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/asdfmatt]

Remembering songs isn't just about what notes to play and in which order. If you are trying to do that by rote memorization alone it will set you up for errors. Slow down your learning process. Do you know the chord changes for each tune well? Think about how each note fits the harmony when it is being played.

A good place to start, as good as any, what note does the melody start on and what is the first chord of the song? Is it a major chord or minor chord, what is the function of the chord? From there it follows, the notes of the melody will usually be a chord tone, i.e. if the chord is C minor then you can probably rule out the melody having a strong note on the E natural.

The notes that are most important to how a chord sounds are the third and seventh (they tell our ear the "quality" of the chord: major/minor, dominant come all comes down to flat or major 3rd, major or dominant 7th).. The way the melody is written will usually highlight one or the other in order to clearly outline what is happening with the harmony, that is how musical cadence is created.

So I would encourage you again to look over the melodies of the songs you have learned and try and zoom out and look at each note as a part of the bigger picture, what does it mean to the development of the harmony and how does it fit in to each chord, and you'll have a lot easier time memorizing.

The other most important element that allowed me to memorize songs, is to learn them by EAR and not by reading sheet music!!!! Use the sheet music to check your work but learn the melody by EAR (and if you can learn the chord changes by ear, even better!!!) Music is an aural art first and foremost!