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Can't play with recording

Iris

Hot Topic Tourer
  • Oct 14, 2020
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    Everett, Washington
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    I'm so frustrated. I've gotten the second part of Going to California up to the speed of the recording. Checked it with a metronome. But when I try to play along with the recording it's like my fingers just stop working. Is it just a mental block? How do I get past it? I can play the intro with the recording just fine. Then again, it's a simpler fretting pattern. Just one fret that doesn't move.
     

    Ed Seith

    Supreme Galactic Overlord
    Staff member
    Legend+
  • Nov 11, 2019
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    Marana, AZ USA
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    It is very likely in your head. One of the ways you can trick your head is to learn to play it 5-10 BPM faster than the recording by metronome. Then when you play along to the recording, it actually sounds a little slow and you don't suffer from as much anxiety about it.

    Harder to do when you get to really advanced lead parts.
     
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    Iris

    Hot Topic Tourer
  • Oct 14, 2020
    288
    939
    40
    Everett, Washington
    1
    It is very likely in your head. One of the ways you can trick your head is to learn to play it 5-10 BPM faster than the recording by metronome. Then when you play along to the recording, it actually sounds a little slow and you don't suffer from as much anxiety about it.

    Harder to do when you get to really advanced lead parts.
    I just realized that I think that's what I did for the intro without realizing it. Once I got the pattern down I just tried to play it as fast as I could. Once I played with the metronome I realized I was going much faster than the recording. Maybe that's why it came easier. Thanks for the tip.
     

    CallumP

    Campfire Attention Holder
  • Nov 24, 2019
    18
    94
    Nottingham
    www.youtube.com
    2
    Something that has helped me is trying to mentally shift from playing along to the recording, to playing it anyway with the recording also on. You focus less on the recording and more on the playing and then it can sort of fall into place :) Hopefully that makes sense i'm not entirely sure how to word it but that's a little mental shift that has helped me before :)
     

    Calvin Phillips

    Music Theory Bragger
    Nov 11, 2019
    2,588
    1,988
    I'm so frustrated. I've gotten the second part of Going to California up to the speed of the recording. Checked it with a metronome. But when I try to play along with the recording it's like my fingers just stop working. Is it just a mental block? How do I get past it? I can play the intro with the recording just fine. Then again, it's a simpler fretting pattern. Just one fret that doesn't move.
    Play the whole song. I find people who do just solos always mess up over and over. But when you play the song from start to finish you build momentum and kill the solo.
     
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    Kate Swan

    Music Theory Bragger
    Nov 16, 2019
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    Prague, Czech Republic
    linktr.ee
    14
    I have this problems pretty often... What I do is that I record a lot of things even when Im only practising at home to my DAW (Ableton, Bitwig, Reaper - the last one is available for download for free, Ableton is free for 3 month like a trial, but you can find more daws) - you can eliminate this unbelievable kind of panic at least a little and your brain will some come to terms with the fact that you're recorded and you won't even think about it after some time, recording will become your every day reality and you won't be afraid to go to a professional recording studio so much or whatever - what is ideal to practice is to play with: 1. metronome, 2. drum track, 3. backing track without voice, 4. full backing track - but I know that it is hard to have it so... Back to the point! it is only in the head and very often it is only because of a low self confidence, hidden feeling that you didnt practice enough somewhere deep inside your brain or so and thats why the block occurs in the head... Ive learnt such a fine thing during singing that helps me also during playing the guitar - always find everything about the song you're learning, understand the lyrics, understand what is the song about, why it was written and then fully feel the emotions, feel that you are the person telling the story behind the song and youre telling it with the guitar... your brain will be relaxed and concentrated on something else, you will start to feel the song as one whole piece, each note will fit to each other and the block will be away... If you have problem with concentrating to wake up the emotions, close your eyes and just listen :)) Mainly stop being afraid of anything... Fear is the worst enemy for each musician ;) ... Hope my speech helped you at least a little :))
     
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