Confidence Booster Activated

Dog--

Dog--

The Freeman
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So first off I'll start by saying I'm not a great guitar player, I wouldn't even call myself 'good' (I'm my own toughest critic though, I'll never to as good as I'd like). I'd probably say I'm a bit above average.

Now for the reason for this thread:

So I got this one class where it's supposed to be about flash animation, photoshop, etc. But the last year teacher for it left the school and another guy started. He's a cool guy, in a band and all (bass player). So he let us bring in instruments and we are focusing on sound recording for this year (honestly the class is a joke in terms of work. He needs a quiz to record for his job so he's giving us 2 weeks to make a 4 page comic). So I normally don't play in front of people (I'm shy I guess..). But I figured "**** it" and decided to bring in one of my crappy guitars to school.

My abilities pretty much go down atleast 40% when I'm playing in front of people (hence why I don't like to). But apparently I'm actually good, even with that -40%.

I've been offered to be a lead guitar player for 2 bands within the last 2 weeks.

:|

I am amazed, I didn't think I was that good (I still don't). I have 0 band experience (I consider myself a solo player :) ), and yet I'm being recruited by 2 (metal) bands. I still think I'm too shitty to play in a band, and I'd never be able to play a gig (I have social anxiety - Basically it makes me sick before anything big I do.. Although I'm usually fine after the initial beginning of it), and one of the bands is one that used to be, but the guitar player moved, so the band split up, but now they all want to get back together with a new player (me), and the other band actually does play gigs and stuff.

Yea.. Like I said: Confidence Boosted.
 
Dog-- said:
But the last year teacher for it left the school and another guy started. He's a cool guy, in a band and all (bass player). So he let us bring in instruments and we are focusing on sound recording for this year (honestly the class is a joke in terms of work. He needs a quiz to record for his job so he's giving us 2 weeks to make a 4 page comic).
Click to expand...

incoming story about drinking date rape drink offered by cool teacher



there's quite a few performers who even though they're famous have a hard time going on stage ..relax, you'll eventually learn to live with it
 
Good for you, I think you should post some of your music so we can tell you if you are truly as horrible as you say you are.
 
Yes, riffs please or consider yourself de bagged of honour and glory.
 
Just pretend the audience are potato faces like in guitar hero and you're just doing what you do.
 
That's a lovely story, but to me it was the exact opposite.

I used to play guitar for 3-4 years and I practiced pretty intensively. I even studied music theory and got really into it. But then I started to record shit and heard what my playing actually sounded like. I can tell you, it was bad. Result: motivation destroyed, confidence very destroyed.

Basically I haven't even touched a guitar in nearly 3 years now. I play maybe once every 2 months, and only like 5 minutes at a time... and that's only when I'm waiting for a download to finish. Every time I even look at my guitar I just feel disgusted and want to take a shower to wash away the failure. Good thing I never played in front of other people though, as the embarassment would've been incomprehensible.
 
You were being too hard on yourself, I think.
 
I told you were good Dog. I even offered to produce some tracks with you, maybe you didn't realize what that meant. But anyway, a real band is the way to go. In person. Good for you.

For the jitters... I get that really bad sometimes.

I don't really get lasting jitters when:

I'm confident in what I'm about to play, I didn't put too much emphasis if the person likes it or not, because I know I like it, and most importantly, play for people that like that kind of music - they will give visual cues while you are playing that will change your mood from nervous to energized and confident.

Also, don't be embarrassed that you are nervous, because that can make it much worse for you. They expect you to be nervous so it's no big deal.
 
I hate you. You spent 12 years learning to play guitar and zip to show for it. You mess around for a while, have no confidence in yourself and voila, you're a feckin' lead guitarists!

Damn, I wish I was crap :(
 
Druckles said:
I hate you. You spent 12 years learning to play guitar and zip to show for it. You mess around for a while, have no confidence in yourself and voila, you're a feckin' lead guitarists!

Damn, I wish I was crap :(
Click to expand...

Heh.. Same here.
 
Druckles, you are great. I heard you play before.
 
VirusType2 said:
I told you were good Dog. I even offered to produce some tracks with you, maybe you didn't realize what that meant. But anyway, a real band is the way to go. In person. Good for you.

For the jitters... I get that really bad sometimes.

I don't really get lasting jitters when:

I'm confident in what I'm about to play, I didn't put too much emphasis if the person likes it or not, because I know I like it, and most importantly, play for people that like that kind of music - they will give visual cues while you are playing that will change your mood from nervous to energized and confident.

Also, don't be embarrassed that you are nervous, because that can make it much worse for you. They expect you to be nervous so it's no big deal.
Click to expand...

I'm still doing that btw, my (retarded) perfectionism coupled with my zero down-time makes for very slow music production.
 
so are you going to link us to a song?
 
Sounds to me like your school is dry of guitar players and the local bands are desperate :p

Haha, nah, that's cool. Good luck, and enjoy.
 
Darn, a metal band. It means you can shred solos correct. It means you can do the technique of double plucking/picking. I've tried mastering it for a month now, and it's damn hard! :(

How do you possibly do it
 
Seppo said:
That's a lovely story, but to me it was the exact opposite.

I used to play guitar for 3-4 years and I practiced pretty intensively. I even studied music theory and got really into it. But then I started to record shit and heard what my playing actually sounded like. I can tell you, it was bad. Result: motivation destroyed, confidence very destroyed.

Basically I haven't even touched a guitar in nearly 3 years now. I play maybe once every 2 months, and only like 5 minutes at a time... and that's only when I'm waiting for a download to finish. Every time I even look at my guitar I just feel disgusted and want to take a shower to wash away the failure. Good thing I never played in front of other people though, as the embarassment would've been incomprehensible.
Click to expand...
Wow, you were way too hard on yourself.

I had a similar thing, been playing the drums for some years now. Just solo like Dog except for the occasional jam with friends, because of an anxiety thing and other factors (yes, laziness is one of them). I got regular compliments from people, some of them musicians, and basically everyone I knew who played guitar wanted to start a band with me (yes, they were also lazy). Then one said friend sold me his mic, so I figured I'd start recording some stuff to play back to myself. Was pretty confident beforehand, but uhh...

Yeesh. D:

Lemme just say, it's pretty tough finding out after that long that you actually don't rock as hard as you thought and, in my case, actually have pretty horrible timing - despite being complimented to the contrary more than once... go figure. I guess that's how not-so-great singers get onto American Idol. :(

Anyway, point being, I didn't just give up. Sure I was pretty demoralised for a while, and still kind of am, but I'm working on it. That and I'm not recording myself anymore. :P

Basically you just have to ask yourself if you really want to play and get better at it. Learning an instrument is a lot like learning anything else - it's just a series of **** ups until somewhere down the track you become slightly competent. All you can do is lift your head up and aim for the stars... or something less gay. You might be down on it now, but if you enjoyed playing beforehand then I'd say it's worth giving it another shot.
 
Seppo said:
That's a lovely story, but to me it was the exact opposite.

I used to play guitar for 3-4 years and I practiced pretty intensively. I even studied music theory and got really into it. But then I started to record shit and heard what my playing actually sounded like. I can tell you, it was bad. Result: motivation destroyed, confidence very destroyed.

Basically I haven't even touched a guitar in nearly 3 years now. I play maybe once every 2 months, and only like 5 minutes at a time... and that's only when I'm waiting for a download to finish. Every time I even look at my guitar I just feel disgusted and want to take a shower to wash away the failure. Good thing I never played in front of other people though, as the embarassment would've been incomprehensible.
Click to expand...
So instead of making those recordings sound pristine, you go and just quit playing guitar? You hit a higher point then over half the guitarists out there; you learned that you actually sound bad, now all you have to do is make yourself sound good.

Anyways, did you even record with good gear, good technique, and mix it well with other tracks? You have to understand that even if your the greatest player in the world, and if you use shitty recording gear, you really have to master your tone to sound good, that and many people have many takes on records.

I use to get told I couldn't play drums for a long time, I've had sticks thrown at me by other drummers because they thought I was so bad, come ahead 3 years, with some dedication and I'm rocking the drums harder then those guys ever could.
 
^ Apparently I don't have the codec to play that...

Hmm. *considers recording something*
 
I recorded with acid (Two guitar samples) lo and tried converting it with dbpoweramp but the quitlity was shit when it was compressed.

:smoking:
 
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