Everyone practices a great deal to avoid mistakes but we are all human and sometimes mistakes just happen. I don’t care who you are or how accomplished a musician you are, there are a myriad of reasons that could create a mistake. There could be a problem with the instrument, there could be a distraction in the audience, a finger could slip, your memory could fail for a moment; the list goes on and on of potential problems that could lead to a mistake.
The best thing you can do as a musician is to play with continuity. Let’s just say there is a really big train with a lot of cars. If the train derails, there would be utter chaos – the cars would go everywhere and you would have a huge mess. But if instead of the train derailing, it simply slipped back onto the track and kept its course, while the event might be scary, it would not lead to disaster; instead the train would simply chug along almost as if nothing ever happened. This is how you need to think about a musical performance. It must keep moving along!
The worst thing you can do as a performer is to stop and dwell on a mistake. It’s absolutely crucial that in the event of a mistake you continue to maintain the proper time of the piece and make sure that you don’t stop playing. If you make a mistake that is jarring for the audience, everyone will notice no matter what level of musical sophistication they have. Just like if you are watching a movie and the frame skips even a few seconds forward or back, it is much more jarring than if there is a moment of blurriness or garbled audio.
The most important thing is to keep the music moving. This is essential when you are playing with other musicians because you will not be playing together if you lose or gain time! Even if you miss a note or crack a note you must keep moving; don’t let a mistake slow you down or stop you mentally. If you pull this off correctly nobody in the audience will be offended by the mistake. You just have to keep the flow and the time of the music intact and everyone will enjoy the performance even if it’s not perfect.
Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729
8 thoughts on “How to Hide Mistakes in Your Musical Performance”
Since becoming a composer (at age 50) I find performing so much more enjoyable — I especially love to play my piano duets so I can share the musical joy with a partner. What is amazing to me since I began composing is, how much attitude affects performance — I tell performers of my music that having a happy or exciting experience is more important than playing all my notes — I say, “In my music, there are no wrong notes — only NEW NOTES! I sometimes prefer the new notes! And I give my performers permission to bring their own musical voice to my silent notes — I wonder what would happen if performers could feel they had such permission with all compositions?
I quibble with the “there are no mistakes in jazz” statement. Mistakes are sometimes opportunities, sometimes doorways to creativity, but only for the most sophisticated artist. Mistakes are less obvious in jazz, but a note that was other than the one intended (either in timing or pitch) is still a mistake. A skilled improviser can turn the lemon into lemonade, and witnessing that can be thrilling. But listening to a beginning jazz student improvising leaves no doubt that there are indeed mistakes in jazz. It’s a creative discipline, not a free for all.
Duke Ellington pointed out the essential truth:
“It don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing”.
More than a platitude or mere slang aphorism. He meant that the essential communication of music breaks down if you lose the beat. All the right notes with the wrong timing is gobbledygook to the listener. It not only loses it’s drive and life, it loses intelligibility. Even wrong notes with the right timing still communicates something intelligible. Timing and rhythmic control is more important in music than the content of the notes.
There are no mistakes in jazz… Turn your mistake into a new version, or variation on a theme 🙂 Learn how to improvise.
The ability to cover a mistake is a primary skill for any professional. I am glad you addressed it. I tell my students it is water under the bridge, and that the average listener has about a 40 second memory for such mistakes. I like your train analogy.
“… miss a note or crack a note …” — I’m not familiar with the term “crack a note” — but guessing that it means to hit both the intended key and its neighbor. Is that right?
As for maintaining the time, easier said than done, but I’ll work on it. Playing along with a music minus one recording might help.
As a clarinetist, I can relate to “craacking a note”. Any musician performing any wind instrument can recall hiding such a mistake. Exception…the bag pipes (just kidding). Noteworthy is the clarinet opening statement to Rhapsody In Blue…that terrifying glisando.
Good points! I will share these thoughts with my students, for sure! Thanks.