Dealing with a BAD day?

Nicholas Dedring · From: Beacon, New York, USA

Sat down to practice on Saturday, and it was just awful... everything sounded crummy, I kept on bonking on even really simple stuff, and hitting wonky, ill-fitting notes and chords... Sunday was fine, Friday had been fine (well, as fine as I am capable of...)

So, not that big a deal... it was just my neighbors who had to suffer through a total crap-festival; does anybody out there have just one of those days where nothing works? Stiff, brittle, playing randomly popping up? Any odd things you do to break out of the stall?? Especially problematic if you have a rehearsal/session/performance etc.

I ended up banging away for a couple of hours, trying to switch up and play different stuff... didn't really fix it, though a day later it was as if it had never happened.

Lawrence Lupkin · From: Brooklyn, New York, USA

Oh man, that was you? Yeesh.

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

You betcha, it's the bad days, those days when nothing works, when strings break, when the amp hums like heck, when the thumb and index finger won't take commands, when the bar feels like ivory soap, when the frets all moved 1/2" off, it's those days that make the good days so sweet.

Larry Robbins · From: Fort Edward, New York

Sometimes when that happens to me and I cant break out of it,I just play my Dobro,
or mandolin,six string(or dare I say b@^j* )
Cause sometimes I just have to stop and let my brain "re-set" for a while.

Then things are usually alright or as alright as there gonna be....
Edited to say: beer helps!

[This message was edited by Larry Robbins on 05 April 2004 at 01:43 PM.]

Nicholas Dedring · From: Beacon, New York, USA

Damn it Lawrence... I thought I saw someone lurking on the fire escape. How many times do I have to tell you...

Jon Light (deceased) · From: Saugerties, NY

It is so totally just what it is that I almost (only almost) just pay it no mind. I try to recognise that it is just part of the manic/depressive cycle of playing (and I remember this well from my days of full time keyboard practicing/playing) and that it shall pass. If it is bad enough to really be upsetting then I walk away and say that it's better to not screw up my head than to try to gain some practice time. Maybe I'll listen to music or maybe I'll just shut down that part of the brain altogether.
I once got a good tip from Emmett Roch to just forget about the PSG for a bit and spend time on non pedal. That's a good one except that when the brain is so cloudy that it doesn't much matter whether you are playing a Stringmaster or an ocarina, then the change from one steel to another doesnt really make much difference.
But one thing that I have more of than if I were 30 years younger is the confidence from experience that it's only my old cyclical enemy and for reasons I can't begin to understand it will be gone and I'll be playing above my abilities in a matter of weeks or days and I'll instead be lamenting the fact that I don't understand why it seems so easy and why can't I play like this all the time. (This is where I was at last night---I don't know how I actually sounded but to me everthing I touched was gold which then manifests itself in self confidence that results in strong assertive playing that lifts others around you----if I could put that in a can I'd be drinking that instead of PBRs on Sunday nights, fer sure. But I fully expect to crash soon enough. Needless to say, the stronger your fundamentals, the more you can fall back on to mark your time, musically, while you are waiting for the rest to come back around.
So to directly contradict what I just said above, no practice time is wasted if you just slow things down and work on the most mind-numbing rudimental finger stuff. Forget about pretty or inspired--just work that muscle memory.

Or whatever.

Or go fishing.

Ron Randall · From: Dallas, Texas, USA

Yep,

Thursday night sounded really good and of course that is when it is fun. Saturday sounded like hammered horse-hockey. Same place, nothing moved. Sounded like my amp was way out, could not get it dialed in. Fiddled around and just got more frustrated. Bought a pint Blue Bell home-made vanilla ice cream and went home and listened to Buck Owens and the Buckaroos.

Today, I am ready for any gig anywhere.

I am beginning to understand that word psycho-acoustic.

Ron

Roger Edgington · From: San Antonio, Texas USA

No Every day is just perfect. Yea right

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

When that happens to me, I cross my arms, lean back and play with my feet, at least it sounds better!

Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

Susan Alcorn (deceased) · From: Baltimore, MD, USA

We all have good days and bad days, but I think the longer you play and the better you get at your instrument, the bad days are less traumatic. For practicing, sometimes I have a bad day when I'm tired or stressed about other things. For me it helps to change tack and maybe just do scales over and over. I often like to do that.

In a live situation it's a little worse because so many other factors are at play including your ego. Unfortunately for me, my sense of self worth is often tied up with how well I think I can play, so a bad night can be devastating, and once it starts, it's pretty difficult to come out of it. For me a lot has to do with the sound or, if playing a solo concert, if I think that peole aren't paying attention -- that for me is the worst. I think the consolation for that is that most people -- including the other band members -- cannot tell (except perhaps from the exptression on your face) if you are having a bad night. I remember once when I did a concert (the last one with a group under my own name) and the bass player and drummer were not listening to a note I played and not following the feel of the songs I had written and arranged -- the drummer was sitting in, and the bass player was trying to show him how great he was. I was so angry that it took every ounce of self-control to finish the set. Then, after we had finished, someone came up to me and said that our set was the most beautiful she had ever heard, that it reminded her of her childhood and that she had cried. She thanked me for providing her with a way to deal with that. All I could think of was, couldn't she tell how nobody in the band was listening, how the bass player was hotdogging, the drummer was overplaying at top volume, and the steel player was totally and completely uninspired? All I could manage was a sheepish, "Thank you."

You just never know.

Bill Ford · From: Graniteville SC Aiken

Sometimes, I give up, sometimes I keep on keeping on, it was that way when I was working, good days/nites, bad days,really great days.

What always scared me, was a super practice session, the show almost always bombed. The practice sessions that where you could not get that change/run just right usually always turned out ok on stage, I think at practice, you know you can stop and do it again, on stage,it's do or die..the guitar player last Sunday in Church made a blunder, did you hear that?anly the musicians I said.

Susan,
Been there done that.As you said, smile and say, thank you.

Bill

[This message was edited by Bill Ford on 07 April 2004 at 12:17 PM.]

Walter Stettner · From: Vienna, Austria

I think all musicians get those feelings every once in a while, not only us steel players. I had band rehearsals that turned out to be just great, the next week you do the same songs, probably with too much expectation, and you're missing something, it's played the same way, same speed, no obvious mistakes, but it doesn't have the same drive and good feeling like a week before? Why? No idea, but keep in mind: There's better times a-comin'!

Kind Regards, Walter
www.austriansteelguitar.at.tf

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