Mistakes
 

One of the things I've learned over the many years of playing the guitar is to embrace the mistake.

It's too much of a temptation to quickly try and correct a mistake we make before figuring out what it is we've really done. Whatever we've played by accident is likely to be perfect if played in the right context. Many a time my fingers have fallen in the wrong place only to produce a chord that is interesting. No matter where our fingers fall it will be a chord. We may never know what it's called but it'll be a chord.

If you do find your fingers lying on the fretboard in some random shape, study it and try to replicate it until it becomes as natural to play as a G chord. You'll be amazed at how many fantastic new chords you'll discover and have in your arsenal. Don't worry that it has no name, though it will. Learn how it sounds and move it up and down. Each position will produce something worthwhile to remember and useful at some point down the line.

Mistakes are mistakes only if they are not intentional. Keep making them until they become intentional and remember...a person who has never made a mistake has never made anything.

I see what you’re saying and I agree that it’s smart to try and figure out what you may have accidentally played so that you know how to use it in the future.

But one mistake I’ve come to realize that I make is just letting my fingers wonder and play stuff that doesn’t sound too great, all in the name of noodling. My teacher is quick to call me out on that. Now instead I try to play more intentionally and thoughtfully and I think I’m on the path to becoming a better player because of it.

Remember you are not an AI robot and mistakes are made and you move on. My piano teacher plays beautifully and when he makes a mistake playing a song we are working on he smiles and says ooops and quickly moves on.

If you attend live shows you will hear goofs here and there if you listen closely the artist keeps moving forward. On rare occasions an artist has revisited a song. America did that once. Dewey mentioned that he would not be able to go to sleep that night knowing that he made a mistake during a song ... so they played You Can Do Magic twice that evening. We can all relate.

Jerry Jeff Walker used to say "when you screw up, don't flinch"

I often tell our audiences that live music is like a stock car race-part of the attraction is that there might be a wreck.

My guitar rejuvenating guilty pleasure is to randomly finger some strings on the guitar to make some random sound. Of course, music being what it is that creates the desire for movement or resolution. From there I screw around to create a string of sounds by using chords, double stops and single strings to create a piece of music. It always refreshes me brings back my creative juices. Think Carl Miner

I play regularly at a couple jams. They are both free for alls with some pretty hard playing. I call it competitive jamming. In that environment you learn quickly that is you even stutter step you get run over. They have taught me more than anything else I've done with guitar.

And sometimes mistakes lead to some brilliant idea or path to try whether in the world of music or business or science. It's good to keep an open mind in this world.

- Glenn

I "don't flinch" when i make a mistake and pay zero attention to them...unless it's one that sounds good...

I have a copy of the Best of CSN: Guitar Recorded Versions, aka “Steve and Dave’s Big Book of Oddball Tunings.”

In the recorded version of Helplessly Hoping, Stills flubs the Travis Picking pattern, which is accurately reflected in the transcription….

I'll bare this in mind tonight at our gig...

Most of the time your listeners don’t know you made a mistake. But when you flinch you’ve called attention to it.

One of the great things about being an obscure songwriter is that you're the only one who knows what it was supposed to be.

When I occasionally forget lyrics, I have developed a technique of just throwing in some syllables that sound vaguely like whatever words were supposed to be there. Even on well-known songs, nobody has ever called me on it. I'm sure there are a few people in the audience who do a brief double-take ("Huh? What did he just say??") but then I'm on to the next verse....

When he was young, a friend who teaches guitar took lessons an old jazz pro. One day the pro asked my friend why he was holding back. My friend said he didn't want to make mistakes.

The old jazz guy grinned, made a fat circle in the air with his hands and said, "I make my mistakes big like Mars!"

Ever since he told me the story I've wanted to start a band called Big Like Mars.