I have to play at my sister's wedding in two weeks..!

[Appfro]

the power tab is wrong. it's in the wrong key. the song is supposed to be in d# i believe. powertab has it inG

actually, this damn thing doesn't any sense to me, maybe i'm doing it wrong. it has it written in G, i can't find anywhere where it says that the guitar tuning is different, the notes are all for the key of G, but when i press play, it plays it in the key of E major. wtf?

[Willin]

oh yea I forgot about that - the key is wrong. You can manually change it somewhere. Or you can learn it in the key its notated in then tune your guitar down to proper tuning. The notes are right, for the most part.

The reason why it does that may be because the program is incapable of playing notes that low. I'm not sure..

[Appfro]

oh ok. i'm playing it a capo on 1 and playing in "d" (D#) it's not spot on, but it'll work

here's my advice about playing. try to get a spot alone and play the song as close to the time to go on as possible. here's why, when you play in front of people for the first time (a lot of people) and you're nervous, your fingers kind of bunch up and neither hand will do what you want it to do. that's why 1. i suggest a couple drinks, just to loosen you up the first time or couple times, after that, you don't get as nervous. 2. after you play here, play in front of people as much as you can, it gets easier, but gets hard again if you haven't done it in a while, know that one the hard way. 3. if you can play a little right before you go on, it's a good way to loosen up your muscles and you'll play better.

above all, if you can't do anything but open up the case, grab the guitar, and start playing, breathe! breathe deep and slow, and relax and focus on something other than the people. none of the people in underwear bullshit or anything like that, let your mind take you to another place and just play the song like you've practiced. you're not singing, you'll be fine, just breathe breathe breathe.

good luck man

[Willin]

oh ok. i'm playing it a capo on 1 and playing in "d" (D#) it's not spot on, but it'll work

here's my advice about playing. try to get a spot alone and play the song as close to the time to go on as possible. here's why, when you play in front of people for the first time (a lot of people) and you're nervous, your fingers kind of bunch up and neither hand will do what you want it to do. that's why 1. i suggest a couple drinks, just to loosen you up the first time or couple times, after that, you don't get as nervous. 2. after you play here, play in front of people as much as you can, it gets easier, but gets hard again if you haven't done it in a while, know that one the hard way. 3. if you can play a little right before you go on, it's a good way to loosen up your muscles and you'll play better.

above all, if you can't do anything but open up the case, grab the guitar, and start playing, breathe! breathe deep and slow, and relax and focus on something other than the people. none of the people in underwear bullshit or anything like that, let your mind take you to another place and just play the song like you've practiced. you're not singing, you'll be fine, just breathe breathe breathe.

good luck man

thanks for the tips - definetly helpful. Yeah, I never understood envisioning people in their underwear thing. It's never worked for me, heh...

[Kahn]

get loaded

[Willin]

get loaded

David Byrne rocks... one of my favorite bands

[Willin]

Meh, I have a rehearsal with the singer this Friday. The wedding is on Saturday. I was listening closely to the song last night and realized that the tab I have is wrong and that i've been playing it incorrectly. It's not terribly different but definetly inaccurate. The problem is that I feel like it might be too late to re-learn it because the incorrect way to play it is all devoted to muscle memory at this point. When I try to play it the right way, I find myself having a tough time.

That problem is compounded by the fact that I don't have any time to thoroughly practice until Friday (the day before the wedding). I think i'm just going to roll with what i've got and not be a perfectionist. Maybe i'll post a vid in a bit to show my progress.

Oh, I was also going to use steel finger picks to give it a brighter sound, but I don't feel comfortable enough with them so i've abandoned that plan as well.

[RunsWithBuffalo]

yeah, don't try anything new in front of people, do what you are confident with.

[sfmartins]

Yeah, as people said, being relaxed and enjoying the song as you play it is the key. Also, when I am nervous my fingers press harder and I end up in pain...

While you play, make sure you look more at people that are really hearing and enjoying: that will improve your confidence!

Good luck man

[Willin]

So... it went decently well. I played the last song of the procession when everyone was receiving communion. When I began the song the singer came in about a beat too early because he could barely hear me playing. Needless to say my eyes lit up immediately when he started singing at the wrong time. Luckily I had tunnel vision and I lost all nervousness when that happened. I had to play quicker to catch up to him but by the middle of the song we were all in cue.

It's on videotape so i'll try to get it uploaded to youtube some time this month. As was predicted, most people seemed not to notice any mistakes. A lot of people approached me and complimented our performance after. Only one or two people acknowledged hearing any mistakes when I asked them about it.

Anyway, for my first time playing in front of a big crowd, I am fairly satisfied. I'll try to find out when that tape is going to be made available from my sister.

[markTR]

Good to hear man

[sfmartins]

Good to hear man

[Willin]

my sister gets the wedding video on 7-30 so in a few weeks i'll try to post it up. If you're lucky i'll add some bonus footage of me making a fool of myself by moonwalking on the dancefloor, doing the 'sprinkler' when the bridal party was introduced, and humiliating myself during my drunken on-camera 'cheers' tirade for my sister and her husband..