Yesterday, I wrote an entry in my golf blog about staying loose, and how important it is to stay loose, both mentally and physically, to have an effective golf swing. All this came out of a drill I learned in a recent lesson that forced me to loosen up both mentally and physically to allow my swing to simply flow. The result has been much longer distance, much more consistency, and really important for this middle-age, overweight body, a lot lest strain on my back. 🙂
This morning, I thought about that article and realized that staying loos applies to playing guitar. I gig a lot – at least three times a week – and one thing I’ve learned is that when I’m tight and tense, I just don’t play very well. I don’t have much feeling, and I end up getting more stressed as the set goes on. If I’m stiff, I’m sure it shows up in my performance, and that’s not enjoyable for ANYONE.
When I detect that I’m stressed out – I usually catch it – I simply take an early break. Get a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, then mingle with my audience a bit. As I usually have friends in the audience, I’ll go to their table and chill a bit. The idea is to take my mind off the gig, collect myself, then go back at it. The net result is that I can pick up my guitar, and start being expressive once again.
At my church gig, as the band leader, it is easy to get stressed out, but I’ve learned to just quietly take band mates aside and just tell them directly something like, “Dude, that wasn’t very pretty…” and chuckle a bit. Then I’ll just suggest they try something else. That corrects the behavior, but then to get over my tightness because of the stress, I simply remember why I’m doing what I’m doing, and doing music for church isn’t about me or the group. It’s about the congregation, and helping them have a better worship experience. If I’m tight and stressed, it shows. Period. And especially in a worship setting, people pick up on that fast because they can tell when you’re forcing it.
But the net result of staying loose is that you free your mind, and it allows you to turn on the creativity and expression. You just can’t do that when you’re pissed or stressed out. I’ve seen some great performers in the past whom I could tell were stressed. They seemed to be in their own world. It’s not very enjoyable.
So stay loose, leave your stress for outside the venue, and ROCK ON!!!
Guitar Gear 
I totally agree. I have been recording some songs lately and I have to do take after take after take because I make mistakes and the music doesn’t flow smoothly. I noticed that I am holding my breath alot when recording and really concentrating which is causing alot of problems. Relaxing, breathing and just having fun seems to make the recording go much smoother.
I do that a lot. But now, I do a bunch of takes with the intent of playing around. For my lead breaks, I usually do a loop record of about 50-75 takes. A lot of that is just working out different directions I want to take with the solo. But for relaxation, I’ve found that closing my eyes and really “feeling” the music has helped me a TON.
Also, I’m assuming you’re doing home recording, here’s a very useful thing: Don’t look at the computer when you’re recording. Get your levels where you want them, then start recording. The readout can be really distracting and cause you to make more mistakes. I actually record at levels far below the peak. You can always boost volume in the mix.
♥