What to do when you screw up

Ok I’m on Mod. 6 of B2B, things are get more challenging but I’m progressing. So normally if I make a mistake I pause and curse and then restart the video, or I try to catch up with song which leads to more screw ups. I’m thinking I need to just keep playing through the mistake and try to clean it up when it repeats. What do you guys do or suggest.

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Smile, laugh and carry on with the song until the end. Then have another go.
If it’s getting too much of a struggle pass it by, move on to the next and come back to it.
I went through the cursing and spitting the dummy out of the pram thing too but that really doesn’t help and if anything builds the frustration

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pretty sure that josh himself even mentions it in the course. keep going. the idea isn’t perfection. the idea is to keep pushing forward.

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Yes. This is always true, either in practice or (especially) live. (Never make any notice of mistakes live, just keep playing - no one will notice :slight_smile:)

If you flub in the middle of a line, just keep playing, it might take a few notes to get back but it’s ok.

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It depends what it is and what kind of mistake. If it’s just a random mistake, I’ll keep playing. If it’s the same mistake I keep making, I’ll stop playing and slow down the backing track (or whatever I’m playing to) to a speed where I’m not making mistakes. Never practice your mistakes.

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Once again, agree :100: . . . especially when playing live, but also when you’re practicing. That way you get to practice your bass face as well as the song you’re learning! :wink:

When you’re playing live at a gig, you subconsciously think the whole world is wrapped up with you, and your band, and the song you’re playing, so you’re more “involved” with it, etc.

My experience is that most people are busy talking with their friends, and drinking, laughing, and joking while only half listening to the music. I’d say that only about 10% are actively listening and watching the band, @howard and @Mac

If you curse and stumble over a mistake you will draw the wrong kind of attention from the active watchers and convert some new ones from the inactive group. Either way is not good.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Cheers
Joe

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The problem a lot of people run into with stopping when they make a mistake is they end up practicing the first part of the song waaaay more than the latter part.

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I had a bass teacher, briefly, when I was a teenager. Every time I messed up, I would get frustrated and stop playing and try to talk through what I was getting wrong. I did this so much the teacher finally said…

“Stop, you’re spending more time talking about messing up than playing. If you need to address it, just say ‘Yup’ and keep playing.”

I can be really bad about over thinking and this was the exact advice I needed as a young guy. It has served me well, in all kinds of situations, for decades ever since.

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After I get to the end of the song I’ll go back and loop a section that I need to work on. It’s good experience to learn how to recover and keep going. The band doesn’t stop.

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When I’m playing and make a mistake I just make sure to repeat it a few times and call it jazz.
:smiley:

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This is so true.

Just keep playing forward. If you don’t call attention to it, no one will notice

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If I’m doing a lesson, I’ll play through it. Then I’ll slow down and focus on it a little. But it’s easy to focus on mistakes. It’s worth so much more to focus on what you did right. There are about 73 different things going on here, and i didn’t do one or two of them perfectly? That’s fine, because i did a whole bunch of stuff well.

If it’s a freeform practice, oftentimes I’ll just go with it and see where it goes. Sometimes it leads into something cool.

Plus, let’s Just be fully realistic here-i don’t think any of us bought this course because we were already accomplished bass players. It’s good to accept where you are. And your reach already extends further than you think.

Plus, did we REALLY think every sound les claypool makes is planned?

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And a good reason to keep a notebook handy. :+1:

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This is a bad habit to get into and hard to break. That was something our band directors drove into our heads even, because they understand even the best can make a mistake. You play through it and get back into the song, because you can’t rewind or start over IRL when in the music. Pause for a moment and pick back up if you need to, that’s better than letting anxiety get you to keep making mistakes.

You do not want the mistakes to be learned as muscle memory.

Then afterward I will rewind it, tighten my scrunchy/hair tie, and ready my Bass Face :tm: to hit it again :smile:

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I’m pretty sure that going full bass face rights most every mistake. :grin:

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“Look how much i meant to do this!”

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Good one, @Korrigan . . . I’ll have to remember that

:rofl:

Cheers
Joe

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This is a good idea, but it depends on the nature of the mistake. One thing is to play a wrong note (it’s a chromatic passage, don’t you see? :slight_smile: ).

Another thing, instead, is messing up the rythm / the tempo, playing too early or too late. That is my personal crux, it is really hard for me to get passable at it. And when one does those mistakes, it’s not jazzy, it’s just bad! :frowning:

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Learning involves making mistakes.

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Sleep on it and try again tomorrow. Usually this is enough in B2B, but if not spend one more day at most and move on. Don’t get frustrated and lose hope, and don’t lose sight of the goal to chase down small and temporary problems. It will all come together naturally

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