First real mandolin performance Sunday.

[levin4now]

On Sunday, I played "Faith of our Fathers" on mandolin in church for an offertory. A friend of mine accompanied me with guitar. I played the version in STeve Kaufman's "Flatpickin teh Gospels". It went alright, but I flubbed enough of it to feel bad. My fingers weren't finding the doublestops cleanly, which got me a little flustered adn out of time. Got a lot of compliments - which wasn't the purpose - but still nice to get.

I even got a "Is that YOUR ukelele?" I told him it was a type of guitar invented by a guy with very short arms.

[mrbook]

The first time is never as good as you hope it will be, but you probably noticed more mistakes than the listeners. The important thing to remember is that performance is over, and it's on to the next one. Good luck.

[250sc]

Move on the the next one. It will be better.

[John Flynn]

I think your experience and your perception is very common for performers. It seems especially pronounced in church music, where you are in front of your congregation and you are trying to support a higher purpose. But take heart, for the following reasons:
1) You are not alone. Every other performer has experienced the same thing. Most will actually admit it.
2) You probably did better than you thought you did. Good musicians are thier own worst critics.
3) It will get better the more you do it.
4) There are things you can do to improve the situation. a) Play for audiences as often as you can. Play for a tape recorder and be your own audience as often as you can. b) "Overpractice," meaning practice until you can do a tune with distractions, such as walking around the house, checking your email and voice mail, watching the news or whatever. c) Use a metronome and practice really slow, until the tune stops sounding like the tune and you only have the notes and the beats. Then practice really fast, faster than you will ever play in performance. You will eventually get the point that you wouldn't miss a note if the "church caught on fire."

[fatt-dad]

If it is like my church, there may be a recording for the shut-ins. Whether your ego can handle it or not - you can always listen to the tape and hear how it really sounded.

I never played my mandolin in front of the church, but I did sing a solo one Sunday. I thought my voice was wavering, I cracked on the high notes - you know all the stuff I feared came through in my mind. Well, much to my joy, the tape sounded MUCH better then my memory.

You may really be pleased and encouraged by what the tape remembered. Then again, you may learn what part to practice on - ha.

fatt-dad

[levin4now]

Thanks for the kind words. I couldn't believe some of the kind words I received Sunday. I was literally thinking "They are making this up! It wasn't good at all!". Maybe I am my worst critic.

We do tape the services, although only mic'd stuff is picked up, such as the pastor, and maybe the piano. I DID mic the mando/guitar on Sunday night so I guess I"ll have to give it a listen.

Thinking "NEar the cross" is next. Maybe time for a guy like me to start practicing Christmas stuff.

[mrbook]

When people compliment me when I don't play as well as I wanted to, I say "Thanks," and realize I will live to play another day. The trouble is that some day you will have a hot night (when you know you are playing great) and it will sound about the same to most people. You still keep playing, though.

[s1m0n]

Good musicians are their own worst critics.

Unfortunately, the reverse is also true.

[ira]

just remember that you noticed far more than most folks in the audience if there were any flubs or blubs in your playing. you probably sounded far better than you think. i often think i was terrible only to hear a tape that was pretty darn good.
a lesson i learned from others on the cafe when i posted similarly last year about my first performance was, it isn';t the mistake its what you do after. keep playing and move on and you will be fine.

just keep going out there and doing your thing each time will be easier.
congrats on your bravery to play in public!

[jim simpson]

Who would think playing in church could be such a scary experience. I have performed in very large, high profile gigs where I felt really comfortable playing, yet when it came to my first time playing at a service, I was a little petrified. Maybe it was the fact that you could hear a pin drop, it was so quiet. I guess it is propably one of the most focused audiences you will get to play for (or just seems that way). My wife was listening to our trio warm up before one service where we were trying "Morning Has Broken" and I wasn't quite getting it. The guitarist kept encouraging me that I would be fine. Fortunately I took my wife's advice and didn't do that tune. Eveything else we selected went great but I'm pretty sure I would have flubbed "Morning..." since I had not learned it well enough yet.
My group played at festival on 9/11 and the M.C. asked if we could do "God Bless America" instrumentaly after the moment of silence. I had fooled with the tune before and found that I could get through it fine. Our guitarist and bass player both got it right away and we pulled it off. If it had been in church, I might have been reluctant.