The British Steelies Society

Whilst reading a topic on SGF about Sneaky Pete earlier (what a great photo of his guitar), I was encouraged to see in an interview that he would sometimes have days he knew he was going to be sloppy and would 'do a lot of stumbling'. 'Once in a while it seems as if you can't hit your rear with both hands!'.

I thought it was just me .

Any one else have those days?

How do you combat them?

I've yet to hear any bootlegs of Pete having an off day by normal human standards, but I'm sure every musician feels like this sometimes. Didn't he grow up in the same town as Buddy Emmons? Something in the water.

I'm not sure I've had many gigs where I really felt great about everything I played but it's usually a mixture of good and bad, I rarely feel either totally in control or... completely the opposite. But then I'm not playing stuff right out on the creative edge like Sneaky Pete.

I've learned to enjoy myself a bit more. If I just played something terrible I try to see the funny side and move on. A couple of deep breaths, two fingers to the self-critical inner voice and on to the next tune.

Jonathan

Well said Jonathan

Most of my days are stumble days... I do get the occasional flash of dawning competence!

I saw Paul Franklin at the Newbury Steel Festival and he fluffed about three numbers. I doudbt there is a musician on this earth that doesn't have "One of those days." I only get one a week, trouble is these days it lasts a week.

Pretty sure everyone fumbles a bit. Too much time eyeing up attractive audience members can cause me to forget which key I'm supposed to be playing in . But I think what Mr Kleinow was saying in the interview is that there are certain days when pretty much everything one plays is a bit off. Not so far off since he reckons 70% will not notice, but as a player you know you should be cleaner, better. I think it's a mood, attitude type of problem. I certainly have such days from time to time, and the harder you try to rectify, the worse you get, can't get near let alone into the zone. At the other end of the spectrum I guess I also have occasional days (probably less than the stumble ones) where licks seem to appear effortlessly from the aether.

Who in their right mind doesn't have a bad hair-do day. I can think of all those professionals that "play to the public" who think that was shiiiiite. There isn't a prof. out there who hasn't had the 'odd problem', but in my book it doesn't mean you aren't good. I love it when a top pro shows he's actually human. I remember seeing Johnny Cash and June Carter at Poole in Dorset, he didn't sing one song without being flat or sharp somewhere, but the great man and woman carried off with complete aplomb, with showmanship. The 70%, no, the 90% of the audience didn't even notice or just didn't give a damn. I'm with the human race if you are perfect you ain't done nothing. If you learn from your mistakes then all power to your elbow. I still can't get it right...I don't learn, but then again I don't make mistakes...Or do I?????

WineRider

Mistakes! Stumble days!! All the time but once you have made the boo boo it's history and thankfully Joe public didn't even hear it. Soldier on boys

That is every one of us in a nut shell. We all imagine the audience is full of .steel players, guitarists or whatever and every blip will be heard.
I remember one gig I was playing guitar and was about to play "Going Home". The intro is a drawn out guitar, nice and slow and I made the biggest boob ever. My brain had gone dead and I just could not think how the tune went. Talk about a senior moment - Ended up doing a Les Dawson. All I could do was stop. The band burst out laughing and so did I so I made a big play on quickly learning the song and counting frets and joking with the audience. They were with me all the way and thought it was good fun. From that moment on it went beautiful.
We all have fumble days but once you settle down it gets better.
Now isn't that the fun of playing live????

When I have a day like that these days, I tend to not bother playing, different if you're playing live of course, then you have to bluff it

I guess that it proves that you can play perfectly technically but if the feeling isn't there it just sounds sort of lacking. I've played guitar, (6 string) since I was about 8, obsessed with it in fact. I went through a thing around about the age of 50 when I couldn't pick up a guitar, I developed a real aversion to playing guitar altogether. 10 years on and I'm starting to play 6 & 12 string again and really enjoying it.

I was still playing bass for my sons band during part of this time and took up the pedal steel, which I've been attempting to learn seriously for about the last 3 years. In a way it's been a blessing taking up the pedal steel, it's made me re-think how I approach 6 string guitar and I'm finding it exciting to play again.

So I guess I had a stumble decade on 6 string guitar.