Had a gig last night, the second half of which went badly wrong. After a nights sleep, my analysis is as follows;
- Don’t play with a guitar that was only put together the same day and you are not used to. The strings hadn’t settled in and being a telecaster, my instinctive “violining” option was unavailable.
- Don’t decide on the cuff to drop D the lowest string and then forget to retune, when “normal” chords sound a tad weird!
- Don’t play with a brand new VST that you haven’t really mastered.
- Don’t go to the trouble of creating a set “list” (more of an arrangement sheet), printing it and then leave it in the printer.
- If all goes wrong, either kick in a sample while you work out the issue, or have the courage to simply stop and restart.
- Most importantly, don’t let the technology dictate the music, which was a trap I fell into last night.
Ah well, we live and (hopefully) learn, but apologies for the uninspired close to the set. Thanks to Trevor Tomlin for putting me on the bill. The venue and atmosphere were first class, even if I was competing with drums in the courtyard!
Pic by my long-suffering wife Ali. Now if only I could reduce the amount of wiring on the floor ;(