Last night, I played a fund-raising charity gig with a big jazz band.  Those things often pay better than concerts or dances and this one paid very well.
We had a list of all the numbers we were going to play and had them all in order on our stands.  In the 2nd set, the leader counted off a piece featuring a female singer.  I hit the 1st note (a very loud low G whole note on bass trombone) and by the end of the note, I had figured out that I was playing the wrong damn piece of music.  
Luckily for me, the piece I was playing and the piece I was supposed to play were in the same key and it actually sounded really good.  So good that no one noticed my massive screw-up.  Sometimes it better to be lucky than organized.
Anyway, I got away with it.  If I’d been in 2 flats and the rest of the band had been in 4 sharps, I never would have lived it down.  

I've seen/heard something similar happen to me at the church I play at.
A couple of Sunday's ago we had two tunes by the same name, but different keys (E and G). Our lead guitar player got the two mixed up and had a massive "oh crap" moment. I'll give credit where credit is due, he recovered nicely and played it off very well.

That's funny OP. glad you recovered with minimal distraction.

I don't think I have ever played in a band where someone at some time has not dropped the ball. As long as only the other band members notice everything is good.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D4reewr9Cc[/youtube]

LOL, now that was funny.


I heard Julie Andrews say once, "Amateurs play until they get it right, Professionals play until they can't get it wrong.".  For me I play at my church and none of us have the time to be that good.  Plus it keeps me humble.  I hate messing up and wish I practiced until I didn't.  But I'm human.  And so are the rest of the people I play with.  But typically no one does anything that huge.  Or we do it at different times and there's enough going on that it doesn't make one bit of difference.  Plus taking yourself too seriously can just be annoying.   But that being said, it's good to desire to do something right.  

The worship leader at our church capo's a lot.  Sometimes he forgets to capo.  That can be a problem.    One time he forgot to capo and played a song 2 steps down.  The piano player wasn't there and I was the only one that knew.  Well he did after he was done playing the song.  I didn't know the song well enough to transpose it on the fly, and I also didn't know what was going on so I didn't know what key he was in to begin with.  I didn't even know he capo'd that song because it's in A.  But it has an F# in it and he avoids bar chords.  So he played it in G.  I actually had to just not play (bass).  Oh well.

I had a pretty big oops recently at an outdoor gig.  Sweaty hands made me miss some strings while playing some chords on my bass.  The results sounded horrendous and are preserved for eternity on a recording that is out there in public.

LOL.  Gotta love that.  Why is it so hard to focus on our mistakes instead of all the other things we did right?  I had a few screw ups at church yesterday too and it sticks in my brain.  But some of the songs were pretty much perfect and one song I had a lot of good things going on.  But the mistakes are what I think about mostly.  LOL.

It happens, we all screw up.

No gig will ever be perfect.

Someone screws up in each song....not always noticeable...but it happens.

We each take random brain-farts at an unsuspecting time.



The show goes on if you can improv your way back musically.

I was playing a gig and walked right off a 6ft stage, I didn't even see it coming. Now I pay attention a bit more.  

During a gig, dropping the ball is rarely the issue, rather the grace and skill with which the ball is recovered, is.

The magic of live performance...  

I just did my first ever guitar performance on a stage in front of anyone last Wed night.  It was me and this other guy, both on acoustic guitars, he's the singer.  We did 3 songs, and did fairly good until the last song, when he sang part of the song at the wrong time.  And he's been performing for probably 10 or 15 years.  So yeah, everyone is human.  I screwed up some part of every song, but I don't think anyone noticed because his guitar was so much louder than mine that it drowned it out.

This is so very true..