Those #!@ Errors

Being a musician means making many kinds of errors, but have you ever really thought about what causes errors and how to iron them out of your playing? Let’s take a short look at why errors occur and what do about them.

For musicians an error is any incorrect execution of your instrument or body (e.g. tapping the wrong rhythm with your foot). A pause is a subtype of error where you don’t do what you’re supposed to. I use the term error instead of mistake because a miss-take has the sense of doing something wrong once, whereas an error can happen once or over and over again. That’s why it makes sense to say that one’s playing is erroneous but not mistaken! What happens when you have learned a tune or song solo, but you err because you get distracted, stop breathing, or don’t have the strength or technical skill to pull off certain phrases consistently?

First, start with a tempo where you can play the melody with your best technique, which depends on how developed your technical chops are. Focus on properly executing what you've been taught. It means, for example, that you plant your fingers on your instrument's notes as long as possible and don't flop your fingers up in the air when they don't need to move. You play your ornaments correctly, such as a triplet, without skipping one of the notes. In short, it means that you are breathing, tapping your foot as much as possible, and playing the notes slow enough so that it matches how you'd play an old easy melody you learned long ago.

With all this in mind, you might still make errors, but what you’re looking for is to eventually execute every phrase correctly to the best of your current skill level. Consider starting “molasses slow”, as my teacher Sharon Gilchrist calls it. This might be at 40bpm where a tick is every 2 beats for 4/4 melody, or whatever feels very slow. If you use Strum Machine (or a similar backing track app) or a metronome, count in the tune section or solo you are practicing and tap your foot. Repeat the passage molasses slow until you are playing it as well as possible.

Here's a simple example of me starting Temperance reel super slow on mandolin with a count-in:

If you still make an error, turn off Strum Machine or the metronome and learn the passage out of time. Once learned, play molasses slow in time again. Now speed up the tempo by 5bpm at a time until the error consistently shows up again. Is the error due to the tempo being too high for your current ability, or is it caused by distraction, lack of breathing, heat in the room, or something else? Not sure? Let’s find out why things are going wrong!

If your errors are related to your technique giving out at higher tempo, you can choose to accept your current skill level and dial the tempo back to where you played without technique errors. Or you can go back to molasses slow and drill the melody with correct technique for a long time. This might strengthen your muscle memory so it can endure higher tempos. If you still are hitting your technical limits below your desired tempo, consider showing the problem to your teacher.

If there is no obvious technique problem, try to isolate a mental reason for the error. Play mindfully, focused, relaxed, and breathing until you reach the place where you have been repeatedly making an error or pausing. If you are tense or not breathing, try to loosen up and breathe more intentionally whenever your instrument allows it. If problems continue, ask yourself if you were actually thinking about playing the melody when you made the error. Was there any other topic running through your head, like events in your non-musical life or even a thought about the parts you already played? Are you able to think about playing just the current phrase with a touch of mindful anticipation of the following phrase?

If you are indeed distracted, try coming up with a technique that focuses you. Imagine you are playing in front of the tune or solo's composer or your favorite performer of it. Maybe they are old and frail and are just grateful that someone is playing their music. Or imagine you are trying to impress your partner or a date who is enamored with the fact that you are a musician and eats up every note you play. Do something that doesn't stress you out but puts you in the flow and makes you only think about the music you are playing. If you are distracted by other parts of the music that you might have just misplayed, you can extend this imagination technique. Imagine, for example, that the person you are playing for is wholly unaware of your errors and is eagerly pointing a conductor's baton at each phrase of music you are playing.

Play through the melody over and over again. Accept errors but try to identify every distraction. Keep playing until your distractions disappear or you get too exhausted to execute the music. If the latter happens, get up and take a break and then come back to it when you're ready.

Types of Errors

When you are playing slowly to a backing beat, you need to decide how to deal with different types of errors. Think of these as green light, yellow light, red light errors.

🟢 Green light errors: If you make a minor blip that doesn't put you out of rhythm with your foot, ignore the error and keep playing. If, however, you consider the blip to be a recurring misplaying or notes that needs correction, treat it as a red light error and pause. Otherwise bookmark it in your mind and plan to be more mindful so you can attempt a slight correction next time you play that part.

🟡 Yellow light errors: If it's a bigger blip where you missed or misplayed notes but were able to catch up to the correct beat, keep playing. When you get to the end of the part of the melody, which might be the end of a tune part or half the solo, start that part over and keep repeating until you play correctly or make an unrecoverable, red light error. Strum Machine makes it easy to restart the last section you played by touching or clicking the first chord of the section. If you are using a metronome, simply find the beat and restart the section, preferably with an audible count-in.

Here's an example of me starting the A and B parts of Temperance reel over at the end of each part when I make errors. (I’d normally have Strum Machine on running right below my right-hand.)

🔴 Red light errors: If you make an unrecoverable error, pause your playing. Check that your muscles are relaxed and that you are breathing, then start the current part over. Do not go back to the very beginning; you want to get back to the place of the error quickly but in the context of what comes before it. Begin again, tapping your foot and optionally counting in. Consider lowering the tempo if you suspect that speed is causing the problem. You will naturally raise the tempo back up again once things are going smoothly.

Other Common Errors and Your Own Types

• Anticipation error. You are so focused on a difficult passage coming up that you mess up the passage you’re currently on. Try to give every phrase its due attention. Don’t think far ahead.

• Block the penalty kick but ignore the rebound shot error. You get through a difficult passage but fail to pay attention to the easier passage right after it. This usually goes away as the hard passage becomes more intuitive.

• Ignore it and move on error. Sometimes you don’t need to drill a phrase or keep repeating a section where you err, you just need to play the whole solo or tune all the way through ten times so that your mind can settle down and think about the hard parts in context. Sometimes you even need to speed up the tempo 5bpm to keep yourself engaged.

• Your custom error type. There might be a type of error that is specific to your learning style, such as emphasizing the wrong beat of certain phrases that throws you out of time. Try to recognize these patterns and add them to your own error type list.

Always Hear the Melody

If you’re making an error, it’s sometimes wise to stop thinking about fingering and notes and just try to hear the melody that you want to play. I’ll talk much more about this in a future post.

Emotional Overflow

Sitting and working with yellow and red light errors can be emotionally taxing, leading to questions like “Why can’t I just do this right?” and “Why can’t I stay focused?”. Let the frustration wash over you for a moment and then try again. Think about a kid who trips and falls but gets right back into a game because they love playing so much. Remember that you are always pushing up against your musical barriers—you will be overwhelmed and flustered—but working out errors will lead to breakthroughs in your playing.

Creating Correct Patterns

If you keep making unrecoverable errors, you need a longer break. This might be a good time to review the troublesome passage out of time. Play the troublesome passage out of time to figure out what is wrong. Then go back to playing with a foot tap at a potentially lower tempo. I regularly find myself making the same error over and over without stopping to figure out what I am doing wrong. When I finally pause the backing track and see what the problem is, I can often fix it permanently. Sometimes the problem is really obvious and easy to fix, but if it is technically difficult, put in the work to get it right. Our goal is always to replace incorrect patterns of music playing with correct patterns. If you take the time to create the correct pattern for playing a difficult passage, you will not only replace the error in the current piece but likely internalize a technique for playing other pieces correctly. This is a fundamental concept of Shinichi Suzuki's fabled Suzuki Method, and I encourage you to read his book, Nurtured by Love, The Classic Approach to Talent Education.

Take a Bow

If you are making errors at different places because of distraction, fatigue, nervousness, etc., get up and stretch and breathe. Do what you need to to reset yourself. If everything still seems to be falling apart, consider taking a break from practicing or switching to a different practice-related activity. Sometimes I switch to a different instrument I'm learning, sometimes I work on practice sheets for new tunes and songs I want to learn, gathering chords and lyrics. If I'm truly wiped out, I watch an inspiring live performance online, listen to an album, or reading a book about a famous musician. Try to stay in the realm of music since this is time that you have dedicated to practice. Taking a nap to some genre-relevant music playing is also a great option!

This blog post is an excerpt from my book-in-progress The Ambitious Folk Musician’s Practice Manual.

—Andy Likuski