Recovering from a musical mistake

dreadnut

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Started a song in church this morning in "G." Except it was supposed to be in "D," and after the first few notes it became painfully obvious that it was way too high to sing. So I had to stop everyone and start over in the correct key, which was way better than trying to continue in the wrong key. (Which I have also tried, hoping no one would notice, with poor results.) Hey, stuff happens; just correct it and move on, nobody is going to remember the occasional mistakes. That's my story and I'm stickin' with it.
 

GAD

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Oof - been there. They say you should never stop a song, but sometimes it's better to just abort and start over.
 
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A couple of weeks ago, with me singing lead, we played Quinn the Eskimo. I take total responsibility for the detour into free form jazz on that one.
 

chazmo

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Absolutely agreed. Best to start over.

I am actually primarily a classical trumpet player. I have once or twice started playing a piece on the wrong trumpet. I have instruments in multiple keys, but the biggest goof-up has been playing the C trumpet when Bb is written, or vice versa. When I've done that in brass quintet, well, starting over is simply the way to go. I'm not good enough to do complex transpositions on the fly.

As GAD said... "oof" Yup, that's the feeling. Hang in there dread. We're only human. ;)
 

fronobulax

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The organist in church attempted an ambitious postlude yesterday. He got through it but there were some mistakes. He finished, looked at the folks who were listening, said "I can do better" and then played it again, and it was much better. The audience appreciated both performances.

There is often discussion about the role of live performance in a world where almost everything is recorded and available for playback. It's stories like these that explain why live performances are important. It's not that the audience wants performers to fail but the possibility of hearing something unexpected is energizing.
 

richardp69

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The folks in my Church are used to my failures but still seem to enjoy and appreciate the effort. Of course, they may be slammin' me bigtime by the time they get home.
 

Westerly Wood

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next time, go to an A for a while, then to the D and it will be like you meant to modulate :)
 

GAD

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The organist in church attempted an ambitious postlude yesterday. He got through it but there were some mistakes. He finished, looked at the folks who were listening, said "I can do better" and then played it again, and it was much better. The audience appreciated both performances.

Love it!
 
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