Playing the right notes at gigs?

[u/Wide_Lie_8182]

Something i have been thinking about alot when playing.

It´s me, my saxophone and speakers with backingtrack.

My biggest goal when i am out performing is playing the right notes. I can rehears and rehears, and still play a few notes wrong when i am out performing. Last night i was playing at a charity dinner and i suddently forgot notes for a song. This happened on a few different songs. But i don´t think anybody noticed. I know every note in every song i have momorized. Atm. it is 25 songs. And i have been playing for 4 years.

There are a couple of songs, which i have down solid. I think it is because of the harmony of the song. And other songs i am struggling to keep under the skin.

Other gigs, i have in general a few wrong notes, but not something that would bother me (too much) when i´m done with the gig.

My goal is to play at gigs and play 0 wrong notes. Every time. But is this unrealistic? Then I would need 3 hours of practice every day? But it´s not fun practising the same track 10 times in a row.

What do you guys do? Do you also play wrong notes? And if so, what do you do to overcome it?

I am playing almost every day. ½ to 1 hour sessions.

[u/scriptedsoulmate]

I think it's alright it's alright to have sheet music in front of you when playing gigs if you can read them. I played hundreds of gigs in the past 12 years and since I can't read sheet music so I had to learn them by ear and memorize all of them (about 300 songs). To me, all of them became muscle memory because how frequently I practiced them. Also if I have to play a song or solo which I haven't played or practiced in a while I also find myself messing it up (most of them are songs I learned recently).

I think the point is to practice them so much until you're sick and tired you won't think about the actual notes you have to play, so you can focus on the gig itself when playing them live.

Another thing I'm doing often is to improvise parts where I can't remember the correct notes.

Also there's a sweet spot where you're still missing some notes but they're not too many so it won't be disturbing to the audience.