I was planning to do my first video/recording today as a part of my beginner grade 1 consolidation, but it went a lot less well than expected.
I spent quite a bit of time working on Mad World and got it to a level where I can play it pretty comfortably.
Whenever I start recording however, I keep messing up pretty badly. I am talking about timing being way off, fingers on wrong strings, … . Mistakes I normally don’t make, but every single take I try to do while recording is a disaster within the first few bars.
As an experiment I tried recording, stopped recording after a failed take, and try again after the non recorded attempt. The results? The playthroughs where I was recording were a disaster while that one attempt I did when not recording was my best playthrough of the song yet. This is beyond frustrating to say the least.
I had one take that went pretty okay until about halfway through, but once that realization hit me my pick just dropped out of my hand out of nowhere, I still don’t know what happened.
I always had extreme stage fright as a child so in hindsight this isn’t unexpected, but I truly want to get over this.
Does anyone have tips to work on this issue so I can at least post videos on here?
Thanks in advance!
Edit: you can find one of my failed attempts in my learning log. I’m mainly posting it to get over my stage fright (can only get better if I post my bad take as well, right?)
It is a normal to feel this way this may help. Even something that seen as simple as a recording can give you stage anxiety the red light fever starts a the 14 minute mark if you want to jump ahead to recording anxiety
I’ve posted a ton of videos here and still get this. Even in my last video my leg was shaking cause I knew the take was going pretty well and didn’t want to screw it up lol. I think the only solution is to post. The more you do it the more comfortable you’ll be. I still struggle with it but compared to what I felt in my first video it’s actually not so bad.
The issue is that I can’t even finish a recording that isnt embarrassingly bad. The best I’ve got so far is the one where I lost my pick halfway through so I may upload that one.
Is this topic the correct place to upload it or should I give it its own post? It isn’t my “real” upload since I want to upload a better one, but it’s just to get over the fear of posting/uploading things so giving it an own post feels like spam more than anything else.
Not embarrassing at all! I had the same exact problem. Now I’ve posted like 20 videos? Maybe more I haven’t counted. The best way to conquer stage fright is to confront it. Also don’t worry about it being perfect, it’s not going to be as good as it is without the cameras/mics on. It still isn’t for me, but it’ll get better little by little.
I have always had anxiety with public speaking. Though recording was not quite as bad, it is still pretty tough for me. Take a look at my first AVOP that I only recently posted and you can see I am very stiff. Last Kiss by Pearl Jam, Grade 1 AVOYP . I expect this nervousness will subside (or at least become more controllable) as I become more confident in my playing.
Looks like you and I are at close to the same place in our guitar journey. This is a great community and I hope we can watch each other grow as we progress through the courses.
I have trouble keeping my pick in place as well. Mine tend to rotate under my thumb. I’ve found these work really well as they have little bumps to help grip them. I’m still using the supper light .38 ones for strumming.
Hi there, just watched your video on your LL and I would say you are doing very good! As Rick said solid strumming and good technique overall, you clearly feel the music which is great. As to your question:
It does get better with time. I had the same thing, now I think it’s a lot better to what it used to be. There is still some stress but I think definitely a minor one. Obvious advice is to record often and try until you make it, the more you do this the better you will become with Red Light Syndrome and easier it will become to make next recordings.
I am not sure how do you record but in case you stop and hit record every time you fail I would say stop that, just record for longer period of time and whenever you do a mistake pause for 2 seconds and start all over again. Clicking stop record puts you out of your groove and you are loosing your focus, phones and laptops have such a big memory nowadays you can easy push it to 40 mins+ recording If you want.
It’s also a mindset thing - think of this that you are just recording yourself, this is like practice, no one looks at you live, you don’t have to publish it unless you feel it will do. Don’t stress about it too much as it is really not worth it
I hope this helps a bit at least! For a beginner you definitely don’t have anything to worry about
That was actually the exact pick you can see flying out of my hand in my video
They’re really nice indeed! During the recorded attempt it went from being solidly in my hand to being catapulted away out of nowhere. I think the realization that “this was the good take” made me loose focus and loosen my grip for a split second, which ended up ruining the attempt.
If it’s that much of a problem for you then don’t record. Just be happy that you can play the song. I’ve not recorded anything yet, not even for my own use, and I’m OK with that.
Life can be a struggle so no point making it worse by doing something that is a problem for you.
Well you should Stuart. It will show you your strengths and weaknesses. You can learn a lot from seeing yourself play. It will make you a better player. You don’t need to show it to anyone.
Don’t worry, it’s totally normal! Good news is, the more you record… the better you’ll become at it.
Here is a thing you can try - if it’s possible for you on a practical level (enough HD space, tape time etc…)… try to reverse the thinking to this; By default you’ll record when you play something. The intention, in your mind, is NOT to post it anywhere… you actually expect to delete it all. But then, in such a relaxed environment, when you’re just practicing and suddenly get a good/perfect take. Then you can go back and revisit that, analyze it… and perhaps post it at a AVOYP
With enough practice it’ll turn around. I have the opposite problem - I’ll be practicing something with the intention of recording it eventually for a project… and can’t get it just right. But when I then decide to finally go for it and hit the record button, in 2 or 3 takes I have something better than I never played it before. It’s like I have to have that pressure before I can perform my best…
I feel your pain. Have certainly been there and struggled many a time in the same way. Several things helped me. First is perseverance. It does get better. The other is to slow it down and play the simplest song that I know, the simplest strum or fingerstyle, whichever applies to you. And if that’s still to hard, just record the intro until you can get through that.
Instead of stopping at each mistake and breaking the flow, why don’t you just hit the record button and play until you feel the performance is good? You can edit the mistakes out later on.
To be honest I’m not sure about that, as I don’t have the knowledge & experience to make a real assessment of my playing. OK I know when I fluff a chord change but I can hear that so don’t need a video of it.
Hey Stuart, you can assess your performances based on what you have learned from the course so far to see what your doing well and what you need to work on. Check out this lesson and the supporting text
