just to let you know my short show went down quite well,even though i made a few mistakes,i will have to start learning some more songs to increase my repetoire ,many thanks for your help it gave me some confidence,,,mike

Thats great to hear. Confidence is the KEY my friend!!!

Mike,
Congrats! I wouldn't worry about any mistakes. It just shows that you were playing live and not playing behind a midi machine or lip-synching to some background music.

I have lots of music but for new songs I go through my Fake Books. In 2 of my books I have over 2000 songs and they are not too bad to lug around for the music.

That is great news!

Enjoy,
- Brian

Mike. Congratulations on your FIRST public gig. I guarantee that your confidence will increase quickly the MORE you perform in public. It's kinda like the first time driving a car or diving off the high diving board, it gets easier each time, as your confidence increases. MISTAKES?! The 'key' is HOW you HANDLE (cover up for) the mistakes than the actual mistakes themselves. Making (some) mistakes is normal because hey , we're only human, thank GOD. In all honestly, the audience probably never detects 99% of our performance mistakes unless we POINT them out to them. Still, if I do make an obvious MAJOR gaff, I'll usually come up with some humourous commentary which acts to relieve whatever tension it might have created. It's all about ATTITUDE. Once you begin to develop self confidence, the mistakes will fade away. I look forward to hearing about your NEXT gig. - Scott

Hey Brian,

Congrats on your first gig. Don't worry about the mistakes--everyone makes them, and as scott says, most of the audiences never know unless you tell them. As for the jitters, anyone that says they don't get them is either lying or stoned out of their mind when they perform. Everyone, even us old guys, are somewhat apprehensive, especially when playing to a new audience. Granted, it gets easier, but even after more than 40 years, you still get the jitters to some minor degree.