An Essential Rule for Live Playing
Friday, August 8, 2008 at 07:35AM I'm not sure where in the Bible I could back this up, but...
Here’s one of my biggest rules for live playing:
Pretend you know what you’re doing.
Smile, act like you’ve got it all under control, don’t admit anything. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve just smiled and played confidently, screwed up royally, and never got blamed. In fact, I’ve even occasionally let other people take the blame…
Candice sang with us about once a month. She went to a different church, but loved to perform with our band when she got the chance. One week we rehearsed Rebecca St. James’ ‘God’, and it went well. We were doing three services on Sunday morning at the time, and during the first two, all was well. By the third service I, along with everybody else, was feeling the usual fatigued, punchy feeling that came with nearly six hours of rehearsing/playing/worrying. (I'm in charge, therefore I worry)
Toward the end of the song there was a key change, and I went to it four bars early. My eyes literally jumped over a line. But because I was applying Ed’s Rule of Never Admitting I’m Wrong, everyone thought I was right. So for about 4 bars the band just skidded sideways, and then somehow we all found ourselves, Candice found us, and we finished the song.
Afterwards I looked for Candice, but she’d already left for the day. She didn’t have any more singing to do, so she took off. A month later she came to sing again, and backstage I said, “Hey, Candice – sorry for screwing up the Rebecca St. James song. That whole flub at the end was my fault. I skipped a line.” She socked me in the arm so hard I thought my nose was going to bleed (who knew a little thing like that could hit so hard?) and said, “That’s for letting me spend a whole month thinking it was my fault”.
It works. You just have to keep your mouth shut.
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