided as everyone makes mistakes, but you CAN be more efficient.
On November 23 2009 06:35 DoctorHelvetica wrote: imo, you shouldn't worry about performing perfectly. The beauty of human performances is often the mistakes, which should be honored. Going to see bands/artists who sound exactly the same live as on the record is a pretty boring experience. yeah, but going to see bands/artists that are way more terrible onstage than on record is a pretty disappointing experience as well
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