How to avoid false starts

[polydorus]

I seem to be plagued by the problem of false starts, even pieces I know really well and that I have played many times from memory.

It is a particular problem with pieces that start with a bang rather than a bit of a gentle introduction and is particularly bad if I am playing in front of someone.

My teacher says a need to practice starting but he didn’t have anything helpful on how to do it.

I wonder if anyone has any tips on how to practice starting reliably?

[N E Y]

I am not sure what the issue actually is.......given the scant information...however here are some suggestions:

Know in your mind exactly how the music sounds.

Know all the fingerings in your muscle memory

Know what the song feels like.


Know how to play the song in front of others by doing it in front of others.


What might be happening is that you don't really know how to play these songs and it shows the moment you step in front of an audience.

I could also be an egocentrically generated issue: You could be thinking more about yourself and your fears than the music and that interrupts your concentration.

These are merely informed guesses...I hope it helps!

Jamie recently addressed the stage fear mechanism in a nerwsletter.

[polydorus]

Thanks NEY.

What happens is that I make a mistake in the first few notes and stop. It is almost as though I need the first few notes to remind my fingers what they are supposed to be doing. After that, I can play the piece OK.

It happens whether I have the music in front of me or not.

I think maybe practising the start slowly and building up speed would help, but the problem is that if I repeat a piece soon after playing it through, I can usually start OK so that playing the start repeatedly doesn't seem to have much effect.

I think it may have something to do with how I prepare mentally to play. I am not very good at visualising what I need to do and tend to rely on muscle memory to carry me through.

[Guillaume]

Hello Simon,

I would say that you should practice the first notes more so that you know them better. You're supposed to know how it is going to sound before you play it. Try to hear the piece playing in your head. If you can't do that, no wonder it is giving you trouble on the guitar. Especially if the physical aspect of playing the notes is under control, then it really is a matter of clearly knowing how it sounds.

If I had a student with that problem, I would have them try to hum the first few notes without the guitar. If they can't do it, we would take it apart and memorize and sing the first bar, then add the second bar, then the third, then try to play it and see if it is any better. If you break it in small enough pieces, you'll find rather quickly what notes need to be known better.

EDIT : Ahh, I see Ney already told you to know how it is supposed to sound. I guess repetition can't hurt. lol

Guillaume

[polydorus]

Guillaume
I think this thing about really being able to hear what you are going to play before hand may be the thing. I thought that having the music in front of me would allow me to know what I am going to play, but maybe that isn't enough.

Unfortunately my ability to hear sound in my head is very weak, a bit like peering into a fog - I get the general outline and the rhythm, but I don't hear the pitch of notes clearly. I guess that is something I really need to practice and singing the notes without the guitar sounds like a good idea. But as you can probably guess, I am not good at singing and can only manage simple tunes.

[Guillaume]

Yes sing it but in a general way, you don't need a great voice to do that. The important thing is that you hear the right pitch in your head.

[Jamie]

Simon, in addition to the excellent advice given so far, do the following, it will solve your problem.

Sit down to "practice starting". Before playing a note, say out loud the note you are to play, its name, location (string and fret), and the finger of each hand used to play it. Then, play the note.

Repeat for the next note. Do each note of the troublesome opening phrase.

Do that, and tell me what happens..............

[polydorus]

Thanks Jamie I will give it a go and report back.

[polydorus]

Hi Jamie
It is too early so say if you advice is helping, but as soon as I tried it, I realised I found it really difficult. It seems that I don't really have much of clue what notes I am playing.

Playing from memory, I know the finger patterns that I need for my left hand but not what the notes are and the right hand seems to run pretty much on auto pilot. I really struggle to say what finger I am going to use in advance, it just happens - and if I think about too much, it probably doesn't.

Rather a sobering discovery.

[Jamie]

The reason I told you to say the notes before you play them is so that you would realize that YOU DO NOT KNOW THEM!

Your fingers know them, your brain does not. That is not good enough, and leads to the experience you have been having.

Is it not amazing, you have played them and stared at them hundreds of times, and yet.............you do not really "know" them. Yes, this should be a sobering lesson about what "paying attention" really means.